From Campus to the Mountains to the Globe: Advocacy, Education, and Community Building
Education, Advocacy, and VPI
White women students were first admitted as degree seeking students to Virgina Polytechnic Institute in the fall of 1921. Enrollment that year included 5 full-time students and 7 part-time students (several of the latter were VPI employees). This year, we celebrate the 100th anniversary of the first women graduates who completed entire degrees at VPI. (Mary Brumfeld transferred to VPI in 1921 and finished her undergraduate degree in 1923, then completed a Masters in 1925.) Contrary to the belief that new women students would study home economics, these first five graduates earned degrees in applied biology, applied chemistry, and civil engineering. Excluded from the Bugle at the time, early women students created the Tin Horn. Only five issues were made in 1925, one for each graduate, featuring handwritten notes, drawings, and original photographs. Later editions were published in 1929, 1930, and 1931.
Lucy Lee Lancaster, later employed as a librarian at VPI for decades, worked hard to document the history of women on campus, not only as students. Her papers include handwritten notes, documents, and compiled history of women on campus, as well as this 1969 article published in the News Messenger.
Black women students first enrolled as full-time students in 1966, and Special Collections and University Archives includes oral histories and transcripts with several early Black women students. Linda Adams Hoyle was the first Black woman to graduate in 1968.
In addition, women have always worked to create places and spaces on campus. Early women students lived off campus, but often gathered in the waiting area for the infirmary. The first dorm for women, Hillcrest Hall, opened in 1940. The Women's Center was founded in 1994. Click on the following highlighted text to hear an audio clip from an interview with Patricia Hyer discussing creation of the Women's Center: Patricia Hyer Oral History.
Education, Advocacy, and Appalachia
Special Collections and University Archives collects around local, regional, and Southern Appalachian history. Included in our holdings are some different insights into roles women have played in providing and receiving education, in structured/classroom settings, community settings, and more.
The Montgomery Female College opened in Christiansburg in 1852 (originally as the Montgomery Collegiate Institute). In addition to the photograph from the Historical Photograph Collection, items from the Montgomery Female College are online. These include programs for events, announcements about the upcoming school year, and a certificate from an attendee, Eugenia Sullivan.
Women's organizations often play a strong role in advocating for local needs, and Special Collections and University Archives is home to many women's organization collections: The Blacksburg Women's Club, three local chapters of the National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution, the League of Women Voters in Montgomery County, and individual members of several organizations. The Blacksburg Women's Club Records include a letter from the organization's then-president of the organization, Mrs. F. N. Atkins, requesting support for a grant to supply funds for local families.
In other cases, advocacy can come from leadership or by being one of a few to choose a certain path. Rick Boucher, long-time U.S. representative for Virginia's 9th congressional district, spoke about his mother's experiences as the first woman to begin practicing law "west of Roanoke." Click on the following highlighted text to hear an audio clip from the interview: Rick Boucher Oral History.
The Earl Palmer Appalachian Photograph and Artifact Collection includes more than 500 photographs arranged by topic. Some of these relate to women educating other women, settlement schools, and even a traveling bookmobile! A few highlights are in the carousel below.
Education, Advocacy, and Community Building
Community building through food is a common theme in materials we have relating to food and drink history. Food knowledge (cooking, techniques, safety, nutrition, etc.) was often passed down through generations in both informal contexts (learning from family members) and formal contexts (learning in school or later, through cooking schools). Depending on where women were learning, that what of learning might vary. But, usually, the goal was creating new skills. Later cooking schools, which began to pop up in cities in the late 19th and 20th centuries, fulfilled a role of culinary education for women who may or may not have had models at home. Cooking schools also developed tools for consistency. Fannie Merritt Farmer was a student, then later instructor and principal at the Boston Cooking School. Editions of The Boston Cooking School Cookbook were produced year after year as a textbook for students and for the general public, and focused on the science and nutrition of cooking, including this 1914 edition in our collection. Farmer also played a significant role in the creation of standardized measurements in the 1890s, which dramatically changed how following recipe directions resulted in a more consistent dish!
Individual women are often the force behind advocating for a space (physical or metaphorical) for women to come together over a topic or interest. Click on the following highlighted text to hear an audio clip from an interview with Susan Anderson discussing building spaces and advocacy for younger girls wanting to learn about STEM: Susan Anderson Oral History.
Community building may be motivated by all kinds of factors, including professions. Special Collections and University Archives is home to the International Archive of Women in Architecture (IAWA), which houses papers from more than 400 women architects, designers, and artists who have lived and worked around the globe. An article from the Jean Linden Young Papers talks about her efforts to found "S.H.E., Sisters for a Human Environment." Other IAWA collections may document the construction of community spaces, like the photograph of the "Music School for Folk Instruments and Folk Singing" designed by Lilia Gramatikova. The school was located Shiroka Lukka, Bulgaria (1974) and online materials include additional photographs and building plans.