Oral interviews with female teachers are used as the basis for an analysis of the personal, cultural, and social lives of women who taught in a small midwestern city during the 1930s. Portions of interviews with teachers are presented, and ethnographic theory and techniques used in the interviews are discussed. Analyses of the interviews focus on social and professional restrictions imposed on female teachers before World War II. Female teachers' memories of their childhood views of teachers are brought out, as are their opinions on the teacher's status in the community. Responses to questions regarding the role of women in the 1930s, reasons for choosing teaching as a career, and the hidden marriages of teachers who were forbidden to marry while teaching are discussed. Similarities among the viewpoints of a majority of the teachers are contrasted to those of one teacher whose cultural differences made her an outsider. In the conclusion, the value of an investigation into teacher roles and images is reviewed. (FG)