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. But, as far as I can tell, the Yale photos are not connected to Sheldon's work.
Here are four more posture photos taken at Yale that I had the opportunity to acquire. For privacy reasons, I redact the names of men who might still be alive; however, all these men have passed away.
This is Yale freshman Daniel Dettmers Piel on January 15, 1948.
Yale installed the apparatus to photograph front, rear, side and top views in 1952. Before then, all posture photos were side views only.
This is Yale freshman Henry Stewart Dunn, Jr. on March 1, 1948.
Note the strange pins stuck to each student's 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 David Lincoln 'Bud' Edwards on March 2, 1948.
This is Yale freshman Sloane Elliott on March 22, 1948.
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).
13 comments:
#2 & #3 so cute!
Y photos I've found have women and girls present and the men were still nude. It was very common way back in the days of my youth (and before).
Even though times were different back in the 40s, it still must have been a bit uncomfortable for these young men as they were ordered to strip naked and be photographed. Just installing (and removing) all those metal pins must have taken time. I'm sure it was an assembly line process, with many clothed onlookers getting a good look at these incoming freshmen.
That first man has a butt you could put your drink on.
I'm very curious as to how these became accessible. Who owns or owned them. It still somehow seems a violation of privacy to be displaying them without the documented permission of the subjects. Death doesn't change that, surely.
@Whkattk - I'm not saying males were never nude when females were present (I've seen those photos, too), but I don't think it was common. What was common was males being unselfconsciously naked around each other in male-only environments like locker rooms.
@Anon - Legally, the right to privacy applies only to the living and does not extend beyond death. My opinion is if you're alive, publishing a nude photo of you might cause you embarrassment, which is why I redact your name so no embarrassment can result. If you're dead, you cannot possibly be embarrassed.
Considering that these Yale photos have already been published on an auction site with full names (not redacted) for all the photos, I would argue that I am going the extra mile in protecting privacy.
“ routinely naked around each other in locker rooms and in swimming pools”. Then what changed? Human male anatomy didn’t. Same parts. As one poster points out- still must have been uncomfortable for them. So why do kids/guys/athletes choose not to expose themselves now a days even to their closest friends/teammates? I can remember showering at scout camp with a few classmates for the first time. We did not face the wall in shame. We stood facing each other almost as if to say “this is it…this is what I got!”
Given the number of years these were done, wonder if there were any siblings photographed.
@Treeclimber - What changed? I've read that one reason may be that cell phones are now ubiquitous, so in the old days nobody would have a camera in a locker room, but now everybody does, in the form of a cell phone. So there's now a risk of being photographed naked that didn't exist before. Another factor (this is my own theory) is that it has been widely publicized that some percentage of the population is gay. In the old days it might never occur to a homophobic male that a gay guy might see him naked in the locker room (horrors!), but now it would occur to him, so he covers up.
@Treeclimber - There were siblings photographed. In my collection of Yale photos there are two identical twins who were in the same class year. I'll be publishing them eventually.
@unashamed male I remember in my hospital stay after breaking an ankle in 3 places having an obvious gay nurse on night shift and how he decided he wanted to check my temperature rectaly. Figured I’d that as far as it went wtf not. My dad also had gay roommate at a major Ivey ledge school- his attitude was do what you want just leave me out. Oh and the standard tie on door knob still applied (he attended in the 50’s.) maybe he was progressive for the times…
Back in the last century, in some places it was quite common for females to see naked males. NOT the posed CFNM pictures we see on porn sights today, but real everyday normal people at the beach, school, or other situations. A healthier attitude!
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