A Family Pastime.

Although the first recorded game of lawn tennis in America was played 8 October 1874 at Camp Apache, near Tucson, Arizona, Mary Ewing Outerbridge, a New York socialite, is credited with introducing the game to the United States. In 1874, during her annual winter vacation in Bermuda, she observed British army officers hitting a rubber ball across a net stretched across a frashly mowed lawn with implements strung with catgut. Intrigued by the game, she purchased a box of tennis equipment and brought it back to the United States, whereupon customs agents confiscated the unrecognizable items. Emilius Outerbridge, an influential family member prominent in the shipping business, succeeded in getting the tennis accoutrements into the country. Soon thereafter, the Staten Island Cricket and Baseball Club, which Mary's brother Eugenius directed, set up a tennis court in the corner of the cricket field. For nearly...