The farmers' union. (Memphis, Mo.) 1891-1895, 1893-05-04
AMERICAN TYPES.
Male and Female Forms Modelled in
Clay for the Worlds Fair.

Clay Tor the WOrIu'S talr.
Under the dcxtcrous hands of Sculptor
Harry Kitson and of Boston's favorite
girl sculptor, Miss Thco Ruggles, two
figures are growing up in clay in Il
Boylston street studio, says a Boston
correspondent. They are remarkable
couple of figures, for they represent the
typical American male and female forms
of the present day. This is the first at
tempt made to represent in sculpture the
typical form of whole people and it is
the result Of long labor on the part OF DIR.
ID. A. Sargent Of Harvard, Director Of
the Hemingway Gymnasium. Tho gene
scs Of this modern Adam and Eve which
Mr. kitson and Miss Kugglcs are shaping
out of the original clay is as follows:
They are the result of measurements
carefully taken by the most approved
anthropological methods Of no less than
ten thousand different persons, nearly all
of them in the bloom of youth, that is
between eighteen and twenty five years
of age, and the great majority of them
college students, five thousand Harvard
graduates alone having been measured
for the male statue. 4 number of meas
urements of students of other colleges
and few of professional athletes have
bctn used. There are little less than
| five thousand measurements of ladies.
and they are from Harvard Annex.
Smith, Vassar, Wellesley and other
female institutions of learning.
| Ever since 1880 these measurements of
Havard men have been piling up in the
archives of the gymnasium, and the
work represented by the order which
| Director Sargent submitted to Mr. Kitson
has been simply stupendous. Sixty-five
different measurements have to be taken
of every individual before he is con-
sidercd to have been measured at all,
and these sixty-fivc measurements have
been taken Of every one of the 10000
people represented Ivy the two figures.
The measurements include the girth of
head, neck, trunk, arms and legs, each
| in number of different places. the
length of the body and limbs, both
standing and sitting, and part of other
dimensions too numerous to mention.
Then the sixty five measurements OF the
10000 people are classified and the mean
obtained of each one of the sixty five. 4
mean, be it noted, is not at all the
same rs an average. The mean is
instead, the instance that is found
most frequently, for instance, if more
of the 5000 men are Just 6S inches tall
than there are of any other height, sixty
eight inches, tho mean, is taken. by
this method of calculation the extremes
do not count. and the true normal type
is unaffected by the freaks and eccen-
tricitics in which even mother nature at
times indulyes. Scarccl: an Individual
has filed the measurements of the type
in more particulars, and great multi
tudc. of course, have not q single one
of the measurements of the typical
figures.
The faces are taken from composite
photographs. Some 800 faces of young
men will be represented in the face of
the male figure. and about as large a
number in that of thc female. The fc-
male face is that of 4 composite repre-
senting number of separate composites
from the different female colleges al
ready enumerated. The face Of the
male figure, which is beardless, is COM
posite Of Harvard men, REINFORCED by
composites from Amherst, Bowdoin and
other colleges. The figures are for the
Worlds Fair. They will be completed
early next month. Replicas in various
materials will be furnished to all muse
ums and other institutions that may wish
to possess them.