THE TRIPLE FIGHT IN BLACK AND WHITE – PRINT
FEATURED MAGAZINES
TFM’s EUROPEAN PUBLICATIONS
Index of Publications in the TFM COLLECTION
In this debut edition, we pay homage to one of the most significant and racially charged boxing matches in the history of Boxing and in American history: the World Heavyweight Championship Match between former World Heavyweight Champion Jim Jeffries and the reigning champion Jack Johnson. The match was held on July 4, 1910, in Reno, Nevada.
TFLAC places a spotlight on this historic event as part of TFM’s America250 Retrospective. The sports magazines we are featuring in our debut edition provide a fascinating introduction to three early 20th-century European magazines held in the TFM Collection. Two of the magazines are British and one is French.
At a time when opportunities for fame and glory were being constrained for Black boxers in America, European publications were featuring many of them on their covers. Take a moment to look at the editions presented and consider what they convey.
From the perspective of Black boxers and other members of the African American community, Europe represented a bastion of opportunity that was aggressively being denied to them in America. In commemorating America’s 250th birthday, a question arises that is central to the work of The Library, TFM, and all serious discussions of our nation’s future: What, exactly, does the preamble to the Declaration of Independence mean for us, as a people and a nation, as we move forward into the next 250 years?
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.
This sentence appears in the Preamble to the United States Declaration of Independence, primarily authored by Thomas Jefferson in 1776. The phrase “self-evident” indicates that these truths are understood as axioms or first principles requiring no proof, drawing from Enlightenment philosophy and natural law.
We close our introduction on a lighter note by drawing your attention to the magazine that serves as the moniker for our Index of European Publications printed in 1910.
The June 9th, 1910 edition of The BOXING WORLD AND ATHLETIC CHRONICLE was chosen as the moniker for TFLAC’s European Sports Magazine Index because it features Packey McFarland, an Irish American and proud Chicagoan, stepping towards Fred Welsh, during their notable title match.
The caption to the cover photograph reads:
As they appeared at the commencement of their contest at the National Sporting Club. They fought twenty hard fought rounds, and at the close McFarland seemed to hold a solid lead, but the referee’s decision was a draw.
Packey McFarland is among the boxers featured by TFM because his boxing career mattered during the 1910s, and it still matters today. McFarland offers the opportunity to explore some fascinating aspects of the past, including referee decisions which were often at odds with the conclusions reached by spectators, as well as ethnic politics and boxing in the United States. McFarland also offers the opportunity to examine how some American boxers responded to America’s participation in the Great War, WWI, which brought about a significant confluence of the three fights that comprise THE TRIPLE FIGHT: Fights in Rings, Fights Among Nations, and Fights for Equality and Justice.
As a digital entity based in the Chicagoland area, we a pleased to feature a publication that shows a Chicagoan on the world stage, fighting a good fight, in the ring. Select the button below marked British Magazines – 1910 to see more editions of THE BOXING WORLD.
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