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Female Communities Pre-Coeducation

The Scholarship Committee of the DWC

Early Communities

Women living in the Dartmouth area could find community both through clubs associated with the college and those with the town of Hanover. 

World War II

The War Years at Dartmouth project is a collection of over 100 interviews with Dartmouth community members who were on campus before, during, or after World War Two.  Here is a list of recordings detailing women's stories and how they found a sense of place at Dartmouth during those years.

Female "breadwinners"

  • Virginia and Swift BarnesDOH-67. Virginia Barnes discusses working three jobs on campus and in Hanover. She agrees with her husband, Swift, that she was the family "breadwinner."
  • Ann and George TurnerDOH-120. Ann Turner describes how she worked at the library and joined the German club. 
  • Ruthe Berry (wife of Chester Berry). DOH -71. Ruthe mentions how she worked for the Council on Student Organizations and talks about another Dartmouth wife working for the college's film department. 
  • Joyce and Bob FieldsteelDOH-81. Joyce discusses employment of Dartmouth wives living on campus and describes how a higher level of education did not benefit women seeking work.

Community

  • Carol Allen (wife of Robert Allen). DOH-61. Carol notes her initial discomfort moving to Hanover without her husband and not finding a female community. She later describes how living in married student housing was more social. 
  • Sibyl Waterman. DOH-170. Sibyl discusses Dartmouth wives' social lives at the fraternities, attempts to audit classes, and communities in the college's married couple dorms. 

Living situation

  • Joan and Eric BarradaleDOH-69. Joan Barradale recalls how married life was confined to your neighbors in the dorms.
  • Joan Rowan (spouse of Charles Rowan). DOH-177. Joan discusses the facilities and amenities of living in married couple dorms, the fayerweathers, and then Sachem Village. 
  • Barbara Truncellito (spouse of Ray Truncellito). DOH-118. Barbara describes her experience of living in the Mary Hitchcock nursing dorms, alienated from other Dartmouth lives as she did not live in one of the married couple dorms on campus.

Other sources

Later Communities

The Dartmouth Women's Club of Boston was mostly made up of Dartmouth wives and mothers. It was originally named the Dartmouth Matron's Club but the name was changed because members believed it did not fit the lively nature of the women involved. The club held fundraising and social events, and, in 1960, produced a particularly important feminist piece in the form of a cookbook (see below).

Note: This list is not an exhaustive representation of all materials in Rauner Special Collections Library on the above subject(s). To search for additional sources, use the library catalog or online finding aids.

Credit to Jess Hilton '25 for creating this bibliography based on the fellowship research of Cece King '23.

Last updated: April 2023

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