It's spring, and these ladies are in a room full of electric machines; the open window no doubt helps [as well as that fan - Dave]. Reminded me right away of my senior year, Spring semester in high school; had typing class in the afternoon right after gym class. There was no AC, and a room full of IBM Selectrics.

... I'd have put on my makeup before I came to work.

I stopped entirely upon seeing this photo. The woman nearest the photographer is the very image of a woman who attends my church each Sunday, sitting just in front of me. She still looks the same if it's her and I always want to tell her she'd look a little better if she fixed her hair differently. But then, many could say that and more about me as well.

International (IBM) Electromatic. Note the rear-mounted motor in the Shorpyphoto and absence of a carriage-return lever.

that the forms are about 14" long, each, and simply still in a continuous form to prevent having to realign each form as they typed.

I learned to type in Grades 7 and 8 from Mrs. Stopchycki (I kid you not), and never did better than 40 wpm, but I did learn how to space and roll the platen to fill in forms. I can’t imagine what it would be like to do forms all day, though. And I’ll bet these busy ladies could never imagine the fillable forms of today’s computers. If a little elf from the future could perch on the shoulder of that lady with the powder puff and tell her all about Excel spreadsheets and dynamic pdf’s, she could snap the compact shut and get back to work and maybe tell someone later about the strange reverie she had that afternoon while at work, all about a wonderful alternative to the way she did things now.

I wonder what the forms were for. They're so long they needed special tables to hold them while they were being typed.