ABSTRACT
The face of the 1887 Harvard Annex graduate has a light complexion and dark hair, pulled back at the sides and falling in bangs upon her forehead. Composite college photographs provided visual references for the former, while criminology composites made by figures such as Galton defined the latter. The Harvard Annex’s Class of 1887 composite was one of many made in the 1880s at Massachusetts women’s liberal-arts colleges, including Wellesley, Smith, and Mount Holyoke. As such, the Class of 1887 composite portrait, as well as those made for other New England colleges and universities, illustrated and served as proof of the merits of positive eugenics. John Tappan Stoddard, who taught chemistry and physics at Smith College from 1878–1919, was an enthusiast of both composite techniques and eugenics. Composite photography and eugenics promoter Bowditch aided Massachusetts in its development of this state-wide data-collection system for monitoring and tracking the biometrics of its college women.
