The Co-Ed is Here: Women as Students

In 1921, Virginia Tech began admitting women to the university for full-time studies. Some of the male students were none too pleased - as one poem in the 1922 Bugle states,

“The Co-Ed is here /
She belongs all alone in a class of her own /
At VPI she has caused a wretched condition /
We only have ten, but curses, what a collection I’m peeved and I’m mad, I favor Co-ed extradition, The sooner the better, /
Or we shall let her murder our very tradition.”

Women, however, have had access to education in numerous forms in the area and, of course, throughout the world by this point. The Montgomery Female College, a boarding prep school in Christiansburg, Va., was established in 1853, and the Christiansburg Institute, an African-American high school and technical training school, was established in 1866. Nearby Radford University was founded as a women's college, focused on training teachers, in 1910. In 1914, Virginia Tech became the headquarters of the Virginia Cooperative Extension, which sent agents all over the state to train men and women in farming and home economics. In 1916, women were allowed to take summer courses at Virginia Tech, so by 1921, it was long overdue for their entry into the university's full time student body.

This exhibit intends to illuminate some of the items we have in Special Collections, not just from Virginia, but all over the world, that highlight women's achievements as students.

So let's celebrate the fact: "The Co-Ed is Here!"

This certificate for Eugenia V. Sullivan is an example of the type of accomplishments rewarded by Oceana S. Pollock at her school, Montgomery Female College. Eugenia's older sister Annie V. Sullivan also received this certificate, and census records show she would have been about 15 in 1876, when she was listed as a student at the school.

The high school diary of Elsa Marie Rupp Hofheinz from 1928. Hofheinz (1908-1995) became the secretary for the Art League of Philadephia in 1944 and was the wife of Charles Wurtz. Elsa was enthusiastic about art from a young age as evidenced from this high school journal. She was a cartoonist for her school's newspaper and her diary contains many sketches and doodles. Her diary details her comments on fashion, her experiences learning to drive, her daily activities at school and around the house, as well as her artistic endeavors.

Ms2001-005_CurrieVirginia_WatercolorInteriorDesign_nd_a.jpg

Virginia M. Herz Currie created this watercolor for a hotel's interior design while a student of the interior architecture program at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis. She and her husband Leonard J. Currie moved to Blacksburg, Virginia, and Virginia became involved in the community programs. She was a leader of the Blacksburg Beautification program, resulting in landscaped medians throughout town. For her voluntary efforts to improve the natural and built environment, she was given an honorary membership in the American Institute of Architects.

1921 marked the first year women were allowed to attend classes full-time at Virginia Tech. In 1923, Mary Brumfield became the first woman to graduate and in 1925 she became the first to earn a master's degree. This photo shows her and other graduates from the first cohort in 1925. Administrators expected the first women to take classes in the newly formed home economics department or horticulture and related agricultural departments. However, these first five graduates earned degrees in applied biology, applied chemistry, and civil engineering.

From left to right: Mary Ella Carr Brumfield, Ruth Terrett, Lucy Lee Lancaster, Lousie Jacobs, Carrie Taylor Sibold

This artwork is an example of sketches and architectural drawings Lilia Skala (1896-1994) made while earning a degree in architecture from the University of Dresden in the late 1910s. She later became the first female member of the Austrian Association of Engineers and Architects. After becoming a successful actress in Europe, she fled the Nazis with her family, bringing her portfolio of student work from the university. She immigrated to the U.S. in 1939, finding fame in Hollywood and on Broadway. She was nominated for an Academy Award in 1963 for her role as Mother Maria in Lilies of the Field.

Carrie T. Sibold was one of the first five full-time female students to attend Virginia Tech in 1921 and to graduate from the university four years later. Administrators expected the first women to take classes in the newly formed home economics department or horticulture and related agricultural departments, but Sibold earned her degree in applied biology. She worked at the university's Alumni Association until retiring in 1966, but continued to help arrange reunion events.

The Tin Horn was the yearbook created by the female students of Virginia Tech in 1925; volumes were published in 1925, 1929, 1930, and 1931. Coeds were not allowed in the official yearbook, the Bugle, so they created the Tin Horn. Occassionally, women in student clubs were pictured in the group photo or listed as members of the Bugle, but individual photos of female students did not begin until 1940.

Special Collections has all four editions of the Tin Horn.

Carmen Venegas of Costa Rica was probably the first Latina/Hispanic women students to graduate from Virginia Tech, with a B.S. in Electrical Engineering in 1938. She was a founding member of the Short Wave Club, which invested in a school radio transmitter and taught classes on amateur radio operation, serving as Hostess in 1937.

Linda Paulette Adams (Hoyle) was one of the first six African-American women to enroll at Virginia Tech in 1966 and the first black woman to graduate in 1968. She transfered from the Dabney S. Lancaster Community College near her hometown of Covington, Virginia. Adams helped establish the House Councils in Eggleston Complex and was chair of the West Eggleston Disciplinary Committee at Main Eggleston. She received her B.S. in statistics in 1968, and upon graduating, she got a job with the Bureau of Census outside of Washington, D.C.

This booklet by Clara B. Cox discusses the history of women at Virginia Tech, and the accomplishments individuals made as educators, administrators, and primarily students.