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 six 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. One of these men has not passed away, so his name is redacted.
This is Yale freshman Millard B. Prisant on Oct. 12, 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.
This is Yale freshman John R. Quarles, Jr. on Oct. 9, 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. 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 N. S. on Oct. 16, 1953.
This is Yale freshman John Strohm Speer III on Oct. 8, 1953.
This is Yale freshman Harold Adelman on Oct. 5, 1939.
Before 1952, the Yale posture photos were just a side view.
This is Yale freshman Frank Highet Icaza on Oct. 4, 1939.
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.
11 comments:
these guys look more normal than the Baltin ones!
Would love to make a film entitled, "1953." Would document the entire process of 1000 new freshman male students having their photos taken (completely nude, of course). Naked young men lined up, as far as the eye could see. "Welcome to Yale!"
do these pics seen by everyone at campus or somn cuz it'll be embarassing for me
I like your attitude about this. I am wondering if these were just taken, studied for some research, and then just filed away, OR maybe available somehow to both males and females to view? I find these very interesting, and still can't NOT THINK that at least some of the fellows running this program had an interest in seeing naked males, the same as I do.
Thanks for posting this i like yale triptych posture photos. i like guy #2 the most and also 2,3, and last guy side view.
Someone named their child Millard Prisant. :( Quarles Jr. has a marriage ring, already! Speer III's feet are weird. I wonder if he could shake hands/foot with you.
@Hot Naked Men and @Gerald - These photos were not published or made available for other students to see. They were just filed away. Later, most of them were burned, but I have been able to acquire some of the photos that escaped burning.
The photos were part of a posture analysis and remediation program that started in 1919. The photos were analyzed for potential posture problems based on the pins attached to the student's back and chest, and if "problems" were detected, the student had to go to remedial posture sessions. Nowadays we consider this fixation on posture to be bizarre, and the program was discontinued in the 1960s.
Thanks for answering my questions.
Can you also post posture photos of fort sheridan.
In the first 4 photos, what was the purpose of the overhead shot? Something to do, perhaps, with the nude students' shoulders?
Never fail to amuse me! Thank you!
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