The Father of Harvard Boxing

Brooklyn Beginnings

Hewlett was born in New York to Isaac and Rachel Hewlett and later made his home in Brooklyn. He earned his living as a porter, but his real calling was the ring: on the side, he taught boxing and wrestling.

His skill did not go unnoticed. The New York Clipper, the city's leading sports paper at the time, counted him among the best boxers in Brooklyn.

Molineaux House

In 1854, Hewlett gave up portering to teach full time. He moved to Worcester, Massachusetts, and opened “Molineaux House,” a sparring academy that he ran out of his own home. It was there that he refined the training methods he would soon bring to Cambridge.

Building Harvard's Gymnasium

Harvard opened its first gymnasium in 1859, and that September Hewlett was put in charge of it. He served as its instructor and curator from the day it opened until his death in 1871, becoming the first African American instructor in Harvard's history and the first African American superintendent of physical education at any American college or university.

He taught a system of his own design that combined German and English gymnastics, boxing, and exercises with Indian clubs, all aimed at building strength and conditioning. Boxing was part of that program from the very beginning, which is why the Harvard Boxing Club traces its roots to 1859.

His influence on student life was hard to miss. About ten years into his tenure, a Boston newspaper remarked that at Harvard, athletics had come close to ranking alongside mathematics.

A Photograph That Made History

In 1860, photographer George Kendall Warren captured Hewlett seated among the tools of his trade: dumbbells, Indian clubs, boxing gloves and a medicine ball. That portrait, shown above, is the earliest known photograph of a medicine ball in the United States.

Businessman and Citizen

Outside the gymnasium, Hewlett was part owner of a clothing and variety store on Brattle Street in Cambridge, where he also sold gymnastic equipment.

He was equally willing to fight for his rights. In 1866, when he and his daughter were refused their seats at the Boston Theater, Hewlett petitioned the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to enforce its own laws and to revoke the licenses of businesses that illegally discriminated against African Americans.

Family

Hewlett married Virginia Josephine Lewis, herself a physical education instructor. Together they had six children, including Emanuel D. Molyneaux Hewlett, the first Black graduate of the Boston University School of Law.