Lecture, Eleonora Sears & the Birth of the Modern World

The Past as Prelude:

Eleonora Sears and the Birth of the Modern World

SOLD OUT
Peggy Franck

Wednesday, October 7, 2009, 6:00 p.m.

The evening is sponsored by Trustee Emeritus J. Linzee Coolidge

Nicknamed the “Universal Female Athlete,” Eleonora Sears cut a swath
through society in the first half of the twentieth century, as she was arguably
the greatest and most versatile female athlete of her generation. Sportswriter
Grantland Rice said that “the two girls who did the most to turn the world spotlight
on their sex, with the possible exception of Cleopatra, were Eleonora Sears
and Babe Didrikson Zaharias.” Babe carried the torch, but Eleo lit the spark.
Born in 1881, Eleo Sears was the liberated daughter of one of Boston’s First
Families and a great-great-granddaughter of Thomas Jefferson. Spanning the eras
of rigid Victorian orthodoxy and the dawn of the nuclear age, she wielded her competitive
skill, her wealth, and the force of her will to topple suffocating assumptions about women’s potential to achieve, in athletic endeavors and elsewhere.

Join Peggy Miller Franck, the author of Prides Crossing: The Unbridled Life & Impatient
Times of Eleonora Sears and daughter of Eleo’s financial advisor, as she paints a dramatic
portrait of Boston society and the woman who dared to be different.

To Reserve: There is no fee for this event. Reservations are required but will not
be accepted until September 23. Please call the Athenæum’s reservation line,
617-720-7600.