In conjunction with the 2015 Copa America, and especially the 2015 Women’s World Cup, the Penn Museum offers this photograph to the soccer world. Last year, I found this photo of soccer amongst the Eskimo of Point Barrow, Alaska, taken by ornithologist and Tabasco sauce heir, Edward Avery McIlhenny in 1897-1898. That photograph shows a likely game of soccer, but it is hard to tell.
After continuing a search through McIlhenny’s photographs (actually, while looking for something else), I found incontrovertible evidence of a soccer player: a girl in furs, mittens, and boots, with an unmistakable leather soccer ball on the ice in front of her.
May soccer continue to bring enjoyment around the world.