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. The Yale program predates Sheldon, and, as far as I can tell, the Yale photos were never connected to Sheldon's work.
Here are posture photos of six more Yale students that I had the opportunity to acquire. For privacy reasons, I redact the names of men who might still be alive. Three of these men may still be alive, so their names are redacted.
This is Yale freshman N.O. on October 22, 1958.
In 1952, Yale installed an apparatus using mirrors to photograph the front, rear, side and top view. Prior to that, the posture photo was just a side view.
This is Yale freshman D.P. on October 23, 1958.
Note the strange pins stuck to each student's back and chest. The pins were stuck on at specific points for later posture analysis.
This is Yale freshman Edward Bayne Phillips on October 23, 1958.
Supposedly, by examining the angles formed by connecting the points where the pins touched the body, certain posture problems could be detected. If posture problems were detected, the student had to attend remedial posture sessions, and a second posture photo was taken.
This is Yale freshman William George Polinsky on October 21, 1958.
The photography and analysis of the photos was conducted by the staff of Yale's Payne Whitney Gymnasium. Nobody outside the gymnasium staff saw the photos, and the photos were not published for other students to see.
This is Yale freshman J.M. on October 7, 1948.
This photo and the next one were taken before 1952 and show only a side view.
This is Yale freshman Thomas Lee Masters on October 25, 1948.
The posture photo program was discontinued in the 1960s, and later, most of the photos were burned. However, some of the photos escaped burning, including the photos that I have been showing in this series.
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Note: some of my followers consider these photos an invasion of privacy for the students. 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.
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:
Talk about conformity in America !
Yale would not get away with this shit today and for good reason.
Like they couldn’t have had the freshmen wear briefs or swimsuits.
What did they do when a person said no, make them ?!
Then they wonder why elite institutions are held in contempt and derided.
wonderful photos
none of the subjects have any chest hair, was that common at the time?
Always a good day when I see another installment of these Yale photos!
Some do- I never had any till I hit thirty.
This was the, as I put it, the golden era of mandatory showers and jockstraps. By the time these lads made college being nude in front of friends, classmates, and strangers meant nothing!
Meant nothing ? most guys didn’t care much for it at all.
The first four students at least were allowed to wear the black cord around their waists.
Bet they would have preferred a jock! Lol!
If still alive, these men would all be in their mid 90s or older.
Assuming the freshmen were about 18 years old, the guys in the 1958 photos would be about 85 years old; the ones in the 1948 photos would be about 95 years old.
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