Curated by Lydia Bennett ’24
The May Festival
In 1925, the school began the May Festival as a dance-based social pageant. The school themed most festivals around adapted folk traditions. The May Day committee invited Rhode Island high school senior girls as honored guests, and gave them tea after the pageant. The committee crowned a senior “May Queen”.
During World War II, students practiced stringent wartime living. The May Festival continued during the war. RISC became a de facto women’s college, as men trained in the “accelerated war program.”
Women continued the college newspapers and yearbooks, and took on community roles previously held by men.
The Gristette yearbook was published from 1944-46 with an almost exclusively female staff.
Select newspaper clippings from former student Jeanne Freeman Williams (1940-1944) show that the Rhode Island State forest fire service trained women to fight fires.
Women’s athletics also took the forefront. Basketball and Field Hockey expanded due to high rates of participation. As reported in the 1945 Gristette: “Other classes have made creditable records, but our participation in the recreational activities was outstanding. The award system of the Women’s Athletic Association was initiate when we entered as Freshmen. With this new incentive every girl found time to engage in and enjoy the sports that were offered” (see quote).
An unidentified student donated a photograph book documenting women’s athletics during this period, especially basketball, including practice
It also featured the March 9th, 1946 game against Pembroke College (Brown University’s women’s college), which ended in a tie. (3/18/46 Beacon)
The WAA also organized a women’s field hockey Play Day tournament, inviting the University of Connecticut, Regis College (Massachusetts), Wheaton College (Massachusetts), and Bridgewater State Teachers College (Massachusetts). President Woodward rolled the ball to begin the tournament.
Women continued to run and participate in pageantry. By 1942, the Women’s Student Government Association and Women’s Athletic Association ran the May Festival. The pageant honored the leaders of women’s organizations on campus. During the war, the pageants reflected campus patriotism. The 1945 pageant celebrated the formation of the UN and looked towards a future of world peace. Pageants after the war reverted to the common prewar folk themes.
May Day 1945 Program front and back (May Day Programs folder)
Miss URI: The pageant is individualized and fades out of student view
By the 1960s, the pageant became part of Open House and Parents Day. The student body vote crowned the winner “Miss URI: Queen of Open House and Parents Day” in a ceremony on the quad. This new form of the pageant focused on university pride, using symbolism tied to the university.
By the late 1960s, the inter-fraternity council took over the pageant and made Miss URI a quieter indoor pageant (1969 Grist). The council still holds Miss URI to-date.
As part of Spring 2024 HIS 477 project