An article written about Edith on the occassion of her 75th college graduation

Edith Holt, First Technology “Girl” at UNH
Why would a young woman decide, in 1930, to become the first girl to attend the Institute of Technology at UNH, and major in Architecture? Perhaps it wasn’t really too surprising.
For starters, Edith came from a line of feisty women. Her grandmother Jennie Olsen emigrated from Oslo, Norway, finding her way to North Dakota, where she married and then moved back to New Hampshire. When Edith was growing up in Nashua, NH, her mother was an active suffragist, very involved in women’s issues and desiring to make it less difficult for women to get along in the world. She would have liked more education for herself. Her father was willing to send her to college, but typically of the time, she got married instead. She probably would have preferred to be a young man, as bringing up children was not her main interest and she was happy when they were “up and out.”
There were three children, Ralph, Ruth, and Edith. Ralph studied engineering at UNH in the late ‘20s. Ruth wanted to be a nurse, but her parents insisted that she at least attend college for two years. She did this, then changed to and completed a nursing program. And Edith followed in her brother’s footsteps.
Her brother Ralph was significant in many ways. He was interested from an early age in science and technology, with a bedroom that resembled a museum. Edith was his devoted follower. Family stories include him teaching her to ride his bicycle by having her balance on the crossbar (because her feet wouldn’t reach the pedals otherwise) and sending her down a hill. He also taught her to drive a car at an early age. His influence continued when she reached UNH when a faculty member determined that she was Ralph’s sister. “I hope you’re not like your brother” was his comment. Apparently, Ralph had felt that the University’s role was to provide him with laboratories and other facilities so he and some friends could pursue their own interests.
Other influences on Edith included her grandfather and father, who were involved in building design and construction. (They designed one of the fraternity houses at UNH, but I don’t know which one.) Edith attended the Institute of Technology largely to please her father, she says today. There were few obstacles. Of course, she was initially on the list for ROTC—all the engineering “boys” were on that list. To make up for those credits, she had to take physical education courses, like archery and horseback riding. At one time, for a reason lost to memory, her doctor advised her to “take it easy.” The University interpreted this by requiring her to rest in a room at the top of T Hall, despite the fact that she had to climb many flights of stairs to get there.
Academically, Edith had a lead on the boys in English courses. To this day, she says “Engineering men can’t do English—and aren’t interested in it.” Math and surveying presented no particular problems, but chemistry was a challenge. And Edith remembers spending “about 12 hours a day” in the drafting room. She was considered responsible and “not wild,” so the housemother let her stay out after hours to continue her drafting work. “I was good at it, but I was slow,” she recalls.
She had a “nice bunch of girl friends” who hung out together. She recalls that they were not “girly-girls” and “they were all smart.” She will not say that she herself was, and is, very smart, but clearly that was and is true. The boys in her classes “didn’t go out of their way to be helpful. They resented me, didn’t want girls on their territory.” Edith says that she pretty much ignored them and went about her business. She did have one date with a classmate, a “fixed-up” date. When signing in at the dorm after the date, she had to ask the boy his name!
As the newspaper article reports, she won a prize at graduation for “most academic improvement.” Edith doesn’t recall exactly what this was for, but does remember that the prize, five dollars, “was a little disappointing.”
After graduation, Edith worked for her father for a time. This was during the Depression, of course. Architecture drafting Professor Huddleston (no relation to the current UNH President) got WPA work for some of his recent graduates, measuring several Colonial-era houses in the Portsmouth area. One that was to be disassembled and moved to Massachusetts was measured in very great detail. You will find this project at http://www.library.unh.edu/special/index.php/wpa-buildings/drawings and http://www.library.unh.edu/special/index.php/wpa-buildings/descriptions. Searching these documents, you will find references to Edith V. Holt and to Dorinda Hinckley, who was one of the gang of girls and followed Edith in the School of Technology.
[A recent reference to one of these houses is at http://www.seacoastnh.com/arts/please121501.html. Recent history of the house is found at http://www.paulwentworthhouse.org/index.html. Edith was interviewed during this project, in 2003 or 2004; I have a videotape of that interview, but it is not available on-line, so far as I can tell. It includes some of her memories of the measurement project.]
Otherwise, Edith never used her education in engineering and architecture. She raised three daughters, and when they were well launched in school she took a job at the Nashua Public Library
Now, in her late 90s, Edith doesn’t feel that gender should be a factor in one’s career choice, and simply says “Maybe I was thinking ahead of my time” and “Now you’re good because you’re good, not because you are a girl or a boy.” Asked how education will be different for her five great-grandchildren, she says that it “depends on what kind of mind they have.” She believes they can and should explore whatever they want. Instead of having to take a specific number of credits, they should be able to stray away and do other things, take a trip abroad. “Use the world to meet their needs, instead of conforming to the supposed needs of the world.”