Ivy League Posture Photos
In 1995, a New York Times article called The Great Ivy League Nude Posture Photo Scandal exposed a strange practice in the 1940s through 1960s at certain Ivy League colleges such as Yale and Princeton and some of their Seven Sisters counterparts such as Vassar, Smith, and Mt. Holyoke. The colleges took nude photos of incoming freshmen, supposedly for the purpose of detecting any problems with their posture. Actually, according to the article, the pseudo-scientists who were behind the scheme were using the photos for far more troubling purposes such as eugenic studies, now completely discredited.
For the full article, see https://www.nytimes.com/1995/01/15/magazine/the-great-ivy-league-nude-posture-photo-scandal.html
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I've seen photos online that said they were Ivy League posture photos, but they weren't. Usually they turn out to be nude posture photos taken by the Navy in World War II. For more info, click here to see my previous post on this topic.
My previous post also shows four genuine posture photos taken at Yale, which I was able to acquire a couple of years ago. Recently, I had the opportunity to acquire three more, and here they are.
Gavin, this post is for you.
The first photo is Carlton Lewis Dudley, Jr, taken on July 9, 1942. Note the strange pins stuck to his back and chest. These pins were prominently referred to in the New York Times article and are absent in the fake Ivy League posture photos, a confirmation that these are the real thing.
The second photo is Abraham Emanuel Dukler, taken on July 10, 1942. During World War II, Yale instituted an accelerated class schedule by eliminating summer vacations, so that undergraduates would graduate in three years instead of four. The first such accelerated class started in the summer of 1942, scheduled to graduate in 1945. These three guys were part of that class. In July, 1942, they were freshmen just entering college, and the entry process included having posture photographs taken.
Last but not least, we have Olin Pickett Boone, taken on July 10, 1942. You can click on the photos to see larger, hi-res versions.
To preserve these guys' privacy, I was originally going to show the photos without their names and accompanying information. After all, they did not ask to have their photos taken nude. However, I have confirmed that they all passed away years ago. If they had lived, they would now be 97 years old. I'd like to think that they would be happy for people to see what they looked like as fresh young 18-year-olds.
17 comments:
The first time I saw any of these, some years ago, I had a "Nazi" feeling, like this practice was something that would do.
It looks like the pins are drawn on the photos. And the angle of the pins in the same location on the men is different. Do you know the purpose of the pins?
Yes, they certainly were handsome young men. One of my uncles was an artist and drew me naked when I was 25, serving in the Army, so I was probably at my fittest in my life. Thank you fir these, and the background you clearly research so well. Paul
Such a neat post!
Eugenics began among the Ivy League legacy class.
An explanation of the pins was given in a 1937 article “Body Mechanics Analysis of Yale University Freshmen” in the journal of the American Physical Education Association. The pins were attached with adhesive tape at specific points on the body, e.g. the 7th cervical vertebra, the “greatest concavity backward of the lumbar curve” and so forth. The angle of the pins did not matter; think of the pins as pointers in the photo, indicating specific points on the back and chest. Then, according to the article, the angles formed by connecting certain of these points would indicate postural problems.
Weren’t there usually full frontal and dorsal shots as well? Talk about being made to feel like nothing more than meat, photographed from all sides as if to be pictured on that days menu!
In 1952, Yale installed an apparatus using mirrors to produce "photometric" posture photos showing front, rear, side and top views. You can see one of these in my previous post if you follow the link in paragraph 3. Before then, Yale's posture photos were only the side view.
Lol! All the better for that days menu!
So we’re the students asked if they wanted to participate or just ordered to be at the gym at x o’clock? When did they find out they were expected to have nude photos taken?
It was not optional. At Yale, freshmen were sent a postcard saying "Please report to room 509 on the 5th floor of the Payne Whitney Gymnasium for your orthopedic examination on _____ (date) _____ (hours)." The student's height and weight were measured without clothes, and then the pins were stuck on their back and chest and the nude photo was taken. Apparently they were not told about the nude photo in advance.
Note that in those years (1930s through 1960s), Yale was all-male, and nudity in front of other males, especially in the gym or when swimming, was quite normal. So, a nude physical exam, and even the posture photo, which they were told was part of the exam, would not have been alarming – it was just something they were told to do.
Suppose as with high school showers and jockstraps older siblings might have warned them.
Since you identified these freshmen, would you identify the others in the previous post? If they're all deceased of course.
I was only able to verify that two of the four in the previous post are deceased. For consistency's sake, I have edited the previous post to identify their names; the other two are still identified by initials.
Thank you. I hope the other two are alive and enjoying life.
What about female students? Any posture photo or theres only male photos.
Posture photos were taken of female students at Vassar, Smith and Mt. Holyoke, but none ever became public, as far as I know. Years later, the participating colleges destroyed their posture photos, but some of the Yale photos escaped destruction and are occasionally available at auction. At the time, Yale was an all-male college, so Yale's posture photos are all of males.
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