“Women are the ones who really bring home to their children what the responsibilities of citizenship should be…[And] we want our children to be educated to think.”
Eleanor Roosevelt speaks to students at Muhlenberg College
She made us feel that we [students at women’s college] were in a sense pioneers, and that a woman’s place did necessarily have to be the home.
At the Crest by Hank Nuwer
In the summer of 1942, First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt come to the Lehigh Valley for Muhlenberg College’s Bicentennial celebration. During her visit, she stopped at Cedar Crest College where she addressed the students with an important message about a woman’s role in the war efforts. She told the students that “As boys go out to fight…girls must keep the country to which they come back.” Her words had a deep impact on Cedar Crest College students who reflected that they will “never forget the kindness and caring in her expression. She made us feel that we [students at a women’s college] were in a sense pioneers, and that a woman’s place did not necessarily have to be the home.” The idea that a woman’s place was not just in the home was a radical one in the 1940’s, and so the First Lady’s guidance to the women at Cedar Crest College reflects the changing role of women in America and the opportunities they had during this time period and the war.
“As boys go out to fight, girls must keep the country to which they come back.”
Eleanor Roosevelt to Cedar Crest College Students
Photograph: Eleanor Roosevelt (right) with Mrs. Curtis and President Moore (left); 1942
Franklin Delano Roosevelt Jr. Visits Cedar Crest College
During the 1940’s, the Cedar Crest College campus was graced with appearances from not one Roosevelt family member but two! In 1940, Franklin Delano Roosevelt Jr. visited the campus during his father’s campaign trail for presidential reelection. Roosevelt spoke to the students in the Alumnae Hall Chapel, where he told the student body that his father was focused on maintaining peace and democracy.
When speaking about the war in Europe going on at the time, the United States had not yet joined the war, Roosevelt quoted his father saying, “I will never send an American boy to fight on foreign soil.” While President Roosevelt was reelected, he did not keep his promise to keep American boys on American soil, as the United States entered the war in December 1941 after the attack on Pearl Harbor.
Cedar Crest College Women in the '40s: Country, Camaraderie, and Celebration 