Students at Mother Cabrini High School in Manhattan learn how to change a tire under the watchful eyes of Mother Gervase and Marcelle Caccioppoli, October 1959. The students are Dolores Santiago, left, and Jane Fiocco.
Their Washington Heights school was, the NY Times reported, “the first all-girls’ high school in the city to provide driver education.” At the time, only 6 of New York City’s public high schools offered driver training. After the Board of Education turned down Mother Cabrini’s request for a car, citing insufficient teachers for the classes, a local auto dealer donated a new Ford so the girls could get on the road.
Photo: Neal Boenzi for the NY Times via Times Instagram




















