Josephine Schauer Blatt (1869 – September 1, 1923), best known by her stage name Minerva, was an American

strongwoman A strongwoman is a woman who performs feats of strength in a show or circus, or a woman who competes in strength athletics. Traditionally, strongwomen have had a special appeal, as women involved in demonstrated feats of strength were exceptions ...

. She married

strongman In the 19th century, the term strongman referred to an exhibitor of strength or similar circus performers who performed feats of strength. More recently, strength athletics, also known as strongman competitions, have grown in popularity. Thes ...

Charles Blatt in 1888.

Early life

Blatt was born in New York, the ninth child of German immigrants Joseph and Louisa Schauer. Her father immigrated in 1858 and her mother two years later. Nineteenth-century accounts differ as to the place and time of her birth. In an interview in ''The Mirror'' of

Manchester, New Hampshire Manchester is a city in Hillsborough County, New Hampshire, United States. It is the most populous city in New Hampshire. At the 2020 census, the city had a population of 115,644. Manchester is, along with Nashua, one of two seats of New Ha ...

, she claimed to have been born in 1865 in

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, Germany. The '' Guinness Book of World Records'' listed her as an American, born in 1869, and various accounts place her either in

Hoboken Hoboken ( ; Unami: ') is a city in Hudson County in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2020 U.S. census, the city's population was 60,417. The Census Bureau's Population Estimates Program calculated that the city's population was 58,69 ...

Elizabethtown, New Jersey Elizabeth Township, also called Elizabethtown, was a township that existed in Essex County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey, from 1664 until 1855. The area was initially part of the Elizabethtown Tract, purchased from the Lenape on October 28, 16 ...

in her youth.

World weightlifting record dispute

In the July 1937 issue of '' Strength & Health'' magazine, Rosetta Hoffman made the claim that Minerva had lifted 23 men and a platform, in a 3,564–lb hip-and-harness lift. For several years, the ''Guinness Book of World Records'' listed Minerva as having lifted the greatest weight ever by a woman—3,564-lb in a hip-and-harness lift— "at the Bijou Theatre, Hoboken, N.J., on April 15, 1895." Hoffman may be the source for ''Guinness'' record, even though it contradicts, and even enhances, the published claim of the time from the sponsor of the event, the ''

National Police Gazette The ''National Police Gazette'', commonly referred to as simply the ''Police Gazette'', is an American magazine founded in 1845. Under publisher Richard K. Fox, it became the forerunner of the men's lifestyle magazine, the illustrated sports w ...

''. The ''Gazette'', a sensationalist tabloid of the period, claimed she lifted a platform with only 18 men weighing "approximately 3000 pounds". For this feat, the ''Gazette'' awarded Minerva with a solid gold

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on April 29, 1895; this trophy is now lost. In the 1890s she competed across Mexico.

Wrestling career

Blatt has been called the first woman to win a wrestling championship in the US. She wrestled against both men and women. She lost the title of women's wrestling champion to challenger Alice Williams, who then lost it to Laura Bennett in 1901; Blatt challenged Bennett on several occasions but never regained the championship.''Sisterhood of the Squared Circle'', p. 20

Late life

Blatt retired from performance in 1910, and invested in New Jersey

real estate Real estate is property consisting of land and the buildings on it, along with its natural resources such as crops, minerals or water; immovable property of this nature; an interest vested in this (also) an item of real property, (more general ...

. She died on September 1, 1923.

References

Bibliography

*Laprade, Pat. Sisterhood of the Squared Circle: The History and Rise of Women’s Wrestling. 9781773050157. Toronto: ECW Press, 2017.

External links

Minerva
at Antiguas Amazonas * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Blatt, Josephine 1869 births Place of birth missing Date of birth missing 1923 deaths Place of death missing Strongwomen Vaudeville performers American female professional wrestlers American people of German descent Circus strongmen and strongwomen