In observance of National Golf Month, we are sharing these images taken from four glass plate negatives of Joseph G. Thorp, Jr. swinging golf clubs.
Thorp married the poet Longfellow's youngest daughter Anne Allegra in 1885. He was a Harvard educated lawyer who practiced in Boston and was an active member of several Cambridge social institutions. In 1887 he moved with his wife into a newly constructed house at 115 Brattle Street on a plot of land that had been given to Anne Allegra after her father's death in 1882.
One of Joseph G. Thorp, Jr.'s interests was photography, and the collections at the house contain many of his photographs. His other primary passion was golf. He was the runner up at the 1896 National Amateur Championship, and a finalist at the 1909 Massachusetts Amateur. Thorp was also a founder of the Oakley Country Club in Watertown, Massachusetts. Oakley's 18 hole golf course has played host to many famous people over the years, including both Teddy and Franklin D. Roosevelt, and professional golfers Harry Vardon and Bobby Jones.