distance

Australian distance swimmer, first woman to swim from the Battery to Sandy Hook in September 1914.

See the NYT, September 21, 1914 "WOMAN SWIMS 22 MILES TO HOOK; Miss Nell Kenney Swept Far Off Course by Tide on Leaving the Battery. HER TIME IS 9 HRS. 35 MINS. Australian Is First Woman to Accomplish a Feat Which Baffled Men for Many Years." query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9504E2D7113FE633A...

I would think this bathing suit is a little risque for 1910-15. Looks later to me

Eva Morrison of Roxbury MA was a prominent distance swimmer in the 1920s, best remembered for making a record-breaking time in the Boston Light Swim, and training to swim the English Channel at the same time as Gertrude Ederle did. She served on the initial Board of Governors for the International Professional Swimmers' Association when it formed in 1927. Morrison was inducted into the International Marathon Swimming Hall of Fame in 1973. nycswim.net/Article/ArticleTemplate.aspx?Article_ID=796 www.nycswim.org/Article/ArticleTemplate.aspx?Article_ID=983

There's a postcard of Morrison here. I guess PennyLRichardsCA beat me to it!

I own a copy of the postcard mentioned above, and the photo paper (stampbox AZO with four squares in the corners) dates it between 1925 and 1940, so I'm guessing later as well, even though the card could have been published later.

That's my aunt! Well, grand aunt, actually. She was born around1900, so the dates on the photo are probably ten years too early. I had heard she was a swimming champ. Although I knew her forty years later, she's quite recognizable. Family stories: As a kid in the 1960s, Eva's name kept coming up in the newspapers for rescuing sailors when she saw boats in distress out on the ocean, usualy during a nor'easter. She lived in Scituate, MA at the top of a cliff right on the ocean. She'd have to put down what she was doing in the kitchen, whose window faced the sea, run down a rickety flight of stairs, and jump into the churning water to save some 200-lb guy thirty years her junior! She was always ticked off at being subjected to such a nuisance, as if she had had to go out in the yard to chase off a neighbor's dog or something. She was loads of fun to be around for us kids - though my mum tells me that her jokes tended to get a bit risque!

Harry Elionsky (d 1918), American distance swimmer, one of the famous US victims of the 1918 flu pandemic. EDIT: Not so much. Keep reading below for more about Mr. Elionsky's non-death in the flu pandemic.

Damaged Bain/LOC photo of Harry Elionsky in handcuffs and leg irons, preparing for a swim:

Could have been on October 5, 1913, when he attempted to swim with hands shackled and feet bound from the Battery (southern end of Manhattan Island) to Coney Island. See NYT of Oct 6, 1913 (second piece in this extract) query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9B04E3D6163DE633A...

Thank you pennylrichardsca for giving us more complete information on swimmer Harry Elionsky’s name. However, Elionsky appears not to have died in the influenza epidemic of 1918. A Boston Globe article (Oct. 14, 1918) states that Elionsky had not died of influenza, as had been previously reported in an earlier article. A 1921 New York Times article (June 28, 1921) says that Harry Elionsky announced that he was going to attempt a one hundred mile swim, so he was still alive then. Swang, as Elionsky made many stunt swims while shackled, it is hard to know if this is the one that occurred on Oct. 5, 1913. So we will hold off on the more precise date for now.

Oh! That's interesting--he's still listed in a lot of "famous victims of the 1918 flu" rolls. He seems to serve as an example of how even the strongest were felled--because he was clearly a strong healthy guy! Glad you corrected the error here.