Wikipedia

Margaret T. Cussler

Margaret Thekla Cussler (August 25, 1911 – July 15, 1987) was an American writer, sociologist, and college professor. She made three documentary films in the 1940s with Mary L. De Give, and taught sociology at the University of Maryland, College Park, from 1954 into the 1970s.

Margaret T. Cussler
Cussler, from the 1931 yearbook of the New York State Teachers College at Albany
Born(1911-08-25)August 25, 1911
DiedJuly 15, 1987(1987-07-15) (aged 75)
OccupationsWriter, sociologist, filmmaker, college professor
Notable workYou Can't Eat Tobacco (1942 film)

Early life and education

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Cussler was raised in Gansevoort, New York, the daughter of Henry C. Cussler and Margaret King Cussler.[1] Her father was a pastor in Schuylersville, New York.[2][3] She graduated from the New York State College for Teachers in 1932, and completed doctoral studies at Radcliffe College and Harvard University in 1943, with adviser Carle C. Zimmerman.[4][5] She also studied at Middlebury College, and at Oxford University.[6]

Cussler was women's tennis champion of Glens Falls in 1930,[7] 1933,[8] and 1934.[9] In 1932, she was named Albany city women's tennis champion.[7]

Career

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Cussler taught in Schuylersville,[7] and was head of the English department at Arlington High School in the 1930s.[5] In 1940, she pretended to be a teenager and enrolled in a high school to write about the students' point of view.[10]

During World War II she worked for the National Research Council, studying foodways in the American South. As part of this work she and Mary L. De Give made a short film, You Can't Eat Tobacco (1942).[11] The two women formed a production company, Social Documentary Films, and made two more films, Not By Books Alone (1945)[12][13] and Hopi Horizons (1946).[4]

Cussler taught sociology at the University of Maryland, College Park, from 1947 to 1951, and from 1954 into the 1970s.[3] She became an assistant professor in 1956 and an associate professor in 1962. In 1959 she won a faculty fellowship to attend the Summer Institute for Social Gerontology.[14] In the 1970s she sued the university for sex bias, unsuccessfully,[15][16] when the school refused her full professor status, removed her from committees, paid her less than colleagues, and otherwise restricted her career.[17][18] The State of Maryland, in turn, sued the United States Department of Health, Education, and Welfare for encouraging Cussler's lawsuit and others.[19][20]

Cussler died from cancer in 1987, at the age of 75. Her papers are in the collection of the Schlesinger Library at Harvard.[21] Her older brother Henry was also a college professor.[22]

Works

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Journal articles

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  • "The Educational Whirl" (1937, 1938)[23][24]
  • "Emotional Maturity for Teachers" (1939)[25]
  • "Alias Sweet 16: An English Teacher's Adventure" (1941)[10]
  • "The Innocent Eye" (1942, with Mary L. De Give)[26]
  • " The effect of human relations on food habits in the rural southeast" (1942, with Mary L. De Give)[27]
  • "Let's Look it in the Eye" (1942, with Mary L. De Give)
  • "Foods and nutrition in our rural Southeast" (1942, with Mary L. De Give)
  • "Outline of Studies on Food Habits in Rural Southeast" (1943, with Mary L. De Give)[28]
  • "Assignment for Tomorrow: Shall we Desert School for Some 'Easy Money'?" (1943)[29]
  • "Filmmaking as a Focus of Social Forces in an Indian Tribe" (1946)

Books

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  • Not By A Long Shot: Adventures of a Documentary Film Producer (1951)[30][31]
  • ‘Twixt the Cup and the Lip (1952, with Mary L. De Give)[32]
  • The Woman Executive (1958)[33]
  • Dentists, Patients, and Auxiliaries (1968)[21]

Films

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  • You Can't Eat Tobacco (1942)[4][34]
  • Not By Books Alone (1945)[12][35]
  • Hopi Horizons (1946)[4]

References

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  1. ↑ "Leaves for College". The Post-Star. 1930-09-19. p. 15. Retrieved 2026-04-18 – via Newspapers.com.
  2. ↑ "Gansevoort". The Post-Star. 1929-04-12. p. 14. Retrieved 2026-04-18 – via Newspapers.com.
  3. 1 2 Henderson, Randi (1974-01-08). "Woman sociology professor gigs academia on treatment". The Baltimore Sun. p. 11. Retrieved 2026-04-18 – via Newspapers.com.
  4. 1 2 3 4 "You Can't Eat Tobacco". Indiana University Bloomington Moving Image Archive. 2015-05-05. Retrieved 2026-04-18.
  5. 1 2 "Margaret Cussler Concludes Graduate Study at Radcliffe". Poughkeepsie Eagle-News. 1940-06-07. p. 10. Retrieved 2026-04-18 – via Newspapers.com.
  6. ↑ "New Study Group Formed by A. A. U. W. Branch". Poughkeepsie Eagle-News. 1936-10-22. p. 8. Retrieved 2026-04-18 – via Newspapers.com.
  7. 1 2 3 "Former Local Woman Wins Albany Net Toga". The Post-Star. 1932-08-16. p. 14. Retrieved 2026-04-18 – via Newspapers.com.
  8. ↑ "Sven Holmquist, Margaret Cussler Victors in Outing Club Singles Play". The Post-Star. 1933-10-09. p. 9. Retrieved 2026-04-18 – via Newspapers.com.
  9. ↑ "Margaret Cussler Wins; Crayton-McCoy Victors". The Post-Star. 1934-08-15. p. 8. Retrieved 2026-04-18 – via Newspapers.com.
  10. 1 2 Cussler, Margaret T. (May 1941). "Alias Sweet 16: An English Teacher's Adventure: An English teacher enrolls as a pupil in a strange high school to get a fresh viewpoint". The Clearing House: A Journal of Educational Strategies, Issues and Ideas. 15 (9): 533–537. doi:10.1080/00098655.1941.11473129. ISSN 0009-8655.
  11. ↑ "Library Books Tobacco Film". The Times-Union. 1946-03-23. p. 10. Retrieved 2026-04-18 – via Newspapers.com.
  12. 1 2 "Movie Filmed at Library for World Distribution". The Times-Union. 1945-06-14. p. 23. Retrieved 2026-04-18 – via Newspapers.com.
  13. ↑ "Library Gives Use of Film". Democrat and Chronicle. 1946-04-24. p. 19. Retrieved 2026-04-18 – via Newspapers.com.
  14. ↑ "Institute in Social Gerontology". Aging (58): 3. August 1959 – via Internet Archive.
  15. ↑ "5 UM men cleared of sex bias; Margaret Cussler loses suit, awaits ruling on university". The Baltimore Sun. 1977-03-25. p. 41. Retrieved 2026-04-18 – via Newspapers.com.
  16. ↑ Wooton, Suzanne (1981-02-20). "Colleges spend thousands to fight complaints of discrimination". The Evening Sun. p. 1. Retrieved 2026-04-19 – via Newspapers.com.
  17. ↑ "Cussler v. University of Maryland, 430 F. Supp. 602 (D. Md. 1977)". Justia Law. Retrieved 2026-04-18.
  18. ↑ Hendricks, Theodore W. (1972-04-13). "UM professor charges sex bias". The Baltimore Sun. p. 60. Retrieved 2026-04-18 – via Newspapers.com.
  19. ↑ "Md. Files Suit Against HEW for Harassment". The Cumberland News. 1974-06-01. p. 2. Retrieved 2026-04-18 – via Newspapers.com.
  20. ↑ "U.S. campuses facing mounting discrimination pressure". Waterloo Region Record. 1973-03-20. p. 44. Retrieved 2026-04-18 – via Newspapers.com.
  21. 1 2 Papers of Margaret Cussler, 1957-1977, Schlesinger Library, Harvard University.
  22. ↑ "Henry Cussler". The Daytona Beach News-Journal. 1986-12-28. p. 23. Retrieved 2026-04-19 – via Newspapers.com.
  23. ↑ Ridenour, Gordon M.; Upton, Rolland H.; White, Naomi John; Nixon, Robert B.; Lyle, Frederick Gordon; Roberts, Cecil W.; McColley, Walter S.; Preston, Effa E.; Eby, Kermit; Cussler, Margaret T. (1937). "The Educational Whirl". The Clearing House. 12 (4): 220–256. doi:10.1080/00098655.1937.11474655. ISSN 0009-8655. JSTOR 30175001.
  24. ↑ Eby, Kermit; Lyle, Frederick Gordon; Bretnall, R. J.; Preston, Effa E.; Nixon, Robert B.; McColley, Walter S.; Roberts, Cecil W.; White, Naomi John; Cussler, Margaret T.; Smith, A. J. (March 1938). "The Educational Whirl: A department of satire and sharp comment". The Clearing House: A Journal of Educational Strategies, Issues and Ideas. 12 (7): 414–415. doi:10.1080/00098655.1938.11474708. ISSN 0009-8655.
  25. ↑ Cussler, Margaret T. (September 1939). "Emotional Maturity for Teachers". The Clearing House: A Journal of Educational Strategies, Issues and Ideas. 14 (1): 15–18. doi:10.1080/00098655.1939.11474894. ISSN 0009-8655.
  26. ↑ Cussler, Margaret T., and Mary L. De Give. "The Innocent Eye" Rural Sociology 7, no. 3 (1942).
  27. ↑ Cussler, Margaret T.; deGive, Mary L. (April 1942). "The Effect of Human Relations on Food Habits in the Rural Southeast". Human Organization. 1 (3): 13–18. doi:10.17730/humo.1.3.b141h18248385224. ISSN 0018-7259.
  28. ↑ National Research Council (US) Committee on Food Habits (1943), "Outline of Studies on Food Habits in Rural Southeast", The Problem of Changing Food Habits: Report of the Committee on Food Habits 1941–1943, National Academies Press (US), retrieved 2026-04-18
  29. ↑ Cussler, Margaret T. (April 1943). "Assignment for tomorrow: Shall we desert school for some "easy money"?". The Clearing House: A Journal of Educational Strategies, Issues and Ideas. 17 (8): 481–482. doi:10.1080/00098655.1943.11474442. ISSN 0009-8655.
  30. ↑ "Documentary Films (review)". The Herald-Sun. 1951-12-02. p. 43. Retrieved 2026-04-18 – via Newspapers.com.
  31. ↑ "2 Former Rochester Women Authors of New Book". Democrat and Chronicle. 1951-10-20. p. 32. Retrieved 2026-04-19 – via Newspapers.com.
  32. ↑ Margaret Cussler; Mary L. De Give (1972). Twixt the Cup and the Lip. Internet Archive. Consortium Press. ISBN 978-0-8434-0157-8.
  33. ↑ Appel, David (1958-05-07). "Today's Book: 'Lady Boss' in Business Rarely Has Time to Shop (review)". The Philadelphia Inquirer. p. 38. Retrieved 2026-04-18 – via Newspapers.com.
  34. ↑ "One-crop Farming (review)". Film Forum Review. 2 (4): 37–38. Winter 1947–1948 – via Internet Archive.
  35. ↑ Croughton, Amy H. (1945-06-04). "Scanning the Screen". The Times-Union. p. 11. Retrieved 2026-04-18 – via Newspapers.com.
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