Alumna Remembrances

Still from Loyal Lesley Daughters: An Oral History of Massachusetts' Women Teachers 1925 - 1965

In 2008, the Lesley University Archivist, Alyssa Pacey, received a grant to document Lesley's history from the people who lived it. Included in this collection are snippets following different themes from the 1920s to 1950s. 

Please take the time to listen to each one. If you want to listen further, you can go to the Oral History collection on DigitalCommons@Lesley to listen to the interviewee's entire interview with Alyssa Pacey.

From the late 1800s until the 1950s, female educators were often barred from employment if they were married or became pregnant. It was not until the Civil Rights Act of 1964 that this type of discrimination was no longer allowed. Many of the women who went to school at Lesley had to choose between starting families or having a career. Some of these reflections describe how life after Lesley many of them became mothers, or they worked for only a short period before losing their job because they became pregnant. These interviews give an idea of what each person's experience was from their own perspective.

In 2010, the short film Loyal Lesley Daughters: An Oral History of Massachusetts Women Teachers, 1925-1965 was commissioned for an exhibit of the same name that took place at the Marran Art Gallery from May 26-July 1, 2010. The video drew from materials from the Loyal Lesley Daughters oral history project created by Alyssa Pacy, and combines the audio excerpts with archival images and a new recording of the Loyal Lesley Daughters song.