Queer Places:
Columbia University (Ivy League), 116th St and Broadway, New York, NY 10027
751 Old Post Rd, Bedford, NY 10506
Helen Elizabeth "Betty" Tank (1910-2007) was a bisexual woman whose papers are held at Schlesinger Library. During the 1930s, Tank worked as a waitress, mother's helper, cook, switchboard operator, speakeasy assistant, secretary, and finally as kennel-girl and chauffeur at Airlie Farm in Westchester County, New York. This farm, owned and run by women, raised cows, ponies, collies, and spaniels. The farm was managed by Ida Helen Ogilvie and Delia West Marble. In August 1939, Tank sailed to England, intending to spend a few days there and then visit other parts of Europe. The outbreak of World War II disrupted these plans, and Tank remained in England until May 1940, hiking through the country and working odd jobs. From 1960 until her retirement in 1971, she taught second and third grade in Coxsackie, New York. Although she was engaged once, Tank never married and identified as bisexual.
Helen (Betty) Elizabeth Tank was born in Chatham, New York, the second child of Stella Bayly and Morton R. Tank. She graduated from Russell Sage College in Troy, New York (B.A. 1931) and attended Connecticut State College. During the 1930s, she worked as a waitress, mother's helper, cook, switchboard operator, speakeasy assistant, secretary, and kennel-girl and chauffeur. She traveled to England in August 1939 and was stranded there by the outbreak of World War II. In May 1940 she began working as a housemother at the American College for Girls in Istanbul, Turkey; she later taught English and Science there. She left Turkey in July 1943 and began working for the American Red Cross in Cairo, Egypt, returning to the U.S. in December. In the late 1940s and early 1950s, she taught in one-room schoolhouses in Colorado and Wyoming, where she rode a horse to work each day. She received her master's degree from Columbia University's Teachers College in 1954 and from 1960 until her retirement in 1971, she taught second and third grade in Coxsackie, New York. A lifetime member of the Appalachian Mountain Club and the Hobos Association of America, Tank devoted her time after retirement to travel both within the U.S. and abroad, and to music and writing. She kept diaries from the age of 15 until shortly before her death, and also wrote poems, essays, and autobiographical fiction.
Her memoir of her life in Turkey and the Middle East, Pushing My Shadow, was published in 1995. Although she was engaged once, Tank never married and identified herself as bisexual.
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