The 2015 Championships poster has been unveiled in all its glory but artwork for Wimbledon dates back to 1893...
We are so excited about our new poster for The Championships this year. The original artwork is a beautiful paper graphic creation by Russian artist Yulia Brodskaya and it’s on display at Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Museum in our new exhibition: ‘Powerful Posters: Tennis and Advertising, 1893-2015’.
However, posters advertising the Championships go way back. The earliest poster in the Museum’s collection dates from 1893 - a railway poster advertising how to get to The Championships. It’s a letterpress poster, typical for the time. This poster would have been made cheaply and quickly and pasted up in railway stations. It features lots of text and was created to convey as much information as possible to passersby.
The poster gives us a great window into what The Championships would have been like at the time. The AELTC’s ground was at Worple Road, not far from the current Church Road ground. Spectators could travel to Wimbledon by steam train, in fact some trains even made a special stop right outside the Worple Road ground during The Championships. However, this did have a negative side in that the smoke – sometimes so thick that it stopped play – soiled the player’s clothing. Additionally, a large scoreboard eventually had to be erected as the noise from the trains drowned out the umpires!
The Gentlemen’s Singles Championship began on Monday 10 July, with the Ladies’ Singles and Gentlemen’s Doubles starting on Thursday 13 July (the Ladies’ and Mixed Doubles Championships did not begin until 1913). The final of the Gentlemen’s singles is given as ‘probably’ Monday 17 July. This is because there were no court covers at the time, so if it had rained, play could have been considerably delayed.
Visitors to The Championships in 1893 would have seen the Irish player Joshua Pim’s best year at Wimbledon - winning both the Singles title and the Doubles with fellow Irishman Frank Stoker. The Ladies Champion was the remarkable Lottie Dod – who first won the title as a 15-year-old schoolgirl in 1887.
The poster is a remarkable and rare piece of Wimbledon’s history. It was discovered folded up behind a mirror and the donor sent it in to the Museum. Since then, it has been conserved and put on display.
Come and see the oldest and the newest posters in our collection side by side in our new exhibition!