Ivy League Posture Photos
I have to update to the posture photo program story again. I am now convinced that there is no link between the nude posture photos taken at Yale and the Nazi-like eugenic theories of Harvard professor E.A. Hooten and psychologist William H. Sheldon. Why? Let me explain.
Harvard had been taking nude pictures of incoming freshmen since 1880, and Hooten and Sheldon took over the Harvard program in 1940. Hooten and Sheldon promoted eugenic theories that they wanted to use the nude photos to prove. That's all true.
Last time, I wrote that Hooten and Sheldon apparently convinced other schools such as Yale to start taking nude posture photos. I've done more research, and at least at Yale, that's not true.
Yale already had its own posture photo program. Since 1919, Yale had been taking nude photos of incoming freshmen. This is documented in a 1937 article called Body Mechanics Analysis of Yale University Freshmen in the Research Quarterly publication of the American Physical Education Association, which then goes into great detail about how the photographs (which until 1952 were only side views) were used to detect posture problems, including the use of the pins that were stuck onto the student's back and chest.
In 1952, the people in charge of Yale's posture photo program published an article called PhotoMetric Posture Pictures in the Journal of the American Association for Health, Physical Education, and Recreation. The article talks about Yale's new apparatus with mirrors for photographing the front, rear, side and top view of the student, and it explains how the photos were used for evaluating posture, but there is no mention of eugenics or Sheldon's somatypes.
So, the nude posture photos have gotten a bad rap. The link to the eugenic theories of Hooten and Sheldon was made in a 1995 New York Times article called The Great Ivy League Nude Posture Photo Scandal by Ron Rosenbaum, which has become the source of information on the subject for most people. But Rosenbaum conveniently omitted the fact that the posture photo programs at schools like Yale pre-dated Hooten and Sheldon and had no connection to their theories, tarring schools such as Yale with the same brush.
It's a clear case of guilt by association.
Did Yale make its photos available to Sheldon? Possibly, but there is no evidence of this. Sheldon published a book called Atlas of Men in 1954, setting forth his theory of somatypes, profusely illustrated by nude posture photos with the faces and genitals obscured. None of these photos have the pins attached to the back and chest that all of the Yale photos have, so the photos can't be from Yale. Presumably Sheldon used Harvard photos, which he had access to.
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Here are two more posture photos taken at Yale that I had the opportunity to acquire. I could not confirm that these two men have passed away, so for privacy reasons, as is my practice for men who may still be alive, I have concealed their names and only use their initials.
This is Yale freshman A.Y. on October 28, 1958.
Note the strange pins stuck to his back and chest. The pins were stuck on at specific points for later posture analysis. 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 S.S. on October 28, 1958.
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, since the staff conducting this was all-male (and remember that Yale was an all-male school).
If these guys are still alive, my guess is that they would be happy for people to see what they looked like as fresh young 18-year-olds.
11 comments:
Thanks for setting the record straight, Larry. Times have changed, and we must be careful not to judge these pictures in light of today's standards.
I love your hard work on this blog however I do disagree with you posting these, the other photos were models who knew what they were getting into. I'm a life long nudist, but I'd be pretty pissed if my photo from my university was posted. If I go to a nude bike ride, even a nude beach you are aware of the abuse you could be placing yourself into, but this in my opinion is different. The students were lead to believe a guarantee of privacy, if this were me and I saw my photo from my University here I would consider taking action, I have lots of friends that would still be horrified years later if their photo appeared, I think it is a leap to assume that any one of these individuals would be OK with this. Again thanks for your hard work overall.
Yes, thank you for your hard work on this subject. Maybe some of these posture images actually detected a problem where the student was helped.
Johnn, I understand your point. That's why I research whether the students are still alive (all the students whom I have posted would be in their 80s or 90s). If I cannot confirm that the student has died, then for the very privacy concerns that you state, I erase his name from the photo and only identify him by his initials. By the way, the photos have already appeared on an auction site with full names, so I think I that if anything I am being overly stringent about preserving privacy.
These photos document an era where male nudity among other males was not shocking; it was routine. That's why I think that if these students are still alive and happen to see their photos with names redacted, they would probably be more amused than anything, and think "Damn, I looked pretty good back then."
The photos are titillating abd thanks for your efforts. But whether or not the photos had a eugenics link, they seem fundamentally wrong. Institutions like Ivy League colleges had no legitimate reason to invade the lives of their students. Let alone measuring their posture. The St Mary’s jock strap photos might be legitimate (measuring fitness of pilots in training).
As I mentioned before, I wrote an essay on Sheldon's work, and I would be glad to share it with you. Jerry at VMM has my address. I did not use the NYT article as a source.-Dee Exx
I agree too. If you saw me as naked at 80 as I was at 18, I'd be proud of myself,
I still contend that the Mass Baby Boomer Routine Infant Circumcision is the culprit.
Male Kids often saw their grown uncut counterparts on a regular basis...and as an entire generation knew there was something wrong with their own .
This caused self-shaming in the form of hysterical-modesty (not as in hilarious, but, rather as irrationally sourced modesty )
Feel free to share more...and are there any more of the fort Sheridan soldiers
I have more of the Yale posture photos that I will be sharing. The next batch is scheduled for January 10. I also have 35 Fort Sheridan posture photos and 28 Navy Pre-Flight School posture photos. Perhaps I could include them in my Vintage Military series in the future.
Thanks I found this page on a hunch I appreciate it
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