An Anthropometric History of the Postbellum US, 1847-1894

This paper explores whether the antebellum decline in heights continued in the post-Civil War period by using a data set of more than 58,000 US Army recruits born between 1847 and 1894.The main finding is that heights continued to decline during the Civil War by about 0.4 in.(1.0 cm) and stagnated for an extended period of time before they began to increase among the birth cohorts of the late 1880s.Height was positively correlated with proximity to proteinrich nutrients during childhood and with geographic mobility and was negatively correlated with urbanization, and infant mortality rates.