We ran across an “Application and Experience Statement for State and County Service” from the NYS Civil Service Commission in 1907. It’s depressingly familiar, for the most part, though there are some questions that we’re not sure you’d find, at least not phrased this way, on an application form today:
- Have you any defect of sight in either eye?
- Have you any defect of voice or speech?
- Have you any defect of limb?
- Have you any defect of hearing?
- What is your height measured in your bare feet?
- What is your weight, in ordinary clothing, without overcoat or hat?
- Are you now or have you ever been addicted to the use of intoxicating beverages, tobacco, morphine or opium? If so, to which and to what extent?
You were also asked to have a doctor answer essentially the same questions, on the same form that you submitted.