Abstract
In this interview, Enid Wilson begins by describing her family background, her father’s professorships at Massachusetts School of Technology and Harvard University, and her childhood in Brookline, Massachusetts. She explains why she chose to attend Pembroke College and shares pieces of her interview process with Dean Margaret Shove Morriss. She recalls the buildings that were on the Pembroke campus, noting that women almost never went to the Brown campus, and mentions the women’s dress code.
Wilson generally describes social life on campus and going downtown, and more specifically recollects the physical education and chapel requirements. She remembers professors Randall Stewart, William Hastings, Leicester Bradner, and Sinclair Armstrong, and explains how she became a librarian. Wilson details the accelerated trimester program brought on by World War II and discusses how the war affected social and extracurricular activities and necessitated coeducational classes. She concludes her interview by denouncing the Pembroke-Brown merger.
Recorded on December 4, 2012 in Enid Wilson’s home in Wellesley, MA
Interviewed by Wendy Korwin
Suggested Chicago style citation: Wilson, Enid. Interview. By Wendy Korwin. Pembroke Center Oral History Project, Brown University. December 4, 2012.
Biography
Enid Wilson was born in Brookline, Massachusetts to Edwin Bidwell Wilson and Ethel (Sentner) Wilson. After earning her A.B. in English from Pembroke College in 1943, she completed a masters in Library Science at Simmons College. Wilson worked as a library cataloguer for nearly 50 years, first at the at the Univeristy of Rhode Island, and later at Boston University. She was an active member of the American Association of University Women and the Wellesley Historical Society. She served on the Pembroke Center Associates Council from 2002 until her death in April 2014.