During my first summer working in the Athletic Department at Dartmouth College, I can recall older male alumni coming into the office to ask about the location of a particular team photo or a specific team's trophy. While escorting these individuals or groups to other offices for further assistance or to the area of the item they were inquiring about, these Dartmouth men, often with their wives in tow, would start reminiscing. Almost every story would begin the same way and with very similarly worded phrases like, "Before you girls were allowed to go to school here ..." Being that I grew up in California, far away from Hanover, I honestly had no general awareness of the College's history as an all-male institution for the nearly 200 years since its inception.

Recounting the events that led to the admission of women and the first years of co-education at Dartmouth College through firsthand accounts of the young men and women who matriculated to the College coupled with the experiences of residents and administrators became an obvious choice for my thesis and the right vehicle to capture the essence of this pivotal period. I wanted to interview these pioneering spirits in an attempt to inspire the new generation of women at Dartmouth in a continued effort to help move women forward not only during their time at the College but more importantly for their many days beyond the town limit of Hanover.