Littman Library Book Talk: The Only Woman by Immy Humes (and The Only Woman of NJIT)
Immy Humes, Oscar-nominated documentary filmmaker and first-time author, presented her book The Only Woman at the Littman Library on November 9th. The Only Woman is a collection of 100 historical photos collected by Humes showing group portraits of workers, politicians, artists, scientist, musicians… Each photo features men and only one woman among them.
“Spanning more than a century and a half, from 1862 to 2020, the photos were taken in the United States, the United Kingdom, Mexico, France, Peru, Pakistan, and fourteen other countries,” Humes writes in her introduction. “They capture moments along a wide, slow current of change. Each photo offers forensic evidence of patriarchy on parade, along with all the other forces of domination.”
The illuminating text alongside each photo brings each of the “only women” in these photos to life and highlights their achievements against all odds. The book features both unknown and well-known women. Humes years-long research went into understanding and explaining, “What were they doing there? Why this woman? What was it like for her?"
In her presentation at the Littman Library, Humes highlighted the most powerful photos from The Only Woman, and presented them in a chronological order. One of them is the photo taken at Boston City Hospital in 1890. It shows the surgeons Herbert L. Burrell of Harvard Medical School and Dr. Cheever operating a patient’s leg in front of an all-male medical audience. Next to them is the only woman – a nurse whose identity is unknown.
Maya Gervits, Director of the Littman Architecture Library and host of the Book Talk, was so intrigued by Humes’ book that she took on a quest to find “The Only Woman” photo at New Jersey Institute of Technology. Using the NJIT’s Digital Commons, Gervits found the 1923 yearbook from the Newark College of Engineering. The full title is "The 1923 Kem Lec Mek. The Annual of the Students, College of Engineering, Newark Technical School, volume 1". The photo shown below is of the sophomore class and “The Only Woman” in the photo is Miss S. P. Dodman.
In the yearbook, the remark about the sophomore class has Dodman as the class secretary: “This class entered the sacred halls of the college in the fall of 1921, and shortly afterward organized with Frank Borman as President, Fred Eitel, Vice President, and Miss Shirley Dodman as Secretary.”
Dodman was the first woman admitted as a candidate for degree in engineering at Newark Technical School. However, the first woman enrolled at Newark Technical School was Margaret Bryce, a high school teacher who took the chemistry courses in 1897. And the first woman to graduate was Edythe Rabbe who was awarded a degree in chemical engineering in 1930.
In 1896, Dr. Charles A. Colton, the first director of Newark Technical School, is reported to have said the following when asked whether Newark Technical School’s new building would accommodate women: “I would state that in planning the building it was expected that at some time women would be admitted to the school, and hence proper provision has been made for them. It has not been supposed that they would desire to pursue the same course of study as that arranged for men, and as yet there have been no indications as to what line of study women would desire to follow, which the technological school can furnish.”
All in attendance at the Littman Library appreciated very much Humes’ insights from her book and research, and we are altogether appreciative of Maya Gervits’ offering a glimpse of NJIT’s “only women” and our university’s “moments along a wide, slow current of change”, as Humes puts it in her book.