As a teaching aid, the Naked Series expressed a crucial element of Eakins's curriculum at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. Rather than presenting the live models as ideal figures, Eakins sought a variety of different body types. Each sequence in the series, made up of seven sequential photographs of nude models in standardized postures, was meant to be compared directly with the others.

When the supply of life class models ran short, Eakins and several of his students posed for additional sequences to complete the project. He asserted that students who drew (or photographed) from nude models should be willing to pose themselves, and affirmed his commitment by appearing in at least four sequences of the Naked Series.