Analysis: the 19th century fitness instructor championed women's exercise at a time when many objected to anything which would cause women to sweat
By Conor Heffernan, Ulster University
The history of fitness is often seen through a male-dominated lens, leaving the contributions of female instructors in the shadows but the story of Madame Beaujeu stands out as a testament to the impact of women in fitness.
She first worked in Ireland where she taught at the Royal Hibernian Military School alongside her husband. Her role there was not just ground-breaking in terms of gender norms but also crucial in shaping the physical training regimen of the time. Following her tenure at the military school, which ended following her husband's death, Beaujeu transitioned to working as a private instructor, a move that further cemented her influence in the realm of fitness.
Her journey did not end in Ireland. She later moved to the United States, where she continued her work. This move across the Atlantic made her one of the first fitness instructors to bridge both European and American fitness. Her story is a one of resilience and innovation, offering a rare glimpse into the early days of fitness instruction and the crucial role women played in its development.
The Beaujeus in Ireland
Post-Napleonic Europe underwent a new, and enduring, interest in physical fitness. In Prussia, Friedrich Ludwig Jahn created a new system of gymnastics seeking to strengthen men and by proxy, the Prussian state. In Britain, P.H. Clias was hired to train British troops in Spain and later France, Francisco Amorós y Ondeano trained troops both during and after the Napleonic period.
Ireland was no different. In 1825, newspapers reported that a Monsieur J.A. Beaujeu, and his wife Madame Beaujeu, had been hired to teach gymnastics at the Royal Hibernian Military School in the Phoenix Park, Dublin. This was a significant appointed as, at that time, the city of Liverpool had been courting Beaujeu in the hope of establishing him in a Liverpool gymnasium.
At the School, the Beaujeus jointly trained boys and girls while simultaneously running a private practice for Irish adults at 39 Dawson Street, Dublin. The children trained under the Beaujeus had parents fighting in the British army, whereas their adult clients came from the upper classes. This Dawson Street location holds a strong claim as Ireland's first recognisable gym.
Although physical exercise in this manner was still a relatively novel concept, the Beaujeus’ popularity soared. They were the subject of medical trials wherein physicians studied the health effects of their systems and, in 1828, were invited to publish a book on physical training.
The norm at the time for women was to train using gentle exercises. This ideal was based in a medical prejudice which believed women's bodies to be less robust than men’s. The Beaujeus discarded this idea in favour of one which encouraged women to use strenuous exercises to strengthen their bodies. Pull ups, dips and training with an intensity discouraged by others characterised their approach. Critically, the book, A Treatise on Gymnastic Exercises, was praised on release by physicians and the general media.
If 1828 was a high point for the Beaujeus, 1829 was their lowest ebb. While showing two potential clients his system, Monsieur Beaujeu slipped from a height when swinging from one gymnastic rope to the next. The resultant fall broke his neck, and he died in their gymnasium.
It was rare during this period for female instructors to gain any sort of notoriety or fame. The only exception to this was Marian Mason in England who spent a brief period from 1826 to 1831 in the public eye but, even then, she had been introduced to English society by the previously mentioned P.H. Clias.
In the wake of her husband's death, Madame Beaujeu established herself as an instructor in her own right and, remarkably, proved very successful in doing so. Still employing the same radical system detailed in her co-authored 1828 book, Beaujeu continued teaching at their Dawson Street gymnasium for several years.
More than that, she built a definitive reputation of her own. From 1829 to the mid-1830s, Madame Beaujeu toured Ireland, opening temporary gymnasiums and callisthenic classes for the nobility in Belfast. Dividing her time between the two cities, she was Ireland's preeminent trainer of women during the 1830s. What’s more, she still managed to retain the support of the Irish gentry and medical class.
Living in America
For reasons that are lost in time, Beaujeu disappeared from Ireland in the late 1830s, only to re-emerge in Boston in 1841. One of the few historians to study Beaujeu's American migration, Jan Todd, cited this a key moment in the development of women's fitness. Operating in Boston, Philadelphia and New York, where she established her own gymnasium, she was one 'one of the first exercise entrepreneurs of either sex.’
Advertised as Madame Beaujeu-Hawley, a name indicative of a remarriage, Beaujeu offered the same system for women and courted medical favour once more. In 1842 an article in the Boston Medical and Surgical Journal praised a Mrs. Hawley 'of England', whose movements were recognised by the ‘very distinguished physicians’. Even Horace Mann, the man known as the ‘Father of American Education’ supported Beaujeu and her system.
She brought her revolutionary system to the United States and, in doing so, became one of the country's first gym owners
There is evidence that Madame operated her gymnasium well into the 1850s. Her successes were not without blemish. In 1849, a Dr. Joseph B. Jones opened Boston's first pubic gymnasium and Madame Beaujeu-Hawley was hired as the instructor for women, but rumours of inappropriate training methods (which were presumed to be dangerous for the trainees) caused protests against Jones and Beaujeu. Publicly defending the appropriateness of Beaujeu's training system, which encouraged vigorous exercise, Jones invoked the support of prominent Boston preachers and clergymen to appease those who objected. The tactic worked and, once again, Beaujeu resumed her teaching until an eventual retirement in the 1850s.
She truly was one of the most fascinating early fitness entrepreneurs. We do not know her first name, why she travelled to Ireland or the United States, nor we know who she married in the United States. What we do know, however, is that she was a strong early proponent for women's exercise, at a time when the majority objected to anything which would cause women to sweat.
She brought her revolutionary system to the United States and, in doing so, became one of the country’s first gym owners. She also wrote one of the first, and critical, fitness books for women. Our ignorance of her origins and motivations pales in comparison to the incredible impact she made.
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Dr Conor Heffernan is Lecturer in the Sociology of Sport at Ulster University. His latest book, Indian Club Swinging and the Birth of Global Fitness, is published with Bloomsbury. He also runs the history of fitness website Physical Culture Study and is a former Irish Research Council awardee.
The views expressed here are those of the author and do not represent or reflect the views of RTÉ
