Eugen Sandow Photographed by Napoleon Sarony

Born in Prussia on April 2, 1867, Friedrich Wilhelm Müller was a circus strongman performing under the name, Eugen Sandow.

In 1893, New York-based, celebrity photographer Napoleon Sarony took these images of Sandow, whose legions of fans were enthralled by his flexing his muscles during circus and stage strength performances. There exists online a remarkable video taken by Thomas Edison's film company of Sandow twitching his muscles.

In 1898, Sandow founded the fitness magazine, Sandow's Magazine of Physical Culture, in which readers were instructed on how to achieve an ideal physique through diet and exercise.

On September 14, 1901, he helmed the world's first major bodybuilding contest at the Royal Albert Hall in London, England. Among the judges was Sherlock Holmes' creator, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

Now acknowledged as the "father of modern bodybuilding," Sandow passed away on October 14, 1925.