Institutional Change, Stature, and Northeast Industrialization: Evidence from the 19th Century Philadelphia County Prison

This article considers the relationship between stature, race, institutional change, and proximity to urban centers during economic development. A new data set of male inmates from the 19th century Philadelphia County prison is introduced to compare black and white statures during industrialization in a northern state. White inmates were consistently taller than their black counterparts, and Americans were taller than British and Europeans. It is documented that blacks and whites in Southeastern Pennsylvania who lived in urbanized Philadelphia were consistently shorter than other rural Pennsylvanians, indicating that the relative effects of urbanization dominated proximity to dairy production during industrialization.