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Eleanor G. Baldwin Cass (February 5, 1874[1] – August 26, 1966) was an American fencer, who promoted fencing and wrote about the sport.
Eleanor Baldwin Cass | |
|---|---|
 Eleanor Baldwin Cass, from a 1904 publication | |
| Born | Eleanor G. Baldwin February 5, 1874 Charlestown, Massachusetts, U.S. |
| Died | August 24, 1966 (aged 92) |
| Other names | Ella G. Cass |
| Occupation(s) | Fencer, writer, educator |
Baldwin was born in Charlestown, Massachusetts, the daughter of Charles F. Baldwin and Mary Gilbert Baldwin. She graduated from the Sargent School of Physical Education and Emerson College in Boston.[2][3]
Cass was a competitive fencer,[4] "reputed to have the most beautiful form of any woman in the world."[5] She gave fencing demonstrations on stage.[6] She taught fencing to women at Mount Holyoke College,[2] Wheaton College, Smith College, and Jackson College.[7] She also taught privately in Newport, to young men and women in wealthy families, including the Vanderbilts and Astors. James J. Van Alen was one of her fencing students.[5] Her 1930 book on fencing included historical and practical information, with diagrams and photographs.[8][9]
Cass was a skilled horsewoman, and played tennis and golf well.[3] She also directed a church play given as a fundraiser during World War I.[10] "No mother should neglect a talent that has been given to her," she told an interviewer in 1930. "She need not use it remuneratively, but she should make it benefit the family."[11]
Cass filed for bankruptcy in 1920 and 1924,[12][13] and was arrested for passing a bad check in Rhode Island in 1924.[5]
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- The Book of Fencing (1930)[14]
Baldwin married banker John W. Cass in 1900.[3] They had five sons, John, Robert, Francis, Leo, and Edward, who all became fencers.[15][16] Her son Francis started the Medford Fencing Club in 1924;[17] he died in World War II. She died in 1966, at the age of 92, in Cambridge, Massachusetts.[2]
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