This is the third volume in a series of reference works documenting all the results for all of the competitions in all the events in each of the modern Olympic Games. As one might expect, this covers the third of the modern Olympiads, the 1904 Games which were held in St Louis, Missouri. The volumes for 1896 (see Reference Reviews, Vol. 13 No. 2 (1999),p. 41) and 1900 were published last year and the volume for the 1980 games is expected later this year. Unlike any of the other Olympiads, there was never an official report published by the organisers which makes this particular volume especially valuable to the researcher. It has been compiled from an extensive range of primary and secondary sources, to complete the full picture.
Following a general introduction to the background and reporting of the 1904 Olympic Games, there is a section devoted to each of the different sports included from archery to wrestling, plus a summary of the “non‐Olympic sports” (i.e. those for which medals were not awarded). For each sport there is an introductory review of the venue, discussion of the pre‐games build‐up, surrounding events (such as weather, incidents, etc.), officials and any other pertinent detail the compiler has managed to tease out of the various sources of information consulted. This is followed by full details of each round and final competition, with footnotes detailing any pertinent additional information. Appendices are devoted to the 1904 Olympic sports and events in the literature (that is), non competing foreign entrants, an index of competitors (by country), followed by a general index.
This is a thorough but highly specialised reference work, valuable to sports buffs and historians around the world.
