The Badminton Club of the City of New York was founded during the winter of 1878 by two young world travelers, Bayard Clarke and his friend E.L. Wilks, and their sisters, Lilly Clarke and Katherine and Alice E. Wilks, in part for the love of the sport and in part “to relieve the dullness of the Lenten season.” What was revolutionary at that time was the fact that young men included women in a sport.