Gladys Paine Johnson begins her interview by describing her family and how she came to Brown in 1909, the first member to attend college. She considers herself lucky to have lived in the mansion on Benefit Street, where she met Sarah Doyle and made lifelong friends. Describing her classes and professors, Gladys remembers public speaking with Professor Thomas Crosby and Deans Lida Shaw King and Margaret Shove Morriss. She majored in math and notes that she did not receive any career guidance while in school. She briefly describes her participation in social activities at Brown and ends Part 1 of the interview by recounting what she sees as her debts to the University. In Part 2, Gladys discusses the social education she received from her peers, the jobs she held, her travels, and the marriage that made her "more or less what you call a liberated woman.
Notes:
Class year: 1913
Biographical note: Gladys Paine Johnson was born in 1891 and grew up in South Hadley, Massachusetts. After studying math at Brown, she worked as a teacher, the owner of a lunchroom, and the manager of a doctor's office. The mother of two daughters, Gladys was active in the DAR and served as President of the Connecticut State Federation of Women's Clubs. She is the author of an autobiography entitled Gad: Nine Decades of Happy Living and Notions After Ninety.
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 …
