Bain News Service,, publisher.
Mrs. Lora Wagner
[between ca. 1910 and ca. 1915]
1 negative : glass ; 5 x 7 in. or smaller.
Notes:
Title from data provided by the Bain News Service on the negative.
Photograph shows Mrs. Lora Wagner, a married New York City teacher who
protested the lack of maternity leave and worked to change the New
York City Board of Education policy of suspension of teachers who
became mothers. (Source: Flickr Commons project and Patricia Carter,
"Becoming the 'New Women': the Equal Rights Campaigns of New York
City Schoolteachers, 1900-1920," in Richard Altenbaugh, ed., The
Teacher's Voice: A Social History of Teaching in Twentieth-Century
America, p. 54)
Forms part of: George Grantham Bain Collection (Library of Congress).
Format: Glass negatives.
Rights Info: No known restrictions on publication.
Repository: Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, Washington, D.C. 20540 USA, hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/pp.print
General information about the Bain Collection is available at hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/pp.ggbain
Higher resolution image is available (Persistent URL): hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/ggbain.17755
Call Number: LC-B2- 3289-6
pennylrichardsca, gohomekiki, Richard Arthur Norton (1958- ), and Jaime Lee added this photo to their favorites.
pennylrichardsca 18 months ago | reply
Mrs. Lora Wagner was a married New York City teacher who protested the New York City policy of suspending teachers who became mothers. She gave birth just 13 hours after leaving the classroom; while still recovering, she wrote to the mayor, asking him to direct the Board of Education to change their policies about teachers and maternity leave. See:
Patricia Carter, "Becoming the 'New Women': the Equal Rights Campaigns of New York City Schoolteachers, 1900-1920," in Richard Altenbaugh, ed., The Teacher's Voice: A Social History of Teaching in Twentieth-Century America (Psychology Press 1992): 54.
swanq 18 months ago | reply
See NYT of November 12, 1914,
select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F00612FD3C5C1373...
"The Board of Education for fully two hours and a half yesterday afternoon wrestled with the case of Mrs. Lora M. Wagner, the teacher-mother in the Curtis High School. First, it decided by a vote of 25 to 8 against the report of its Committee on High Schools granting her a leave of absence from Nov. 3, 1914, to Sept. 10, 1915, for the purpose of rearing her child. .... "
Barbara (LOC P&P) 18 months ago | reply
Thanks to both of you for the information and citations. Fascinating! We'll add some information to the description when we update.