Paper short abstract:

The Smith College Class of 1886's composite photograph promoted class unity, and conveyed eugenics-based, social-caste expectations. Digital rebuilding of the image reveals departures from the archive that express these women's perceived departure from social-caste/gender expectations.

Paper long abstract:

"Composita," as she was nicknamed by the Smith College Class of 1886, was a composite portrait made by Charles O. Lovell by sequentially exposing 49 portraits of the graduating seniors to create a single image of the "average" appearance of the women. The portrait became a mascot for the group, which was among the first generation of women in the U.S.A. to gain access to a college education. Reproductions were sold as keepsakes and as literal and metaphorical symbols of unity.

As upper class New England women, they were expected to lead "proper" heteronormative lives, which involved marrying within their caste, supporting husbands, and maintaining the family's social profile. The women of Smith were reminded of their critical roles as mothers whose destiny included raising "well-bred" offspring to preserve their social caste in faithful adherence to the mission of the Positive Eugenics movement. Thus, Smith, along with other elite institutions such as Harvard University, fittingly adopted the composite photography - a technique invented by Francis Galton, founding father of eugenics - to underscore the importance of upholding the established social order.

This presentation examines the rhetorical functions of "Composita" as a means of expressing eugenics-based, social-caste expectations. However, "Composita" reveals points of non-conformity between its rhetoric and the techniques of its creation - which did not enjoy fidelity to the archive, as 21st-century Photoshop-enabled rebuilding of the image suggests. Rhetorically, "Composita" is a fitting mascot for the Smith College Class of 1886, which was conflicted about social-caste/gender/sexual-orientation expectations.