ARCHERY - United Bowmen of Philadelphia.

Inquire · Offered by Peter Harrington

The Archer's Manual: First and sole edition of this rare guide, attractively preserved in original state. The United Bowmen was the first archery club founded in the United States, and this manual, largely based on Thomas Waring's A Treatise of Archery (London, 1814), the first such text produced in the United States. Just 15 copies traced institutionally, all in America.The club was founded in 1828 by artist and natural historian Titian Ramsay Peale (1799-1885) who had just returned from Stephen Harriman Long's expedition to the Rocky Mountains, and "feeling the want of outdoor exercise" (Davidson, p. 1) and inspired by observation of the "Indians settled West of the Mississippi", with whose habits he was "entirely familiar", (introduction, p. vi) settled on archery as a suitable pastime. Along with half a dozen other gentlemen - including fellow artist Thomas Sully who provided the sketch for the frontispiece - he set about formalizing a constitution for a society not to exceed 25 members.The Manual offers a brief history of the practice, a discussion of the equipment required and its maintenance, technique, shooting drill, and a guide to archer's etiquette, mostly drawn from Waring but with occasional references, by way of historical anecdote, to Ascham's Toxophilus.By the time of Davidson's celebration of of the UBP, Peale the last original member had died and membership had dwindled, the new generation having found novel occupations and distractions; so the last "remains

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