These striking images from 1948 show daily life at Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts, capturing the experiences of female students at one of the nation’s most prestigious women’s liberal arts colleges.
Taken by LIFE magazine photographer Peter Stackpole, the photos document an era when higher education for women was still evolving within a rapidly changing society.
One of the students interviewed, Janet Trowbridge, was referenced in the article, stating, ‘…Janet believes that a woman’s college is the only place for a real education and that co-ed institutions like Missouri are just date factories.’
Smith College, the largest member of the Seven Sisters, has long been a leader in women’s education. While its undergraduate programs are exclusively for women, its graduate and certificate programs are open to all.
As part of the Five Colleges Consortium, Smith students can also take courses at Mount Holyoke College, Amherst College, Hampshire College, and the University of Massachusetts Amherst.
The college was featured in a 1949 LIFE article that compared private women’s colleges to coeducational public universities.
The late 1940s brought significant social and economic changes. Before World War II, many teenagers entered the workforce in their early teens, but postwar prosperity allowed more young people to remain in school longer, reinforcing the idea of adolescence as a distinct stage of life.
This shift extended into fashion, with college students and teenagers adopting a more casual style. Skirts and sweaters became the standard outfit for young women, often paired with saddle shoes or loafers.
The American fashion industry responded by marketing directly to this growing demographic, paving the way for the rise of teen culture in the 1950s.
These photos not only preserve a moment in Smith College’s history but also reflect broader cultural changes that shaped the lives of young women in postwar America.
Peter Stackpole (1913-1997) was a pioneering photojournalist and one of LIFE magazine’s first staff photographers.
Influenced by Dorothea Lange, Edward Weston, and Diego Rivera, he developed a passion for handheld photography early on, capturing the construction of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge with his Leica Model A.
Recognized for his work, he became an honorary member of Group f/64, though his dynamic, candid style set him apart from its fine art approach.
In 1935, his bridge photos were exhibited at the San Francisco Museum of Art, leading to freelance projects. When LIFE launched in 1936, Henry Luce hired Stackpole as one of its original four photographers.
He worked there until 1961, covering both Hollywood glamour and working-class life while striving to depict his subjects with authenticity.
(Photo credit: Peter Stackpole / LIFE Magazine).