Historical Background
In the summer of 1935, Esther Smith, a 23-year-old high school teacher, was a member of a group of young, professional, single women on a bus tour of the American West. The tour was offered by the summer travel program, "University of Tours." The group was chaperoned by a male college professor, a principal driver, and a back-up driver. The University of Tours was described as "an educational institution on wheels." The California portion of the tour included stops in San Francisco, Yosemite, Los Angeles, and San Juan Capistrano.
From the guide to the Esther Smith scrapbooks of a bus tour of the American West, 1935, (Special Collections and Archives, University of California, Irvine Libraries)
