171 pounds, a pear-shaped body and a taste for beefsteak: Meet Elsie Scheel, the Cornell student declared 1912's perfect woman

By Tamara Abraham
PUBLISHED: 23:06, 21 December 2012 | UPDATED: 23:06, 21 December 2012


Today's perfect woman might closely resemble a Victoria's Secret model. But 100 years ago, the female physical ideal was very different.
A series of articles in 1912 and early 1913 saw Brooklyn-born Cornell student Elsie Scheel, 24, hailed 'the most nearly perfect physical specimen of womanhood'.
The 24-year-old, who was selected by university medical examiner Dr Esther Parker from a group of over 400 women, was described by the New York Times as 'a light-haired, blue-eyed girl whose very presence bespeaks perfect health.'

The perfect woman: Brooklyn-born Cornell student Miss Elsie Scheel, 24, was hailed 'the most nearly perfect physical specimen of womanhood' by newspapers in 1912

At 5ft 7in tall and 171 pounds, with a pear-shaped chest-waist-hips ratio of 35-30-40 inches, she shares the proportions of the Venus de Milo.
Wilmington's Sunday Morning Star noted: 'Although taller than the model of antiquity and correspondingly heavier, her proportions are remarkably similar.'

Putting those measurements into modern context though, blogger Kate Harding established that Scheel's BMI would have been 26.8, making her overweight by today's standards.
'At Banana Republic, to pick a random contemporary store, she would wear a size 8 top, a 12/14 bottom, and probably a 12 dress with the bust taken in,' she wrote.

Best in class: Wilmington's Sunday Morning Star reported that the 24-year-old, who was selected by university medical examiner Dr Esther Parker from a group of over 400 women

Physical ideal: Scheel was 5ft 7in tall and 171 pounds, with a pear-shaped chest-waist-hips ratio of 35-30-40 inches (left) giving her similar proportions to the Venus de Milo (right)

Back in 1912, however, this made a woman close to perfect.
Scheel told the paper that her good health was thanks to 'common sense' and 'sane living. I have eaten only what I wanted and when I wanted it.'

'I have eaten only what I wanted and when I wanted it'

It seems this translated into a very healthy diet and lifestyle. Though she rarely ate breakfast, she says her favorite food is beefsteak.
She had 'no liking for candy and did not have a taste for 'delicacies', and - quite remarkably - had 'never taken a drink of tea or coffee in her life.'
The result? 'She has never been ill and doesn't know what fear is' - indeed, she believes women would be happier if they 'got over the fear of things'.

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Healthy living: Scheel told reporters that her good health was thanks to 'common sense' and 'sane living'. She said her favorite food was beefsteak and she had 'no liking for candy'

Among other nuggets of wisdom for her peers, Scheel said that the average girl does 'too much of the wrong sort of things, too many dances and not enough bracing tramps.'
They also work too hard and too late at night on their studies, she believes.
A student of horticulture with an ambition to grow vegetables on her father's farm, she tells the paper that she is an ardent suffragette and that 'if she were a man, she would study mechanical engineering as she likes to work about an automobile.'
For Scheel herself though, she looked to her mother as a female ideal.
'My mother, Dr Sophie B Scheel, studied medicine after we were all grown, she took her degree the same year my brother took his,' she revealed.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2251920/171-pounds-pear-shaped-body-taste-beefsteak-Meet-Elsie-Scheel-Cornell-student-declared-1912s-perfect-woman.html#ixzz2FopMdj48
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