Evelyn Krauter

Miss Evelyn Krauter taught German at Wilson College. In her second year at Wilson, in addition to German, she taught two classes in French during the academic years, 1913-1914 and 1914-1915. Twenty-four years old when she applied in June 1913 through the Albany, New York, Teachers’ Agency, she had by that time taught in a girls’ school, Brooklyn Seminary, and the high school in Summit, New Jersey. Having been born in and raised in Germany by a German father, who was director of a museum in Frankfurt, and an English mother, she was fluent in both German and English, and, having studied in both England and France, she also was competent in French. She received a certificate of modern languages after having been examined in 1908 and 1909 by the Royal Prussian School Commission.

After having been interviewed in New York City by Dr. McKeag, she was hired with a salary of $700 and housing, $100 more than the usual salary paid to a new instructor, the additional sum prompted by family need. Since she had little knowledge of Wilson College, so she had many questions. She needed to know what courses she would be teaching, what linens would be provided for her room, what to wear, and what to expect. That fall with knowing very little about the college and with never having seen it, she arrived at Wilson.

In the summer between her two years of teaching at Wilson, she took three courses at Columbia University, one in German literature, one in French, and one in methods of teaching German. Of the three courses, she felt that the French course was the most disappointing, especially as she thought her teaching of French was weaker than her teaching of German. At the end of that summer she asked Dr. McKeag for an increase of $100 in her salary. Dr. McKeag denied her request and stated that her salary of $700 was higher than that of other instructors in colleges and reminded her that her actual salary amounted to $1000 as her board was worth $300.

At the end of Miss Krauter’s second year Dr. McKeag could not promise her a position for the following year as Miss Syvret, a French teacher, would return, and the demand for courses in German was unknown. Dr. McKeag ended her letter by saying that she wished to retain Miss Krauter as she valued her work. Dr. McKeag wrote two undated letters of recommendation for Miss Krauter, one aimed especially at administrators of private secondary schools as Dr. McKeag thought Miss Krauter was better suited to work at that level than to work at the collegiate level. Unfortunately, the correspondence in the Wilson files ends with these letters so that Miss Krauter’s life after two years at Wilson is unknown.