Wheaton women...

18 July 2019: I spent some of today reading Paul C. Helmreich's Wheaton Colllege, 1834-1957 in preparation for my research trip in early August. It's actually both fascinating, fun, and sometimes touching to read about this early women's college. Here's some of the fun/touching stuff:

• A student wrote the following in 1835: "Miss Caldwell advises us not to talk after we go to bed, for she says young ladies will say a great many foolish things in the dark that they would be ashamed to say in the light and when looking at each other" (156). Miss Caldwell speaks the truth.
• In 1939, another student writes, "My room-mate is a rather pleasant girl I should think, although she does not stay with me much, and when she is with me she acts as if she wanted to be somewhere else" (157). Poor thing! 
• A 1906 graduate remarks, "We lived in a woman's world, yet triumphed with gaiety" (159).

And even then, students complained about the difficulty of scheduling classes. And so it goes...