Scrapbook Of An Accomplished Woman Foxhunter

Chapleau, Pearl Polk Of Memphis, Tennessee

Publication: ca 1937 - 1942,

14 1/2" x 12 1/2" in brown pebbled-leather covered boards. Title (Scrapbook) in gilt along with a relief profile of a Native American man in head dress to front cover. String bound through two plastic posts at left margin. 33 leaves with 19 original photographs, various clippings, ribbons, ephemeral scrap, etc., adhesive mounted at rectos and versos. The scrapbook of Mrs. Pearl Polk Chapleau, a champion woman foxhunter of Memphis, Tennessee. Born Pearl Polk in 1887, she was a prominent figure in the Southern and Gulf Coast foxhunting circuit, maintaining a rotating pack of some 20-25 of the finest bred fox hounds in the United States from her family plantation in Hardeman County (just east of Memphis). Contents of the scrapbook record her activities from about 1937 to 1942 at AKC-sponsored national events, as well as regional hunts and exhibitions staged by sanctioning bodies like the Gulf Coast Foxhunters' Association, Tri-State Foxhunters' Association, Southern States Foxhunters' Association, etc... largely in Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas, and Tennessee. The contents provide a rich and varied primary glimpse into pre-War foxhunting in the South as well as the pursuits of a woman active in a traditionally male dominated Southern subculture and include: 19 original photographs, including many enlarged views, capturing Pearl, her dogs, hunts, shows, etc... ; more than 70 prize ribbons from various shows; dozens of article clippings on shows and her activities, etc. Some active flaking from page edges and corners. One leaf loose from binding. Exterior clean, bright. Contents well preserved. About very good overall.

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