September 25 - October 5, 1918: Quarantine

On September 25, 1918, less than a week into the start of classes at the College of William and Mary, an outbreak of influenza resulted in the quarantine of a group of students living on campus. According to the Williamburg newspaper, The Virginia Gazette, "fifteen or twenty students at William and Mary are under quarantine, being affected with the Spanish grip. Some of them are quite ill but none are in danger. They are usually confined to the rooms for a day or two, but suffer considerably while the malady is at its worst."

Further reports of the influenza epidemic (commonly known as the "Spanish flu") in Williamsburg in the Gazette are sparse, but the October 3 edition of the newspaper did note that the dance hall at the Marx Hotel had closed to help prevent the spread of the disease, and encouraged other businesses in the area to do the same. On campus, classes were cancelled during the quarantine.

Martha Barksdale, one of the first women students, mentioned the quarantine in her diary entry of November 26 and that none of the women in Tyler Hall were ill. New to the dormitory and college life, they used the break from classes to get to know each other, and even play a game of basketball. The quarantine period helped established Tyler as a center for activity for the female students. Although fewer than 14 members of the first group lived in the dorm, the women who lived off-campus in Williamsburg spent much of their free time there. As Janet Coleman Kimbrough described in an interview, "we were tremendously interested in each other [...] We spent a great deal of time discussing clothes and manners and what everybody was doing and whether to use lipstick or not and whether a girl who kissed boy was fast and so forth."

The students afflicted with the disease eventually recovered and the campus quarantine was lifted on October 5. Classes resumed, and the students returned to work.

Partial group photo of the first class of women from Catherine Dennis' scrapbook, dated 1918.

Top row, left-right: Mary Haile, Edna Reid, Catherine Dennis, Florence Black, Margaret Bridges, Lucille Brown
Middle row, l-r: Janet Coleman, Marie Wilkins, Louise Reid, Martha Barksdale, Margaret Lee

Bottom row, l-r: Celeste Ross, Elizabeth Lee, Margaret Thronton, Elizabeth Scott, Alice Person

An excerpt of Janet Coleman Kimbrough's interview is featured in the online exhibit, "The Petticoat Invasion": Women at the College of William and Mary, 1918-1945. Full text of Kimbrough's interview, issues of The Virginia Gazette, and Catherine Dennis' scrapbook are available in the Special Collections Research Center.

This post was composed by Kate Hill.

For additional information about the first women students at the College of William and Mary see: When Mary Entered with her Brother William: Women at the College of William and Mary, 1918-1945 by Laura F. Parrish; The Martha Barksdale Papers; and the Women at the College of William and Mary page on the Special Collections Research Center Wiki.

September 19, 1918: A New W. & M. Begins Two Hundred Twenty-Sixth Year

The Virginia Gazette for September 19 included two articles about the beginning of the new academic year and the first class of women to enter the College of William and Mary.

In a front page news story, the paper referred to a "new atmosphere" at the opening of the session. The paper went on to say that along with the usual atmosphere surrounding the new semester also came the "gentle women of Virginia to drink at the same fountainhead of learning from whose waters the famous of the land have quaffed. It is a momentous event in the history of this grand old institution, and a strange coincidence that the inception of the military should be smultaneous (sic) with the coming of the women of the land."

This blog has mentioned some effects of World War I here and here, and you will be able to find all future posts on the topic here.

A brief article on The Gazette's editorial page welcomed women to the College and noted that their success and integration was fully anticipated. The paper's words also struck a sympathetic tone noting that the new students would have the cooperation of the paper and town of Williamsburg during the year.








For additional information about the first women students at the College of William and Mary see: When Mary Entered with her Brother William: Women at the College of William and Mary, 1918-1945 by Laura F. Parrish; "The Petticoat Invasion": Women at the College of William and Mary, 1918-1945; The Martha Barksdale Papers; and the Women at the College of William and Mary page on the Special Collections Research Center Wiki.

September 19, 1918: From the Diary of Martha Barksdale

Student Martha Barksdale recounted arriving at the College of William and Mary on this date with classmates Ruth Conkey and Celeste Ross in her diary entry of November 26.

For additional information about the first women students at the College of William and Mary see: When Mary Entered with her Brother William: Women at the College of William and Mary, 1918-1945 by Laura F. Parrish; "The Petticoat Invasion": Women at the College of William and Mary, 1918-1945; The Martha Barksdale Papers; and the Women at the College of William and Mary page on the Special Collections Research Center Wiki.

September 19, 1918: Mary Enters with Her Brother William

On this date ninety years ago, women entered the College of William and Mary as students. The women made up around 20% of the total number of students enrolled in the College and almost a third of the freshman class, due in large part to the country's involvement in World War I. These "pioneers," as they were often called, included:

Lilian Hope Baines, Martha Barksdale, Margaret Florence Bridges, Lucille Brown, Janet Coleman, Ruth Taylor Conkey, Catherine Dennis, Mary Haile, Florence Mae Harris, Ruth Harris, Elizabeth Lee, Margaret Lee, Evelyn Palmer, Alice Person, Edna Widgen Reid, Laura Louise Reid, Celeste Ross, Elizabeth Scott, Margaret Thornton, and Marie Wilkins.

This list is from the document "Names of girls at William and Mary, Oct., 8, 1918" from the office of Herbert L. Bridges. Bridges served as Registrar and Secretary of the Faculty from 1907 until 1928 and held several other positions at the College as well during his tenure from 1881 through 1933. Click image to enlarge.

Other lists also include Alice Burke, Winifred Goodwin, Emily Hall, and Alice Powers as part of the first class of women. President Lyon G. Tyler would later refer to these women in a letter to Catherine Dennis as the "noble band of girls who broke the ice at William and Mary, and led the way in the emancipation of their sex." Still, as of September, 19, 1918, they were also just the latest in a long line of new students to College - facing the challenges of classes and a new social environment.

The women may or may not have know it then, but this was just the beginning of a year full of change at William and Mary.


A copy of the Strode Bill that allowed women to attend William and Mary from the records of President Lyon G. Tyler. Click image to enlarge.







This post was composed by Jordan Ecker and Kate Hill.

For additional information about the first women students at the College of William and Mary see: When Mary Entered with her Brother William: Women at the College of William and Mary, 1918-1945 by Laura F. Parrish; "The Petticoat Invasion": Women at the College of William and Mary, 1918-1945; The Martha Barksdale Papers; and the Women at the College of William and Mary page on the Special Collections Research Center Wiki.

August 24, 1918: Home Economics becomes a College Subject

As William and Mary was becoming co-ed, the institution probably realized that they needed at least one "appropriate" subject for their new female students to take. This was achieved with the addition of Home Economics to the Courses of Study before the start of the fall semester. On August 24, 1918, future President of the College, Julian Alvin Carroll Chandler, wrote to President Tyler to express that his committee had "decided favorably on home economics for William and Mary." Chandler also expressed his hope that it would be a "real satisfactory college department."

While to the modern reader Home Economics sounds like a fluff subject, in 1918 it was not intended to be. According to the 1918-1919 Course Catalog, the department was "intended primarily for the training of teachers of Home Economics," but "open to all women of the college, and to others who may desire to elect them."

The Home Economics major included classes in the more "traditional" women's work, such as sewing and cooking, but it also included Math, English, and even Organic Chemistry. This department prepared women to become not only educated in the liberal arts, but also prepared them for a career. It provided them with an option that not a lot of women had: respectable employment. Through this department, some women at the college probably realized that they had choices about the direction of their lives and their futures.

This post was composed by Jordan Ecker.

For additional information about the first women students at the College of William and Mary see: When Mary Entered with her Brother William: Women at the College of William and Mary, 1918-1945 by Laura F. Parrish; "The Petticoat Invasion": Women at the College of William and Mary, 1918-1945; The Martha Barksdale Papers; and the Women at the College of William and Mary page on the Special Collections Research Center Wiki.

August 12, 1918: The Governor Weighs in on Co-Education

On August 12, 1918, Virginia's Governor, Westmoreland Davis, wrote to President Lyon G. Tyler, and voiced his opinion on the College's preparations for the women students who were arriving on campus in a little more than a month.


There were many issues that Davis could have had with William and Mary's co-education, such as not enough class offerings or faculty to accommodate the new students, or the fact that these women would be housed on campus. However, Davis had another concern that needed Tyler's immediate attention: the showers in the Tyler Hall bathrooms.

Davis explains that Tyler was "disregarding, at a good deal of expense, shower baths and replacing them with tubs," and that he should have been brought the matter before the State Health Department before doing so because "they [did] involve an outlay of the State's money."

Well, there are two ways to view this letter. First, if Governor Davis had the time to complain to President Tyler about the College's bathing options, then that means that the Governor had no other issues with women being present on William and Mary's campus. The other interpretation would be that Davis had such an issue with it that he was trying to find any reason why these women should not be at the College. I prefer the more positive option. Besides, if the Governor really had an issue with co-education, I think Davis would be able to find other things to complain to Tyler about, not the showers!

This letter is available in the folder "World War I" in the University Archives Subject File Collection.

This post was composed by Jordan Ecker.

For additional information about the first women students at the College of William and Mary see: When Mary Entered with her Brother William: Women at the College of William and Mary, 1918-1945 by Laura F. Parrish; "The Petticoat Invasion": Women at the College of William and Mary, 1918-1945; The Martha Barksdale Papers; and the Women at the College of William and Mary page on the Special Collections Research Center Wiki.

August 10, 1918: The College Continues to Confront the Effects of World War I

The College of William and Mary did not decide on a whim to admit women. While the College was busily preparing for the first co-ed incoming class, there was a war raging across the Atlantic in Europe.

World War I had begun four years earlier, and the United States joined the previous year, 1917. In the summer of 1918, the country was unsure of how long the war would continue, and had to prepare for the worst. The College's admissions were probably dropping as prospective and returning William and Mary students were being shipped off to the European front, and something had to be done to try to raise or at least maintain enrollment at the small institution.

On August 10, 1918, previous male students of the College received a letter from the registrar H.L. Bridges urging them to return to William and Mary. The registrar stated that he understood that "there seems to be some doubt in the minds of students as to what they should do next session," but urged them to enroll for the fall semester. Why would the registrar be urging possibly needed soldiers to stay on the homefront? The registrar's letter went onto explain that "provision is being made to train all college students while they are doing their regular [college] work....The War Department wants you in college next year."

Instead of shutting down the educational opportunities for the men who had not been drafted, and possibly saving small colleges, such as William and Mary from closing their doors, the United States government wanted to keep their prospective soldiers prepared for possible deployment as well as educated.

The registrar may have also been pushing this new option on returning male students to possibly offset the effect of women coming on campus. If women did not make up a significant percentage of the incoming class, than their influence in the fall would be limited or not even felt. Also, co-education was still an untried experiment. If the experiment did not work out, and the war continued for multiple years, then the College might have been in an enrollment bind from which it could not free itself.

However, none of the worst case scenarios came to pass. World War I ended in November 1918, and co-education at the College was successful. But, it is interesting to see how people were reacting to and preparing for the unforeseen continuation of World War I.

The letter cited in this post is available in the folder "World War I" in the University Archives Subject File Collection in the Special Collections Research Center.

This post was composed by Jordan Ecker.

For additional information about the first women students at the College of William and Mary see: When Mary Entered with her Brother William: Women at the College of William and Mary, 1918-1945 by Laura F. Parrish; "The Petticoat Invasion": Women at the College of William and Mary, 1918-1945; The Martha Barksdale Papers; and the Women at the College of William and Mary page on the Special Collections Research Center Wiki.