by Cheryl Klimaszewski

A little over sixty years ago, The Triangle presented this article by Edward Miller unveiling, “The New Drexel.” This was the beginning of Drexel’s first master plan, often referred to in the records as the Expansion Plan, and was estimated at a cost of $5,000,000 (roughly $46,000,000 in today’s dollars). Conceived and expanded under the leadership of Drexel Institute president Dr. James Creese, this was the beginning of an incredible period of growth for the Institute, not only physically but also in the cultivation of donors that would make such tremendous expansion possible.

In 1947, the campus was desperately in need of additional classroom instruction space, as required by the increasing enrollments in the post-WWII years. The plan also promised a new gymnasium, a new library and additions to Curtis Hall and to the cafeteria in the Student Building.

The basic sciences building was eventually dedicated as Stratton Hall (now at 32nd and Chestnut Sts.), and the former library is now the Korman Center at 15 South 32nd Street. Curtis Hall still stands between 31st and 32nd streets, a few doors to the east of the Main Building on Chestnut Street. The original Student Building was condemned and torn down after an explosion at the nearby Tidewater Grain Elevator (31st and Market Streets). No Drexel staff or students were hurt in the blast, but the windows in many of the campus buildings were blown out and the Student Building was damaged beyond repair. It was eventually replaced by what is now known as the Creese Student Center at 32nd and Chestnut Streets.

While the design aesthetics may have changed, the desire to improve the Drexel campus certainly has not; the unveiling of the most recent plans for expansion and improvement of the Drexel campus were reported in the March 7, 2008 issue of The Triangle:

Check out an interactive map of Drexel’s campus as it currently stands:
www.drexel.edu/campusmaps/

Read more about the history of Drexel University and learn more about the remarkable Creese presidency (among others) in A History of Drexel University, 1941-1963 by Miriam N. Kotzin (Drexel University, 1983).

Posted by Rob Sieczkiewicz at 10:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

by Robin Elliot
The Dean of Women in 1949 was Dorothy R. Young. She was involved with the Women’s Progress in Engineering Conference held at Drexel that year. In correspondence to President Creese she shared her ideas about the purpose of an education for women. She supported co-education for women as opposed to the women’s colleges prevalent during that time period. Young believed that men and women had similar responsibilities to society. The Second World War was fresh in her mind and she amusingly, suggested that polygamy might be one way to solve society’s lack of men. Young stated that women were required to have employment, knowledge of culture and know the skills required to be good citizens and parents. Drexel’s focus should be providing women with the opportunities to succeed in all of these different facets of modern womanhood.

Young was on the Legislative and Educational Committees of the American Association of University Women in the late 1940’s. For Information on Drexel's involvement with the Association of University Women, see collection UR 1.5, Office of the President Records

Posted by Rob Sieczkiewicz at 08:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Want to visit the University Archives but can't get here during the day? Starting on April 1, the Archives will be open every Tuesday evening until 8:00 p.m. You can visit the Archives any and every Tuesday evening until the end of the Spring Quarter (June 13).

Visitors who are not members of the Drexel community will need an advance appointment to enter Hagerty Library after 5:00 p.m. Click here to read our full access policies.

Come see us on the Lower Level of Hagerty Library!

Posted by Rob Sieczkiewicz at 08:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

by Robin Elliot
The Sarah Drexel Van Rensselaer Dormitory was not only a social home for women students at Drexel, but was also the site of academic conferences designed to assist female students in their educational studies.

Women students in engineering had a very difficult time during the 1940’s and 1950’s. The number of female students in engineering stayed extremely small during this time period. Drexel tried to support these students by having specific advisors for them. The Society of Women Engineers had a chapter at Drexel during the 1950’s and they tried to assist female students. At the conference held in April, 1949 there were both male and female students and graduates from Drexel who spoke about engineering and women. Drexel did have female students who were working in industry as part of the Cooperative Plan. The guest speaker of the conference was Dr. Lillian M. Gilbreth, better known today for Cheaper By the Dozen, which was written by her children about their childhood growing up with eleven siblings in New Jersey. Gilbreth was an industrial engineer and had received numerous honorary degrees. She was a good example for female students on how to succeed in a tough field for women and also how to combine childrearing and employment.

Posted by Rob Sieczkiewicz at 08:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

by Robin Elliot

Women during the last quarter of the nineteenth century began to develop new life paths for themselves. Women began choosing to remain single and were able to support themselves through teaching careers. These women had gone to college and if they did marry, it was later in life than many other women in America at that time. The women educators of Drexel were connected to this social change. Dean Grace Godfrey was a successful, single woman who dedicated her life to helping Drexel be an institution of higher learning for women, assisting them in all facets of their future lives.

Grace Godfey was born in 1893 in Whitewater, Wisconsin where she attended the Whitewater State Teachers’ Laboratory School. She taught elementary school in Wisconsin for two years after receiving her diploma. She was a director of Home Economics at Lindenwood College located in Missouri. She had a B.S. degree from the University of Wisconsin (1916) and a Masters from the Teachers College of Columbia University (1923). She continued her graduate education at both University of Wisconsin and University of Chicago. She came to Drexel in 1919 when she was a professor in home economics. She was named the Dean of School of Home Economics in 1923. She held this position until her death in August of 1944.

Dean Godfrey was involved with numerous educational organizations. She was the president of the Pennsylvania Home Economics Association and the Philadelphia Home Economics Association during her career. She was also affiliated with the American Home Economics Association. She was a member of the American Association of University Women, Omricon Nu, and numerous other organizations. She was also affiliated with the Council of Defense, the Philadelphia Housing Association, the Council of Social Agencies in Philadelphia and the Philadelphia Nutrition Council.

When Godfrey died in 1944, Robert C. Disque was the Acting President of Drexel. He spoke at her memorial service and accentuated the many changes she instituted at Drexel in the School of Home Economics. It went from a small technical school to having college and graduate courses for students. In 1944 the enrollment in the School of Home Economics was higher than in any previous year. Godfrey got the Phi Kappa Phi to be at Drexel, this is an honorary scholastic fraternity for male and female students. Godfrey championed Drexel for inclusion in the American Association of University Women, open to all female students. She also got the Omicron Nu, National Home Economics honorary society begun at Drexel for students.

One focus of Godfrey’s educational focus was to have research and instruction facilities at Drexel which would connect science to the home through education. Godfrey’s academic expertise was in nutrition. In multiple letters to Drexel after her death students wrote of her teaching expertise and how she had impacted their lives. One wrote “She helped me a great deal in preparing to earn my living in Home Economics work.” This shows what one purpose of the Home Economics School was-to educate women for employment and how important that was to Grace Godfrey.

The Home Management House was an important part of the curricula of the School of Home Economics. After her death, it was renamed the Grace Godfrey Home Management House to honor her memory.

References

• See The Evening Bulletin Friday August 25, 1944 p.8 located in the Office of the President Records, along with other biographical material


• See “Remarks Made by Dr. R.C. Disque at the Memorial Service for Dean Grace Godfrey, November 1, 1944, at Drexel Institute of Technology” in Godfrey Grace, UR1.5 Office of the President Records, Series 7, Box 20, Folder 3


• See UR 1.5 Office of the President records and 1.7 James Creese administration records for items on Grace Godfrey, Home Economics, and women at Drexel


• See Evans, Sara M. Born for Liberty: A History of Women in America. New York: Free Press Paperbacks, A Division of Simon and Schuster, 1997, p.147.

Posted by Rob Sieczkiewicz at 08:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

by Cheryl Klimaszewski

It's hard to imagine life for women attending the Drexel Institute in the 1920's in light of the freedoms and privileges female students have as university students today. Women were required to live in the student housing and rarely was special permission granted for them to live off campus, usually only when the cost of housing was issue and the female student could find room and board with a family in exchange for light housekeeping or childcare.

However, we see the regulations relaxing by the late 1930's, as in the Regulations for Girls Living in the Sarah Van Rensselaer Dormitory, 3320 Powelton Avenue. (See the three images above.) Although lengthier, certain permissions are considerably more lax than those hinted at in the 1920s. Note especially that rules are slightly more relaxed for upperclassmen.

One can only imagine the reaction of students living in the dorm today if such regulations as chaperones and demerits were imposed!

Posted by Rob Sieczkiewicz at 12:08 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

by Robin Elliot

In 1933 Drexel applied to the state of Pennsylvania for permission to give a B.S. degree in retailing. The application was denied and the students received a degree in Commerce instead. The number of students who qualified was extremely limited, which was one reason for the denial. The degree would have been part of the existing Co-operative Retailing course. The wide variety of courses required were demonstrative of a liberal arts education: students would have studied art history, economics, chemistry, a language, sociology, political science, and English as part of the degree. Students who took the Retailing courses were required to work for nine months in a retail workplace. They also had four years of academic study. The third and fourth years of college were spent half in the work place. There was a particular track for women who wanted to work in merchandising stores. These courses were in addition to normal academic courses and included fashion, principles of advertising, commercial law, textiles, economic aspects of fashion, among many other subjects. All of these courses were primarily courses which had been taught at Drexel prior to 1933 in the Schools of Home Economics and Business Administration, both of which were available to women. While Drexel was denied the opportunity to give this degree, New York University was giving an M.S. in Retailing and the University of Southern California was giving similar degrees in the B.S. for merchandising. Drexel also stated that they felt that with the large number of women entering the retailing field an established degree in it would help its students. The degree would have been open to both male and female students.

For information on the retailing curriculum at Drexel see Kolbe, Parke R. (U.R. 1.5) records at the Drexel University Archives

Posted by Rob Sieczkiewicz at 08:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

by Cheryl Klimaszewski

In the 1920’s, physical exams were required for all female students at the Drexel Institute. Here we see a letter from John Arnett to Drexel Institute President Kenneth G. Matheson, in which he outlines the physical ailments of the “girls,” which conveniently fall into one of four categories: anemia (group A), constipation (group C), menstrual disturbances (group D) and overweight (group O). Diet, exercise and lifestyle plans were distributed to each student according to her grouping and examples can be seen below.

Historically, institutions of higher education limited enrollment to only the “best” – which implied white males. Medical “theories” often arose to explain the physiological differences between white males and females that made the latter “unfit” for advanced study, one being that women’s brains were less evolved than those of men. In light of this historical context, the fact that Drexel provided courses for and encouraged women to attend is quite progressive for the time. However, such mandatory physicals for men were not required until the latter 1920’s, illustrating one aspect of the difference between social expectations for men and those for women. The Institute still saw women as creatures in need of protection and the administration took on a parental role in overseeing the lives and development of female students.

Posted by Rob Sieczkiewicz at 08:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

by Robin Elliot

During the First World War the Drexel Institute was part of a nationwide patriotic movement to get women into the workforce. Drexel offered secretarial courses for women which were advertised as specifically for women and their desire to help their country. Drexel worked with the United States Civil Service Commission to train women for work as civil service secretaries. The training was designed to qualify employees as quickly as possible to help with the war effort. The publicity campaign depended on women’s desire to help their country and the men who were fighting, even if the women were living on the home front.

This program was designed for both high school and college graduates with different levels of required courses. The courses concentrated on the business world and specifics for working in an office. However, the students other interests were not ignored as physical education was part of the longer program, offering the high school graduate a general college education. Drexel also used the many activities for students such as the library, museum and other social and educational possibilities at Drexel and in Philadelphia to interest future students.

Posted by Rob Sieczkiewicz at 08:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

by Cheryl Klimaszewski

Although it might be common to consider the field of home economics as limited and perhaps even oppressive to women, current perspectives on the history and development of the field and the doors it opened for women present it in a new light. Though the label “home economics” did not fall into widespread use until the early 20th century, education for women in the domestic arts and related subject areas can be traced back to the mid-19th century.

Drexel’s founder Anthony J. Drexel was very interested in the education of women, and in fact originally planned a school solely for the education of girls. In this spirit, the programs offered by Drexel’s School of Home Economics focused not just on the preparation of women for success in domestic life, but offered them technical and scientific courses in teaching, nutrition, textile design and applied arts. Such courses prepared women to pursue careers as teachers, dietitians, dressmakers or researchers, with ample opportunities in Drexel’s cooperative program.

One important aspect of the home economics curriculum was the Practice House – later called the Home Management House. This laboratory setting allowed women practical experience in all aspects of home management, from learning how to cook to testing new appliances to studying household layout and design. Women learned not just how to run a household, but how to run it better through increased efficiency provided by scientific and technological advances.

The focus of an education in home economics at Drexel was not simply a preparation for marriage and raising a family. The Drexel Institute of Technology Bulletin from February 1938 says it best: “The broader vision that comes through this balanced cultural and professional training not only means greater success in career – it makes her a more useful member of the community and a better manager of her home.” Even to the modern ear, it hardly sounds old-fashioned.

For further study:

• A history of the School of Home Economics through 1941 is found in chapter 10 of Drexel Institute of Technology (1891-1941): A Memorial History by McDonald and Hinton (1942).
  
• Cornell University offers an excellent introduction on the history of the home economics discipline.
  
• This exhibition at Cornell University offers a comprehensive exhibition on the history of home economics education at Cornell

Posted by Rob Sieczkiewicz at 08:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

In 1900, Pauline Conway became the first woman to complete Drexel's architecture program.

The first student housing for women was built in 1918. Construction began on the Sarah Drexel Van Rensselaer Dormitory for Women in 1931.

In 1919, Drexel awarded its first degrees to women.

In 1938, Edith M. Rood became first woman editor of The Triangle.

In 1943, women first enrolled in the School of Engineering. The Drexel Society of Women Engineers was founded three years later.

Posted by Rob Sieczkiewicz at 12:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Drexel University Archives will mark Women's History Month with a series of essays about women’s education in the early years of the Drexel Institute.

Processing Archivist Robin Elliot and iSchool graduate students Cheryl Klimaszewski and Katelyn Wolfrom are processing the papers of the early presidents of Drexel, from 1913-1963. Over the next month, this blog will feature their discoveries – the letters, photographs, publications that document the experiences of the women who studied at Drexel at the start of the 20th Century.

Posted by Rob Sieczkiewicz at 12:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)