Woman's Bureau: 1922

Not fair.

I just noticed that she is on the exterior side of that double hung window. That really makes this office uninviting!

She must not have been paid much. From the looks of that sassy hairnet, she had to moonlight as a cafeteria lady.

When your office is taller than it is wide, that's not good.

Ms. Mina Van Winkle, director of the D.C. Police Women's Bureau, provided this explanation to an audience in Boston in 1920: The Bureau was organized to enforce "the District's war-time legislation," but "proved so valuable as an emergency measure that it has been made permanent." In 1928 Ms. Van Winkle told a reporter that "Washington is the mecca for all psychopathic women of the nation."

The feature story explained that one of the Bureau's functions was protecting lawmakers "from psychopathic women who flock to the city while Congress is in session with wild and utterly unfounded tales of wrongs done them by prominent men. ... Due to the vigilance of the policewomen, the government officials and other well-known Washingtonians accused of serious misdemeanors often do not even know they have been involved," because the Bureau's policewomen intercept such women, sending some to "some insane asylum" and others home to their husbands, fathers, or brothers.

Greetings from Bethesda, Maryland, one of those "nearby places." Which unfortunately can now take an hour or more to drive to during rush hour from downtown D.C.

Guess it's not as nearby as it used to be!

I love the little iron hammer on the short chain. Break the glass to get to the fire alarm button. If a prankster sounds the alarm, just follow the blood trail. If the fire is real, well, decisions, decisions.

... except the pencil sharpener! That chair will swivel so she can easily use the books on the other table, and the typewriter is well out of the way of the writing surfaces. I've worked in worse.

Maybe Martha Stewart will have a special on how to achieve that in your own police station.

Also, funny how this photo makes even the pencil sharpener look old-fashioned, even though hand-cranked ones are still fairly common.

The large purse is absent!

Give me Dr. Jazz.

We'll have a car out there sometime this week.

Is this the party to whom I am speaking?

If this is typical of an office in the DC Police Department, I'd hate to see what the cells in the DC Jail looked like.

Dingy, and a lot of it doesn't seem the fault of an old negative.

What a quaint expression, that!

I have an oak call box in my kitchen the same as the one to the right of the light fixture; it was once used to summon the servants to different rooms by pushing doorbell buttons. The DC police must have used this one as an intercom of some kind.

To take away any semblance of sex appeal.

No expense was spared to accommodate the WB.

[It was an extra-spatial kind of spatiousness. - Dave]

That particular arrangement is my personal idea of hell.

If this was NY's 12th Precinct, I would expect Wojo and Fish were out on a call. Obviously they modeled the set of "Barney Miller" on this.

Can't decide if that bar is to keep her in or others out. In either case, it appears one would have to crawl under it. At least she has the keys.