Ivy League Posture Photos - Part 68

Ivy League Posture Photos

Yale started taking nude photos of incoming freshmen in 1919 as part of a program to detect and correct posture problems.  The Yale photos have erroneously been associated with William Sheldon, a psychologist at Harvard and author of Nazi-like eugenic theories who used Harvard nude posture photos to illustrate his theory of somatypes.  The Yale program predates Sheldon, and, as far as I can tell, the Yale photos were never connected to Sheldon's work.

Here are posture photos of eight more Yale students that I had the opportunity to acquire.

This is Yale freshman B. M. on Oct. 7, 1953.

In 1952, Yale installed an apparatus using mirrors to photograph the front, rear, side and top view.

This is Yale freshman J. M. on Oct. 20, 1953.

Note the strange pins stuck to each student's back and chest.  The pins were stuck on at specific points for later posture analysis.

This is Yale freshman Burt Thomas Ryan on Oct. 4, 1940.

Photos taken before the fall of 1952 show only a side view.

This is a second photo of Yale freshman Burt Thomas Ryan taken on Dec. 2, 1940.

If posture problems were detected, the student had to attend remedial posture sessions, and a second posture photo was taken.

This is Yale freshman Albert Dominic D'Antonio on Sept. 30, 1941.

Supposedly, by examining the angles formed by connecting the points where the pins touched the body, certain posture problems could be detected.

This is Yale freshman Daniel Fine on Oct. 4, 1941.

Freshmen were told to report to Yale's Payne Whitney Gymnasium, and once there, they were told to strip.  

This is Yale freshman Eskine Howard Courtenay, Jr. on Oct 2, 1941.

The photography and analysis of the photos was conducted by the staff of the gymnasium.

This is Yale freshman Kevin Farrell on Oct. 2, 1941.

Nobody outside the gymnasium staff saw the photos.  The photos were not published for other students to see.

This is Yale freshman Robinson Gaylord on Oct.  8, 1941.

The posture photo program was discontinued in the 1960s, and later, most of the photos were burned.  However, some of the photos escaped burning, including the photos that I have been showing in this series.

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Note: some of my followers consider these photos an invasion of privacy for the students.  To protect the privacy of the students, I redact the names of students who may still be alive.  I only publish the names of students who have died.  Legally, the right to privacy does not extend beyond death, i.e. it does not extend to spouses and relatives of the deceased person.

I consider these photos to be a historical record of the time.  Almost all of the Ivy League posture photos were burned when their existence became widely known.  In my opinion, that was akin to book-burning of books that someone claimed were obscene.  These photos are not obscene.  They should be celebrated, not hidden away.

Ads - Part 87

T-Mobile My Wallet

This commercial for My Wallet from T-Mobile was run in Poland in 2013, showing a bunch of happy nudists in a store buying things with My Wallet.  There's no male frontal nudity, but there are plenty of rear views.

Weighing In - Part 89

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Events - Part 89

Gay Naturists International 

Gay Naturists International (GNI) holds a gathering each August in the Poconos in eastern Pennsylvania.  It's like a summer camp for gay naturists.  Today's photos are from 2023.

The resort has extensive grounds.

You can wander the grounds ...

explore the woods, or relax by the two large swimming pools.

But there are other activities, including workshops and discussions ranging from musical theater and massage to fetish and kink.  Something for everyone.

Hey, I'm on TV!

This is the Mr. GNI contest.  I do not know who the winner was.

But here's the winner of the Mr. GNI Leather contest.

In 2023 this guy got body painted, apparently with a different paint job each day.  Above, painted like a Piet Mondrian painting.

The same guy, now wearing painted formal wear ...

and now wearing a painted T-shirt and shorts.

But my favorite was when he got painted as an elephant.

Hiking - Part 89

Eifel Hike, 2025

Today we look at a hike that was done on the weekend of August 30, 2025 in the Eifel mountains, a low range in western Germany, not to be confused with the Eiffel Tower.

Above is a photo of the hiking group.  The hike was organized by a group called Naked Freedom, but the participants included some of the Naked European Walking Tour (NEWT) hikers whom we have seen before.  NEWT hikes take place in the Alps in Austria.

Above, Natfree Pascal at left, who organizes the NEWT hikes, and a guy who calls himself Naked Hiker on x.com, who posted these photos.

Here's Naked Hiker during the 15 km hike on Saturday.

And here he is addressing the group before the hike on Sunday.

The group on Sunday seems to be smaller.

After the hike on Sunday, the group gathers for food and drink at the group house.  That's Naked Hiker with the wine glass.

The hiking weekend was extended to Monday, but only 7 hikers participated, above.  The women aren't getting into the spirit of naked hiking, but the men are.

We end with a photo of Naked Hiker on the Monday hike near Kesseling, Germany.

National Swimming Pool Day 2026

National Swimming Pool Day

Today is National Swimming Pool Day.  To celebrate, here are some photos taken by LIFE photographer William Vandivert in 1938 at Michigan State.  The first photo shows coach Matt Mann talking to a swim team member.  Although they are clothed, note the naked swimmer in the background.  Swimmers practiced naked in those days.

Here's coach Mann talking to another swim team member.  Matt Mann (1884-1962) was born in England, where he learned to swim in the public bath house and the canals in Leeds.  One day, swimming nude in a canal, someone stole his clothes, and a policeman marched him naked through the town to the station.

In 1908 he emigrated to the U.S, where he eventually became a swim coach at Yale, then Harvard, and finally Michigan State/University of Michigan.  In 1965 he was inducted into the International Swimming Hall of Fame.

We end with a photo of eight swim team members doing an exercise in the pool.  LIFE magazine did not publish frontal nudity, though it occasionally published rear nudity.  I don't think any of these photos appeared in the magazine.  They are in the LIFE photo archive.

Poem of the Day - Part 89

 The Fly
by William Blake, 1794

                                                            Little fly,

                                                            Thy summer's play

                                                            My thoughtless hand

                                                            Has brushed away

                                                            Am I not

                                                            A fly like thee?

                                                            Or art thou not

                                                            A man like me?

                                                            For I dance

                                                            And drink and sing

                                                            Till some blind hand

                                                            Shall brush my wing

                                                            If thought is life

                                                            And strength and breath,

                                                            And the want

                                                            Of thought is death,

                                                            Then am I

                                                            A happy fly,

                                                            If I live,

                                                            Of if I die.