May 1-3, 1919: Easter Dances

On May 14, 1919, The Flat Hat (see page 3) reported on three "Easter Dances" held May 1st through 3rd in the dining hall. Examples of cards from other dances around this time period can be found at the SCRC's Flickr page. The article describes the dances, including the various hosting organizations, the band, and, apparently most importantly, who attended. Note that Easter fell on April 20th in 1919.

From similar college newspaper articles, it might be expected to include a list of women who went to the dances, including those from the College of William and Mary. However, this dance article only includes a lengthy list of the "visiting girls," or those women who came from off campus to the various dances.

I find it difficult to believe that none of the "Marys" attended the Easter dances. Some questions arise as to the neglect of the women college. Why are the college women not included in the listing? Is it possible the "Marys" did not attend any of the dances? Is it possible that the women held their own dances? Does the exclusion of the "Marys" signal any discord among the co-ed student body? These are just a few questions which prompt a deeper analysis of the reception of the women in addition to their adjustment to co-educational life.


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.

A Step Away from 1918-1919: New Old Sources

We began this blog in part to share resources with students, alumni, and others interested in the history of coeducation at the College of William and Mary not yet as widely known as those we have been able to access online since the 1990s. People have been using the material in the online exhibits "The Petticoat Invasion": Women at the College of William and Mary, 1918-1945 and the Martha Barksdale Papers a great deal since they have been available online. Unfortunately, in some cases this meant that other sources in the Special Collections Research Center (SCRC) staff know of and are eager to share and see used were neglected both inadvertently and for lack of access (we know not everyone can travel to Williamsburg, Virginia!). The other many wonderful resources that were not being used included the student newspaper The Flat Hat, the Colonial Echo yearbook, the scrapbook of student Catherine Dennis, the records of the Board of Visitors, and the records of President Lyon G. Tyler, just to name a few. There are many more collections that we know about too! To find even more collections, you could spend a fair bit of time reviewing finding aids for those collections in the SCRC's Collections Database (try searches using terms like women and students) and we hope you will. We also hope we have raised awareness of the variety of formats of documents, scrapbooks, photographs, publications, and other sources available in the Special Collections Research Center.

In addition to all of these collections the staff of the SCRC knew about related to the College of William and Mary going co-ed in 1918-1919, coincidentally a "new" source was recently uncovered in the SCRC's holdings. In the course of researching and preparing the exhibit A "Most Thriving and Growing Place": Williamsburg Before the Restoration, Dr. Bea Hardy came across a scrapbook (seen at right) in the papers related to the family of Edward Lee, a graduate of the College of William and Mary. The scrapbook was created by either Elizabeth or Margaret Lee, sisters of Edward. To quote the interior of the scrapbook's front cover, it contains the memories of one (or both?) of the Lee sisters, both of whom were part of the first class of women students at William and Mary. In addition to wonderfully preserved photographs, the scrapbook also includes informative captions. The scrapbook also holds photographs that do not appear to relate to the College of William and Mary with dates ranging from 1915 thorugh 1921 throughout the pages. There are images of several, but not all, of the scrapbook pages at the SCRC's Flickr page. The scrapbook and the Lee Papers are available for researchers to use in the SCRC, but a record for it has not yet as of this writing been added to the SCRC Collections Database. It should be forthcoming soon and will no doubt make mention of this wonderful "new" (to both SCRC staff and researchers) source about the first years of coeducation at the College of William and Mary.

The exhibit A "Most Thriving and Growing Place": Williamsburg Before the Restoration can be viewed on the first floor of Swem Library in the Nancy Marshall (rotunda) Gallery and the SCRC during regular hours of operation.

April 15, 1919: The Death of a Board Member

James N. Stubbs, a member of the Board of Visitors of the College of William and Mary from the institution's reopening in 1888 until his death, passed away on April 15, 1919. His death was noted on the front page of the April 16th issue of The Flat Hat. Stubbs attended the College of William and Mary from 1858-1860, was trained as a lawyer, served as a major in the Confederate Army during the Civil War, and was a member of the General Assembly from 1869 until his death.

Faithful readers will remember Mr. Stubbs as the member of the Board of Visitors who offered a resolution at the June 25, 1918, meeting of that body "to the effect that the Strode Bill was in direct opposition to the 1906 contract by which the Commonwealth of Virginia had taken full responsibility for the College of William and Mary and that therefore the College should refuse to accept women."



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.

April 14, 1919: Dr. Chandler Accepts Offer

On April 14, 1919, Julian Alvin Carroll Chandler accepted the offer from the College of William and Mary's Board of Visitors to become the College's president with the pending retirement of President Lyon G. Tyler. Chandler served as president from 1919 until his death in 1934. President Chandler is credited with transforming William and Mary into a modern coeducational institution of higher learning. Chandler's acceptance is detailed in the April 16, 1919, issue of The Flat Hat.

Professor Carolyn Whittenburg has written and spoken extensively about President Chandler's impact on the College of William and Mary, especially related to women faculty and students. For more information, there is a short profile of President Chandler written by Prof. Whittenburg online; students from the Williamsburg Documentary Project interviewed Prof. Whittenburg in 2008 with the audio and index available through the College of William and Mary's digital repository; and her dissertation is available for checkout in Swem Library (call number LD6051 .W5m Educ., 2004, W58), reading in the Special Collections Research Center reading room, or for downloading via ProQuest database (linked from the dissertation's record in Swem Library's online catalog) for those with College of William and Mary privileges.

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.

April 2, 1919: Mary Praised or Patronized?

During their first year at the College of William and Mary, the women students had their ups and downs with their male counterparts. While some welcomed them, others were not as generous welcoming the women students. On April 2, 1919, The Flat Hat ran a front page article about the women's performances of two one-act plays: "Three Pills in a Bottle" and "A Flower of Yeddo." In the article, the author praised the women's collective acting abilities by writing "the plays were...pleasantly entertaining from rise to fall of curtain."

While the overall tone of the article is pleasant, one could read some of the words as a bit patronizing to the actors. At one point, the author wrote that "if...the girlish features of the amateur smiled behind the make up of the actor, it was not for boredom." Would a comparable description of the features of the actors or their non-professional status have been made about male actors? The plays' sets were also described as "simple but lovely."

At the end of the article, the author mentioned that the performance was to raise money for the war fund. Though peace was declared in November 1918, the impact of World War I and efforts on the home front had continued. This mention of the nature of these performances raises the question in my mind if this review of the performances would have been printed so prominently if it had been purely for entertainment and not also connected to the war effort?

Though the review of the women's performances of the two one-act plays may appear to be complimentary, I have to wonder if there is a patronizing tone to the review. But don't let my skepticism sway your interpretation. I have linked the original article above, click on it, and read it for yourself. Then, if you feel inclined, comment on this entry with your interpretation. We would be interested to hear our readers' interpretation.


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.

A Step Away from 1918-1919: A Lesson Plan Companion for the Blog

We believe, and hope that all of you reading this blog will agree, that history comes alive through a connection with primary sources. As a public institution, the material in the Special Collections Research Center (SCRC) in Swem Library is available to anyone wishing to use it who agrees to follow the rules established to preserve the material while still making it available to researchers. The public does not always realize that the collections in the SCRC are open to anyone and that includes pre-college students.

In an effort to share the primary sources highlighted in this blog as well as a slice of the history of the College of William and Mary, Molly Perry, a graduate student in the Department of History who has been an apprentice in the SCRC during the 2008-2009 academic year, has created a lesson plan suitable for use with grades 8-11. In the lesson, students can practice analyzing primary sources to learn about young women arriving at the College of William and Mary to better understand the lives of people in the past and the process of research. The lesson plan available via the SCRC's wiki includes an outline of the lesson, applicable U.S. and Virginia standards, and suggested instructions for how teachers may choose to carry out the lesson. Sample topics in six topical areas are available for groups of students from the historian's task wiki page. A research sheet and conclusions sheet have also been prepared.

While the SCRC cannot boast the resources for teachers that an institution as large as the Library of Congress has compiled, Ms. Perry has also prepared lesson plans for other online SCRC materials including the Richard Manning Bucktrout Daybook and Ledger and the Manuscripts and Rare Books Grab Bag. The SCRC hopes to make more lesson plans that incorporate the unique materials in our collections available for middle and high school teachers in the future. If you have any questions or comments, feel free to contact us.

A Step Away from 1918-1919: The College of William and Mary's First African American Coeds

In the Fall 1967, almost fifty years after the first women students were allowed to matriculate, the College of William and Mary welcomed its first residential African American coeds. The university had admitted its first African American student, Hulon Willis, in March 1951. After Willis, William and Mary admitted two more students of African descent in the 1950s, including one woman in 1955, who withdrew from the institution at the end of the academic year. It was sixteen years later for anything approaching a "mass" number of black students to matriculate at the College, at the same time. The three African American coeds were Karen Ely, Lynn Briley, and Janet Brown.

Images from the Colonial Echo, the College of William and Mary yearbook

When the young women came to campus, the only other African American students on campus were three undergraduate men who were attending part-time and one graduate student. The young women were interviewed by Nadia Tongour in the October 1967 issue of the student newspaper The Flat Hat. The women discussed why they applied to William and Mary, the social attitudes they encountered, and their views on the current state of black political activism. Roommates, the women mentioned their curiosity about how white people lived and realizing that there were no significant differences, Karen Ely said, "I've been surprised at how little difference there is. I expected a much more different transition from a completely segregated high school to a predominantly white college."

The Flat Hat article is an example of how socially and culturally aware African Americans were in America, particularly during the 1960s. Ms. Ely commented how surprised she was about the lack of social and class competition at the university. Many people think black Americans are only concerned with racial issues, but as this comment demonstrates that in addition to race, class was and continues to be a big issue with African Americans.

One comment that stands out in the article, which could also apply to the contemporary social atmosphere at William and Mary, is the lack of discussion about race. Janet Brown stated "I wish that people would feel freer about discussing race relations with us. They seem to shy away from the subject." If the reader did not know the article was from 1967, they might think Ms. Brown is talking about William and Mary in the twenty-first century.

The new students were from the Hampton Roads area, according to the 1968 Colonial Echo. Janet Brown was from Newport News and both Karen Ely and Lynn Briley were from Portsmouth.Their respective majors were Elementary Education (Brown), English (Briley), and Biology (Ely). As far as student organizations, an area always high on the list of interests to William and Mary students, Janet Brown was a member of the Young Democrats and the Black Students Organization. Lynn Briley was also a member of the Black Students Organization. In addition to her participation in the Black Students Organization, Karen Ely also participated in the Chorus.


This post was composed by Jeffreen Hayes.

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.