WARRING AND WORKING: BU school helped women find jobs until the ’50s

Late in the second decade of the 20th century, as World War I took American men away from their families and their jobs, America’s businesses found themselves in need of replacement workers.

It was a major problem at the time, stretching American resources as thin as they could go, as those left behind saw their loved ones travel into battle a world away.

But one Boston University man stepped up to try and solve the problem for the short term. College of Business Administration staff member T. Lawrence Davis set up emergency courses to train women in business and secretarial services. Though women did attend BU by the early 20th century, Davis’s courses were exclusively for women.

By 1919, interest and attendance had grown so much that BU which had been offering the courses through the College of Business Administration needed a separate facility. Davis secured funding from big-name northeast businesses and banks and opened a secretarial school exclusively for women. The College of Practical Arts and Letters, or PAL, was born and Davis went on to become the college’s only dean.

PAL offered women vocational training and was one of the first schools in the United States to also offer women a broad liberal arts education.

‘Dean Davis was way ahead of his time,’ said 1948 PAL graduate Virginia Putnam of the groundbreaking dean. ‘He thought women should be trained and educated.’

The college opened its doors to 709 young women on Sept. 22, 1919. It was located on the corner of Garrison and St. Botolph streets, in the Back Bay neighborhood. Attendance ballooned to 990 women the next year.

PAL offered four-year degrees in secretarial studies, home economics, art, store services (retail) and commercial arts instruction. Students could also take classes at other BU schools and Simmons College.

‘It was a very varied education,’ Putnam recalled.

Although the Boston University News reported at the time that ‘business’ was the name of the game, PAL offered a ‘well-rounded curriculum,’ according to the BU Bulletin. In 1938 courses included money and banking, typewriting, French, German and Spanish.

Freshman English Professor Donald Winslow, who later served as the head of the English Department in 1952, said PAL had a very strong English department, a testament to its commitment to the liberal arts.

SURPRISING ACCEPTANCE

Women did not normally go to college in those days. But Putnam said she encountered little disapproval about attending college and receiving vocational training (instead of staying at home and raising children).

‘It was very placid in those days,’ she said.

College of Liberal Arts 1945 graduate Charlotte Lindgren agreed that people were not dissatisfied with women attending PAL.

‘The jobs women held were in the secretarial and educational fields. PAL taught both,’ she said. ‘It was a secretarial school, but it also had a strong liberal arts contingent with great students.’

Women left PAL prepared to successfully enter the professional and domestic worlds. Dancing courses were ‘recommended for all students,’ but may have been ‘required of or advised for certain individuals,’ according to the Bulletin. One unique course, also found in the bulletin, provided for the study of historic furniture from the Egyptian era to modern times in order to provide women with ‘suitable standards by which to select furniture intelligently.’

EDUCATION AND A GREAT TIME

Putnam, who majored in commercial education with a concentration in advertising and went on to become a guidance counselor, said she ‘really enjoyed’ her college experience at PAL.

Women who studied in PAL ‘became pioneers in business and business education,’ said 1935 PAL graduate Carla Paaske. After graduating, Paaske returned to BU as school registrar.

According to Winslow, PAL produced among the largest number of teachers of New England colleges and universities.

Fellow graduate Putnam remembered Paaske as the ‘dynamic force behind PAL an inspiring mentor and tremendous influence.’

Paaske, who says she has ‘kept alive by taking pills, us[ing] a cane at times and grumbl[ing] over getting old,’ is still active in class reunions. Paaske and Putnam both declare their PAL years to be ‘wonderful’ memories that they were blessed to have.

Today, Paaske said her mind is ‘filled with wonderful memories of PAL, my classmates, my colleagues, my students and many, many alumni from the college years.’

Some women commuted and some lived in a dorm annexed to the PAL building downtown. Putnam remembered a ‘great community of women’ that included friends from places around the country, including Florida and New York.

According to the Blue Book, a publication similar to today’s Life Book, restrictions on PAL dormitory life make today’s Guest Policy seem almost non-existent. Dorm rooms were inspected for neatness at 10 a.m. on weekdays and noon on weekends. Residents had to sign in not only when they returned to the dorm, but also when they left to go out. And curfews were not just for guests residents had to be in by 10:30 p.m. on weekdays and 12:30 a.m. on weekends.

The women needed special permission to stay out for special occasions. If there was a BU-sponsored dance, the girls could stay out until the wee hours 3 a.m. If it was another school’s dance, BU required the women be home no more than one hour after the dance ended. Shades had to be drawn as soon as lights were turned on. Guests had to pay $1.50 per night.

The Blue Book even restricted what residents could wear and where they could wear it. Slacks were appropriate only at breakfast and lunch. Dinner required nice street clothes. Only housecoats could be worn outside dorm rooms, but still in limited areas. Bermuda shorts were permitted in the backyard. For classes and dates, sweaters and skirts with loafers or saddle shoes were recommended; for a formal occasion, ‘a sheath dress, slim heels, clutch purse and small hat.’

Putnam lived in the dorm one year and still remembers the restrictions.

‘We did not have much independence,’ she said.

SIVAD (Davis spelled backwards), the PAL yearbook, shows that extracurricular activities played a large role in these women’s college experiences. PAL women played on the basketball team and participated in student government, dance, drama, cultural clubs and sororities.

As president of student government and an active athlete, Putnam was featured on the cover of the March 1948 Bostonia alumni magazine as an exemplary, well-rounded student.

PAL students dominated the BU All-University Stunt Night talent show, held every March. The school took home the first place Scarlet Key trophy three years in a row, including the inaugural show. In 1952 they won with their version of the BU Circus Review, in 1953 with ‘Parsiennes’ and in 1954 with their sparkling performance of ‘Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend.’

THE LATE YEARS

In 1939, the school launched a May Day Festival to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the college’s founding. Complete with processional, laurel chain and May pole dances, the event took place on the lush green lawns of the Larz Anderson Estate in Brookline.

‘The queen of the festival, a senior elected by her classmates, was accompanied by two attendants as she marched through the royal court.’ Putnam recalled.

The description of the festival in Bostonia includes freshman girls putting on dances for the queen. Pictures from the magazine depict the procession as a sea of white, as each girl dressed in a white satin dress.

Putnam remembered the festival as ‘a wonderful experience’ that gained popularity and spectators as the years went on.

Men were admitted to PAL for the first time in 1950 as part of the school’s commercial art program. Though the school’s women did have fun in the single-sex environment, they welcomed the opposite sex.

‘We were very delighted to have men’ join the college, Putnam recalled.

Lindgren, who studied during the four years of United States involvement in World War II, said BU as a whole ‘was a woman’s world because most of the men were fighting in the war.’

But following Davis’ death in 1953 and the construction of the Charles River Campus, PAL courses were integrated into what are now the School of Management, the College of Fine Arts and the School of Education. The school officially closed on June 30, 1955.

Those who had enjoyed the school were disappointed, Winslow said.

‘There were very hard feelings when the school was closed,’ she recalled. ‘School spirit was very high in PAL and they took pride in their school.’

PAL alumni still meet for reunions regularly and are planning for the 50th anniversary reunion in 2005. The school’s alumni rank third in donations to BU. The contributions funnel into library funds to buy magazines, periodicals and books in the humanities.

Scott Tropy, who works in the BU Reading Office and communicates closely with PAL alumni, described the women as wonderful ladies.