Original Resister Chart
This original Resister chart comes from the research of Cathy Strack and was first presented in full, as well as in workshop form, at Pilates at The Pillow® Fall 2018! Images first shared May 11, 2023.
So grateful to Cathy’s hard work in uncovering amazing historical items like this so that we can continue to learn the depth of Joe’s original work!
And grateful to Sean Gallagher for creating a derivative poster of the same series. If you’d like a copy for yourself, visit the PilatesPosters Etsy store!
Join Sean every Tuesday for his Resister Springs class, where you can practice these archival arm, leg, and head springs exercises with feedback and guidance from Sean. Sign-up here!
Related Topics: Atlas Athletic
The History of the Small Barrel
This Pilates Source® discovery was first presented at Pilates at The Pillow® Spring 2022 by Sean Gallagher and Elaine Ewing. Within Joe Pilates’ original library (part of Sean Gallagher’s Pilates Archives®) we found a 1940s book about cabinet making with these images and plans inside. Amazingly, the structure and design of the cabinet is almost identical to the original small barrel in Sean Gallagher’s Pilates Archives®, and possibly how Joe Pilates was inspired to create his barrels in general. Images first shared May 11, 2023.
Learn More: Original Pilates Apparatus
Oldest Known Pilates or Universal Reformer Ad
This original ad is believed to have been placed by Joseph Pilates in Germany in the early 1920s, before he came to the US. It is the oldest known Pilates or Universal Reformer ad known to date. Here we also have the English translation. The ad contains many fascinating insights into Joe’s early ideas for his equipment and method that he later refined and developed. Images first shared May 11, 2023.
Related Topics: Contrology Advertisements, Pilates Patents
Wunda Chair
Have you ever “Wunda-ed” why Joe called his chair, The Wunda Chair?
Or where he might have gotten the idea for a sprung seat and sprung back? (Did you know his original Wunda Chair had springs in the back AND the seat? (Check the patent below to see what I mean)!
Through my pilates history research I was able to find these ads from the 1930’s, for furniture called the “Wunda Chair.”
These chairs were advertised with such terms as “made with a spring back and deeply-sprung seat,” “patent spring seat,” and “the ‘Wunda’ sprung seat.”
Interestingly, Joe also patented his Wunda Chair in the 1930’s.
There is a very good chance that these chairs were Joe’s original inspiration for his Wunda Chair, based on the name of the chair, and spring loaded seat and back.
Over the years I’ve read and heard speculation as to where he got the name for the Wunda Chair, including that he named the chair after his client, “Cathy Wunda.” This historical evidence shows that the likelihood is that he knew of the furniture called a “wunda chair” and made it himself, in his own way, that fit within his ideas for Contrology.
All images first shared on 9/18/2021.
Here we can see how Joe’s original Wunda Chair patent also had “a spring loaded seat and back.”
