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OMPOSITE photographs photographs enable us to answer is: Will all Senior classes of the same college yield the same composite face? Any one who will take the trouble to compare the portrait of the class of '87 Smith with that of the class of '86 will see at a glance that this is not the case. The groups are not large enough to give in both cases (or in either) the general type of the Smith Senior. There is a difference as distinct as the impression which different classes make upon the minds of their instructors or fellow-students. The class individuality asserts itself, and we can hope to get the general type only when a co-composite of many class composites can be made; and this will then be perhaps somewhat aside from the present truth, for I suspect that the type of Senior in most American colleges (and especially in those for women) is slowly changing.

of college classes should furnish more important evidence as to the value of this method of typical representation than any which could be derived from composites of less closely related groups. The likenesses and the differences which might be found to exist should lead to some interesting conclusions in regard to the limitations of the process.

When the composite portrait of the class of '86 at Smith College was made, it was my plan to make composites of the succeeding Senior classes, and I hoped at some time to be able to secure composites of classes in other colleges. This hope has been already realized, as the accompanying illustrations show. Through the courtesy and coöperation of friends in a number of colleges and universities, the students were interested in the matter, and arrangements were made with various photographers for taking the special negatives necessary for the purpose. These were all sent to me, and from them the composites were made in the manner described in the March CENTURY. To these portraits and that of the Harvard Faculty, for which negatives were made at the same time as those of the Harvard Seniors and students of the "Annex," I am fortunately able to add one of the students of Wells College, which was made by Professor French of that college, and one of a class of nurses at the McLean Asylum Training School, which Dr. Cowles has been kind enough to place at my disposal.

The first question which these composite *See THE CENTURY for March, 1887.

VOL. XXXV.-19.

With the answer to this question one anticipates the answer to another which many have asked: Would the composites of the same class in different colleges for women (or for men) be identical?

Yet, though prepared for a negative, many will probably be surprised at the great diversity which is shown in the experimental answer given by these Senior portraits which lie before us.

Although we are not justified in taking any of these as exhibiting the general type of Senior in the particular college, they must be regarded as approximations to that type, and closer approximations as the number of the group is larger. Perhaps in the case of Harvard the number is large enough to give accurately the general type. They serve thus fairly well to show the diversities in type of the students at the colleges and universities

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63 PER

21

PER

SEVENTY-ONE MEMBERS OF THE CLASS TWENTY-EIGHT MEMBERS OF THE CLASS SEVENTY MEMBERS (SIXTY-FIVE MEN AND
OF '87 AT AMHERST COLLEGE.
OF '87 AT BOWDOIN COLLEGE. ALL, WITH
CENT. FROM NEW ENGLAND;
ONE OR TWO EXCEPTIONS, FROM MAINE.
CENT. FROM THE MIDDLE STATES. (FROM (FROM NEGATIVES BY REED, OF BRUNS-
NEGATIVES BY PACH.)
WICK, ME.)

FIVE WOMEN) OF THE CLASS OF '87 AT CORNELL UNIVERSITY. ABOUT 75 PER CENT. FROM NEW YORK AND PENNSYLVANIA. (FROM NEGATIVES BY EVANS, OF ITHACA.)

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ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY-EIGHT MEM-TWENTY-TWO DOCTORS OF PHILOSOPHY AT FORTY-THREE MEMBERS OF THE CLASS
BERS OF THE CLASS OF '87 AT HARVARD JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY. (FROM NEGA-
UNIVERSITY. ABOUT 60 PER CENT. FROM TIVES BY CUMMINS, OF BALTIMORE.)
NEW ENGLAND; 17 PER CENT. FROM
THE MIDDLE STATES. (FROM NEGATIVES
BY LOVELL, OF NORTHAMPTON, MASS.)

which are represented. These diversities are the resultants of many conditions. The difference in locality from which the students are drawn is perhaps the most tangible of these conditions, and is probably a considerable factor in the result. But many of the conditions are much too subtile to be dealt with by any ordinary statistical method, and can find fitting expression only in the composite photograph. This shows at a glance much that the statistician's tables could never give, and tells many things which could not find adequate expres

OF '87 AT THE SHEFFIELD SCIENTIFIC SCHOOL. ABOUT 40 PER CENT. FROM NEW ENGLAND (CHIEFLY CONN.); 32 PER CENT. FROM THE MIDDLE STATES. (FROM NEGATIVES BY PACH.)

sion in words. The influences of parentage, of home-training, of the "atmosphere" of the college in which three or four years have been spent-in a word, of heredity and environment - are here all summed up and averaged.

Along with the differences in these faces of college students, one cannot fail to note a certain "family resemblance." While this is doubtless increased by the general effect of a process which eliminates all strong individual characteristics and leaves a somewhat colorless expression, it is due chiefly to the inherent

similarity of the groups. Each class forms a group whose variation from the type shown in the co-composites is not very great, a fact rendered more distinct by comparison of the fair collegians with the attractive nurse of the training school.

In the article on composite photography in the March CENTURY the possible influence of the order of exposing the components in making composites was discussed, and it was stated that there was very conclusive experimental evidence to the effect that the order of exposure made no difference. In spite of this statement it has been said to me again and again by those who professed to have read the article with attention, that "of course" the negative last (or first) exposed must control the result. A well-known photographer, in commenting on the article in a photographic journal, writes: "In our opinion the master face of the group is always bound to assert itself, and by master (or mistress) we mean the first image impressed upon the film."

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FIFTY-SEVEN MEMBERS OF THE CLASS
OF '87 AT WILLIAMS COLLEGE. ABOUT
35 PER CENT. FROM NEW ENGLAND; 45
PER CENT. FROM THE MIDDLE STATES.
(FROM NEGATIVES BY LOVELL.)

In the co-composites it is probable that the number of faces is large enough to yield a general type. They were made in such a way,by exposures of the single composites for times which were proportional to the number of individuals in each group,- that the results are the same as those which would have been obtained by making them directly from the original negatives. Co-composites of succeeding classes in the same institutions would not, I fancy, vary much, if at all, from these. The types which they give are the general ones of students in all these representative colleges. Marked resemblances to one of the composites are to be noticed in each of these co-composites. A like similarity has been sometimes remarked in comparing the individuals of a group with their composite portrait, and only goes to prove that the individual or group in which the likeness to the blended portrait is detected, comes very near to the average of the entire number.

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CO-COMPOSITES OF AMHERST, BOWDOIN, TWO COMPOSITES, SHOWING THE RESULT OF EXPOSING THE THREE COMPONENT

CORNELL, HARVARD, JOHNS

SHEFFIELD SCIENTIFIC, AND

COMPOSITES. A GROUP OF 449.

HOPKINS, WILLIAMS

NEGATIVES IN DIFFERENT ORDERS. (SEE PAGE 125.)

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fluence of the order manifested, notwithstanding the statements of experimental results, that I am disposed to lay the results before the reader in the hope that in this form they may appeal even to those who do not appreciate the value of statements of scientific evidence, and may, perhaps, interest those who do not need such an illustrated argument. From several examples at hand one has been selected which shows two composites made from three negatives exposed in different orders, all other conditions remaining the same. These engravings, like all the others in this paper, were made by a photographic process and are hence exact reproductions of the original transparencies. In the two views in the lower right hand corner of page 123 the individual faces were selected for their distinct diversity. One was spectacled, one adorned by a mustache, the third smooth and quite unlike the others. In making one composite the spectacles came first, the mustache last; in the other, the mustache first, the spectacles last. Any influence of the "order" would certainly have made itself apparent under these circumstances.

Some successful composites have been made with an ordinary camera, and one by Mr.

*The McLean Asylum Training School was brought into successful operation through the energy of Dr. Edward Cowles, Superintendent of the McLean Asylum at Somerville, Mass. It was decided upon in 1879, and after due preparation formally organized in 1882. Its work has been developed slowly for the sake of soundness, and the first class of sixteen nurses (fifteen of whom form the composite) was graduated in 1886.

THIRTY-EIGHT OF THE HARVARD FACULTY.

(FROM NEGATIVES BY LOVELL.)

Rockwood of New York City † was made directly from the sitters instead of from negatives. These methods are of course possible; but the use of the special camera with a mirror for aid in focusing and adjustment will be found much more convenient and satisfactory, while there is a grave objection to the plan of working from the sitters. This lies in the fact that it is difficult to control the illumination by daylight in this case, and almost impossible to make proper allowance for the different photograhic effect of various tints of coloring. Indeed, Mr. Rockwood recognizes this by saying:

"I can readily see how one of the young ladies with round smooth face, blonde complexion and flaxen hair, could, if not guarded against, have neutralized the impression of all the rest, if they were of a darker style."

But he does not seem to realize that this difficulty is one which is inherent in the method he used and which cannot be guarded against without very unusual judgment and knowledge of the photographic action of different tints; while when negatives are employed, there is no variety of colors - one has to deal only with the comparatively simple problem of securing equal intensity of illumination by means of artificial light.

John T. Stoddard.

This school is the first organized in this country for the training of nurses for the insane. The second class has now been graduated and the school is well established with full classes. See Dr. Cowles's article on "Nursing-Reform for the Insane," in the October number of the "American Journal of Insanity."

+ See the "Art Amateur " for June, 1887.

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