news from the
Schlesinger Library
winter 2011 the arthur and elizabeth schlesinger library on the history of women in america
radcliffe institute for advanced study
The drawing in the advertising card above—for Kendall Manufacturing company’s Soapine French Laundry Soap—was created by Gilman, who worked as a commercial artist when she was in her 20s..
Now On-Line: Charlotte Perkins Gilman The Schlesinger Library is the primary repository in the world for the papers of early 20th-century American feminist Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1860–1935). Now, with a mere click of a mouse, researchers can access these holdings. In September 2010, the Nation named Gilman among the “Fifty Most Influential Progressives of the 20th Century,” taking note of her arguments that women would be emancipated only when they were economically independent and that housekeeping and child care should be professionalized. Known around the world during her lifetime as a public intellectual, author of the best-selling Women and Economics (1898), and a major influence on the women’s movement, today Gilman is known primarily for “The Yellow Wallpaper,” an autobiographical short story about a woman’s nervous breakdown. Judith A. Allen, a professor of gender studies and history at Indiana University and author of The Feminism of Charlotte Perkins Gilman: Sexualities, Histories, Progressivism (University of Chicago Press, 2009), thinks all this interest in a 30-page short story that Gilman seldom referred to is misplaced. “Gilman has been invented as a member of the literati,” says Allen. “She was a founding member of the American Sociological Society, not a founding member of the MLA [Modern Language Association].” Allen
knows Gilman’s fiction, but it’s the feminism that interests her. “Two thirds of her work was nonfiction,” Allen says. “Not a single one of her novels or plays was published by a commercial publisher. There’s a reason for that.” No matter which of her many accomplishments she’s known for, Gilman remains an interesting subject for scholars. Several new books about her have recently been published—including a new biography, The Living of Charlotte Perkins Gilman by Cynthia J. Davis (Stanford University Press, 2010) and Wild Unrest: Charlotte Perkins Gilman and the Making of “The Yellow Wall-Paper” (Oxford University Press, 2010) by historian Helen Lefkowitz Horowitz AM ’65, PhD ’69, RI ’01. At a fall event at the library celebrating the 150th anniversary of Gilman’s birth, Nancy F. Cott, the Carl and Lily Pforzheimer Foundation Director of the library and the Jonathan Trumbull Professor of American History at Harvard, emphasized the continued importance of Gilman: “Looking back from 2010, there are many parts of her vision for achieving equality between women and men that we are still far from accomplishing.” The library’s October 14 event marked the completion of digitization of the Gilman papers and the opening of a library exhibit about her. Continued on page 4
Letter from the Director Within its mandate to collect the history of American women, the Schlesinger Library has acquired extensive materials about many parts of the world beyond the United States. The library’s wealth of resources about other countries and about international endeavors deserves to be better known. American women have a long history of traveling and residing in far parts of the world; their personal papers and organizational records reflect that mobility. Motivated by curiosity, emergency, entrepreneurship, or the aim to provide worthwhile service, American women’s travels, residences, and efforts abroad comprise a central part of modern world history. A precious fraction of the Schlesinger Library’s holdings of women’s travel manuscripts (diaries, journals, and correspondence) is now in digital format, produced by Adam Mathews under the title Travel Writing, Spectacle and World History: Women’s Travel Diaries and Correspondence from the Schlesinger Library at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study. Many more of the Schlesinger’s collections illuminate issues from around the globe, including women’s endeavors in transnational feminism, human rights, global health policy, international voluntary organizations, microenterprise, and economic development. Women’s efforts have often powered international agencies and organizations such as the International Labor Organization, the League of Nations, the Organization of American States, the United Nations, and voluntary and advocacy groups such as CARE, the Carnegie Endowment, and Human Rights Watch; these activities and many more are documented in collections here in the library. Today’s ubiquitous awareness of “globalization” has sparked new interest in historical topics that move beyond the national frame. It is a very promising time to enter this research field. At present, transnational flows of people, ideas, expertise, and institutional forms as embodied in women’s lives and activities have just begun to be explored—and the same can be said for women’s work with international organizations. Our reference staff increasingly receives inquiries about international or transnational topics of research. The possibilities are vast: women’s efforts in arenas from health to the arts, from economic development to media awareness, from international peace to sex statistics, await scholarly investigation. Come to the Schlesinger Library and find the world!
—Nancy F. Cott Carl and Lily Pforzheimer Foundation Director Jonathan Trumbull Professor of American History
A Season of High Spirits and Challenging Events Vital, provocative, and fun are only a few of the words that come to mind when I think back over a six-week period from early October to mid-November. One of the perks of working at the Schlesinger is the opportunity to meet with the variety of constituents that includes donors of collections and researchers. The library hosted two lectures this fall featuring books that could not have been completed without the collections of the Schlesinger Library. Speaking to a standing-room-only crowd in the Carol Pforzheimer Reading Room, scholar and biographer Judith A. Allen and our own Nancy F. Cott discussed the contributions of Charlotte Perkins Gilman—a woman who was a noted public intellectual from the 1890s through 1920. Her opinions and analysis were so sought-after that a comparison of news articles reveals she was more frequently mentioned in her time than Gloria Steinem was in the 1970s. In the Radcliffe Gymnasium, Linda Greenhouse ’68, former Supreme Court reporter for the New York Times, and her collaborator, Reva Siegal (both of whom now teach at Yale University), presented their analysis of the political context that preceded the Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision. Many in the audience were interested to learn how various political strategists deployed the decision to serve their own ends. Other events brought high spirits and joyous celebration. More than 150 graduates of the Girls’ Latin Academy visited the library to view a display of materials from our collections that document the history of this distinguished secondary school. In the Radcliffe College Room, Mary Maples Dunn—former acting dean of the Radcliffe Institute and director of the Schlesinger— hosted an evening of discussion and celebration of the 40th anniversary of Legal Momentum, the nation’s oldest legal defense and education fund dedicated to advancing the rights of all women and girls. Shortly after that event, activists from a variety of Boston area agencies that combat domestic abuse assembled at the library to honor social-justice activist Kip Tiernan as her papers were released to the public for research. The library also hosted the Women’s Travel Club and a family celebration of the work of Nancy Thomson Waller, whose family papers reside at the Schlesinger. I was very fortunate to attend two fantastic events in New York City, one a private visit to the ACA Galleries where Judy Chicago, feminist artist and thinker whose papers are held by the Schlesinger, conducted a private tour of her retrospective show (see page 3). Finally, a very gracious supporter of the Radcliffe Institute, Catherine (Kate) A. Gellert ’93, hosted an evening of conversation with Allegra Goodman ’89, RI ’07, former Radcliffe Institute fellow and author of The Cookbook Collector (Dial Press, 2010). This very successful new novel draws from Goodman’s knowledge of the Schlesinger Library and its culinary treasures. All of these events provided an occasion to meet old friends of the library and to make new friends, and they focused attention on the library’s extraordinary collections. —Marilyn Dunn Executive Director
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the neverending dinner party: judy chicago donates more material to the schlesinger library In 1979, Judy Chicago revolutionized feminist art when she staged her multimedia installation, The Dinner Party. The piece traveled all over the United States and abroad, bringing the achievements of women from Western civilizations to about a million gallerygoers between 1979 and 1988. Since 1992, The Dinner Party has been on view at the Brooklyn Museum, where it continues to make its feminist statement to new audiences every day. In 2004, Chicago’s papers from 1947 to 2004 were acquired by the Schlesinger Library—and she recently sent several more cartons for inclusion in the collection. She is the first living artist to be included in this major archive. The collection includes fabric samples, interview transcripts, journal entries, photographs, slides, and correspondence from women around the world. “As a founder of the feminist art movement and an extraordinary catalyst for good in so many women’s lives, Judy’s contribution is immense,” says Marilyn Dunn, the executive director of the Schlesinger and Radcliffe Institute librarian. “She has given the world an aesthetic of the female body and an iconography that was missing from Western culture.” On October 19, 2010, Chicago hosted a special tour of her show, Surveying Judy Chicago: 1970–2010, at the ACA Galleries in New York City. “The Judy Chicago collection at the Schlesinger is a gold mine for artists and historians and others exploring the feminist activities, controversies, and theory of the 60s and 70s,” Dunn said during the event. “It is also a gold mine for those looking at the history of childbirth and/or women’s crafts and the fight for a multifaceted recognition of women in art—as source, subject, and master.” Born Judy Cohen in 1939 to a labor organizer and a medical secretary, the artist earned bachelor’s and master’s in fine arts degrees from the University of California at Los Angeles, and by 1970, had built a reputation based on her minimalist sculptures. Chicago took her nom de guerre in 1979, from her hometown. Concerned that women’s voices weren’t prominent enough in the male-dominated art world, she developed a series of feminist art-education programs. In 1973, these efforts culminated in the country’s first independent feminist-art program, the Feminist Studio Workshop. Since the early days of her career, Chicago has published more than a dozen books and has established herself as an influential artist and activist, a passionate voice in the feminist movement for 40 years. —Ivelisse Estrada Writer/Editor
Continued from cover
Now On-Line: Charlotte Perkins Gilman Allen, who held a research grant at the Schlesinger in 1992–1993, spoke at the celebration and tried mightily to correct the historical record—arguing that Gilman should be viewed as a feminist theorist rather than a literary icon. “So much have Gilman and ‘Yellow Wallpaper’ seemed synonymous,” Allen said, that despite her own counter-approach, her publisher insisted on mentioning it in the jacket blurb of her book and published the paperback edition with a yellow cover that resembles wallpaper. Asked what the implications are of Gilman’s work being digitized, Allen said that more scholars throughout the world will now become aware of her, “so that her rightful place in the history of feminism will be much, much clearer.” Allen worked on her book at the Schlesinger over a period of about 12 years and could have accomplished this work much more quickly with digital access. “It’s a real gift to scholars of the future,” she said. Nancy Cott observed that Gilman’s papers have been at the forefront of technology for many years: Hers was the first collection that the Schlesinger put on microfiche, and now it’s the first to be fully digitized. Allen pointed out that Gilman always extolled new technology—two of her favorites being motion pictures and aviation—so it’s likely she would enjoy this example of her leadership. Pat Harrison —Publications Manager
Above, more Soapine advertising cards featuring drawings by Gilman. At right, a partial page from one of Gilman’s early sketchbooks.
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The Gilman Papers and Exhibit The Gilman Papers contain materials that the library acquired over a period of almost 40 years. Digitizing this trove cost more than $80,000 and was made possible by a gift from Cynthia Colin Green ’54. Eva Moseley, former curator of manuscripts at the library, processed the first and largest portion of Gilman’s papers. Jenny Gotwals, currently a manuscript cataloger, processed the most recently acquired materials in the collection and also led the committee that mounted the library’s exhibit. The recent acquisitions are more personal, Gotwals says, and reveal a playful side of Gilman that isn’t obvious in her books. The library owns the copyright to all its Gilman’s material, courtesy of her daughter. This clarity about copyright makes digitization a simpler task than it would have been otherwise. Amy Benson, the library’s archivist for digital initiatives, oversaw the digitization project. She says the plan is to close Gilman’s papers because they’re so fragile and refer researchers to the digital copies unless there’s a compelling need for them to see the originals. One of the challenges in the project was that processors had organized the collection topically, but to digitize it, the collection had to be ordered by size and format. “To get the best price and ensure a smooth process, you want similar materials together,” Benson says. She is careful to point out that handwritten materials are not searchable—computers can’t yet parse handwriting, but only printed materials. One of the issues that interests Benson is how scholars will use the digital collection. The library’s exhibit, From Woman to Human: The Life and Work of Charlotte Perkins Gilman, includes numerous photographs, letters, examples of her artwork, and books she read. The exhibit will remain on view through February 23, 2011, on the first floor of the library during regular library hours: Monday through Friday from 9:30 am to 5 pm.
Through the Pipeline Notable Newly Processed Collections
During the fall of 2010, the library’s processing staff arranged and described a plethora of manuscript collections, all of which are now available for research with on-line, wordsearchable finding aids. Of note are the records of Bass and Howes, Inc., a public policy and public affairs consulting firm founded in 1986 by political consultants Marie Bass and Joanne Howes in Washington, DC. Totaling more than 118 linear feet, the records reflect the growth and activities of a company that operated largely in a male-dominated field and was centrally involved in the key women’s policy issues of the 1980s and 1990s. With offices in Washington, DC, and New York City, Bass and Howes worked extensively on progressive women’s causes, such as domestic violence, family and medical leave, reproductive rights, and women’s representation in politics. Clients included the Family Violence Prevention Fund, the National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League, the National Breast Cancer Coalition, and the National Women’s Law Center. Through 2002, when the firm was acquired by DDB Worldwide, Bass and Howes provided a variety of services: grassroots organizing and network building; electoral strategies and programs for political action committees; policy research; resource development and fundraising; public relations; and lobbying strategies. Other recently processed collections include the papers of social and political activist Kip Tiernan, who in 1974 founded Rosie’s Place, the first drop-in emergency shelter for women in the United States. She devoted herself to antiwar, civil rights, and antipoverty work after leaving a successful public relations business in 1968. The papers of Beatrice Sobel Burstein highlight Burstein’s career as a judge on New York’s district, family, and supreme courts and her concerns with the rights of prisoners and children during the second half of the 20th century. The papers of Redstockings founder Ellen Willis (1941–2006) offer rich insight into the life of a New York City journalist and radical feminist, while the papers of Anne Kirk Cooke, Judy Mann DiStefano, Sally Fox, Izetta Jewel, Lorraine Huling Maynard, Eve Merriam, Eloise Cummings Simpson, and M. Madeline Southard document arts, politics, religion, and women’s rights though women’s personal experiences. The papers of the Poor and Richardson families further chronicle the lives and lineage of two prominent East Coast clans. In addition to the papers of individual women and families, newly processed organizational records include Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Boston Alumnae Chapter, a public service sorority founded in 1945 by a group of young, college-educated African American women; the League of Women Voters of Massachusetts; the Women’s State-Wide Legislative Network of Massachusetts; and 9 to 5, National Association of Working Women (US), Milwaukee Chapter. —Laura Peimer and Mary O. Murphy Manuscript Cataloguers
Political consultant Joanne Howes with Bill Clinton, ca.1994.
Joanne Howes, Marie Bass, and Nanette Falkenberg. Falkenberg ran the New York City office of Bass and Howes, Inc., a public affairs consulting firm. (Photo not dated.)
credits The following images are from the Schlesinger Library’s collections: all images on the cover, page 4, and back cover are from the Charlotte Perkins Gilman Papers; photos on page 5 are from the Records of Bass and Howes, Inc.; the photo on page 6 is from the Keiko Fukuda Papers; and the photo on Page 7 is from the De Ama Battle Papers. The photo on page 3 is by Joan Moynagh.
Sowing the Seeds of Diversity
Keiko Fukuda, the higest ranking woman judoist in the world
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The acquisitions process is a bit like planting seeds: one is never certain whether one’s efforts will germinate, take root and bloom, or fail entirely. Sometimes it can take decades to see results—once a woman called to follow up on a letter soliciting her papers sent 17 years earlier. For several years, the Schlesinger Library has been committed to diversifying our manuscript collections to reflect the broad range of women’s lives. The areas where we’re placing special emphasis include African American women; American women acting globally; politically and socially conservative women; women, religion, and spirituality; the LGBTQ community; issues of work and poverty; and immigrant communities. Small committees within the library are identifying individuals and organizations whose papers and records might document lives, a movement, or a time and place. In addition to writing letters to almost 100 potential donors, staff members have attended conferences, lectures, book signings, and other events where they have buttonholed speakers, authors, and performers. We’ve enlisted the help of scholars who have generously shared their expertise; set up a booth at the annual Massachusetts Conference for Women to raise the library’s visibility; and hosted events for groups like Community Works, a partnership of social and economic justice organizations whose foci match our collecting initiatives. Happily, some of these seeds have sprouted. Recent new collections include the papers of De Ama Battle, an influential teacher of African culture and dance, which include films made during Battle’s travels in West Africa and speak to both American women acting globally and African American women. The papers of sociologist Kristin Luker, who writes about teenage pregnancy and abortion, include much printed material from pro-life and teenage abstinence groups as well as transcripts of interviews with pro-life activists. Women, religion, and spirituality are key elements in the papers of writer, astrologer, and practicing Wiccan Thea Sabin and of Constance Parvey, who, in 1955, was one of the first women admitted to Harvard Divinity School. Parvey helped create and direct a project for the World Council of Churches focusing on the roles of women in churches worldwide. The International Foundation for Gender Education, one of the oldest and largest transgender advocacy organizations, recently donated to the library its administrative records, subscription files, correspondence, board of directors minutes, convention material, and audiotapes. Several collections address aspects of work and poverty: Biologist and women’s studies professor Bonnie Spanier donated interviews with women scientists who recount their experiences as women within male-dominated fields. The records of the Older Women’s League (OWL), a national grassroots organization, focus on issues unique to women as they age, among them economic security, health care, and quality of life. Transcripts of interviews with the founders of
De Ama Battle
The papers and videos of a most unusual woman from Japan address the immigrant experience. The highest ranking female judoist in the world, 97-year-old Keiko Fukuda...has devoted her life to teaching and studying judo. the Harvard Union of Clerical and Technical Workers (HUCTW) by John P. Hoerr—author of We Can’t Eat Prestige: The Women Who Organized Harvard (Temple University Press, 1997)—tackle labor issues. The papers and videos of a most unusual woman from Japan address the immigrant experience. The highest ranking female judoist in the world, 97-year-old Keiko Fukuda has devoted her life to teaching and studying judo. She is the granddaughter of a samurai who taught jujitsu in Tokyo. In addition to the seeds that have already produced these collections, others have grown into promising conversations with additional potential donors. We look forward to reporting on our continuing harvest. —Kathryn Allamong Jacob Johanna-Maria Fraenkel Curator of Manuscripts
2010 Schlesinger Library Grants The Carol K. Pforzheimer Student Fellowships christine an ’11 “Finding Us Across the Seas: A Comparative Exploration of the Development of Womanhood in Korean and Korean American Communities in Artificial, Historical, and Artistic Representations”
dian yu ’11 “Annals of Literature: 19th-Century Female Fugitive Slave Narratives of the United States”
lia e. barnes lenart ’11 “‘Guilty Pleasures’: Cosmo, Gossip Girl, Twilight, and Harvard Women”
Research Support Grants karen b. bell Morgan State University “Jane Crow and Pauli Murray: Gender, Civil Rights, and the Case of Odell Waller”
denetrias charlemagne ’11 “Infant Gender Categorization” julia chen ’11 “Chinese Migration: Becoming American through Chinese Women” meghan cleary ’11 “Feminist Philosophy of Religion and the Reclamation of the Embodied Self ” tony ray meyer, jr. ’11 “Our Mothers, Our Whores: The Sex for Pay Industries of Boston” miriam muscarella ’12 “Infertile Myrtle: Examining Medical and Cultural Perspectives Concerning Infertility and the Female Body” julia nunan-saah ’11 “Childbirth and Obstetrical Practice in the US from 1840 to 1900: The Mother’s Perspective” rachel stark ’11 “The MacDowell Colony: Why Artists Form Communities, and How Gender Relations Are Affected by the Community” shaun vigil ’11 “Masculinity, Femininity, Gender, and Sexuality in Heroism of 1930s–1940s and 1980s–1990s American Comic Books” mia walker ’10 “The ’Cliffie: Directed and ‘Derailed’ at Radcliffe in the Late 1950s: A Study/Dramatization Based on the Letters of Susan Houston Reid, Radcliffe College ’62”
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faith zhang ’11 “Band of Sisters: Women at War in the 20th Century”
kathleen connors Indiana University at Bloomington “Irene Rice Pereira: Creative Process and Artistic Identity” keith p. feldman University of California at Berkeley “Moving toward Home: June Jordan’s Global Cartographies” karen garner Empire State College “US Global Gender Policy in the 1990s: Rhetorical and Institutional Change” andrew p. haley University of Southern Mississippi “Dining in High Chairs: Children’s Culinary Experiences at Home and in Public, 1880–1960” andrew l. johns Brigham Young University “In the Eye of the Storm: John Sherman Cooper and the Cold War, 1946–1976” adrian jones University of Sydney “Dear Julia: American Women’s Fan Letters to the Nation’s First Celebrity Chef ” wendy kline University of Cincinnati “Birth in Transition: A Recent History of Midwifery and Childbirth in the United States”
taeko shibahara Doshisha University “All the Stages in the Process Interact: American Women’s Travel Narratives in Japan” jenny leigh smith Georgia Institute of Technology “The Book of Healthy and Delicious Food” john spurlock Seton Hill University “Adolescent Sexuality in the 20th Century” katharina vester American University “The Culinary States of America: Negotiating National and Transnational Cuisines between the Civil War and World War I”
allison lauterbach University of Southern California “Gagged: The Politics of Reproduction and the Development of US Foreign Aid, 1961–1984” christopher loomis University of Virginia “From Viewers to Citizens: Public Television in America, 1950–1980” laura martin University of California “Unrest in the Streets: Working-Class Struggles over Housing, Street Prostitution, and Public Space in San Francisco, 1960–1985”
kara dixon vuic Bridgewater College “A Touch of Home: Gender, Recreation, and 20th Century Wars”
jennifer myers Northwestern University “Staging Black Cultural Modernism and Black Political Radicalism: The Dissemination of a Broader Conception of ‘Negro Drama’ in the Repertoire of the Chicago Negro Unit, 1936–1939”
Dissertation Support Grants brian j. distelberg Yale University “Minority Activists, the Mass Media, and the Politics of Anti-Defamation, 1940s–1990s”
Oral History Grants anne m. blaschke Boston University “Racing toward Feminism: A History of Black Women Runners in US Cultural Politics, 1955–1975”
charles delgadillo University of California at Santa Barbara “Destiny and Democracy: Liberals, Reform, and US Foreign Policy, 1914–1941”
jennifer donnally University of North Carolina “The Politics of Abortion and the Rise of the New Right”
carolyn edy University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill “US Accredited Women War Correspondents and the Women’s Angle of World War II”
janice irvine University of Massachusetts “Revisiting Sex Educators of the 60s”
anna l. bostwick flaming University of Iowa “‘The Most Important Person in the World’: The Changing Political and Cultural Meanings of American Housewifery in the Second Half of the 20th Century” evan e. hart University of Cincinnati “‘Guerrillas in the Midst’: The National Black Women’s Health Project, 1981–1994”
charlene l. martin and maureen ryan doyle Worchester Women’s Oral History Project “Voices of Worcester Women: 160 Years after the First National Woman’s Rights Conference” suzanne snider New School University “Women in Print: Voices from the Feminist Press, 1960–1980”
winter 2011 News from the Schlesinger Library is published twice a year to inform those interested in the library about recent acquisitions, special projects, and the programs offered by the Radcliffe Institute’s research library on the history of women in the United States. The newsletter is written and edited by members of the Radcliffe Institute staff. The Arthur and Elizabeth Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study Harvard University 10 Garden Street Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138 Telephone: 617-495-8647 Fax: 617-496-8340 Email: slref@radcliffe.edu www.radcliffe.edu/schles
Copyright Š 2011 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College
Photograph of Charlotte Perkins Gilman, 1900