MEASURING THE COLLEGIATE BODY

Berry, Walter Durant (1870–1953)

Manual of the University of Cincinnati, Department of Physical Training and Hygiene [c. 1894–1896]

MEASURED, COMPARED, PRESCRIBED—PHYSICAL TRAINING UNDER CINCINNATI’S FIRST FOOTBALL COACH.
Pocket handbook issued by the University of Cincinnati's Department of Physical Training and Hygiene under W. D. Berry, Director. Berry was also the university's first head football coach, serving during the 1894 and 1895 seasons.

PHYSICAL TRAINING BY PRESCRIPTION.
The manual accompanied the department's physical examination program and was designed to record approximately forty bodily measurements and tests, comparing the student with a 'normal individual of the same age and sex.' Based upon the examination, students were prescribed special exercises and rules intended to address individual physical conditions.

PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS.
Small staple-bound booklet in printed pink wrappers, approximately 3 by 5 inches. 
+++ Cover titled Manual of the University of Cincinnati, Department of Physical Training and Hygiene, with spaces for the student's name and number.
+++ Interior includes information concerning physical examinations, measurements, testing, and prescribed exercise.

CONDITION: Near Fine. Gentle handling with light, even age-toning. Clean and well preserved for an ephemeral instructional booklet of this period. The spaces for the student's name and number on the front wrapper remain unused. No ownership markings noted.

SCARCITY: No copies have been located in OCLC/WorldCat, suggesting limited institutional representation.

HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE — MEASURING THE COLLEGIATE BODY.
An evocative survival from the formative years of organized collegiate physical education, when exercise, hygiene, medicine, and emerging intercollegiate athletics were closely connected. Berry's program treated the gymnasium almost as a therapeutic institution, using standardized physical measurements to identify deviations from a perceived norm and prescribing exercises intended to correct them.

Its association with Walter Durant Berry, Cincinnati's first football coach, adds an early college-athletics dimension to an already interesting document of American physical culture and anthropometry.

SUBJECTS: University of Cincinnati, Walter Durant Berry, Physical Training, Physical Education, Hygiene, Anthropometry, Exercise Prescription, Physical Examination, College Athletics, College Football, Gymnasiums, University Ephemera, Medical Ephemera, Sports History, Institutional History.

Item #22356

Price: $65.00