Life — March 24, 1927 — page 7: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This satirical cartoon depicts the ice delivery business as a major field of study at the University of Illinois. The scene shows students actively delivering ice blocks throughout a neighborhood, with supervisory figures discussing their performance. The satire targets the gap between academic pretense and practical labor. "Exchange Professor of Iconography" and "Graduate of Knickerbocker Ice Co." are mock-academic titles given to ice company workers, inflating menial labor with grandiose credentials. The "Theory of Weighing and Distribution" sign mockingly treats ice delivery as intellectual discipline. The cartoon suggests that some students were actually majoring in practical ice-delivery work rather than traditional academics—either for necessity or because the work paid better than typical student jobs, making higher education seem disconnected from real employment realities.