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 first post on this topic.
Recently, I had the opportunity to acquire two more genuine posture photos taken at Yale, and here they are. The photos contained the names of the students. I have confirmed that one of them has passed away. Out of respect for the privacy of the one who may still be alive, I have removed his name, and I will only refer to him by his initials.
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This is Yale freshman Benjamin P. Diebold on October 5, 1953.
An article in the Journal of the American Association for Health, Physical Education, and Recreation described how in spring, 1952, Yale installed an apparatus using mirrors to produce "PhotoMetric" posture photos like this showing front, rear, side and top views.
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 photos are the real thing.
This is Yale freshman R.D. on October 12, 1953. Although I have removed his name from the photo to protect his privacy, my guess is that, if he is still alive, he would be happy for people to see what he looked like as a fresh young 18-year-old.
These guys were not given a choice about being photographed naked. They were told to show up at the gymnasium on a certain date and time, told to strip, and then the strange pins were attached to their back and chest, supposedly for later analysis to detect posture issues.
In that era, guys were routinely naked around each other in locker rooms and in swimming pools when women weren't present. The students would not have balked at being asked to strip for a posture examination, or even being photographed naked, since they were told that it was part of the posture exam.
14 comments:
I can see how the men would not have been uncomfortable stripping back then. How long did the armed forces carry out these "studies?"
If you were in the army, you just stripped. Hell, you had medical exams, including your dick, in front of everyone.
Males didn't expect much privacy.
These are very interesting. I appreciate all of the work you put into your research.
There was a story in the media a few years back about these college posture photos. Apparently, they did both men and women as newscaster Diane Sawyer mentioned she had been included in a study. I find these to be much sexier than posed "beefcake" or porn. Just normal guys photographed nude.
The Navy photos at St. Mary's and the Army photos at Fort Sheridan were taken as part of military induction procedure during World War II. They were not taken for posture "studies." In particular, at St. Mary's, photos were taken of each recruit at intervals over several months to measure fitness progression as they underwent extreme physical training. For more info, see https://brianferrarinyc.com/2022/07/02/80-years-ago-the-men-of-st-marys-pre-flight-school/
These Yale photos are from an era where circumcision was being deployed in the United states and there are no trustable statistics on it. Forgetting issue of privacy for a second, having access to the whole lot (without faces for instance) would allow one to get accurate statistics for circumcision rate for people reaching university age in early 1940s. (and granted would not cover men of different social circles who wouldn't frequent Yale). And could also be quite useful for anthropomorphic studies comparing with males in 2020s. Are american males taller? fatter now? other differences? It's a shame that these photos are so taboo that they are even unavailable for research.
i guess those naked guys was a soldier right
There was a study done in the 50s published as "Atlas of Men" that used some of these pictures plus others from other sources. The "collector" was William Sheldon, who attempted to collate all the various body types into categories. His reputation today is not good for variety of factors. If you are interested in my essay about Sheldon and this interesting book and its bizarre premises, message Jerry at Vintage Muscle Men for my address-Dee
No. These photos are freshmen at Yale University in 1953. There are other naked posture photos taken by the Navy and Army in World War II that are sometimes confused with the Ivy League posture photos. For more info, see my previous post at https://unashamedmale.blogspot.com/2021/02/ivy-league-posture-photos-in-1995-new.html.
I don't want more info....
I want more PHOTOS.
Paul, these photos are very rare. In recent years, most of the colleges involved have burned their naked posture photos in the interest of privacy of the students involved.
However, starting in 2020, a few of the Yale photos started showing up in eBay auctions, so evidently someone got hold of some photos that escaped burning. When I say I had the opportunity to acquire the photos, I don't mean I found them on the Internet. I mean I acquired the physical photos at auction. All of the Yale posture photos that I have published are my scans of the physical photos, and my publishing them is the first time that anyone has seen them online.
Just recently I acquired a few more, and you'll see them in a few weeks (I schedule these posts weeks ahead of time). So be patient and stay tuned.
I agree, but I think the Navy photos at St. Mary's or the Army photos at Ft. Sheridan would be more useful, because they were a better cross-section of the general population in the 1940s. For what it's worth, of the 26 Navy photos from St. Mary's that I have collected, 5 men were uncircumcised, 9 were circumcised, and 12 photos were too small to reliably tell.
okay, it's just giving me physical exam of military enlistment from those guys
Thanks. But the postwar mentality was the same
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