Camille Smalley, '08

Currently serves the Dyer Library/Saco Museum as the Program and Education Manager.

"My job includes a variety of tasks, from creating programming, [leading] educational tours, to curating and designing exhibitions. One of my first major exhibitions, Making Her Way: The Factory Girls of Saco and Biddeford, stemmed from my research as a Women's Studies minor. Making Her Way depicts factory life for mill girls in the early 19th century, as Saco and Biddeford became textile industry boom towns. This exhibition explores how farm girls from rural New England moved to the city and became active consumers, eager readers, and independent women. 

"My Women's Studies minor really taught me the broader context and perspectives in studying both history and culture. The field opened up to me the viewpoints of women, minorities, and other social perspectives. I was really reluctant to even take a Women's Studies class. I had very antiquated views on the field—visions of burning bras, no shaving, and anti-Barbie. Once in a course, I realized that I really enjoyed the field of Women's Studies, and that while I disagreed with a few points, overall, the word "feminist" is all-encapsulating, from mill girls to the 1970s sexual revolution and extending to any woman in the 21st century."