Peter V. Karpovich working in his workshop (1956)

This photograph shows Peter V. Karpovich working on equipment in the physiology laboratory at Springfield College. He is standing, holding a screwdriver with lab materials spread out around his lab space. The piece of equipment he is working on is called a natograph. This was one of Dr. Karpovich's first inventions to produce measurements for his experiments. Making most of his own equipment as well as designing, he designed the natograph using a flour canister bought from a local five and dime. The natagraph was developed to measure, graphically a swimmer's progress. The picture is dated December 11, 1956.Peter V. Karpovich (1896-1975) was born in Russia and trained as a medical doctor at the State Military Academy of Medicine in Petrograd (St. Petersburg), Russia in 1919. Under increasing political and professional turmoil, he fled to Latvia in 1922. In Latvia, Karpovich worked at the Riga YMCA. In 1925, he traveled to the United States to research at Springfield College. While there, he enrolled as a special advanced student and earned a master’s degree in physical education. In 1927, while completing his studies, he became a professor of physiology at the college. In the late 1940s, he met and married his second wife, Josephine Rathbone, an acclaimed scholar of physical education and relaxation. From 1961 to 1969, he served as the director of the physiology research laboratory at Springfield College, where he published several seminal books. Karpovich was a founding member of the American College of Sports Medicine and a consultant to many government, private and educational organizations. He remains an internationally recognized pioneer in physical education