Sport, industry and modernity

A travelling exhibition which presents the close relationship between the origins of modern sport, and scientific, technological and industrial development. The displays present the early days of sport in Catalonia, from the last third of the 19th century up to the organisation of the People's Olympiad and the outbreak of the Civil War.

"Sport, industry and modernity" explains the social evolution of sport, a pursuit confined solely to the moneyed classes, which was then democratised to become a mass phenomenon; the progress of women in sporting pursuits; traditional sports, and the emergence of new sports engendered by scientific, technical and industrial advances.

The travelling exhibition illustrates its historiographical narrative with a Sima Violet motorcar (1925), a JFC motorbike (1924), a Villalbí motorbike (1904), a velocipede (last quarter of the 19th century), posters, books, trophies and a range of sporting paraphernalia.

The displays are divided into eight themed sections:

1. The early days of sport in Catalonia
2. Social and regulatory development of sport
3. Sport and scientific discovery
4. Women and sport
5. Sports born out of industrial progress
6. Sports and industrial sectors in Catalonia
7. Sports and the sporting press
8. Technological evolution of sport