American amateur golfer (1878–1955)For the wife of Tony Abbott, former prime minister of Australia, see Margie Abbott.

Margaret Ives Abbott (June 15, 1878 – June 10, 1955) was an American amateur golfer. She was the first American woman to win an Olympic event: the women's golf tournament at the 1900 Summer Olympics.

Born in Calcutta (now Kolkata), India, in 1878, Abbott moved with her family to Chicago in 1884. She joined the Chicago Golf Club in Wheaton, Illinois, where she was coached by Charles B. Macdonald and H. J. Whigham. In 1899, she traveled with her mother to Paris for studying art. In October 1900, she, along with her mother, signed up for the women's golf tournament without realizing that it was an official Olympics event. Abbott won the tournament with a score of 47 strokes; her mother tied for seventh place. Abbott received a porcelain bowl as a reward.

In December 1902, she married the writer Finley Peter Dunne. They later moved to New York and had four children. Abbott died at the age of 76 in 1955. She was not well known until Paula Welch, a professor at the University of Florida, researched her life. In 2018, The New York Times published her belated obituary.

Contents

• 1 Life and career
  • 1.1 Early life
  • 1.2 Paris Olympics
  • 1.3 Later life
• 2 Later research and legacy
• 3 See also
• 4 References
• 5 Works cited
  • 5.1 Online sources
  • 5.2 Print sources
• 6 External links

Life and career

Early life

Margaret Ives Abbott was born on June 15, 1878, in Calcutta (now Kolkata), India, to Charles and Mary Ives Abbott. Her father was a wealthy American merchant who died in 1879. Margaret, along with her mother and her siblings, moved to Boston. During her teenage years, her mother became literary editor of the Chicago Herald and the family moved to Chicago in 1884.

In the late nineteenth century, women were restricted from competing in various sports. Golf clubs allowed women to join only if they were accompanied by a man. Abbott, along with her mother, began playing golf at the Chicago Golf Club in Wheaton. She was coached by amateur golfers Charles B. Macdonald and H. J. Whigham. Abbott and Macdonald partnered in a 1887 tournament at the Washington Park. She won several local tournaments, and by 1899, she had a two handicap. That same year, she and her mother traveled to Paris. Mary researched and wrote a travel guide A Woman's Paris: A Handbook of Every-day Living in the French Capital (1900); Margaret studied art from Auguste Rodin and Edgar Degas.

Paris Olympics

Further information: Golf at the 1900 Summer Olympics – Women's individual Abbott at the golf event of the 1900 Olympic Games

The 1900 Summer Olympics, hosted in Paris between May and October, was the second modern Olympics. Pierre de Coubertin, the founder of the Olympics, initially planned the games for only men. In 1900, however, women were allowed to compete in five sports: golf, tennis, sailing, rowing, and equestrianism. Out of a total of 997 athletes, 22 were women. The Olympics coincided with the 1900 Paris Exposition; many considered it overshadowed by the Paris Exposition. The events lacked proper equipment, did not have an opening or closing ceremony, and included sports like tug of war, kite flying, hot air ballooning, and pigeon racing.

Two golf events were scheduled—one for men and one for women. *led "Prix de la ville de Compiègne", the women's event took place on October 4 in Compiègne, about 30 miles (48:km) north of Paris. It was held over 9 holes ranging in distance from 68 yards (62 meters) to 230 yards (210 meters) yards; the men's tournament was a 36-hole event. Golf Illustrated referred to the event as the compe*ion "in connection with the Paris Exhibition." The event was called the "Exposition Compe*ion" or "Paris World’s Fair Compe*ion"; it wasn’t labeled as an Olympic event. Olympic historian Bill Mallon later said: "A lot of the events in 1900 were considered demonstration sports. It’s very hard to tell what was an Olympic sport and what was not."

Abbott learned about the tournament from a newspaper notice. Taking a break from her studies, she decided to sign-up for the event. She won with a score of 47 strokes. Her mother, Mary, also participated in the event and tied for seventh place with a score of 65. All the compe*ors played in long skirts and hats. According to Abbott, she won "because all the French girls apparently misunderstood the nature of the game scheduled that day and turned up to play in high heels and tight skirts." She was awarded a porcelain bowl embellished with gold. Although few other tournaments had silver and bronze medals, no gold medals were awarded. Her victory was reported in Chicago Tribune. As of 2021, it was the only time in Olympic history that a mother and daughter competed in the same event.

Later life

Abbott in Chicago Tribune, November 28, 1902

Abbott continued to play golf; she was the frountrunner in the 1902 French Women's Championship. She married the writer Finley Peter Dunne on December 9, 1902. According to the Chicago Tribune, although the ceremony "was celebrated as quietly and with as little display as possible", they received telegrams from "dozens of:... literary lights", including Arthur Conan Doyle. The couple later settled in New York. They had four children: Finley Peter Dunne Jr., Phillip Dunne, Margaret Dunne, and Leonard Dunne. Records of Abbott's ties to the Chicago Golf Club were destroyed by the burning of the clubhouse in 1912. Abbott died at the age of 76 on June 10, 1955, in Greenwich, Connecticut.

Later research and legacy

Abbott never realized that she was the first American woman to win an Olympic event. She was not well known until Paula Welch, a professor at the University of Florida and a member of the Olympic Board of Directors, researched her life. Welch spent a decade examining newspaper articles that mentioned Abbott's successes in various golfing compe*ions in an attempt to gain information. In the mid-1980s, she contacted Philip, Abbot's son, informing him about his mother's Olympic victory. *yzing the reasons for her obscurity, Welch said: "We didn't have the coverage that we have today:... She came back. She got married. She raised her family. She played some golf, but she didn't really pursue it in tournaments."

Writing for the Golf Digest in 1984, Philip wrote: "It's not every day that you learn your mother was an Olympic champion, 80-odd years after the fact:... herself had told us only that she had won the golf championship of Paris." In 1996, Abbott was the featured athlete of the 1900 Olympic Games in the official Olympic program of the Atlanta games. After 1904, golf was not included in Olympics games until the 2016 Summer Olympics. In 2018, The New York Times published her belated obituary.

See also

• Pauline Whittier
• Abbie Pratt

References

Works cited

Online sources

• Fox, Margalit (March 8, 2018). "Margaret Abbott: The first American woman to win an Olympic championship". The New York Times. Retrieved May 11, 2022.
• Holmes, Tao Tao (August 10, 2016). "The First American Woman to Win an Olympic Championship Didn't Even Know It". Atlas Obscura. OCLC:960889351. Retrieved May 11, 2022.
• Lester, John (July 9, 1996). "Recognizing First U.S. Women's Champion is a Step in the Right Direction". Women Golfers' Museum. Retrieved May 12, 2022.
• Lieberman, Stuart (March 21, 2016). "Margaret Abbott Aced Team USA's First Women's Olympic Gold Medal and Didn't Know It". United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee. Retrieved May 11, 2022.
• "He Was the Game's First Mac O'Grady". Los Angeles Times. August 10, 1989. Retrieved May 11, 2022.
• "Margaret Abbott Became U.S.' First Female Olympic Champion Without Knowing It". NBC Sports. March 8, 2021. Retrieved May 11, 2022.
• "Margaret Ives Abbott". Olympic Games. Retrieved May 11, 2022.
• "Margaret Abbott, the Olympic golf champion who died without knowing it". Olympics Games. October 5, 2021. Retrieved May 12, 2022.
• Rumore, Kori (August 4, 2021). "Chicago Golfer Margaret Abbott was the 1st American Woman to Win a Gold Medal at the Olympics — But She Never Knew it. Here's Why". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved May 11, 2022.
• Taylor, Katie (2021). "Margaret Ives Abbott". National Women's History Museum. Retrieved May 11, 2022.
• "An unknowing historymaker: Margaret Abbott was the first American female to be an Olympic champion". United States Olympic & Paralympic Museum. March 7, 2020. Retrieved May 12, 2022.

Print sources

• Abbot, Mary (1900). A Woman's Paris: A Handbook of Every-day Living in the French Capital. Small, Maynard & Company. Retrieved May 11, 2022 – via Google Books.
• Conner, Floyd (2014). The Olympic's Most Wanted: The Top 10 Book of the Olympics' Gold Medal Gaffes, Improbable Triumphs, and Other Oddities. Potomac Books. ISBN:978-1-59797-397-7. Retrieved May 12, 2022 – via Google Books.
• Costa, D. Margaret; Guthrie, Sharon Ruth (1994). Women and Sport: Interdisciplinary Perspectives. Human Kinetics. ISBN:978-0-87322-686-8. Retrieved May 12, 2022 – via Google Books.
• Donnelley, Paul (2010). Firsts, Lasts & Onlys of Golf: Presenting the Most Amazing Golf Facts from the Last 500 Years. Octopus Publishing Group. ISBN:978-0-600-62255-0. Retrieved May 12, 2022 – via Google Books.
• Ellis, Elmer (1969) . Mr. Dooley's America: A Life of Finley Peter Dunne. Archon Books. ISBN:978-0-208-00734-6. Retrieved May 12, 2022 – via Internet Archive.
• Emery, Lynne (1984). "Women's Participation in the Olympic Games: A Historical Perspective". Journal of Physical Education, Recreation & Dance. 55 (5): 62–72. doi:10.1080/07303084.1984.10629768.
• "Margaret Abbott: A Study Break". Encyclopædia Britannica. January 19, 2006. Retrieved May 11, 2022.
• Fuller, Linda K. (2018). Female Olympian and Paralympian Events: *yses, Backgrounds, and Timelines. Springer Publishing. ISBN:978-3-319-76792-5. Retrieved May 12, 2022 – via Google Books.
• Mallon, Bill (2015). "Golf". The 1900 Olympic Games: Results for All Compe*ors in All Events, with Commentary. McFarland & Company. ISBN:978-0-7864-8952-7. Retrieved May 11, 2022 – via Google Books.
• Mallon, Bill; Jerris, Randon (2011). Historical Dictionary of Golf. Scarecrow Press. ISBN:978-0-8108-7465-7. Retrieved May 12, 2022 – via Google Books.
• Golf Illustrated. Vol.:6. University of Minnesota. 1900. Retrieved May 11, 2022 – via Google Books.
• Warner, Patricia Campbell (2006). "Part One: The Influence of Fashion. Chapter 5, Women Enter the Olympics: A Sleeker Swimsuit". When the Girls Came Out to Play: The Birth of American Sportswear. University of M*achusetts Press. ISBN:978-1-55849-548-7.
• Welch, Paula (2016). "Search for Margaret Abbott" (PDF). Olympic Review. 182: 752–54. Archived from the original (PDF) on September 12, 2016. Retrieved March 9, 2018.

External links

• Media related to Margaret Abbott at Wikimedia Commons