[Mary Henderson, Robert Clark and Friends]

By 1880, middle class women enjoyed active new summer sports like archery and tennis. While some players wore fine wool clothes called tuxedo suits, others dressed more casually like Mary Henderson, Robert Clark and their friends. One fan described tennis parties as “the highlight of society.” First played in Nahant, MA, in 1874, tennis gained players quickly with 33 clubs in play by 1881. Mary Henderson attended Boston’s Gannett Boarding School for two years after graduating from Knoxville High School.