This website covers all aspects of the rich history of rowing, as a sport, culture phenomena, a life style, and a necessary element to keep your wit and stay sane.
Photo Essay 6 – Vintage Rowing Book Graphics & Images
The Arts of Rowing and Training, “Argonaut” (E. D. Brickwood) – 1866
3 March 2026
By Bill Miller
It’s fun to see the 19th Century and early 20th Century book and magazine publishers’ effort to apply graphics and images to enhance the beauty of rowing books. The tooling on hardbound covers is impressive. Juvenile sports novels had wonderful color cover illustrations. We’ll look at graphic vignettes printed on title pages. In some books and magazines, they even printed rowing graphics or glyphs to introduce chapters.
Vintage publishers took great care to emboss and sometimes add gilt to hardbound rowing book covers while others printed illustrations.
Boat Racing: On the Arts of Rowing and Training, E. D. Brickwood – 1866
Training in Theory and Practice, A. Maclaren – 1866
Rowing and Sailing, G. Routledge – 1868
The Oxford and Cambridge Boat Races, W. F. Macmichael – 1870
The Log of the Water Lily, R. B. Mansfield – 1873
University Oars, J. E. Morgan – 1873
Oars and Sculls, W. B. Woodgate – 1875
Hammersmith, His Harvard Days, M. S. Severance – 1878
Boating Trips on New England Rivers, H. P. Fellows – 1884
Oxford Rowing, W. E. Sherwood – 1900
Rowing, W. G. East – 1904
Rowing and Sculling, G. Rixon – 1904
Reminiscences of an Old Sportsman, W. B. Woodgate – 1909
A Text-Book of Oarsmanship, G. C. Bourne – 1925
Rowing & Sculling, “Stroke” – 1928
The Henley Royal Regatta, H ’14 – ‘64, J. W. Middendorf – 1964
Early 20th Century youth fiction from around 1900 to the 1930s, were popular and rowing was a favorite topic. They were printed with colorful cover images to attract a youthful reader.
Stories of the Colleges, various authors – 1901
Captain of the Crew, R. H. Barbour – 1902
Strive and Succeed, H. Alger – 1907
The School Four, A. T. Dudley – 1909
The Stroke Oar, R. D. Paine – 1911
Frank Allen, Head of the Crew, G. B. Forbes – 1911
Clif Sterling, Stroke of the Crew, G. Patten – 1912
The Freshman Eight, L. W. Quirk – 1914
Fred Fenton on the Crew, A. Chapman 1913
The Eight-Oared Victors, L. Chadwick – 1913
The Bell Haven Eight, G. Barton – 1914
Tod Hale with the Crew, R. H. Barbour – 1926
Flashing Oars, R. H. Barbour – 1930
Coxswain of the Eight, R. H. Barbour – 1932
Publishers enhanced title pages with rowing vignettes. The earliest rowing one I’ve seen is on the title page of British Manly Exercises.
British Manly Exercises, D. Walker – 1834
The Water Lily on the Danube, R. B. Mansfield – 1853
The Book of American Pastimes, C. Peverelly – 1866
Our Autum Holiday on French Rivers, J. L. Molloy – 1879
Boating, W. B. Woodgate – 1888
The Royal River, “Tamesis” – 1885
Three Men in a Boat… J. K. Jerome – 1992 (1st ed. 1889)
Magazines sometimes applied graphic images to introduce chapters or articles. I’ve chosen to show a few rowing examples from Outing, An Illustrated Monthly Review of Amateur Sports and Pastimes.
I admire Bill Miller’s collections and appreciate the information in his posts. In the spirit of collecting, I attach additional images from several publications, 1852-1899.
Hear The Boat Sing 
I admire Bill Miller’s collections and appreciate the information in his posts. In the spirit of collecting, I attach additional images from several publications, 1852-1899.
Kerry Ahearn
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ukTbvEc601CZcgNgFaLk4fyx9_u3gGMu/view?usp=drivesdk 1000024501.jpg https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ukTbvEc601CZcgNgFaLk4fyx9_u3gGMu/view?usp=drivesdk
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1_IuCBevymffsrF4DOV82aQ62WNbga-3R/view?usp=drivesdk 1000024494.jpg https://drive.google.com/file/d/1_IuCBevymffsrF4DOV82aQ62WNbga-3R/view?usp=drivesdk