Rensselaer Republican, Volume 20, Number 45, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 July 1888 — Women are Growing Larger. [ARTICLE]

Women are Growing Larger.

A New York dressmaker gave some interesting data the other day in support of the theorv that American women are growing larger and better formed. The proof came from the order book kept by her mother and herself, and covering a period of some forty years, in which the height and form of women were duly tabulated as to the fraction of an inch. According to these veracious statistics, the most a girl’s waist used to ) measure in 1859 was twenty inches, the average being eighteen, and bust and shoulder measures were to match. Now girl’s of the same age and height as then will average twentv-three Inches at least around the waist, while taller girls, say five feet seven inches, will measure up to twenty-five and twenty-six inch waists, -andihere are plentynorallasliamedof waists much larger, while height and other measurements are in proportion