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Washington Women’s Heritage Project records, 1900-2000 
University of Washington Libraries Special Collections 
Eleanor Josephine Danner Bilimoria 
April 14, 1985 
Cassette 2, Side 2 
 
 
Eleanor Danner Bilimoria  00:00 
Well, I'm taking a lot of your time.  
 
Elizabeth Gallery-Fox  00:00 
No, no, none of my time. I have all the time in the world today. I do. 
 
Eleanor Danner Bilimoria  00:11 
I got on the train. It was a night train, because that was cheaper, I think. Or else, it gave me more 
time before I had to leave, anyhow. I was sitting up all night in this compartment, and it was 
filled with Nazis soldiers, and they tried very, very hard to strike up a conversation with me. 
"Was I English?" "Nein." "Was I American?" "[?Da?]." And I wouldn't talk to them in English or 
American, and I knew very few German words, but I made use of them, and finally they decided 
that I wasn't very interesting, so they let me alone. But I was glad to get off that train, and it must 
have gone right to the boat. Ship was open, and I went aboard, and I washed out my undies and 
hung them on the line that I put up on my berth, and when they-- my roommates came in, they 
were German, and they said, "Ah! American. Only American washing clothes so fast." [Laughs.] 
 
Elizabeth Gallery-Fox  01:30 
Oh, right away, huh?  
 
Eleanor Danner Bilimoria  01:31 
Right away. And then the trip coming home was pretty dull, but that-- that's the end of 1934. I 
think I was 25 then.  
 
Elizabeth Gallery-Fox  01:47 
Yeah [inaudible].  
 
Eleanor Danner Bilimoria  01:53 
Do you want to ask any questions? 
 
Elizabeth Gallery-Fox  01:59 
Well, what was it like to be-- I mean, first of all, for you, how did it feel to--?  
 
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Eleanor Danner Bilimoria  02:06 
I loved it! 
 
Elizabeth Gallery-Fox  02:07 
Was it just exciting and--  
 
Eleanor Danner Bilimoria  02:09 
Yes.  
 
Elizabeth Gallery-Fox  02:09 
--full of adventure?  
 
Eleanor Danner Bilimoria  02:10 
Right.  
 
Elizabeth Gallery-Fox  02:11 
Was it scary to be alone?  
 
Eleanor Danner Bilimoria  02:14 
No.  
 
Elizabeth Gallery-Fox  02:14 
No? That was just right down your alley. 
 
Eleanor Danner Bilimoria  02:24 
I don't know where I worked this in now. I'd have to rethink it. I stopped in Stuttgart because I 
had known that Stuttgart had very modern architecture, and I wanted to see it. So at-- I was alone 
in the dining room at the hotel having a very nice dinner, and the waiter was very solicitous. I 
asked for butter. He said "Ah, Americans have to have butter and they have to have ice in their 
water." So then he started to talk to me, and I said, "What should I see in this short time?" He 
said, "I'll show you. I'm off duty in an hour or so." So I went out with him. [Inaudible] wandered 
around. I don't know what all we did, but it was [inaudible]. The men were much more 
gentlemanly, shall I say, in those days.  
 
Elizabeth Gallery-Fox  03:24 
Was there a feeling in those days for a reason for women not to trust men? Or was-- were you 
guys--? 
 
Eleanor Danner Bilimoria  03:34 
Not like now, I think. I mean, I wouldn't trust a man like that now. 
 
Elizabeth Gallery-Fox  04:01 
Most women wouldn't, unless they had just an incredible strong intuition, it'd be okay.  
 
Eleanor Danner Bilimoria  04:05 
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But nothing happened. He was very courteous, and we had a pleasant evening. Took me back to 
the hotel, and that was it.  
 
Elizabeth Gallery-Fox  04:07 
How do you think your family felt about you being away and on your own?  
 
Eleanor Danner Bilimoria  04:09 
Well, there was trepidation, I think. When we went down to the train to put me on the train, my 
father did an unprecedented thing. He bought me a movie magazine. Now, whether he thought 
that was a education I needed, or whether it was just the first thing he saw, I don't know. When I 
was in college, I worked one year at Frederick & Nelson's on the Christmas rush. I went up to the 
bookstore. I wanted to get my father a book, and I waited until I could get a man clerk, and I 
said, "I want a book for a man for Christmas. What do you recommend?" And so he picked out a 
book, and I thought I had just the present for my father. My father opened it Christmas morning, 
and it was in the furnace before noon. [They laugh.] I wish I'd kept the name of it. I'd read it now 
[laughs]. 
 
Elizabeth Gallery-Fox  05:32 
He just didn't like it.  
 
Eleanor Danner Bilimoria  05:33 
He didn't like it. 
 
Elizabeth Gallery-Fox  05:34 
Did he not like the book, or he didn't like the idea of you giving him a book [inaudible]?  
 
Eleanor Danner Bilimoria  05:57 
Oh no, oh no, it was the book. It was the contents of the book. It must have been very risqué.  
 
Elizabeth Gallery-Fox  06:02 
Maybe this clerk at Frederick's thought it was for a boyfriend or something instead of your 
father. 
 
Eleanor Danner Bilimoria  06:06 
It could have been. I don't know whether I made that clear or not. 
 
Elizabeth Gallery-Fox  06:08 
So you-- while you were in Europe, you were doing filming-- 
 
Eleanor Danner Bilimoria  06:10 
Yes. 
 
Elizabeth Gallery-Fox  06:10 
--and taking pictures?  
 
Eleanor Danner Bilimoria  06:11 
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Yes. And it was on the basis of those pictures and the lectures I gave when I came back that I got 
the scholarship two years later, full tuition scholarship. And that year, we went to Poland and 
Hungary, I guess just the two countries that year.  
 
Elizabeth Gallery-Fox  06:40 
Were you really excited about art?  
 
Eleanor Danner Bilimoria  06:44 
Oh yes. 
 
Elizabeth Gallery-Fox  06:45 
[?Did you?] just love art? 
 
Eleanor Danner Bilimoria  06:47 
Mmm. We did etchings in Budapest and studied with the man who did [inaudible]. And those are 
some-- those are the folk dances that we did. 
 
Elizabeth Gallery-Fox  07:01 
Oh, these are beautiful.  
 
Eleanor Danner Bilimoria  07:04 
They were lovely colors. They were very-- they [?are?] faded. 
 
Elizabeth Gallery-Fox  07:12 
Do you have etchings and stuff from when you were in Europe?  
 
Eleanor Danner Bilimoria  07:18 
Uh, I don't know where the etchings. I'll bring up some woodblocks and show you, if you want to 
turn this off and save it. 
 
Elizabeth Gallery-Fox  07:22 
Okay. [Tape cuts.] 
 
Elizabeth Gallery-Fox  07:26 
So these are the-- some of the pictures that you bought while you were there?  
 
Eleanor Danner Bilimoria  07:30 
No, these I made.  
 
Elizabeth Gallery-Fox  07:31 
These you made.  
 
Eleanor Danner Bilimoria  07:32 
This is a woodblock of Poland, the scene that was there by the where we stayed and we worked. 
We were up in the Carpathian Mountains. 
 
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Elizabeth Gallery-Fox  07:44 
So you made this woodblock-- 
 
Eleanor Danner Bilimoria  07:46 
Yes. 
 
Elizabeth Gallery-Fox  07:47 
--you chiseled it out.  
 
Eleanor Danner Bilimoria  07:49 
Right. 
 
Elizabeth Gallery-Fox  07:50 
Is that how it's done? And then you stamp this? 
 
Eleanor Danner Bilimoria  07:53 
Yes.  
 
Elizabeth Gallery-Fox  07:53 
Was this a scene that you saw? 
 
Eleanor Danner Bilimoria  08:20 
Yes. 
 
Elizabeth Gallery-Fox  08:20 
What's this a scene of? 
 
Eleanor Danner Bilimoria  08:21 
It was just a barn, farmyard.  
 
Elizabeth Gallery-Fox  08:24 
It's beautiful.  
 
Eleanor Danner Bilimoria  08:24 
And this is a costume that the men wear there, in their sheepskin jackets and funny little hats. 
 
Elizabeth Gallery-Fox  08:29 
Fabulous. So you chiseled this out and you made a block print of it.  
 
Eleanor Danner Bilimoria  08:33 
Right. 
 
Elizabeth Gallery-Fox  08:33 
What do you do with those blocks when you're done with them?  
 
Eleanor Danner Bilimoria  08:35 
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Nothing, they just sit around, [they laugh] stored in a trunk. 
 
Elizabeth Gallery-Fox  08:38 
So people used to just wear a lot of wool and stay warm that way? 
 
Eleanor Danner Bilimoria  08:42 
It's very cold up in the mountains there.  
 
Elizabeth Gallery-Fox  09:07 
Yeah, so they kept warm just totally.  
 
Eleanor Danner Bilimoria  09:08 
You see he has a shirt, and then the jacket is separated. And lots of embroidery and tassels.  
 
Elizabeth Gallery-Fox  09:12 
Oh, it's beautiful. Were the-- how were you communicating with them? When you were with 
your art group, right?  
 
Eleanor Danner Bilimoria  09:16 
Yes.  
 
Elizabeth Gallery-Fox  09:17 
So this w-- this is not when you were with the International School of Art. 
 
Eleanor Danner Bilimoria  09:20 
Yes.  
 
Elizabeth Gallery-Fox  09:20 
This was. So you were with a team of people. Were they from different countries, all over?  
 
Eleanor Danner Bilimoria  09:24 
Oh, yes.  
 
Elizabeth Gallery-Fox  09:25 
How did you guys all communicate? 
 
Eleanor Danner Bilimoria  09:31 
I guess most of us were American or English, and the instructors were Europeans. Miss-- 
Bartłomiejczyk was-- the instructor there was Polish and we had a Polish woman instructor. In 
Hungary, we had Pekáry, Hungarian instructors, and then the Viennese sculptress who worked in 
Italy. She was doing a bust of Mussolini at the time.  
 
Eleanor Danner Bilimoria  10:12 
Let me bring my dress out and show you my embroidery.  
 
Elizabeth Gallery-Fox  10:14 
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Okay. [Tape cuts.] 
 
Elizabeth Gallery-Fox  10:15 
Oh. 
 
Elizabeth Gallery-Fox  10:17 
I just wanted to add -- this is Liz -- that Eleanor was showing me some of her block prints that 
she did in... Poland? 
 
Eleanor Danner Bilimoria  10:27 
Poland. 
 
Elizabeth Gallery-Fox  10:28 
Poland, yeah, and then she showed me a Polish dress.  
 
Eleanor Danner Bilimoria  10:32 
No, Hungarian.  
 
Elizabeth Gallery-Fox  10:34 
Hungarian dress, that she had bought some of the... Tapestry? 
 
Eleanor Danner Bilimoria  10:41 
Embroidery.  
 
Elizabeth Gallery-Fox  10:42 
Embroidery work from a peasant woman that came up to you while you were there, and you later 
brought that home and had a dress made out of it. So we're gonna-- Eleanor and I have agreed to 
have some pictures taken of that [they laugh].  
 
Elizabeth Gallery-Fox  11:00 
Okay, so should we end the interview for today?  
 
Eleanor Danner Bilimoria  11:08 
I think so. 
 
Elizabeth Gallery-Fox  11:09 
Okay. [Tape cuts.] 
 
Elizabeth Gallery-Fox  11:13 
Okay, well, Eleanor and I decided to add an additional piece of her life. And so go ahead. 
 
Eleanor Danner Bilimoria  11:21 
This was somewhere in my first three years. I had the most beautiful pair of shoes in the whole 
wide world. They were high button shoes. They were re-- black... No. Let me start over there. 
They were red kid, very soft leather, like gloves, and around the top was a band of black patent 
leather and the buttons were... They weren't mother of pearl, but they were very close to that, 
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very shiny and greige, and to top it off, a red tassel on each shoe at the top. They were gorgeous. 
I could just see those now.  
 
Elizabeth Gallery-Fox  12:16 
You got those when you were three? 
 
Eleanor Danner Bilimoria  12:21 
Somewhere along in there.  
 
Elizabeth Gallery-Fox  12:22 
And you remember just how ecstatic you were?  
 
Eleanor Danner Bilimoria  12:26 
Oh, they were beautiful. Nobody had shoes like that [laughs].  
 
Elizabeth Gallery-Fox  12:32 
Eleanor and I have just gone over some of her pictures from Europe and some pictures of her 
father when he was young and her grandmother, and we're gonna see if those can get copied off, 
so we'll see how those work out. Okay. 
 