Summer School for Women Workers in Industry
The Bryn Mawr Summer School for Women Workers in Industry, which ran from 1921 to 1938, was a residential summer school program that brought approximately 100 young working women—mostly factory workers with minimal education—to the Bryn Mawr College campus for eight weeks of liberal arts study. Conceived as part of the workers' education movement in the 1920s and 30s, the program was the first of its kind aimed at women in the United States. The School is also notable because in 1926, at the suggestion of students and against former College President and SSWWI founder M. Carey Thomas's wishes, Hilda Worthington Smith admitted five African-American students to the summer school at a time when Bryn Mawr College had no Black graduates. This collection includes photographs, mostly donated by SSWWI alumnae/i.
