"...it wasn't even in the era we were living in actually, it was like the era before." from Jane Robertson Ryer and Barbara Harrison Dine '59

"...it wasn't even in the era we were living in actually, it was like the era before." from Jane Robertson Ryer and Barbara Harrison Dine '59

Lesley University

From 7:34 and 16:25 of Jane Robertson Ryer and Barbara Harrison Dine's oral history.

Lesley University

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English

Sound

3.001 Lesley University Archives Oral History Collection, 2008-2010

Alyssa Pacy

Jane Robertson Ryer and Barbara Harrison Dine

"[Lesley was] pretty provincial...by today's standards. I think then it was probably pretty much that way anywhere if it was an all-girl's school. I guess, for a lack of a better way of describing it, over-protective, and we had to wear gloves, we had to go to tea. It wasn't even in the era we were living in, actually it was like the era before."
BHD: "Clara and Miss Sharples, we were in their era. That was the way they did things, and so we were going to do things in the exact same way. Actually I think the rest of the world had advanced some by that time, but we didn't...you couldn't wear slacks, that wasn't acceptable...they wanted us to be ladies."
7:34

AP: "And again, when you talk about how Lesley was stuck in a different era, outside of Lesley was it okay for women to wear pants and not go around with gloves, or was it still pretty strict?"
JRR: "It was pretty transitional I think at that point, don't you?"
BHD: "I don't think it was as strict every place else. They were stuck in that time...they were stuck in their time, and that was the right time as far as they were concerned. They had the, between the two of them, the power. That was the image they wanted to make public. They thought that made you better for sure."
JRR: "But when we went on dates or when we met people in the square and so on, we looked like everybody else."
BHD: "It was just while you were on campus you were this person."
JRR: "And there were a lot of people who objected to it, and were talkative about it....the time was changing. By the time we graduated, Dr. White was gone, he was president. Then we had Don Orton come in who married one of the students...we were the last vintage probably of it being terribly traditional."
16:25