Scandinavian Skiers Rout Enemy in 16th Century, Widener Exhibit Shows

Scandinavians fought on skis, and won, in 1555 as well as in 1940, according to illustrations from books on the history and development of skiing, on exhibit in the Widener basement.

An engraving from a sixteenth-century book, a Latin tome on the history of the northern races by a Norse bishop called Olus Magnus, shows fighters on skis driving ski-less pike-men before them. But according to a Runic stone, a cut of which is on display in the exhibit, men of Upsala, Sweden, hunted on skis as early as 1050.

A skier with a single pole, fitted at the bottom with a wooden disk to prevent the pole from digging too deeply into the snow, appears in an illustration from a book published in 1664. Norwegian soldiers in 1820 and a California pioneer in 1854 all used a single, Jong pole, as much for a brake on a down-hill run as for support climbing up.

Bearded Zdansky was a pioneer in modern skiing technique. According to the Widener exhibit he invented the Lilienfeld binding, which is allegedly the first efficient harness. Zdansky, moreover, was an ardent exponent of the Alpine School, which came to blows more than once with the Norwegian school. At the turn of the century the dispute between the two schools was partially mitigated by a mutual acceptance of the telemark and the open christiania as the only proper turns. A photograph of the Kandahar race of 1930 shows innumerable different schools, all acceptable.

Probably the greatest influence on modern skiing is a book of which Hannes Schneider was co-author, and which is prominently displayed in the Widener basement. Schneider was founder of the Arlberg school and at present runs a ski school in North Conway, New Hampshire.