"The study will attempt to show how the boys and girls of Waxahachie spend their leisure time. It will also indicate the need for more direction in the proper use of leisure time. Furthermore, it will show that much should be done by the adults of Waxahachie to help these boys and girls live a fuller, happier life, and prepare healthy minds and bodies to carry on life in a democratic society."-- leaf 3.

"The purpose of this study was to determine the percent of boys who had hobbies; what influenced their choice of hobbies; what types of hobbies were selected; what were their recreational, educational, and vocational values; and what were their environmental influences...One hundred and ninety-eight questionnaires were filed out in the schools that were in the high economic districts, one hundred ninety-one in the medium districts, and one hundred ninety-seven in the low districts. This made a total of five hundred and sixty-five questionnaires used in the analysis... Comparisons and analyses of all the groups were made by means of numbers, percentages, and averages. "-- leaves 3,7

"This study has two-fold purpose: (1) to determine how the senior high school girls of Big Spring, Texas spend their leisure time and the relation, if any, of certain home and community facilities and instruction as factors which govern the amount and type of leisure activities, (2) to determine whether the public schools are preparing the students for the wise use of leisure time. "-- leaf 3.

This thesis addresses needlework between 1920 and 1970 as a window into women's broader experiences, and also asserts it as a valid topic of historical analysis in its own right. Needlecraft was a ubiquitous part of women's lives which has until recently been largely neglected by historians. The growing historiography of needlework has relied heavily on fashion and design history perspectives, focusing on the products of needlework and examples of creative needlewomen. Moving beyond this model, this thesis establishes the importance of process as well as product in studying needlework, revealing the meanings women found in, attached to, and created through the ephemeral moment of making. Searching for the ordinary and typical, it eschews previous preoccupations with creation, affirming re-creation and recreation as more central to amateur needlework. Drawing upon diverse sources including oral history research, objects, Mass Observation archives, and specialist needlework magazines, this thesis examines five key aspects of women's engagement with needlework: definitions of ‘leisure' and ‘work'; motivations of thrift in peacetime and war; emotions; the modern and the traditional and finally, the gendering of needlework. It explores needlework through three central themes of identity, obligation and pleasure. Whilst asserting the validity and importance of needlework as a subject of research in its own right, it also contributes to larger debates within women's history. It sheds light on the chronology and significance of domestic thrift, the meanings of feminised activities, the emotional context of home front life, women's engagement with modern design and concepts of ‘leisure' and ‘work' within women's history.