William Blaikie

William Blaikie (1843–1904) was an American lawyer and advocate of physical training. Born in New York City and educated at Harvard, where he rowed in the university crew, he set a record by walking from Boston to New York in four and a half days in 1868, and later studied law and practiced in New York, serving for a time as an assistant United States district attorney. His book How to Get Strong and How to Stay So (1879) argued that Americans of every age and both sexes needed systematic daily exercise, and it went through many editions; Sound Bodies for Our Boys and Girls followed in 1884.