Leander Club, founded in 1818, is one of the oldest rowing clubs in the world. It is based in Remenham in the English county of Berkshire, adjoining Henley-on-Thames. Only three other surviving clubs (two from the Oxford colleges) were founded prior to Leander: Brasenose College Boat Club and Jesus College Boat Club (the two competing in a Head race in 1815) and Westminster School Boat Club, founded in 1813.

Leander was founded on the Tideway in 1818 or 1819 by members of the old "Star" and "Arrow" Clubs, and membership was at first limited to sixteen. "The Star" and "the Arrow" died out sometime in the 1820s and Leander itself was in full swing by 1825 and by 1830 was looked upon as a well-known and long-established boat club.

In its early days, Leander was as much a social association as a competitive club and it was steered by a waterman. It was the first club to support young watermen and instituted a coat and badge for scullers. In 1831 Leander defeated Oxford in a race rowed from Hambleden Lock to Henley Bridge, but when it lost the match with Cambridge six years later, Lord Esher noted at a dinner that Leander was a London Club consisting of men who had never been at the University but ... were recognised throughout England, and perhaps everywhere in the world, as the finest rowers who had up to that time been seen. However he also noted that they were 'verging on being middle aged men.' Up until 1856 the number of members was limited to twenty-five men. After this date membership was increased to thirty-five and the limit finally abolished in 1862. In 1858 it began to recruit members from both the universities, but it was not until 1875 that had its first win at Henley with an eight consisting of one Oxford and seven Cambridge men, stroked by J. H. D. Goldie.

Scott Burton (June 23, 1939-December 29, 1989) was an American sculptor and performance artist best known for his large-scale furniture sculptures in granite and bronze.

Burton was born in Greensboro, Alabama to Walter Scott Burton, Jr. and Hortense Mobley Burton. While Burton was a child, his parents separated and Burton relocated to Washington, DC. with his mother.

Burton began his artistic career at the Washington Workshop of the Arts in the mid-1950s, before progressing to the Hans Hofmann School of Fine Arts in Provincetown, Massachusetts. Between 1959 and 1962 Burton took classes at Goddard College in Plainfield, Vermont, George Washington University in Washington, D.C., Harvard University, and Columbia University, where he finally received his Bachelor's Degree. In 1963 Burton was awarded a Master of Fine Arts degree from New York University in New York City.

While living in New York City, Burton worked at the membership desk of the Museum of Modern Art, which allowed him to befriend prominent artists and writers such as Edward Albee, Jerome Robbins, Lincoln Kirstein, and Alex Katz. With the help of these connections Burton began writing for Artnews in the mid-1960s, and by the end of the decade Burton had begun collaborating on conceptual art and performance pieces with artists such as Vito Acconci and Eduardo Costa.