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March 2002, the Cushing Memorial Library will open a major exhibit
on the history of women at Texas A&M. Research for this
exhibit took the better part of a year and has brought to light
the important role women have played in the history of the school
over the past 125 years. While Texas A&M was all-male
and military for the first 87 years of its existence, there were
women in attendance during much of that time.
The burning of Old Main in 1912 destroyed
most of A&M's official records leaving only a few
documents in the hands of faculty, staff and former
students. From the few surviving records it appears that
daughters of Texas A&M's faculty and staff attended the school
off and on from almost they very beginning. They were few in
number and not allowed to receive degrees. For the most part
the women attended classes for two years and then transferred to
another school, most often the University of Texas.
Ethel Hutson is the first woman to attend Texas
A&M for which any record survives. She was the daughter
of Dr. Charles W. Hutson, a popular professor of history and
English at A&M. She was one of the "campus
girls," as the daughters of faculty and staff were
affectionately know. Ethel began attending class in 1893
officially listed as a "lecture student." In
addition, she was named an honorary member of the Class of
1895. It was the only yearbook produced prior to 1903.
It remains one of the best historical documents of student life of
the era and a prized collector's item.
After transferring to the University of Texas
in 1895, Ethel remained a courageous fan of Texas A&M.
During athletic contests in Austin between the two schools, she
would dress in A&M colors, meet the team and fans at the
gates, and proudly lead them through the campus. After graduation
she worked in New Orleans as a journalist. As a noted
proponent of civic causes, Ethel worked actively in the Louisiana
women's suffrage movement.
In 1899, Dr. Hutson's twin daughters Mary and
Sophie followed their older sister's example and began their
studies at Texas A&M. They enrolled in a course of civil
engineering under an old family friend, Professor James C.
Nagle. During four years of study, the twins led an active
and popular student life. They served as "sponsors," or social organizers, for companies within the Corps of
Cadets. The Class of 1900 gave the twins cadet gray uniform
jackets as symbols of their acceptance into the student
body. Their mother created matching skirts for Sophie and
Mary to complete their uniforms.
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The twins, like their sister Ethel, were also
involved in the creation of a yearbook for the school Mary
and Sophie played a major role in producing the 1903
Longhorn. At the time, the rangy longhorn served as the
unofficial symbol and would have been a popular symbol with A&M's
agriculture students.
Sophie and Mary had begun something that would
last. The Longhorn served as the official yearbook for
Texas A&M until 1949 when a student vote changed the name of
the annual to The Aggieland. However, only the name
had changed. The volume numbers continued in sequence,
providing a clear lineage back to that first Longhorn in 1903.
Mary and Sophie completed their studies at
A&M in civil engineering as members of the Class of
1903. However, they received only certificates and not
diplomas. The twins went on to live long, full and active
lives. Mary practiced as a civil engineer in New Orleans.
Although there would continue to be rare
exceptions of women in attendance (Mary Evelyn Crawford received a
degree in 1925), it would take another seven decades for women to
be admitted to Texas A&M on an equal basis with
men. The Hutsons were a proud beginning to a long and
interesting struggle.
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