Printed hands and salad days

A few weeks ago, I raided the University archives and sneered at the design of prospectuses from our former institutions from the 1940s through until the 1980s. Before handing these back, I decided, once again, to discard the hep, groovy ‘now’ and look back to that even tattier time before space travel and bagged salad.

These days, Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) subjects are back in vogue, as befitting the world's preoccupation with bytes, bits and a grim determination to find ever more inventive and/or effective ways of wiping ourselves out. Epidemics, medical cures, performance enhancers, global warming, jet packs, superheroes, self driving cars and the internet don’t invent themselves.

Universities are an essential component of this global technological push. At Bedfordshire, our recent contributions have been impressive, with undergraduate courses in Computing, Biological Science and Health and Social Sciences among those underpinning our world-leading research was is helping to change lives. This week, for example, we've been bowled over with the inspriational work carried out by our Computing department in building a hand for 8 year old William Joyner.

But back to the salad. In the 1940s, bagging the stuff was a distant dream, although food technology was eagerly pursued. Luton Technical College's offer was dominated with Chemistry, Commercial and Engineering courses, though there was a two year City and Guilds in Breadmaking and Flour Confectionery on a Wednesday or “Domestic Science and Women’s Classes", including Cookery, Dressmaking and Make-do & Mend. 1945's course offer looks as tired as the country must have been coming out of war, though the £3 fees don’t look too onerous for Bedfordshire residents (hilariously, this increases to £5 for Hertfordshire residents; £6 for those from elsewhere). 

Crazy, crazy Mrs Sew-and-Sew

In 1952, students were treated to the excellent news that the canteen served dinner between 12.50 and 1.30pm and that the College now held classes in Art and Building. Women’s courses still included Cooking and Dressmaking, although Make-do and Mend had been replaced by Millinery, Needlecraft and Tailoring.

In the 1960s, the wise decision was taken to instruct pupils not to carry bottles of ink around the campus unless they (the bottles) were transported in polythene bags. Women’s courses seemed to have disappeared, what with liberation and all, although the College's Department for Food and Clothing had courses for Brides, Hostesses and Housewives. Heston's food scientists may have sniffed at the cookery courses, but reipes included ”Rice, Risottos-Pilaffs Pasta Dishes’, ”Sauces in High-Class Cookery” and “The Use of Herbs”. Far out, man.

Two decades on, Luton’s College of Higher Education was moving forward apace. Prospective students in 1979 were promised a 36 user Computer Centre using Basic Plus, Def Leppard, Fortran, Cobol, Terry Jacks and Macro11. Business and Management courses had crept in, mainly because, by that time, the art of cookery had largely been replaced by PotNoodles; the manufacture of which needed a steadying management hand and some smart marketing rather than nutrionists.


Notes
Principles from Make-do & Mend are still applied in University Professional Services departments.
Bagged salad first appeared on UK supermarket shelves in 1986. 
Def Leppard was and might still be a band, not a computer language. Terry Jacks isn't a computer language either.