It is well known, and not just legend, that human beings
are much taller now than in the past, but there have been
fluctuations over the centuries.
I Googled for about ten seconds and found

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_height

where you see that men in the armed forces in the 19th century
were generally 5' 7" or shorter, and a cartoon site

http://lsned.com/facts/human-height/

of dubious reliability, which says that we were taller in 1000 AD
than in 1500 AD, without giving any sources.
(One footnote led to a 404 error.)
More detailed info, from measuring skeletons:

http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/archive/index.php/t-528484.html

So there is food for both sides, but as far as North American history
is concerned, we are definitely taller than our forebears.

On 7/21/2012 1:03 PM, Cuyler Page wrote (and Ralph intercalated):
>
>         People were shorter then *Don't be so sure. Our furniture teacher at
>         Columbia told us that the Pharaohs' beds were short, not because "people
>         were shorter then" as we supposed, but because people slept sitting
>         up.*, and according to records and historic photos, at 5'-8" I would
>         have been a tall one here in 1900. *We have a group photo of the 30
>         ranchers and farmers who were the primary settlers here in the late
>         1800s.  One prominant rancher, with 15,000 acres and known to be a "big
>         man in town" was 4'-11".  The tallest man in the region, Moses Lumby, is
>         also in the photo and he was 5'-8".


-- 

Martin C. Tangora
tangora (at) uic.edu

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