Block:Girls under 14 Play Baseball at 1826 Eton Festival

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A baseball contest for girls under the age of 14 was one of the competitions at the Eton Brocas Festival, held on the Brocas meadows in Eton, Berkshire, across the Thames from Windsor Palace. A local newspaper in 1826 reported the presence of 200 boys and girls at the festival, but it wasn't until 75 years later that the same paper provided greater detail about the event, having discovered an original window bill that had been circulated to promote the festival. The 1901 followup article reported that the bill specified the amusements to take place at the festival, including: “Girls under 14 years of age to play at Baseball; the Winners to receive 1s. each and a Ribband; the losers a Ribband each.” Gender pay equity seems to have taken hold among the festival planners, because the promised rewards for boys under 14 who participated in the cricket contest were the same as those received by the girls.

Sources

Windsor and Eton Express, Aug. 12, 1826, p. 4; and Windsor and Eton Express, Nov. 9, 1901

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