Gender Relations in Berea

In this day and age, one may find it easy to walk into a local library and crack open a book or type a simple search into Google and find the history and timeline of exactly what they are looking for. However, do those books and searches signify what life was truly like living in that time period? Do they display what happened on a day to day basis or depict a firsthand account of someone’s feelings during that time? This project encompasses a selection of eight letters home from Berea College students Harold Johnston and Bertha Daisy Nickum as well as a plethora of photos and documents from the time period such as Codes of Conduct and meal tickets.

These resources paint a much more vivid picture of college life in Berea and help readers gain more knowledge and insight into what being a student may have been like as a male or a female during this era down to how one may dress and what hobbies or skills one could develop. This exhibit serves as a dive into not only campus culture in Berea but also the gender relations within the College at the turn of the 20th century, through policies such as curfews for female students, events including annual pig roasts, and excursions to the mountains.