For the 1966–1967 academic year, Anderson House was an experimental self-governing dorm with no house mother and no hours for a select group of senior women at Knox College. This breakthrough in eliminating the curfew for these women came after several visionary Knox women students worked with the College Women’s Council to address the inequity of the women’s curfew.
Following the success of this “experiment,” in 1968 senior women had no curfew, and by 1970 all Knox women enjoyed the freedom of unrestricted hours.
Honoring the legacy of this Knox College milestone started at our 50th Reunion in 2017, when a group of us who had lived in Anderson House met for breakfast at the Gizmo. We decided that we didn’t want to wait five years for the next reunion before we got together again. So the following fall, we met in Seabrook, Washington, and then, in 2019, we met in Santa Fe, New Mexico. When the pandemic put our get-togethers on hold, we started Zoom meetings once a month. We enjoyed hearing about books we were reading, our travel adventures, and our grandchildren’s activities.
In 2024, we started talking about what our Anderson House legacy at Knox College might be—should we raise money for a lecture series on Women’s Studies or for a scholarship for women? Then in spring 2025, I suggested the possibility of commissioning an artist to paint/ draw Anderson House and then gift it to the College. We all rallied around this idea. We had our legacy!
Several members of our Zoom group (Dorie Campbell Tichenor ’67, Nancy Rabenstein Pielemeier ’67, and Wendy Hummel Hill ’67) met up with former Knox Regional Philanthropy Officer Jake Secrist at Knox Club meetings in their home towns and eagerly related our legacy idea. Jake was supportive in helping us develop this legacy and introduced our group to Angie Olivas ’18, associate director of the Knox Fund, who introduced us to a former Knox art student, Kevin Dera Cox ’24. We contacted him, and, after seeing some of his drawings, we knew he was our artist. From two old photographs of Anderson House, he drew and framed our legacy vision!
At the same time, Jake introduced us to Associate Professor of Educational Studies Deirdre Dougherty. She began joining our Zoom meetings, as did Angie, and, together, we started planning our dedication event at Knox in conjunction with Professor Dougherty and her student Delaney Edsall ’27’s presentation of Living on Campus in the 1960s.
Now the fast track began. We chose the date, the program was printed, and we secured our flights and hotel reservations. The excitement started to escalate!
On Thursday, May 7, 2026—60 years after living in Anderson House—we gathered in the Seymour Library at Knox College for our presentation event.
The program, mostly coordinated by Professor Dougherty and her students, included an amazing pop up archive exhibit facilitated by College Archivist Joseph Taylor; 1960s music playing in the background; era pictures projected on screens around the room; the entire Knox College Choir singing the Knox Hymn; President C. Andrew McGadney giving the opening comments; Associate Professor of Classics Hilary Lehmann as our moderator; Professor Dougherty and student Delaney educating us on women at Knox College in the 1960s; our relating some of our memories, plus honoring our deceased Anderson House members; and then hearing evocative words from our artist, Dera.
At the conclusion of the program, six of the Anderson House women, Ruth, Anne, Dorie, Elsa, Wendy, and Nancy, gathered together in the front of the Abolition Lab in the Library and dedicated our Anderson House drawing to Knox College with these words written by Wendy:
“Today we are gifting Dera’s evocative and beautiful rendering of Anderson House to highlight its story and its contribution to the rise of self-determination for Knox women. Although 60 years later we may primarily be curiosities, we are hopeful that there is still a spark of connection and a link in spirit with today’s liberated and accomplished Knox women.”
We thank everyone involved in this Anderson House Legacy event, and we are grateful that our Anderson House drawing will be an enduring reminder of our story.
