by Doug Nichols | Oct 10, 2019 | Artifact |
The San Francisco Piller Memorial medal, presented to Colonel Laurance H. Brownlee. Depending on the year, given out to the top three finalists, all the finalists, or just first place. This one is unique, having the dedication plaque shown below mounted on the...
by Doug Nichols | Oct 7, 2019 | Blog Post, Brownlee, Laurance, Coaches, Coaches F - J, Coaches K - O, Fencers, Fencers A - E, Funke, Erich, Halberstadt, Hans, O'Brien, William |
The founder and long-time fencing master at The Letterman Fencers Club was Dr. William O’Brien. The club’s home was a gymnasium in San Francisco’s Presidio, a windy patch of green near the southern foot of the Golden Gate Bridge. In a very real...
by Doug Nichols | Oct 3, 2019 | Artifact |
1964 North Dakota Women’s Foil trophy. This is from the collection of Charles and Julie Selberg and was once displayed inside Charlie’s Salle in the Woods. My guess is that it was won by Julie, not too long before she moved to San Francisco. But the...
by Doug Nichols | Sep 30, 2019 | Baker, Jack, Biagini, Gerard, Blog Post, Coaches, Coaches A - E, Coaches F - J, Coaches K - O, Coaches P - T, D'Asaro, Michael, Fencers, Fencers A - E, Fencers K - O, Fencers P - T, Halberstadt, Hans, Lane, Arthur, Mayer, Helene, McDougall, John, Mitchell, Maxine, Moore-Selberg, Julie, Nadi, Aldo, Nottingham, Jack, Okawa, Heziburo, Piller, George, Selberg, Charles, Shurtz, Skip |
In the woods of Southern Oregon off a dirt road and across a valley from the winding I-5 was a fencing salle d’armes built by Charlie Selberg in an old barn. It was stuffed to the rafters with fencing memorabilia dating back decades. I fenced there a couple of...
by Doug Nichols | Sep 26, 2019 | Artifact |
Hungarian scoring machine for foil and epee disguised as a telephone. This curious piece is from the collection of material donated to the Archive by Maestro Ferenc Marki’s family. It appears to be a working scoring device although I haven’t attempted to...