Friday Family Photo 1968

Forty years ago, February 1968, I took my baby daughter to the Ohio State University Libraries catalog department, where I'd been a Slavic cataloger, to show her off. I had resigned when she arrived and didn't return to work for 9 years. Looking at this photo, what I find so remarkable is not how gorgeous she was, or that my winter coat had fur cuffs and collar, but how dressed up we all were. It almost looks like a party, but I had simply dropped by to let them see her. In those days, women library staff didn't wear slacks to work, and jeans were unthinkable. Look at that! High heels, jewelry--that's amazing. As skirts got shorter and shorter in the late 60s and early 70s, making it impossible to be graceful or comfortable, women welcomed the pants suit, and haven't looked back! And we did a lot of walking in those days--everything you did at your desk had to be checked and double checked in various printed sources or the card catalog. Looks like we stayed trim. The main building, Thompson Library on Neil Avenue, is closed now for remodeling, but at that time the catalog department was on the first floor approximately where the offices of the reference department staff were a few years back (technical services were in the basement since the mid-70s.)