Document Type
Finding Aid
Collection Number
MSS-049.02.01
Publication Date
2022
Last Revision Date
9-20-2022
Description
The Margaret Proctor Collection is part of the larger Kathleen Bertrand and Linda Lundin, Honoring Women in Sports Collection. The collection contains two folders of paper material, three trophies, and one javelin. It is not known if this is the javelin Proctor used when she set the American women’s distance record.
Margaret Proctor Harley, 1907-1987, was an accomplished track and field athlete in the 1920s, particularly in the javelin event. Born Margaret Sidney Proctor, she lived her whole life in Lunenburg, Massachusetts. She graduated from Lunenburg High School in 1926 with a graduating class of only 11 students. She graduated from Fitchburg Normal School in 1929, and went on to earn Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in 1953 and 1955 respectively. In 1943 she married Harold (Hare) Harley, 1891-1980.
As a child, Proctor (Harley) was active in multiple sports including basketball and track and field. She was a member of the Lunenburg Girls Athletic Club, where her eventual husband Harold, 16 years her senior, worked as a coach. On May 24, 1925, she set the American Woman’s world record for javelin with a throw of 103’ 3” while competing in the Junior Championship at Franklin Field in Boston. In July 1925, she won third place at the Women’s National Track and Field Championship Meet playing for the Luxenbury [Lunenburg] Athletic Club. She broke her own record on June 3, 1928, with a throw of 110’ 3.25” at the Franklin Field in Boston. Though she held the world record in javelin for three months, she was unable to compete in the Olympics because there was no event for women’s javelin at the time.