Dorothy Allen Hill, class of 1930

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Overview

Year:: 1982
Contributor:: Hill, Dorothy Allen (interviewee); Conover, Elizabeth (interviewer)
Genre:: oral histories (literary works)
Subject:: 1930s; Academics and Coursework; City Girls; Clothing and Fashion; Employment; Gender Expectations; Great Depression; Pembroke-Brown Merger; Physical Education; Religion; Social Life

Abstract:: In this interview, Dorothy Allen Hill starts by discussing her aunt, Mary Hill who graduated from Pembroke in 1904 and her father's early insistence that she attend Pembroke. She recalls mandatory chapel; making friends; smoking cigarettes on campus; mentorship by senior class members; teas; working part-time at a local department store; Dean Morriss; President Barbour; the gym requirement; fashion; dormitory rooms; campus traditions; her favorite professors; and the definition of "a lady." She states that at Pembroke, everyone was familiar, had common ambitions, and there was a lack of hostility between dorm and city girls. She recalls that education was a privilege; everyone took it seriously. Still, there was nothing vocational about her coursework and she thought she was lucky to find work as a teacher during the Depression. She discusses the merger; and her regrets at the loss of Pembroke\u2019s identity.
Notes:: class year: 1930; Biographical note: Dorothy Allen Hill received her both a Bachelor's degree (1930) and a Master\u2019s degree (1958) in English from Brown University. She taught English at East Providence High School, then worked at Brown University's John Hay Library from 1965-1974. She volunteered at the Providence Athenaeum and was active in the Handicraft Club of Providence. She lived in Rumford, RI for many years, and summered in Charlestown, RI. She died April 1, 2005.

"Dorothy Allen Hill, class of 1930" (1982). Pembroke Center Oral History Collection. Brown Digital Repository. Brown University Library. https://repository.library.brown.edu/studio/item/bdr:580901/

Pembroke Center Oral History Collection

This collection contains oral history interviews with alumnae of Brown University, which admitted its first women students in 1891. The Women's College at Brown was renamed Pembroke College in 1928, and in 1971, Pembroke College merged with the Men's College …
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