Back issues: Combination Consternation

Appalled over apps? Zonked by Zoom? Perplexed by passwords? 

Worry not. Frustration in response to accessing newfangled technologies is right in line with Swarthmore tradition. When the new post office on Rutgers Avenue opened its doors 90 years ago this month, in January 1931, customers reportedly struggled to unlock mailboxes whose 1.0 versions had needed “no more than a gentle pull to open, or at the most a single indefinite whirl of the combination.” Faced with locks that demanded both “an exact recollection of the combination” and “the skill of a safebreaker,” locals were thrown into what a Swarthmorean article of January 24, 1931, called “a state of confusion never before equalled.”

After poking fun at the locals who were “either absent minded or not mechanically inclined,” the newspaper had mostly good things to say about the modern facilities. The post office boasted “a more attractive and spacious lobby,” more room for the postal workers, new lighting, and new equipment. Best of all, it was heated. 

Retired history professor and former Swarthmorean Laurie Bernstein has been busying herself during the pandemic by developing a database from back issues of the Swarthmorean, starting with Volume I, Number 1 from 1929. From time to time, we will reprint an article she selects from our archives with her commentary.