Women shooting trap at the Nemours Gun Club in Delaware ca. 1913.

From The Great Delaware Sports Book: In 1913 Mrs. Harriet Hammond organized the Nemours Club for women trapshooters, the first women’s shooting club in American. The Nemours Club soon boasted over 100 members, mostly from the agricultural division of the Du Pont company. The Nemours women even toured the country to demonstrate their skill.

Mrs. Harriet Hammond, President of the Nemours Women's Gun Club.

From the August 23, 1913 issue of The Sporting Life: The advent of women into trap shooting in great numbers this Summer is one of the signs of the healthy normal growth of the sport and an indication that it is thoroughly clean and wholesome. Ever since the start of the clay bird shooting there have been a number of women who appreciated the value of the sport as a recreation and pleasure bringer, and who followed it closely, competing in many big tournaments. Some of them have even become high-class shots. This is the first year, however, that the pastime has had the accession of whole groups of women, and it is the first that has seen a club composed wholly of women enter the sport.

The Nemours Gun Club, of Wilmington, Del., occupies this unique position, and it is to be earnestly hoped that many other women’s gun clubs will take up the sport. There is nothing in trap shooting too hard for women, or anything that would not appeal to feminine tastes. As more women take up the sport the general tone of the game will be raised. There is no good reason why there should not be a big yearly championship tournament similar to the Grand American Handicap, to which only women would be eligible. Such an event would certainly receive the support it would merit. Next to the increasing number of women into the sport, the most encouraging feature can be found in the number of boys who are entering the sport. It is never too early to begin shooting and never so late that it need be dropped.

Nemours Trap Shooting Club (ladies) ca. 1913.

(Photographs courtesy of the Library of Congress/Tehrkot Media)