Life, 1912-09-12 · page 18 of 52
Life — September 12, 1912 — page 18: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page documents a caption-writing contest from *Life* magazine (August 1912). The cartoon depicts a group of people gathered around a sign-board at what appears to be a naturist or "Back-to-Nature Society" gathering—hence the winning caption's satirical humor about leaving one's clothes at the fence. The sketch shows formally-dressed onlookers examining a blank sign, creating absurdist contrast. The joke relies on the incongruity between Victorian propriety (their formal attire) and the nudist setting they're observing. M. H. Palmer of Washington, D.C. submitted the winning title. The contest received nearly 10,000 entries; judges narrowed these to 55 possibilities, then independently selected finalists, ultimately agreeing on Palmer's caption. This reflects *Life*'s popular reader-engagement strategy of the era, turning satirical artwork into participatory entertainment. The satire targets both turn-of-the-century "nature" movements and polite society's discomfort with bodily freedom.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
~LIFE- The Winner in Life’s Contest on the Sign-Board? THE WINNING TITLE ce to Grounds o Leave Your Clothes at the HE winning title to the contest picture reproduced on this page was sent in by M. H. PALMER, 3846 Woovtey Roa, Wasuinotoy, D. C. The picture was first published in Lire's Newport Number, August 1, and again in the three issues following, August 8, 15 and 22. The contest closed at noon on Thursday, August 29. There were in all 9,977 answers re- ceived From all of the answers, fifty-five were sclected among the probabilities. Each of the judges took a separate list of these fifty-five titles and independ- ently selected five which in his judg- ment were the best. This resulted in thirteen titles. Then each judge made from this list a final selection of three titles, placing them in the order of merit. It was then discovered that a majority of the judges had _ selected the title as given. The titles finally considered by the judges were (omitting the winning title) the twelve that follow: comicboohedh