America's First Policewoman-Lola Baldwin
On April 1, 1908, Lola Baldwin was sworn in "to perform police service" for the city of Portland, Oregon, thus becoming the first female police agent hired by an American municipality. Baldwin passed her civil service exams, carried a badge and had official arrest powers in a profession that had previously been exclusively male. This historic date in womens and law enforcement history will be honored with a special 100th Anniversary program on Tuesday, April 1, 2008 in Smith Center Room 338 starting at 7:00pm.
New co-sponsors of the special centennial commemoration of this historical event include the Portland Police Museum (where Lola's logs, citations and police artifacts are displayed in a special exhibit) and the Wells Fargo History Museum. The Anniversary Day presentation will be given by Gloria E. Myers, the author of the definitive biography on Officer Baldwin: A Municipal Mother: Portland's Lola Greene Baldwin, America's First Policewoman.
The event has been put together by the nonprofit Friends of History at Portland State University. For more information, please call Kaci at the History Department at (503)725-5473, or the author, Gloria Myers at (503)287-2823.
Photo:
http://www.prlog.org/
