Meredith, Josephine B.

In a letter dated August 16, 1919, President Morgan urges Dean Meredith to come to campus as soon as she can. He writes that he hopes "that you can arrange to come to us pretty soon - not intendeing this to hurry you, but saying what I think you yourself also feel, that the sooner you can get here and in touch with the various elements of the situation, the better it will be." According to Morgan, there is much to do to prepare for her position.

In her letter to President Morgan dated August 12, 1919, Dean Meredith formally accepts the position of Dean of Women after being freed from her contract at the Woodbury School. She immediately begins to discuss the changes she hopes to make at Dickinson College as the new Dean of Women. Her plans include turning an old chapel into a gymnasium for women and turning a room into her office so she can watch the women come and go. She also discusses supplies for the women's dorm as well as the staff at Metzger Hall.

In a telegram dated August 11, 1919, Josephine B. Meredith accepted the position as the Dean of Women Students at Dickinson College.

In a letter to Mrs. Josephine B. Meredith, a candidate for the Dean of Women, President Morgan agrees with Meredith and advises her to meet with him to further discuss the position.

In a letter to Dean Meredith, Mrs. J. Lynn Barnard informs the Dean of Women that the local chapter of the AAUW will be offering loans to female college students.

In August of 1927, a student named Frances A. Janney wrote to President Morgan requesting the name of a woman she could baord with in town. According to Janney, the woman lived accross from Metzger Hall and often takes in female boarders. The woman was recommended by Dean Meredith, the Dean of Women at the time.

In the subsection entitled "Women's Quarters at Denny Hall," Meredith gives us an insight to how rooms on the college grounds enabled day students (town students ?), commuters, and boarders to take advantage of the time spent on campus.

 

Located in the basement, the women's quarters at Denny Hall consisted of: a small washing room, a toilet, a small kichenette, and a rest room. Although she mentions that the rooms were clearly makeshift, she also says that they were comfortable and in good condition.

The subsection entitled "Metzger Hall," in Dean Meredith's historical account of women at Dickinson,  gives a general overview of the physical layout of the building. This subsection is followed by  another, more detailed account of specific rooms, their inadecuacies, shortcomings and some scattered suggestions for improvement.

 

In her essay on the "Women at Dickinson College," Dean of Women Josephine Meredith included the following section titled "Why Women Come Here," listing motivating factors/reasons why students chose to attend Dickinson. Her account illustrates the minimal role Dickinson played in proactively seeking to attract even more 'superior' women students; yet she concludes that this could be remedied by being more selective and insisting on personal interviews.

Trends of reasons for attending Dickinson:

In her essay, "Women at Dickinson," Dean of Women Josephine Meredith included a section entitled: "Value of Types." In it Meredith defines three types of students that attended Dickinson College. The description of each type briefly accounts for the value each group brought to the campus.

 

Types of Students: