It's mid-July 1926, peak summer, and of course everyone wants to jump into the water to cool off. But maybe you don’t know how to swim. Well, you’re in luck, because the paper is here to teach you. Over the course of about two weeks, just in time for that urge to subside. Miss a day? Maybe you won’t learn how to breathe.

So here it is. A 100 year old swimming lesson from champion swimmer, Lillian Cannon, who we’ve covered before.

"You stood on the beach and you wished like the dickens that you could get into the water," it reads. The solution, according to The Times, was simple. Subscribe to the paper. The swimming lessons start Monday.

I genuinely laughed out loud.

The Lessons

Starting July 19th, 1926, Scripps-Howard newspapers across the country began running a ten-part daily swimming series written by Lillian Cannon, described as a "world famous American swimmer." One lesson per morning. In order. No skipping ahead.

Lesson one: get used to having your head underwater so you don't mind.

Lesson three: make sure you are really swimming before trying any stunts that might endanger your life.

Lesson nine: don't try the harder strokes all at once. Take it easy.

The paper encouraged readers to subscribe so they wouldn't miss the next day's installment. You could learn the scissors kick on Tuesday and still be waiting on Thursday to find out what came next. A ten-day curriculum, delivered to your front porch, dripping with the same ink as the box scores and the stock prices.

The photographs accompanying each lesson showed Cannon herself demonstrating every position, shot in what appears to be a shallow tank or pool. She's photographed mid-stroke, mid-kick, mid-breath, with captions like "Showing Co-ordination of Legs and Arms" and "Beginning of the Dog Paddle." It's earnest and practical and completely sincere.

The Twist

Here's what makes this more than a charming curiosity. While Lillian Cannon was writing these lessons and demonstrating proper breathing technique for America's front porches, she was also in the middle of one of the most dramatic summers in women's athletic history.

She was training to swim the English Channel.

Earlier that summer she had parted ways with her coach. That coach went on to train Gertrude Ederle, who on August 6th, 1926 became the first woman to swim the English Channel, breaking the men's record by nearly two hours in the process.

Eleven days later, Lillian Cannon got in the water and tried.

She didn't make it.

Her swimming lessons were still arriving on front porches while she was in that water. Somewhere in America, a reader was working on lesson eight, exhaling underwater, counting strokes, following the instructions of a woman who was at that very moment attempting something most people would never try.

She never got credit for the Channel. But ten lessons in, she had taught a lot of people how to swim.

The format seems absurd now. One lesson per day, by newspaper, over ten days, with no way to rewind or replay. But the lessons themselves are genuinely good. Clear, patient, methodical. Don't rush. Don't try stunts. Get comfortable before moving forward. Whoever followed them probably learned something. The newspaper was a strange place to find a swimming instructor. It worked anyway.

Here are the full lessons