Students, all women, participating in a science and astronomy class at the Bryn Mawr Summer School for Women Workers in Industry. They are looking at posters, exhibits, and performing an experiment with a male instructor.
Bryn Mawr Summer School for Women Workers in Industry Adult education Clothing and dress Display boards Educators Labor movement Posters Scientific apparatus and instruments Shoes (footwear) Teaching Women Working class--Education women women's studies American photo archives women's rights feminism history
Inscription: Verso: [stamped with photographer's name and address] [See individual photos for additional captions.], Inscription: Recto: [scratched in negative:] 6[obscured by ink]; Caption: This is typical of the exhibits in this strange museum. There are models of everything; the models are simplified to the nth degree. Everything is arranged so that the student may study the material by herself. But astronomy is only part of the science work. During the middle of the session, a second series of exhibits is arranged. These deal with the technical revolution, the transformation which has taken place with the application of science to industry. Among the girls this part of the work is known as "machines", for the Machine is the great bugaboo of their lives. An attempt is made to clear the scientist and his machine-progeny from this unwarranted censure. The machine itself is explained, and the relative efficiency of various types studied. The student is forced to admit that the machine in itself is a blessing, and challenged to solve the problem presented by its current misuse. But women, as a rule, are after all very little interested in those branches of science in which the objects examined to not "wiggle and squirm". The students will study astronomy because of its inate poetical nature. They will master a distaste for machinery because of the grim necessity of fighting contemporary machinery. But when the time rolls around to begin the study of living things - the "wigglers and squirmers" - there is a genuine sigh of relief. And so the concluding series of exhibits dealing with biology, physiology, hygiene, are usually the most popular part of the summer's work. The laboratory, situated as it is on the Bryn Mawr campus, is the starting point for numerous field trips. Outdoors are more trees, grass, hills, sky, than most of the girls ever knew existed. Butterflies, fireflies, birds, flowers - the names of al
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In the Science Laboratory "Push the Button.', Photograph Number: A76-235-2, Arthur and Elizabeth Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America (Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, Harvard University), Data From: The Schlesinger History of Women in America Collection, Folder Number: 235, Folder Title: Professional papers: Student records and activities: Social Science Workshop and Science Laboratory: notebook, ca. 1932. Photographs, Collection Number: A76, Collection Name: Smith, Hilda Worthington, Collection Title: Papers, 1837-1975 (inclusive), 1900-1975 (bulk)
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MEDIUM non-projected black and white photograph MEASUREMENTS 9.5x7.5 in.