Picking out the oddest offerings from the wide world of academia has become something of a modern pastime. Lists of such courses abound online, including this one from U.S. News and World Report that includes such headscratchers as “Paintball Kinesiology” and “DJing and Turntablism.”
I mean, what happened to studying Plato, right?
In 1958 LIFE magazine was early to the party with its story about a class being offered at Smith College, the highly respected all-female school in Northampton, Massachusetts. The headline: “College Class in Luggage Lifting.”
That headline, like many of today’s online lists, was meant to provoke a reaction. Smith College wasn’t exactly offering a full-blown course in the proper way to lift a bag, but luggage handling was a real addition of the college’s physical education curriculum.
The LIFE story explained why Smith was suddenly concerned about its students handling luggage the right way:
For years Smith’s physical education department has been teaching posture to its freshman. But when redcap porter service was cut back at the nearby railway stations, the college found that the girls were displaying un-Smithlike sags and sways as they struggled with their suitcases. To preserve both appearances and backs, the college added baggage handling to the course.
Perhaps the most interest aspect of this story, viewed all these years later, is the idea of what “un-Smithlike” behavior constituted in the 1950s. The course also created an irresistible photo opportunity that LIFE sent staff photographer Yale Joel to capitalize on. He took photos in both the gym class itself, and of students applying their knowledge in an out-of-use car of the Boston and Maine Railroad.
The conclusion of the LIFE story is very much of its time, which was a decade before the women’s liberation movement began to hit its stride. One freshman dismissed the need for a baggage-handling course by saying, “A girl who tries can almost always find some man to help her with her luggage.”
Assistant professor Anne Delano led a class on physical education that included instruction on handling luggage, with the motto “Use Your Head and Save Your Back” written out on a chalkboard, 1958.
Yale Joel/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock
Improving back flexibility was part of the physical education program at Smith College designed to make students better able to handle their own luggage, 1958.
Yale Joel/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock
Smith College college practiced the proper method for lifting luggage with bags that contained 12-pound weights, 1958.
Yale Joel/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock
Smith College college practiced the proper method for lifting luggage with bags that contained 12-pound weights, 1958.
Yale Joel/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock
Smith College students posed for a photo for a story about them being taught the best way to handle a suitcase, 1958.
Yale Joel/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock
Undergraduates at Smith College practiced the proper method for handling luggage, a skill they were taught as part of the school’s physical education program, 1958.
Yale Joel/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock
Smith College girls received instruction in the proper way to handle suitcases after redcap service was removed from local train stations, 1958.
Yale Joel/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock
Smith College girls received instruction in the proper way to handle suitcases after redcap service was removed from local train stations, 1958.
Yale Joel/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock
