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 eight more Yale students that I had the opportunity to acquire. For privacy reasons, I redact the names of men who might still be alive. Four of these men may still be alive, so their names are redacted.
This is Yale freshman William Durrie Waldron, Jr. on October 5, 1950.
Photos taken before 1952 show only a side view.
This is Yale freshman Richard Thackeray Radsch on October 22,1958.
In 1952, Yale installed an apparatus using mirrors to photograph the front, rear, side and top view.
This is Yale freshman P. R. 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 M. B. on October 6, 1952.
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 R. B. on October 6, 1952.
If posture problems were detected, the student had to attend remedial posture sessions, and a second posture photo was taken.
This is Yale freshman Marshall Holmes Stevens on December 17, 1952.
The photography and analysis of the photos was conducted by the staff of Yale's Payne Whitney Gymnasium.
This is Yale freshman B. S. on October 22, 1952.
Nobody outside the gymnasium staff saw the photos, and the photos were not published for other students to see.
This is Yale freshman Lawrence Grant Sucsy on October 20, 1952.
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.
8 comments:
thanks for posting these. this is m b and sucsy's 2nd pictorial. they are my favorites
@Anon - Thanks for pointing out the second photos. In both cases, the photo in October supposedly showed posture problems. The students had to take remedial posture sessions, and then a second photo was taken in March.
What a nice blog to follow. Care to follow back on mine?
Gratifying to see all those natural bushes. And everything else....on full display.
Look again at the photo of "M.B." ... what an innocent thing. Betting he was a complete virgin.
Love how Sucsy apparently liked to spend a lot of time outside in not much, judging from the tan lines - I wonder if he was swimming or just laying on his stomach? MB was the cutest of the bunch, RB nearly so, with a wonderful mischievous smile ;-)
Mostly ectomorphic body types.
Those boys need to eat more, and they are boys. Some of them are pasty and sickly looking, forget the posture !
They need to exercise and get some sun for their own good.
He’s gotta a couple of bruises as well. Wonder if he was a swimmer or in some other water sport.
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