The International Boat Race, 1872

A carte-de-visite portrait of the American crew of the Atalanta, who visited England in 1872 to take part in the International Boat Race against the London Rowing Club.

According to a report in The Times (26 April 1872): ‘Yesterday afternoon the Atalanta Boat Club Crew, who have come to this country to row a four-oared race with the London Rowing Club, arrived at Putney after a very stormy passage across the Atlantic. […] The party consists of five oarsmen only, viz. – Messrs. Withers, Van Raden, Smith, Handy and Waterbury, the latter being the spare man, in case of anything befalling one or other of the crew.’ The American visitors took up residence at the Fox and Hounds Hotel in Putney for the duration of their stay.

The race took place on Monday 10 June. ‘An immense crowd of Londoners thronged the banks and bridges throughout the afternoon to witness the International Boat Race; the Americans now in London gathered in considerable numbers to support their countrymen’ and ‘telegraph wires specially laid down announced the progress of the race simultaneously in England and the United States’ [The Times, 11 June 1872]. The race resulted in a decisive victory for the home crew.

Photographed by the London Stereoscopic and Photographic Company.