The photograph features, from the left: front row, Marjorie Jackson, Leona Blackmun, Ruth Casteel, Lael Peters; back row, Pat Dozier, Lorraine Mortensen, Nancy Sinclair, and Jane Babcock. These eight girls comprised the Belles of the Nineties - a female song and dance group who, in conjunction with the Folly Dollies and the Golden Gayeties, participated in the All-Northwest Barbershop Ballad Contest. The Belles of the Nineties were not part of the actual competition, their presence being requested for pure entertainment value instead. The contest took place on February 18th and 19th, 1949 in the Forest Grove High School's auditorium.
An extremely detailed 4 page newsletter from the Theta Nu Alpha sorority from June 30, 1951. The newsletter gives updates as to what a handful of Theta and Theta alums are up to over the summer. From detailed descriptions of summer jobs, internships, and trips to a copious amount of wedding updates from past, present, and future. The newsletter describes four weddings in the month of June as well as two upcoming weddings in July and one in August. The letter's focus is on the personal happenings of many individual Thetas. It must not have covered them all though because it states that another letter would be sent a month later on July 30, exactly one month after this newsletter.
The Weekly Index was the name of the newspaper that Pacific University had and still is the name of the newspaper to this day. This photograph is staged and shows the different writers for the Weekly Index. It is important to notice that there are women who were part of the staff for writing the newspaper. Back in the early 1900's women were suppose to be limited to what they could do, and this photograph shows that Pacific University was working to treat women more equally.
Little is known about this photograph other than the professor, who was Albert Raddin Sweetser. Professor Sweetser worked in the Chemistry and Biology Department, and is believed that he would sometimes take his class into the forest to have lunch. Also, two students are recorded in this picture, Louis P. Myers and Charles Bradley, but it is undefined as which ones they are
The debate team was a big deal on campus, especially in the early 1900's. The importance of this is that the women were able to have a separated team from the men and make it their own. Many of the debates and speeches took place in the spring, and the women's team was even on the front cover of the Weekly Index multiple times. The debates were a huge thing on campus, where many students and residences of Forest Grove would come and attend.
This photo shows thirteen women posing for the camera. Some of the have medals, while others don't. It is believed that the one's wearing medals were married to men who had been killed during the Civil War. The Women's Relief Corps at Pacific University consisted of women who were or widows of men who had fought in the Civil War. These women would help run activities and different events for Memorial Day, which included teaching patriotism and nationalism to all ages. Members of the Women's Relief Corps would also petition the Federal Government for nurses pensions.
A photograph of a theatrical performance at Pacific University circa 1906-1908, possibly "The Bridge of the Gods: A Tale of Indian Oregon." This play, supposedly reenacting Native American myths, was based on a fictional story written by a white writer named Frederic Balch. It featured characters with names based on actual Native people, places and tribes such as "Multnomah," "Snoqualmie," and "Wallulah." Pacific University students dressed in redface to portray the characters. This photograph appears to show women students on an outdoor stage at Pacific University, dressed as Native girls. The play was very popular and was also performed in Portland, Seattle and other locations. It is also possible that this photograph shows another, unrelated performance; the staging matches that used during outdoor May Day performances around the same time.
The YWCA is a constitution regarding the women's club on campus. The YWCA was club just specifically women which began in the late 1800's. This constitution explained the different academic achievements that would have to be required to become part of this club. It also goes into detail about how the women will be expected to attend Bible studies and learn about their own faith.
The Pacific University Self-Study Reports are a series of decennial reports that lay out University goals, collect and interpret data related to student admissions, graduations, faculty size increases, university finances and more. The reports can act as a valuable measure of race and gender related issues both in what they directly say and what is left out.
In the 1997 Report, racial and gender diversity are approached more thoroughly in words than in previous decades, however there is no reported statistical breakdown of racial groups as there was in the 1977 reports. However, Diversity was established as a Strategic Goal (#10, p. xviii). Gender and ethnic diversity statistics were considered as an important component for Residence Life student staffing (IX-244), and a section (IX-280-286) is devoted to an overview on Diversity Services, the Office of Multicultural Services (which began in 1990) and the Office of Disability Studies. One expressed concern was a decrease in black students and males overall because of the dissolution of the football program. This directly counteracted University efforts to maintain a 50:50 balance of male:female students.
This passage is about Elizabeth Miller, one of the first 5 woman teachers in the latter part of 1851. Elizabeth Milller moved to Forest Grove from Vermont, and details he journey to a friend. That section is cut out and put in this memoir as memory.
Little is known about Elizabeth Miller or her teaching style, but it is important to look at this document because she was the first. She laid the ground work out for teachers after her. The thing to note though is as soon as she got married, she left teaching. This is what there is not much known. Many women leave their job, and do not come back to the cutthroat place of academics.
This is one part of a document that focused on the Conservatory Music Club, along with other music clubs that were on campus. The Conservatory Music Club wanted to focus on developing musical skills while continuing to learn academically. Other clubs consisted of the Ladies' Glee Club. which continued to grow and develop until they even started going on tours.
