Paperboy who used his head

This looks like a posed photo and I wonder what his upturned collar is hiding. If it's cold enough to turn up his collar, he'd also most likely be wearing gloves. Plus there's no way that pile would stay in place in typical Wisconsin weather. By the way, I had a Milwaukee Journal daily paper route years earlier (in 1961, at age 13), and even the smallest Journals then were a lot thicker than the ones he's shown balancing.

Agreed. Why would he have folded ones on top of the stack? Looks like he doesn't have on a long-sleeve shirt, either.

But this one looks legit: https://jeugdjournaal.nl/artikel/2406684-vrouw-bezorgt-kranten-op-haar-hoofd.html

An woman from Ghana who delivers papers in the Netherlands, and she does carry them on her head.

Rene -- that's a great find!

Based on studies of women of the Luo and Kikuyu tribes of East Africa, researchers have found that people can carry loads of up to 20 percent of their own body weight without expending any extra energy beyond what they’d use by walking around unencumbered. Above that figure, however, metabolic costs seem to increase proportionally with load weight. But don’t start stacking groceries on your head just yet. The subjects in these studies began head-loading as children and had developed a peculiar gait that’s one-third more efficient than the one we’re likely to use.
For untrained controls who have not had years to strengthen the right muscles and build up spinal bone density, carrying things on your head actually requires more energy than using a backpack.