The Jesse Mercer Gehman Photo Collection

A Finding Aid to the Collection at the H.J. Lutcher Stark Center for Physical Culture & Sports

Biographical Note

Jesse Mercer Gehman was born circa 1901 and died in 1976. Gehman was active in the emerging field of alternative medicine, health reform, and naturopathy. In 1925 he graduated from the American College of Naturopathy and Chiropractic with degrees in nutrition (DCN), naturopathy (ND) and chiropractic (CD). He completed a doctorate in natural philosophy in 1931. His professional career began with research on the effects of smoking on health, which included the publication of Smoke Over America (1943), Living Today for Tomorrow (1947), and Is Smoking Harmful? (1950). Gehman’s interest in natural health led him to pursue diet- and fitness-related reforms, and he began writing about the benefits of a vegetarian diet in the late 1950s, and was published in: American Better Health Publications and their journal, American Vegetarian-Hygienist (both of which he served as editor); Health and Strength magazine; and The Natural Living Foundation Internationale, of which Gehman was a founder with Vincent Collura. Gehman also served as president of various associations, including the American Naturopathic Association (1947) and the American Vegetarian Union (1949). He served as secretary and president of the Citizens Medical Reference Bureau from the 1930s-1950s, was a chairman of the first American Vegetarian Convention in 1949, and was the vice president for The International Vegetarian Union from 1960 to 1976.

Throughout his life, Gehman also fostered an interest in wrestling. He and his brother, Marvin Mercer, were amateur wrestlers (Gehman wrestled under the name Jim Mercer), and Gehman competed professionally from 1925 to 1926. It was through this interest that Gehman would meet, personally train, and work for Bernarr Macfadden, the owner of Physical Culture, whose materials also appear in the collection. Macfadden, born in 1868 as Bernard McFadden, was actively involved in physical culture, bodybuilding, nutrition, and natural health. He founded the company, Macfadden Publications, which published magazines, such as: True Detective, True Story, Ghost Stories, the New York Graphic, Muscle Builder and SPORT. He was most known for the magazine, Physical Culture, which he founded in 1899 and served as editor until 1912. Macfadden also wrote on health, fitness, and bodybuilding topics, and published over 100 books during his lifetime. In his later years, Macfadden established various health institutions, educational and training programs, and boarding schools throughout America’s northeast and midwest. In 1903, he married his first wife and had his first daughter, Bryne, a year later. In 1913, he married his second wife, Mary Williamson, with whom he had three girls, three boys, and adopted a daughter, Helen. Macfadden and Mary separated in 1932 and were divorced in 1946. Macfadden died in 1955 in New Jersey.

Gehman would also develop professional relationships with other leaders and practitioners in the natural health and alternative medicine. One of these professional relationships was with the Baums, H. William and Doris (who was known by her maiden name, Doscher), who also appear in the collection. Doscher was a writer and model for natural health and physical culture in the 20th century. Doscher, born in 1882 in New York, is credited with being one of the first health and beauty columnists in the newspaper industry. Her daily column, “Beauty, Health, Physical Culture and Psychology” was published in The New York World in the 1920s. Doscher was also a silent film actress, under the name Doris Doree, as well as a model. She was chosen to pose for the American Standing Liberty Quarter, in mint from 1916 to1930, and was nicknamed “Miss Liberty.” She was also on the cover of Macfadden’s Physical Culture in 1920. Later in her career, Doscher served as president of the Women’s Auxiliary of the American Naturopathic Association and wrote about health for the American Vegetarian Hygienist and American Better Health Publications. Doscher was married to Baum, who was a physiotherapist, chiropractor, and a professional acquaintance of Gehman’s. Doscher and Baum had one daughter, Miriam Baum Kiriluk. Doscher died in New York in 1970.

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Scope and Content

Jesse Mercer Gehman Photo Collection: 12 Archival Photograph Boxes, 97 Folders, 1918-1975, 1393 items

This collection is comprised of photographs, scrapbooks, correspondence, and ephemera dating from roughly 1919 to the mid-1970s, with the bulk of the materials dating from the 1920s to the 1940s. Most of the items are photographs, but the collection also includes a small number of newspaper clippings, typewritten articles, broadsides, postcards, colored slides, negatives, and correspondence. The collection is divided into three distinct parts: materials related to Jesse Mercer Gehman, those relating to Doris Doscher Baum and family, and those of Bernarr Macfadden and family. The Gehman materials comprise approximately two thirds of the collection, and the primary subject documented is wrestling, appearing as photographic series for the magazines Muscle Builder and Physical Culture. There are also a number of signed photographs given to Gehman by amateur and professional wrestlers such as Frank Brono and Harold Ross. Another significant portion of the collection consists of Doris Doscher Baum’s articles and photographs on stretching exercises. There are also photographs that document her modeling and acting career, including materials from when she modeled for the American Standing Liberty Quarter. Bernarr Macfadden’s materials include publicity photographs of Macfadden in his later years. The collection also includes family photographs and scrapbook materials from Jesse Mercer Gehman, the Baum family and the Macfadden family, which depict Gehman’s wife, Agnes, and their son, Jason; Doris’s husband, H. William Baum, and their daughter, Miriam Baum; and Bernarr Macfadden, his second wife Mary, and his children.

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Restrictions

Access

Access to the Jesse Mercer Gehman Photo Collection is restricted to visitors of the H.J. Lutcher Stark Center for Physical Culture & Sports. The Stark Center welcomes access inquires and encourages research appointments. For more information, phone (512) 471-4890, email info@starkcenter.org, or visit www.starkcenter.org.

Restrictions on Use

The Stark Center retains the right to limit the use of the Jesse Mercer Gehman Photo Collection under certain conditions. No copies of any materials in the collection may be made without permission.

Copyright

The user is cautioned that the publication of any of the contents of this collection may be construed as constituting a violation of literary property rights. These rights derive from the principle of common law, affirmed in the 1976 copyright act, that the writer of an unpublished letter or other manuscript has the sole right to publish the contents thereof for the duration of the copyright. Unless he or she affirmatively parts with that right, the right descends to his or her legal heirs regardless of the ownership of the physical manuscript itself. It is the responsibility of an author or his publisher to secure permission of the owner of literary property rights in unpublished writing. This material may be protected by copyright law (Title 17, U.S. Code).

Right to Privacy: Sensitive Materials Statement

Manuscript collections and archival records may contain materials with sensitive or confidential information that is protected under federal or state right to privacy laws and regulations. Researchers are advised that the disclosure of certain information pertaining to identifiable living individuals represented in this collection without the consent of those individuals may have legal ramifications (e.g., a cause of action under common law for invasion of privacy may arise if facts concerning an individual's private life are published that would be deemed highly offensive to a reasonable person) for which the H.J. Lutcher Stark Center and the University of Texas at Austin assumes no responsibility.

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Administrative Information

Preferred Citation

The Jesse Mercer Gehman Photo Collection, H.J. Lutcher Stark Center for Physical Culture & Sports, The University of Texas at Austin. [There is no space between H. and J.]

Processing Information

Claire Cella and Kathleen O’Connell processed the collection in 2013 under the supervision of Brent Sipes. To contact The Stark Center about the content of the collection, please phone (512) 471-4890, email info@starkcenter.org, or visit .

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Container List

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