Striking cabinet card portrait of two athletic young women posing with Indian clubs, photographed by Miss Nikodem at her studio on 679 West Madison Street, Chicago. Dressed in matching bloomers and dark blouses with puffed sleeves, the women hold their wooden clubs aloft in a theatrical stance, suggesting both grace and strength. The studio backdrop depicts a stylized wooded path, adding depth and a sense of motion to the otherwise formal composition.

Miss Nikodem was one of the few known female studio photographers operating in late 19th-century Chicago, and her work often featured women as central subjects in ways that subtly challenged conventional portrayals. This image exemplifies the growing popularity of women’s physical culture in the Victorian and Progressive Era, when Indian club swinging was promoted as a respectable and beneficial form of exercise for women.

Images by female photographers depicting athletic or empowered women from this period are rarely encountered. The presence of both a female subject and a female author lends the photograph particular resonance, bridging the early history of women’s fitness with the evolving role of women in American studio photography.