Interview with Alta Mae Chandler, March 26, 1990

Interview Summary

Alta Mae Chandler, a former University of Kentucky student, was born in 1893 in Owingsville, Kentucky 50 miles east of Lexington. She describes her family and what life was like growing up in Bath County at that time. Chandler then gives details about attending school in a one room school, and then attending a larger high school. She explains how she became a teacher when the school board asked her to teach the first and second grade after she graduated high school in 1913. Chandler attended the University of Kentucky and describes what it was like to be a student at the University of Kentucky in the early 1900s. She remembers some of her roommates at Patterson Hall and some of the people she knew in college, including Sarah Blanding. Chandler explains that she did very well in math and chemistry, and was one of the only women at the university taking such classes. She also discusses the role of women at that time from both a social and political standpoint. Chandler states that she was one of the few "independent women." She describes social life at UK including dances at Patterson Hall, and she discusses the women's dress code explaining that they had to wear dresses and skirts and often wore hats. The interview ends with Chandler briefly discussing the changes she saw both in herself and in the university after her college years.

Interview Keyword

College administrators College environment College students--Conduct of life. College students--Social conditions Influenza Epidemic, 1918-1919 Owingsville (Ky.) Sexism in higher education Student housing Universities and colleges--Faculty. Women in higher education. World War, 1914-1918

Interview LC Subject

Chandler, Alta Mae, 1893- Chandler, Alta Mae, 1893- --Interviews Discrimination in employment Education--Kentucky Educators Sex discrimination against women Teachers--Kentucky University of Kentucky University of Kentucky--History Women's rights Women--Suffrage

Interview Rights

All rights to the interviews, including but not restricted to legal title, copyrights and literary property rights, have been transferred to the University of Kentucky Libraries.

Interview Usage

Interviews may be reproduced with permission from Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History, Special Collections, University of Kentucky Libraries.