The Average Young American Male | |
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Artist | Jane Davenport Harris |
Completion date | 1921 |
Medium | Plaster |
Location | American Museum of Natural History (originally) Harvard Medical School Countway Library (currently) |
The Average Young American Male, also known as the Average American Man and the American Adonis, was a 22-inch plaster statue sculpted in 1921 by Jane Davenport Harris as a composite model for the eugenics movement in the United States.[1] The statue was exhibited at the Second and Third International Congresses of Eugenics in 1921 and 1932, respectively, as a visual representation of that which eugenicists considered to be the degeneration of the white race.[2][3] While the statue received mixed responses from contemporary critics, it inspired the creation of additional composite statues as propaganda for the eugenics movement throughout the mid-twentieth century.[1]