Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-tf8b9 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-28T14:29:07.787Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

From Average to Ideal

The Evolution of the Height and Weight Table in the United States, 1836-1943

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 January 2016

Amanda M. Czerniawski
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This article examines the historical origins of the notion of “ideal” body weight by tracing the evolution of the gender-specific height and weight table in the United States from 1836 to 1943. Fewer than 200 years ago, weight was not regarded as an important health issue. At the turn of the twentieth century, low body weight, not overweight, was the leading concern of medical practitioners. With the rise of actuarial science, weight became a criterion insurance companies used to assess risk. Used originally as a tool to facilitate the standardization of the medical selection process throughout the life insurance industry, these tables later operationalized the notion of ideal weight and became recommended guidelines for body weights. The height and weight table was transformed from a “tool of the trade” into a means of practicing social regulation.

Type
Articles
Information
Social Science History , Volume 31 , Issue 2 , Summer 2007 , pp. 273 - 296
Copyright
Copyright © Social Science History Association 2007 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Abbott, Lawrence Fraser (1930) The Story of NYLIC: A History of the Origin and Development of the New York Life Insurance Company from 1845 to 1929. New York: NYLIC.Google Scholar
Armstrong, Donald B. (1949) “What is normal weight for health?” in Fishbein, M. (ed.) Your Weight and How to Control It. Garden City, NY: Doubleday: 1–17.Google Scholar
Clark, Charles P. (1930) “Chest and abdominal measurements as related to height and weight, with presentation of table of averages,” in Abstract of the Proceedings of the Fortieth Annual Meeting of the Association of Life Insurance Medical Directors of America. New York: Press of Recording L. B. and Statistical Corporation: 341–51.Google Scholar
Clough, Shephard B. (1946) A Century of American Life Insurance: A History of the Mutual Life Insurance Company of New York, 1843–1943. New York: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Dublin, Louis I. (1943) A Family of Thirty Million: The Story of the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company. New York: MLIC.Google Scholar
Dublin, Louis I. (1966) After Eighty Years: The Impact of Life Insurance on the Public Health. Gainesville: University of Florida Press.Google Scholar
Dublin, Louis I., and Lotka, Alfred J. (1936) Length of Life: A Study of the Life Table. New York: Ronald.Google Scholar
Dublin, Louis I., and Lotka, Alfred J. (1937) Twenty-five Years of Health Progress: A Study of the Mortality Experience among the Industrial Policyholders of the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company, 1911 to 1935. New York: MLIC.Google Scholar
Dublin, Louis I., and Marks, Herbert H. (1938) “The build of women and its relation to their mortality,” in Abstract of the Proceedings of the Forty-eighth Annual Meeting of the Association of Life Insurance Medical Directors of America. New York: Knickerbocker:47–87.Google Scholar
Dwight, Edwin W. (1910) “Report of Committee on Collective Investigation, October 20, 1909,” in Abstract of the Proceedings of the Twentieth Annual Meeting of the Association of Life Insurance Medical Directors of America. New York: Knickerbocker: 14–24.Google Scholar
Dwight, Edwin W. (1916) “Suggestions as to the methods to be followed in utilizing the material contained in the report of the Medico-Actuarial Committee,” in Abstract of the Proceedings of the Twenty-sixth Annual Meeting of the Association of Life Insurance Medical Directors of America. New York: Knickerbocker: 33–46.Google Scholar
Fish, Henry Clay (1867) The Agent’s Manual of Life Assurance. New York: Mutual Life Insurance Company of New York.Google Scholar
Fisher, Irving, and Fisk, Eugene Lyman (1932) How to Live: Rules for Healthful Living Based on Modern Science. New York: Funk and Wagnalls.Google Scholar
Fleck, Ludwik (1979) Genesis and Development of a Scientific Fact. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Foucault, Michel (1980) Power/Knowledge: Selected Interviews and Other Writings, 1972-1977. New York: Pantheon.Google Scholar
Foucault, Michel (1984) The Foucault Reader, ed. Rabinow, P.. New York: Pantheon.Google Scholar
Foucault, Michel (1988) The History of Sexuality. New York: Vintage.Google Scholar
Foucault, Michel (1995) Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison. New York: Vintage.Google Scholar
Gardner, John (1875) Longevity: The Means of Prolonging Life after Middle Age. Boston: Gill.Google Scholar
Haggard, Howard Wilcox (1934) The Doctor in History. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Hunter, Arthur (1911) “Remarks upon the Medico-Actuarial Investigation,” in Abstract of the Proceedings of the Twenty-first Annual Meeting of the Association of Life Insurance Medical Directors of America. New York: Knickerbocker: 67–76.Google Scholar
James, Marquis (1947) The Metropolitan Life: A Study in Business Growth. New York: Viking.Google Scholar
Kolata, Gina (2005) “Some extra heft may be helpful, new study says.” New York Times, April 20.Google Scholar
Levenstein, Harvey A. (1988) Revolution at the Table: The Transformation of the American Diet. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Lotka, Alfred J. (1949) “Are overweight people unhealthy?” in Fishbein, M. (ed.) Your Weight and How to Control It. Garden City, NY: Doubleday: 19–41.Google Scholar
Maclean, Joseph Brotherton (1951) Life Insurance. New York: McGraw-Hill.Google Scholar
Maine, Margo (2000) Body Wars: Making Peace with Women’s Bodies; An Activist’s Guide. Carlsbad, CA: Gürze.Google Scholar
McCollum, Elmer Verner, and Simmonds, Nina (1925) Food, Nutrition, and Health. Baltimore, MD: The authors.Google Scholar
Metropolitan Life Insurance Company (1937) “Girth and death.” Statistical Bulletin of the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company, May, 2–5.Google Scholar
Metropolitan Life Insurance Company(1939) “American women getting thinner.” Statistical Bulletin of the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company, November, 1-–4.Google Scholar
Metropolitan Life Insurance Company (1942) “Ideal weights for women.” Statistical Bulletin of the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company, October, 6–8.Google Scholar
Metropolitan Life Insurance Company (1943a) “Healthier women—A wartime asset.” Statistical Bulletin of the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company, July, 6–8.Google Scholar
Metropolitan Life Insurance Company (1943b) “Health progress over seventy-five years.” Statistical Bulletin of the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company, March, 1–4.Google Scholar
Metropolitan Life Insurance Company (1943c) “Ideal weights for men.” Statistical Bulletin of the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company, June, 6–8.Google Scholar
National Eating Disorders Association (2002) “Eating disorders information index,” www.edap.org/p.asp?webpage_id=294 (accessed April 4, 2003).Google Scholar
Quételet, Lambert Adolphe Jacques (1836) Sur l’homme et le développement de ses facultés. Vol. 2. Brussels: Hauman.Google Scholar
Rogers, Oscar H. (1907) “Medical selection: As influenced by the Specialized Mortality Investigation,” in Abstract of the Proceedings of the Seventeenth Annual Meeting of the Association of Life Insurance Medical Directors of America. New York: Knickerbocker: 6–26.Google Scholar
Rogers, Oscar H. (1908) “Medical selection and substandard business,” in Abstract of the Proceedings of the Eighteenth Annual Meeting of the Association of Life Insurance Medical Directors of America. New York: Knickerbocker: 3–17.Google Scholar
Rogers, Oscar H. (1909) “Medical selection,” in Abstract of the Proceedings of the Nineteenth Annual Meeting of the Association of Life Insurance Medical Directors of America. New York: Knickerbocker: 40–72.Google Scholar
Rogers, Oscar H. (1911) “Some observations on build,” in Abstract of the Proceedings of the Twenty-first Annual Meeting of the Association of Life Insurance Medical Directors of America. New York: Knickerbocker: 58–67.Google Scholar
Schwartz, Hillel (1986) Never Satisfied: A Cultural History of Diets, Fantasies, and Fat. New York: Free Press.Google Scholar
Shepherd, George R. (1907) “The relation of build to longevity,” in Abstract of the Proceedings of the Seventeenth Annual Meeting of the Association of Life Insurance Medical Directors of America. New York: Knickerbocker: 46–66.Google Scholar
Starr, Paul (1982) The Social Transformation of American Medicine. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Stearns, Peter N. (1997) Fat History: Bodies and Beauty in the Modern West. New York: New York University Press.Google Scholar
Stone, Mildred F. (1957) Since 1845: A History of the Mutual Benefit Life Insurance Company. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.Google Scholar
Symonds, Brandreth (1908a) “The influence of overweight and underweight on vitality.” Medical Record: A Weekly Journal of Medicine and Surgery 74: 389–93.Google Scholar
Symonds, Brandreth (1908b) “The influence of overweight and underweight on vitality.” Journal of the Medical Society of New Jersey 5: 159–67.Google Scholar
Symonds, Brandreth (1912) “President’s address: Some studies in family history,” in Abstract of the Proceedings of the Twenty-third Annual Meeting of the Association of Life Insurance Medical Directors of America. New York: Knickerbocker: 4–76.Google Scholar
U.S. Department of Health and Services Human (2001) The Surgeon General’s Call to Action to Prevent and Decrease Overweight and Obesity. Rockville, MD: Department of Health and Human Services, Public Health Service, Office of the Surgeon General.Google Scholar
Ward, William Rankin (1932) Down the Years: A History of the Mutual Benefit Life Insurance Company, 1845 to 1932. Camden, NJ: Haddon Craftsmen.Google Scholar
Weigley, Emma Seifrit (1984) “Average? Ideal? Desirable? A brief overview of height-weight tables in the United States.” Journal of the American Dietetic Association 84: 417–23.Google Scholar
Weisse, Faneuil S. (1909) “A table of standard weights for women,” in Abstract of the Proceedings of the Nineteenth Annual Meeting of the Association of Life Insurance Medical Directors of America. New York: Knickerbocker: 25–35.Google Scholar
Weisse, Faneuil S. (1912) “A study of chest and abdominal measurements in relation to build,” in Abstract of the Proceedings of the Twenty-third Annual Meeting of the Association of Life Insurance Medical Directors of America. New York: Knickerbocker: 129–37.Google Scholar
Wohl, Michael G. (1945) Dietotherapy: Clinical Application of Modern Nutrition. Philadelphia: Saunders.Google Scholar
Zelizer, Viviana A. Rotman (1979) Morals and Markets: The Development of Life Insurance in the United States. New York: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar