A Curiousity for American History Sparked at Smith

I often tell people that in college I didn’t want to major in anything—I wanted to major in everything! I changed my major several times to reflect my growing curiosity about the importance of arts and culture to the well-being of Americans. I’m especially appreciative of the year I was allowed to pursue that intense curiosity with a focus on the 1930s, through courses and an independent study of a New Deal mural by Ben Shahn in Roosevelt, New Jersey, that helped me to delve into my own family’s history as well as into the archives of the Library of Congress.

An internship at the Newark Museum, which I heard about from a Smithie, reinforced my interests and led me to a career with the National Park Service, where the interdisciplinary approach I had learned in college was valued. My passion for the 1930s was reignited in retirement when I took on the cause of saving the ancestral homestead of Frances Perkins, President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s labor secretary and the first woman to serve on a presidential cabinet. I’m proud to say that we succeeded and that the site is now part of the National Park system.

Thank you, Smith. It all started there!