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.
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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.
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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!
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.
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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.
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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.
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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
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.
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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.
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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.
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