DRC, Thanks for your approval
Jerseygary, Thanks for your conjecture, you bring up some good questions. It's possible it could be from 1896, but my gut feeling is 1906. I call it an Olympics Try-outs poster because that's what it says on the poster. You say "it's got to be from 1896, not 1906. It sounds like you discount the "intercalated" Olympics of 1906. This was an unofficial Olympics, but for the first time, the United States sent an official team, sanctioned by the U.S. Olympic Committee. The best story I've found on it was
this one posted on CBS's site. In it we can ascertain that though it wasn't an official Olympics, it was treated like one in some respects and it sort of saved the Olympics from ruin through it's success...Moreover it appears the United States Olympic committee treated it like an official Olympics in that, as I mentioned earlier, it was the first official sanctioned team the U.S. Olympic Committee ever sent, and the U.S. won 11 of the 21 track and field gold medals.
The scenario is kind of odd, and the CBS story gives us a glimpse of the fragile beginnings of the Olympics and it's politics. As for knowing for sure if my gut feeling is correct that it's for the 1906 "intercalated" Olympics...the one sure way would be to access the microfilm for one of the Chicago papers, the Chicago Tribune or the Sun Times, either, and look for stories in 1906 that reported the try-outs, and if nothing turns up, there would have to be stories in 1896 about it. I'm going with 1906 mostly because of the military uniforms I see being worn behind the runners...but I could be wrong. I'm in California so will have to wait till sometime I'm in Chicago to go to the newspapers....or maybe someone can instruct me how to access them on the internet...maybe they are available thru LexisNexis, and someone could access them that way, but I think the cost is prohibitive for me...I think mostly law firms and corporations and deep pockets subscribe to it.
