Calendars - Part 59

 Royal Dick Calendar

The Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies, commonly referred to as Dick Vet, is the veterinary school at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland.  The name of the school does not refer to the King's dick.  The school was founded by William Dick in 1823.

Above, veterinary students with Exmoor ponies posing for their 2018 calendar, called When Vets Undress.

The students have produced a couple of naked calendars in support of a All4Paws, a local veterinary charity that provides veterinary care for the pets of homeless people in and around Edinburgh.

What does a Scotsman wear under his kilt?  Nothing, as this student demonstrates.

A student with an Exmoor pony.

The calendar project was run by a female veterinary student, and most of the calendar photos showed female students.  I've concentrated on the photos that showed males.

Our last 2018 photo shows the same guy with an Exmoor pony being ridden by a female student who isn't even naked.  Unfortunately, despite the school's name Royal Dick School, these calendars, like most British charity calendars, do not show any dick.

Two years later, the veterinary students produced another When Vets Undress calendar for 2020.  Again, most of the photos showed female students, so I have concentrated on the few photos that show males.  Above, students with birds of prey. 

Two students with some less exotic animals, but vets need to learn how to care for them.

We end with a 2020 calendar photo of two naked students arm in arm looking out over the countryside and perhaps thinking about their future as vets.

Vintage Military - Part 64

 Fort Sheridan part 4

Today's post shows the last of my collection of Fort Sheridan photos.

Note: I have edited some photos to improve brightness and contrast.

Fort Sheridan was an Army base just north of Chicago.  During World War II, it was an induction and training center, processing over half a million inductees.

(Note: the photo of 9506 is partial, not showing the rear view.  I have not found a full version of 9506.)

As part of an Army project to study different body types, some of these inductees were photographed nude.

These photos are sometimes confused with the Ivy League nude posture photos or the Navy pre-flight school nude photos at St. Mary's, but these photos are easily distinguished because each man stands on a base labeled "Ft. Sheridan".

A few dozen of these photos have been found (I have 36 of them), but the numbers on the base that each recruit stands on makes me wonder whether over 9000 inductees were photographed.

One of my readers noted that there was also a prisoner of war camp at Fort Sheridan, and he wondered if these might be German POWs.  It's possible, but most of the sources I've seen refer to these men as American Army inductees.

That's it for my collection of Fort Sheridan photos.

Events - Part 61

 Folsom Street Fair 2023

The Folsom Street Fair is an annual event in San Francisco celebrating the alternative sexuality, kink, and leather communities.  Above, Twister at the SteamWorks booth is always popular.

The fair draws large crowds.  Most are fully dressed, but many dress minimally, such as this guy in a harness and jockstrap ...

that provides this alluring rear view.  As his tattoo says, Woof!

Minimal briefs can be pulled down if the occasion arises.

And some attendees are totally naked.  Public nudity is illegal in San Francisco except at an event that has gotten a special permit, and Folsom is one such event, so the nudity at Folsom is perfectly legal.

However, knowledgeable attendees wear shoes, if nothing else, because your feet are likely to get stepped on in the crowds.

Public sex is not legal in San Francisco, but at Folsom, with all those naked guys around, it happens ...

and it happens ...

and it's certainly in public, as seen above.

Here two "dogs" are going at it, surrounded by crowds ...

and the crowds obligingly part to let them do their thing.  Well, it's San Francisco, and it's Folsom.

Photographers - Part 59

Clear Eye Photo

Today is Columbus Day.  Christopher Columbus discovered America on October 12, 1492.  Some people do not consider that a thing to be celebrated, as it led to genocide of Native Americans.  So, today's post does not celebrate Christopher Columbus.  It celebrates Columbus, Ohio.

Specifically, today's post is about a photographer in Columbus, Ohio with the Twitter page @ClearEyePhoto who takes lots of nude male photos.  Here are some of them.

Above, smiling model Jason.

A rear view of Jason.

Chris O'Mallus.  Most of Clear Eye's models are only identified by first name to preserve privacy, but apparently Chris is not shy.

Keith and Byron.

KC is well-hung.

Clear Eye does not do porn, but he does show men who have gotten a bit excited, like Casey S. above ...

and CF.

And here's Bangoblood giving himself a helping hand.

We end with a serenade by Shea.  To see more, go to the Twitter page (I refuse to call it X) for @ClearEyePhoto.

May your Columbus Day be a happy one.

Protests - Part 59

Greenpeace, Burgundy 2009

On Oct. 3, 2009, Spencer Tunick gathered 700 volunteers in a vineyard in southern Burgundy, France, to protest against the dangers of global warming: in this case the danger that the impact of climate change could affect wine production.  The taste of wine is very dependent on the soil and climate where the grapes are grown.

Spencer Tunick, at left, chats with one of the naked volunteers.  All Greenpeace events use naked volunteers in order to attract publicity.

Above, the volunteers hold empty bottles upside-down, perhaps to symbolize what will happen if climate change affects the vineyards.

Everyone has to be naked at a Greenpeace event, even the reporters.  Here, a naked reporter interviews one of the volunteers.

And here we see the reporter from the rear.

The next day, naked volunteers were photographed in the wine cellars.

Why does it matter whether climate change affects the vineyards?  Because one of the pleasures in life is cock au vin (above).

Ivy League Posture Photos - Part 38

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 ten more Yale students that I had the opportunity to acquire.  For privacy reasons, I redact the names of men who might still be alive.  Five of these men have passed away, so their names are not redacted.

This is Yale freshman John Michael Roche on Oct. 9, 1953.

In 1952, Yale installed an apparatus using mirrors to photograph the front, rear, side and top view.  Prior to that, the posture photo was just a side view.

This is Yale freshman P.R. on Oct. 8, 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 D.R. on Oct. 7, 1953.

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 R.S. on Oct. 8, 1953.

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

This is Yale freshman P.L. on Oct. 7, 1953.

The photography and analysis of the photos was conducted by the staff of Yale's Payne Whitney Gymnasium.  Nobody outside this staff saw the photos, and the photos were not published for other students to see.

This is Yale freshman John Arthur Neumark on Oct. 9, 1953.

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.

This is Yale freshman A.N. on Oct. 9, 1953.

This is Yale freshman William T. Myers, Jr. on Oct. 16, 1953.

This is Yale freshman Richard K. Myler on Oct. 16, 1953.

Finally, we have two photos of Yale freshman Theodore David Gilbert, taken on July 15, 1942 and on Nov. 30, 1942.  These photos show only a profile view because they were taken before the 4-way view equipment was installed in 1952.

Why two photos?  Presumably the analysis of the first photo indicated some posture problems, and Gilbert had to attend remedial posture sessions, after which the second photo was taken.  It's rare to have both the first and second posture photos for a student.

*        *        *

Note: some of my followers have questioned the propriety of publishing these photos.  If you think I should not publish them, please don't comment to that effect.  Too much time and space has been taken up on the subject.  We can agree to disagree.  If you don't like it, go to some other blog.  Here is my position:

1. Were these photos an invasion of privacy for the students?  By today's standards, yes.  By the standards of the day, not so much.  In that era, guys were routinely naked around each other in locker rooms and in swimming pools when women weren't present.  Being asked to strip and even being photographed naked as part of a posture examination would not seem too outrageous.

2. 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, children, grandchildren, etc. of the deceased person.

3. In my opinion, publishing these photos is similar to publishing nude photos of athletes and soldiers taken by LIFE magazine photographers.  At the time, the understanding of the photo subjects was that photos with frontal nudity would not be published in the magazine (and they never were), but the LIFE photo archive containing those photos is now publicly available online, and nobody seems to be complaining about it.

4. 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.