Anderson, Joyce Rinehart

Dickinson Magazine features the story of Joyce Rinehart Anderson '45, "the first or second female designer in the American craft movement."  After studying language at Dickinson, Joyce moved back to her hometown of Morristown, New Jersey, and married high school sweetheart Edgar.  At their property on which they have lived, worked, and have preserved for sixty years, Joyce built furniture, decorations, and the house itself, cultivating special skill in lathing.  Today she is recognized as one of the "foremost American craft artists."

Joyce Rinehart Anderson (class of 1945) shares in an interview the effect of World War II on her life as a female student. She had been engaged to someone from Dickinson College who was killed in May (she does not specify the year) in Okinawa. Anderson says that the "war hit me real hard because the guy I expected to be married to was killed."

Joyce Rinehart Anderson (Class of 1945) reports in an interview that the dean of women, Josephine Brunyate Meredith, locked her in the infirmary when she was sick. The dean feared that Joyce had scarlet fever, but Joyce claims that, in locking her in the infirmary without care, they "practically killed me." According to Anderson, not only did this quarantine cost her a semester in college, but it also led to other problems later in her life.

Joyce Rinehart Anderson (Class of 1945) describes in an interview how women began to publish the Dickinsonian when male students left for World War II. According to Anderson, male students ran and published the Dickinsonian prior to the start of the war. Anderson deems her experience as a copy editor for the newspaper as a "very valuable part of my education." Anderson recalls not only editing other students' articles but also writing articles herself. She worked for other publications post-graduation.