Anna Holland – News from the Archives

Apr 29 2022

Enterprising Women: Three Profiles from the Fellows Family papers

Posted on April 29, 2022April 28, 2022 by Anna Holland

Graduation portrait of Clara Conrad, 1903

The following post was written by IWA Student Specialist, Avery Porter.

Clara Conrad entered the Graham Hospital Training School for Nurses in 1902. She was the first student to enroll in the new program and the only person in her class. A full graduation ceremony was held in her honor a year later proclaiming her as one of the first graduates from a professional nursing program in Iowa. Her daughter, Frances Hogle, and granddaughters, Ann Fellows and Carol Fellows, would also go on to have momentous adventures of their own.

Frances Hogle, the daughter of Clara Conrad Hogle, earned both a Bachelor and Master of Arts from the State University of Iowa (now the University of Iowa). She used her degrees to teach in rural Iowa for years before moving to Texas with her husband Kenneth Fellows. While there she worked as a pianist for the local Methodist Church and was the society editor for her husband’s paper, the Alice Echo. In 1999, she wrote an autobiography describing her life and the adventures she had while exploring the world. She and her husband spent much of their time traveling, especially after retirement. They traveled around the United States regularly and often took cruises everywhere from Alaska to Russia.

From left to right: Ann Christenson, Kate Dale, baby Maggie Dale, and Frances Hogle, 2000.

Ann Fellows, the eldest child of Frances Fellows, had the same interest in exploring the world as her parents. After returning to her mother’s alma mater to get a degree in Political Science in 1958, she moved to New York City and worked at Time Magazine as a clerk. In the summer of 1960, she participated in Operation Crossroads Africa to improve roads in Sierra Leone. Then she returned to the Midwest to work at the Lake County Public Library in Indiana. A few years later the travel bug hit again, and Fellows moved to Australia to work overseas. When she returned from that trip, she married John Christenson and lived in Rockledge, Florida. The couple moved to Minnesota, which they called home for many years, and eventually settled in Iowa City, Iowa to be closer to their adult children. There Ann Fellows Christenson joined 100 Grannies, a non-profit organization that is dedicated to green energy and has their records housed at the Iowa Women’s Archives.

Carol Fellows in Kalamath Falls, Oregon at the Merle West Cancer Treatment Center, 1997.

Carol Fellows, the second daughter of Frances Fellows, made strides into the medical field like her great grandmother Clara. In 1972, she graduated with a MD from the University of New Mexico School of Medicine. She excelled in the jobs she took, even getting Intern of the Year at her position at the Rose Medical Center in Denver, Colorado. She moved to Capser, Wyoming where she became the first radiation oncologist in the state. While there she co-founded the Central Wyoming Cancer Center and Hospice Program. She served as the center’s first director for almost ten years. A career change came when Fellows decided to leave the medical field and become the chief of Staff to Mike Sullivan, the then Governor of Wyoming, in 1987. Two years later the call of the medical field returned, and she moved to Kalamath Falls, Oregon to found the Merle West Cancer Medical Center (now Sky Lakes). Even after retirement in 2005, she rose to leadership in her local Rotary Club and worked on volunteer projects relentlessly.

These are just a few of the adventures found of the Fellows Family papers. The papers cover the lives of these four wonderful women and their extended family as they live through major world events and everyday achievements. From the American Civil War to running an award-winning paper, this collection is full of adventure.

Apr 25 2022

Women Safe After Dark? The Beginnings of Take Back the Night at the University of Iowa

Posted on April 25, 2022April 22, 2022 by Anna Holland

On September 12, 1979, an advertisement for a rally appeared in the campus newspaper, the Daily Iowan. The outline of a woman with bows and arrows, shooting into the night sky was accompanied with the promise, “Friday evening at 8 p.m., the women of Iowa City will have a chance to support each other in a move to reclaim the freedom that comes from being unafraid.” September 14^th, 1979 would be Iowa City’s first major Take Back the Night Rally. The rally inspired hundreds of women to attend, spawned weeks of angry debate in the Daily Iowan, and started a tradition of rallies against sexual violence in Iowa City that continues over forty years later.

Flyer for the first Take Back the Night event in Iowa City, summer of 1979

The term Take Back the Night had been coined just two years earlier in 1977 when activist Anne Pride used it as the title of a memorial at an anti-violence rally in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The phrase became a rallying cry for women sick of being afraid to walk alone at night and tired of rapists getting away with their crimes. The movement spread quickly, and by the summer of 1979, Iowa City had already had one small rally protesting a local spike in violence against women. After this, Iowa City women formed a committee, supported by the University’s Women’s Resource and Action Center, to plan a larger rally “for women to assert their right to safety on the streets and in their homes.”

The rally took place from 8:00 to 10:00 pm at College Green Park, near the downtown, which had become a hot spot for rape, attempted rape, and sexual harassment. The Rape Victim Advocacy Program provided maps of the area to attendees marking over 100 reported incidences of sexual violence from January 1978 to March 1979.

In response to this reality, Take Back the Night’s schedule had strong themes of education, self-expression, and self-defense. The planning committee included other organizations like a local chapter of NOW and the Rape Victim Advocacy Program and the University of Iowa’s Taekwondo Club to provide self-defense tactics to women in attendance. Local artists also inspired attendees with songs like “Fight Back” by Holly Near with powerful lyrics:

“Some have an easy answer

Buy a lock and live in a cage

But my fear is turning to anger

And my anger is turning to rage

And I won’t live my life in a cage – no!”

A map of Iowa City shows reported incidences of sexual violence over 14 months from 1978 – 1979.

In an event full of rage, perhaps the most infuriating part was a play: “Rape on Trial.” The scene was set as a courtroom with judge, lawyers, and jury. The victim took the stand, detailing a truly awful crime in which a rapist broke into her home and force himself upon her. The characters framed her as an unreliable witness, criticizing her actions like wearing a nightgown and sleeping with the window open on a hot day, while the rapist was valorized for his civic engagement, career, and status as a father. The audience was then privy to the jury’s deliberations during which the jurors say “I think she’s lying,” and “I don’t think that we should ruin this poor man’s life or his whole career for that matter.” The jury found him not guilty. For the women watching, it must have been an emotional, angering experience.

The first major Take Back the Night rally in Iowa City was a success with an attendance of about 500 women, over 300 of which stayed to march after the rally. However, the coverage after the event hinged on something else entirely: the committee’s decision to make Take Back the Night a women’s-only event. Men who approached College Green Park on the night of September 14^th were approached by groups of women and given cards stating: “Given the nature of rape and sexual abuse, the presence of men here will make some women uncomfortable. Men sensitive to this issue will demonstrate their concern by not attending this rally which has been organized by women for women. Thank you for your cooperation.” The Rape Crisis Line sponsored an alternate event for men who supported Take Back the Night at the Wesley House downtown.

Cards were given to men who approached the rally, asking them to keep the space for women only.

The women handing out cards were described by some as “guards” and by others as “para-military.” One person even complained to the police. On September 17^th the Daily Iowan published an editorial by Michael Humes title “Taking Back Everyone’s Night.” Humes recognized that the rally did let men stay after receiving the card, but then complained about the “exclusionary intent” and accused Take Back the Night of “identifying all men with rapists.” Over the next two weeks, Take Back the Night’s supporters, the Humes camp, and many others in the middle consumed the Daily Iowan’s editorial page with a debate over whether the rally’s planners had been unfair to men. As Jane Vanderbosch insightfully said her letter to the editor, “It is somewhat ironic to realize that Humes’ ‘rage’ was not ‘denied.’ It covered a good portion of the editorial page, as did his ‘possible resentment.’ Neither the rage nor resentment of the 500 women who attended the rally was given much coverage.”

But their rage would continue to be heard in Take Back the Night rallies, and will be again this week on April 26^th, 2022 when a Take Back the Night rally will take place on the Pentacrest starting at 6pm. All are encouraged to attend.

Mar 16 2022

Kittredge Cherry and Audrey Lockwood: A Love Story

Posted on March 16, 2022March 2, 2022 by Anna Holland

This post was written by IWA Student Specialist, Abbie Steuhm.

The LGBTQ+ community has grown in incredible size and visibility in the last decade. The legalization of same-sex marriage in the U.S. in 2015 was a colossal milestone for LGBTQ+ rights, and it has arguably helped in the normalization and acceptance of LGBTQ+ people nationwide. However, one may wonder about the lives of queer couples before this milestone. What did they do when they wanted to take their relationship to the next level? Did they just live together? Did they even believe in the concept of marriage? Kittredge Cherry and Audrey Lockwood’s forty-seven years together as a married lesbian couple helps answer these questions.

Cherry and Lockwood met as students at the University of Iowa.

Reverend Kittredge “Kitt” Lynne Cherry and Audrey Ellen Lockwood were both born in 1957, with Cherry living in Iowa and Lockwood living in Wisconsin. The two graduated from the University of Iowa together in 1979 with Bachelor of Arts degrees. The couple then lived together in Japan, with Cherry on a studying-abroad scholarship and Lockwood beginning her career in business, before returning to the U.S. and settling in San Francisco, California. It was in San Francisco that Cherry and Lockwood became involved in the Metropolitan Community Church (MCC), one of the few Christian churches that welcomed the LGBTQ+ community. The two are now living together in Los Angeles, where Cherry continues her work on LGBTQ+ and spirituality via her blog Q Spirit.

It was in 1975 during their freshman year that Audrey Lockwood and Kittredge Cherry locked eyes with one another for the first time—and certainly not the last—while attending the University of Iowa. Lockwood reminisces on their meeting in her short article “My Summer of Love,” noting how her and Cherry “managed to get ourselves out of Burge Dorm and into the Stanley all girls’ dorm sophomore year, where we fell madly in love, as we watched beautiful sunsets from our room on the 10th floor overlooking the Iowa River.”

That love continued to flourish even as the couple traveled to Japan and then to Los Angeles, California, where Cherry was ordained as a minister for the MCC. Together, the couple advocated for LGBTQ+ rights, particularly LGBTQ+ rights within the Christian church. Cherry has written many books and articles about LGBTQ+ people’s spirituality and sexuality within the Christian church, from Hide and Speak: A Coming Out Guide (2006) to The Passion of Christ: A Gay Vision (2014). One of the earliest articles Cherry was involved in was the 1989 Los Angeles Times article, “Marriage Between Homosexuals is Nothing New for Some in S.F.,” where Cherry gives the proud statement that she still lives by to this day:

“I don’t think we need the state to tell us our marriage is real. I think our marriage is just as real now as if it were legally recognized.”

Despite legal marriage equality being decades away, they were married by the Metropolitan Community Church in 1987.

Same-sex marriage at this time was illegal, and most churches refused to even marry same-sex couples in spirit, but Cherry and Lockwood found a wonderfully willing ministry through the MCC. In 1987, Lockwood and Cherry were married, and they lived together happily as one of the few lesbian couples who were proudly “out” during the time. Despite not being legally married, Lockwood and Cherry nevertheless vowed their commitment to one another under their own beliefs and religion. They lived together for the next forty years until their marriage was legalized after the Obergefell vs. Hodges decision in 2015. They continue living happily ever after in Los Angeles to this very day.

It was no doubt a long road that Cherry and Lockwood traveled to get to where they are now along with the rest of the LGBTQ+ community. Cherry and Lockwood’s photobooks gives wonderful detail and insight into the history of the LGBTQ+ community, from every cat adopted and protest marched in the fight for same-sex marriage. Such a long, winding history, and yet Lockwood still remembers her time in the University of Iowa dorms. In the last lines of her article “My Summer of Love,” Lockwood says:

“To this day I can still see the view from 10th floor Stanley, as we listened to the Brandenburg concertos, Chopin nocturnes, and David Bowie singing ‘Oh You Pretty Things.’”

Feb 23 2022

Kick off Women’s History Month with the Iowa Women’s Archives

Posted on February 23, 2022February 24, 2022 by Anna Holland

The Iowa Women’s Archives (IWA) will kick off Women’s History Month with an event at the Iowa City Public Library! Welcoming the Immigrants: Refugee Resettlement in Jewish Iowa will bring Dr. Jeannette Gabriel of the Schwalb Center for Israel & Jewish Studies at theUniversity of Nebraska-Omaha to Iowa City. In her talk, Gabriel will use IWA resources to examine the impact of WWII refugees on Iowa’s Jewish Communities. The event will take place 4:30 – 6pm simultaneously at the Iowa City Public Library, Meeting Room A and online, livestreamed on the ICPL’s YouTube channel.

Dr. Jeannette Gabriel will speak at IWA’s Women’s History Month event.

The Iowa Women’s Archives has long held strong collections in Jewish history, including the papers of one of our founders, Louise Rosenfield Noun and the papers of Joan Lipsky, the first woman to represent Linn County in the Iowa General Assembly. Lipsky had a strong interest in preserving the history of women like her own Jewish ancestors who immigrated to Iowa. She gave $50,000 to IWA to establish the Jewish Women in Iowa Project and hire Jeannette Gabriel as its project archivist. For three years, Gabriel worked closely with potential donors around the state to bring Iowa’s Jewish history to the University of Iowa.

Today, thanks in part to her work, the IWA has 50 collections documenting Jewish life in Iowa including the papers of Gusti Kollman, a refugee from Nazi-occupied Austria who settled in Mt. Vernon Iowa, and the records of the Shaare Zion Synagogue and Mt. Sinai Temple in Sioux City, that offer a window into one of Iowa’s largest Jewish communities of the mid-20th century.

Welcoming the Immigrants is part of a semester long schedule of events celebrating Anne Frank and Jewish life in Iowa. This larger program, The Anne Frank Tree: Taking Root in Iowa, will culminate April 29th 2022 on the Pentacrest with a planting ceremony for a sapling propagated from the immense horse chestnut tree that grew in the courtyard behind the annex where Anne Frank and her family hid for 761 days during World War II. It will be only the 13th Anne Frank Tree planted in the United States. For a full schedule of this semester’s Anne Frank Tree events, see the project’s website or contact the Obermann Center.

Welcoming the Immigrants: Refugee Resettlement in Jewish Iowa

Where: Iowa City Public Library, meeting room A OR Iowa City Public Library YouTube livestream

When: March 1, 2022, 4:30 – 6pm

Individuals with disabilities are encouraged to attend all University of Iowa-sponsored events. If you are a person with a disability who requires as reasonable accommodation in order to participate in this program, please contact the Iowa Women’s Archives in advance: 319-335-5068.

Dec 22 2021

Disability Rights in the Elizabeth Riesz Papers

Posted on December 22, 2021December 22, 2021 by Anna Holland

The following post was written by IWA Student Assistant, Abbie Steuhm.

The Disability Rights Movement has seen great progress and recognition in recent years; however, as with most social movements, the historic past for disabled people is one of severe discrimination and offensive, prejudiced, and even racist language.

On January 30, 1972, Anthony Shaw, M.D. published an article titled “’Doctor, Do We Have a Choice?’” in The New York Times, where he discussed guiding parents in their decision about whether to allow their infant born with Down Syndrome to have life-saving surgery, or to let them die. In his article, Shaw shares how he knew many other physicians who were parents of children with Down Syndrome and how “almost all have placed them in institutions,” remarking that “couples who are success-oriented and have high expectations for their children are likely to institutionalize their mentally deficient offspring rather than keep them at home.” Shaw continues his prejudiced commentary by adding that “although most parents allow the necessary surgery, many of them would be relieved to have their [child] die.”

Let’s Cook! was a helpful and accessible resource for people like Sarah Riesz who were striving for more independence with Down Syndrome.

However, through scouring the IWA, a common thread in history can be found: if there is a public forum, people will use it to express their own beliefs. Which is exactly what happened with Shaw’s New York Times article. Social workers, employees of state health departments, and average people wrote to the editor to address Shaw’s disturbing prejudices with their own life experiences.

Mrs. Ethel H. Basch, a social worker and mother of a child with Down Syndrome, replied, “Some of the things that Dr. Anthony Shaw said… made me hopping mad… It has been my experience that the physician is the last one to offer supportive help for the parents of defective children…”

Japanese translation of Riesz’s book, First Years of a Down’s Syndrome Child

Dennis R. Ferguson, an employee of the Connecticut State Department of Health, replied, “I draw a very distinct difference between abortions and postnatal euthanasia. I cannot accept Dr. Shaw’s posture that parents of handicapped children have the legal and/or moral responsibility of determining whether this human being lives or dies.”

Shaw’s article may appear as an oddity considering its placement within the Elizabeth D. Riesz papers. Elizabeth Riesz, born 1937, was a teacher, educational consultant, and advocate for services for disabled people. Her own daughter Sarah, born 1972, had Down Syndrome, which made Riesz realize how little resources there were for parents of children with Down Syndrome. Instead of following Shaw’s statement on placing children in an institution, Riesz raised Sarah at home. Sarah would later be among the first students with disabilities to be integrated into the Iowa City public school system.

Elizabeth Riesz would continue her advocacy, becoming the president of the Association for Retarded Citizens (ARC) of Johnson County (1977-1982) and traveling to Osaka, Japan to speak about disability resources and programs, with some of those programs being implemented in Japanese schools. Riesz would also go on to create the Let’s Cook!: Healthy Meals for Independent Living cookbook. This cookbook, designed for people with disabilities who live independently, gives a variety of nutritious recipes from Apricot Curry Chicken to Smothered Porkchops, along with clear instructions, large photo illustrations, and meal planning and preparation advice. In the cookbook’s introduction, Riesz shared how her daughter had three heart problems along with Down syndrome “that caused her to grow slowly and left her physically weak.” But Sarah grew up strong and healthy, and in her teenage years, Riesz and Sarah’s father “loved coming home from work on Mondays! That’s the day of the week that Sarah cooked… for our family.” Sarah’s recipes would become the foundation for the cookbook, and her meals are eaten and loved by many.

Example recipe from Let’s Cook! employs large print and step by step guides to cooking

So, why would one find Shaw within Riesz’s collection of achievements and work for disability rights? Shaw’s article was published in 1972, the same year Sarah Riesz was born. Instead of finding resources, programs, and a supportive community for her newborn daughter, Elizabeth Riesz instead found an article published in a popular newspaper from a doctor tasked with performing surgeries on children like Sarah, discussing his encouragement of parents to euthanize their children born with Down Syndrome, as the only other supposed option was institutionalizing the child. Faced with such heavy-handed discrimination from the very people who are supposed to help save children like Sarah, Riesz went against all odds and created her own programs and resources. Riesz raised her daughter at home, supporting her throughout her life. Riesz then shared her achievements with those in Iowa City and even Japan. Shaw’s article serves as evidence to what disabled people faced within the medical system and their daily lives. Elizabeth and Sarah Riesz are truly inspirational for not only proving Shaw incredibly wrong, but also working to improve their own lives and the lives of disabled people during a time where disabilities were grounds for death.

Nov 25 2021

Six-on-Six Basketball: Gone but Not Forgotten

Posted on November 25, 2021November 23, 2021 by Anna Holland

The following post was written by IWA Graduate Assistant, Emma Barton-Norris.

Six-on-six girls’ basketball was extremely important in Iowa, to both those who played the game and to those who made the trek to attend the annual Iowa State Championship every year. In the newly processed collection, Six-on-Six Girls Basketball in Iowa ephemera, the stories of individuals who experienced the “joy and zest” of the sport are put on display.

IWA graduate assistant, Emma Barton-Norris, processed several of IWA’s Six-on-Six Basketball collections this fall. Pictured here with Title IX 40th anniversary commemorative basketball, Christine Grant papers

The Six-on-Six Girls Basketball in Iowa ephemera is a continuation of a long-standing project at the Iowa Women’s Archives (IWA). Finding unique and inspiring stories in the past of Iowa’s girls’ and women’s sports, the IWA created the physical and digital exhibit 6-on-6 Basketball and the Legacy of Girls’ and Women’s Sport in Iowa back in 2018. During the traveling exhibit, IWA Curator Kären Mason and University of Iowa lecturer Jennifer Sterling collected stories from Iowans about their personal histories with one of Iowa’s favorite pastimes: girls’ six-on-six basketball.

What is six-on-six basketball, and just what made it different and exciting for players, coaches, and fans alike? According to the 2008 Iowa Public Television documentary “More Than a Game: 6-on-6 Basketball in Iowa,” the six-on-six version of basketball that became known and loved by Iowans was established by 1920. Girls played a two-court, six-on-six game that required three forwards from one team and three guards from the other on each side of the center line – and no one was allowed to cross it. This meant that if a team had one high scorer, they couldn’t be beat. In addition, players were only allowed two dribbles at a time and a referee was needed to inbound the ball after every basket. But why was this new version of the traditional five-player basketball game (that had been invented and played for nearly half a century before) necessary? It’s simple: sexism. Girls were seen as the “weaker sex” and the full-court, five-on-five version would be too strenuous for their weak disposition.

This did not stop the rise to fame that girls’ basketball experienced in small town Iowa. In fact, the game was uniquely made to help small-town Iowan schools thrive because of a team’s ability to rely on one high scorer. Towns like Newhall and Van Horne became the heart and soul of six-on-six.

Highlighted within the new ephemera collection are notable names in women’s Iowa basketball, such as 1968 State Championship star Janet Scharnberg and 1995 University of Iowa women’s basketball coach Angie Lee. Numerous newspaper clippings showcasing the excitement rural Iowans had for their “Iowa girls” are also heavily featured. One such newspaper article exemplifies how the passion of six-on-six fans encouraged the longevity of the game in Iowa. Newhall and Van Horne won the Iowa State Championship in both 1927 and 1962. Within Jean Kubu’s folder of Six-on-Six Girls Basketball in Iowa ephemera, a copy of the March 9, 1972, South Benton Star-Press cover story features this girls’ basketball team in 1927 and 1962 – two state champion teams, side by side.

As told by “The Bobcat” in 1972:

“…we take you back to the year 1927… It was a hectic journey to the number one spot, as it so often is, even for the best of team, which Newhall was, as evidenced by their outscoring of combined opponents, 703-147. […] By the final round of the [State Championship] tournament, Newhall had three starters on the bench, but kept battling, narrowing it to 37-36, favor of their opponents Sioux Center. With just 30 seconds remaining in the game, Newhall’s Luella Gardemann fired in the winning basket for a thrilling 38-37 victory and the state crown.

“For the girls from Newhall wearing bloomers, it was a great time and one the people who lived in Newhall in 1927 will never forget. The tears, smiles, hard work and teamwork all paid off for those Newhall girls and their coach…”

From ten minutes away, and thirty-five years apart, the Van Horne girls’ basketball teams of 1962 would accomplish the same feat.

“The Bobcat” continues:

1927 team photograph, South Benton Star-Press article, 1972, Six-on-Six Basketball in Iowa ephemera, Box 1, Iowa Women’s Archives

“The year was 1962. Van Horne went to the state finals at Waterloo with much going for them. […] During the week of the state tournament, Van Horne, and the surrounding areas had a bad snowstorm, but the fans came to Waterloo anyway. The team had not even practiced because of bad weather, and they didn’t check into their hotel until they had already played their first game.

“Tension was tight during the game and the score was close, but the team won 62-59 to win the coveted state championship. […] As they left Waterloo, they were on the television and at the Garrison corner a caravan of about three miles in length followed them to Van Horne […] to present the trophy to the team and coach.”

1962 team photograph, South Benton Star-Press article, 1972, Six-on-Six Basketball in Iowa ephemera, Box 1, Iowa Women’s Archives

“The Bobcat” concludes: “It was a great experience for the basketball team… It was a week that coach, the team, and fans will never forget.”

The Iowa Women’s Archives is proud to now have these Iowans’ stories available for all to enjoy. Materials include memorabilia, photographs, newspapers, tournament programs, and film of actual State Championship games. With the help of basketball players, old and new, the IWA has been able to save the legacy and history of girls’ and women’s sport in Iowa.

The progress six-on-six basketball made for young women carries on in every girl’s high school basketball game. Those who attended the crowded six-on-six championship games can never forget the energy on the court and in the stands. Iowa’s high school and collegiate players who now participate in five-on-five basketball should never forget that their great-great-grandmothers also played the game they loved. Six-on-six may be gone from high school athletics, but it will never be forgotten.

Citations:

More Than a Game: 6-on-6 Basketball in Iowa, directed by Laurel Burgmaier (2008; Johnston, Iowa: Iowa Public Television, 2008), DVD.

Six on Six Girls’ Basketball in Iowa ephemera, Iowa Women’s Archives, The University of Iowa Libraries, Iowa City.

Oct 15 2021

Community Collaboration brings Latinx History from the Archives to the Classroom

Posted on October 15, 2021October 19, 2021 by Anna Holland

This fall, Yamila Transtenvot, an instructor in Spanish at Cornell College, has been working with IWA, The League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) Council 10, and the Davenport Community School District (DCSD) to bring primary sources about Latino/a/x history to Iowa schools. I sat down with Transtenvot this Latinx Heritage Month to discuss this exciting collaboration.

Yamila Transtenvot, who created three lesson plans using IWA resources for elementary school classrooms

Transtenvot, originally from Buenos Aires, Argentina, has a background in education. She trained as a high school literature teacher and spent time working for the government of Argentina in an after-school program aimed at getting disadvantaged youth excited about reading and writing. Eventually, the University of Iowa’s Master of Fine Arts in Spanish Creative Writing pulled her to the United States. While completing her MFA, she taught Spanish at UIowa. When members of LULAC Council 10 approached her about writing lesson plans with IWA’s Latina collections, it seemed like a natural fit.

Davenport schools introduce migration as a topic to students in elementary school, but the current curriculum lacks stories about Mexican migration, which began in the 19^th century and accelerated in the 1910s during the Mexican Revolution. DCSD and LULAC Council 10 wanted to introduce new stories and more primary sources into migration lessons. IWA houses dozens of collections and over one hundred oral histories documenting the lives of Latinas in Iowa. Transtenvot used Migration is Beautiful, a website about these collections, and advice from IWA’s staff to choose just a few items and oral histories to highlight.

This image of Tilly Gomez from the Otilia Savala papers in IWA is just one of the primary sources students will analyze.

Transtenvot concentrated on the stories of young people. In one the three lessons that she’s created, students will use the memoir of Martina Morado, who immigrated to Iowa as a teenager in the 1910s, to learn about migration. In another, a childhood photograph of Otilia “Tilly” Gomez in Cook’s Point, a Mexican settlement in Davenport, Iowa, will help students think about cultural heritage and what life was like for immigrants in Iowa during the first half of the 20^th century. The way Transtenvot has planned the lessons offers several ways to engage with the topic including class discussion, a Kahoot quiz, and a migratory Monarch butterfly for them to color.

Above all, Transtenvot wants students to learn how to reflect on primary sources and form their own thoughts about them. The lessons are filled with questions that allow students to think and wonder. For example, after seeing a photograph of Angela and Martina Morado from 1913, classes will be invited to speculate in writing on the relationship between the women, how old the photograph is, and whether it reminds them of any old photographs they’ve seen of their own families. Transtenvot has also striven to center the voices of Latinas by using excerpts from oral histories by Rosa Mendoza and Otilia Gomez, and a memoir by Martina Morado. She says that the charm of primary sources is that they give a glimpse of people’s personal experiences. By making space for these voices and for reflection on what they say, Transtenvot hopes her lessons will help students build empathy.

The lessons will debut in Davenport, but Transtenvot sees this as a starting point. She’d like to see the project spread to other districts in Iowa and perhaps go further, resulting in lessons about other underrepresented groups in the state. Finally, she intends to have her lesson plans put on the Migration is Beautiful website, where they will become resources and inspiration for teachers across the country.

Sep 17 2021

IWA’s 2021 Kerber Grant Recipient Finds Personal Stories within Industrial Agriculture

Posted on September 17, 2021September 17, 2021 by Anna Holland

In Box 24 of the Lonabelle Kaplan Spencer papers, Andrew Seber finally found exactly what he was looking for: personal testimonies by rural citizens whose lives were turned upside down by the development of hog confinements near their Iowa homes. Seber’s dissertation, Neither Factory nor Farm: the Other Environmental Movement, will focus on industrial animal agriculture in Iowa, one of the world’s largest hog producers. As 2021’s Linda and Richard Kerber Travel Grant recipient, Seber was able to travel from the University of Chicago, where he is a doctoral student, to Iowa City and spend a week researching at the Iowa Women’s Archives.

Seber traces his interest in meat production back to high school, when an AP environmental science course first made him aware of meat as an environmental problem. He took this interest to college where he developed a scholarly interest in agriculture, ecology, and cultural studies. He believes that historically, the environmental movement has marginalized animal agriculture as a focus, in favor of fossil fuels and conservation. While recognizing that these are important issues, Seber says the irony is that animal agriculture is inextricably linked to both of them as it uses tremendous amounts of fossil fuel and causes air and water pollution. In his opinion, it cannot afford to be neglected, and he sees his work as a critique of the liberal environmental movement that became predominant in the 1970s and which informed the environmental social sciences.

For his research in IWA, Seber is relying heavily on the Lonabelle Kaplan Spencer papers to help him situate his work geographically. Spencer became an activist against Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs) in the 1970s when she learned that a hog lot was being built near a Girl Scout camp. Through her work, she discovered that hog confinement was more than an odor problem. It affected property values, poisoned ground water, polluted air, and overall amounted to a new health hazard for rural residents. This is where Seber’s favorite box 24 of the collection comes into play. Spencer built a network of Iowans experiencing this pollution and a network of scientists studying it. She lobbied for regulations that would limit hog odor and animal waste; her efforts were mostly unsuccessful.

Seber says Spencer’s 1970s activism is part of a larger pattern that tends to go in cycles. In the 1970s and 1990s there were movements that really pushed for regulations on CAFOS. He’s found similar headlines in both eras and similar outcomes. He posits that this is partly due to neoliberal businesses that capture the process when activists try to use, as Spencer did, government hearings and studies to build their cases. But this isn’t the only problem, in some cases hog manure storage needs increase more quickly than regulations can keep up with, and some people still don’t view agriculture as an industry, which thwarts regulatory efforts.

After his fruitful research in Iowa, Seber will work on writing his next chapter, tentatively called “A Plain Old Cesspool: Concentrating Animal Life in Neoliberal Iowa,” and then turn his focus to North Carolina, another state with large scale hog operations. He hopes to complete his dissertation and degree in 2023.

Are you interested in applying for the Linda and Richard Kerber Fund for Research in the Iowa Women’s Archives? We will be accepting applications again next spring. You can keep tabs on the deadline and learn more on our website.

Aug 10 2021

Student Reflection: Processing the Madgetta Dungy Papers

Posted on August 10, 2021August 10, 2021 by Anna Holland

The following post is written by University of Iowa senior, Jack Kamp.

Senior Jack Kamp spent his summer learning to process archival collections in the IWA.

When I started my internship at the Iowa Women’s Archives (IWA), I knew I was interested in working with Black women’s history. As a student interested in the history of civil rights and social justice, I knew that this collection would give me the chance to gain some archival skills while also being immersed in a field that fascinated me. What I learned in the archives has added a layer of complexity to how I conceptualize historical research. My time at the IWA has allowed me to develop the skills that aid in analysis and organization regarding a wide range of materials in and contexts surrounding archival collections. Originally, I predominantly looked at research from the perspective of a student historian. My main concern was simply finding that certain document or photograph or piece of correspondence that would aid me in my research or simply out of interest. After first-hand experience with processing a set of papers, I can see that there are so many more connections to be made, even within one single set of papers.

Madgetta Dungy, pictured in this article from 2002, was an academic and higher education professional. She earned her PhD at the University of Iowa in the 1990s and later served as an Assistant Dean at the University of Iowa’s Carver College of Medicine.

There are many decisions to make regarding the organization of a set of papers. How should I order the folders? Which folders should I make? How will each series fit into the larger collection? Should it be chronological? How should the original organization of the creator be preserved? Each of these decisions has the capacity to impact future researchers looking at those papers and how they are presented to the public through such means as written papers and presentations. My experience at the IWA has led me to pay attention to how materials are grouped and to consider why they may be organized the way that they are within the collection.

During my time as an intern, I processed the personal papers of Madgetta Thornton Dungy, a professional Black woman who found success in education administration at college campuses across the United States. She was the first Black woman to graduate from Cornell College in Iowa and went on to earn a master’s degree and Ph.D. in higher education administration. When I began to process her collection, much of my interest was in the older materials: old family photos from the 1940’s, old church programs from 1955, and a teaching certificate from 1968. As a history student, and a historian interested in the postwar era Black Freedom Struggle, I was most interested in these materials out of the whole collection. However, as I began the processing procedure and began sorting the materials into the established series’, I started to find more interest in the materials I might have passed over had I not been involved in the processing of Dungy’s papers.

This program from the 2007 Iowa African American Women’s Leadership Conference is just one of the examples of Madgetta Dungy’s activism in the regional Black community found in her papers.

Through processing Madgetta Dungy’s personal papers, I began to see how the singular pieces that I was most drawn to were related to the greater collection. As I placed the Dungy family photos next to the materials relating to Dungy’s involvement with The Links, Incorporated, a Black women’s national organization, I began to see the political and personal sides of Dungy come together. As I placed the 1955 church program next to the church program that Dungy produced herself in 1978, I was able to see some of the impact that religion had on Dungy’s life and the way in which she understood and considered her own religion. As I placed her teaching certificate from 1968 next to her CVs and academic transcripts, I saw the hard work and dedication Dungy put in her education and professional life. As I continued placing the materials I had initially found interest in next to other materials, I began to see more dimensions and more complexity within the person whose papers I was processing. Madgetta Dungy became more than a name on a file. She became a dynamic, complicated, and multifaceted person with interests, goals, and relationships.

Dungy’s educational, personal, and professional achievements and experiences play a crucial role in the story of Black Iowa women’s history. As a successful professional, her papers illustrate what it is like to be a Black woman in the professional sphere during the mid to late 20^th century. It is because of this that I hope Madgetta Dungy’s papers are researched and utilized by many historians in a range of areas. Additionally, the experience of processing Dungy’s papers has allowed me to expand my skill set and has exposed me to more ways of viewing and understanding archival collections and papers. My time at the IWA has certainly set me up for success, as it has allowed me to learn more about what goes on behind the scenes in an archives, what archivists have to consider when processing various collections, and allowed me to develop new skills in research and navigating archival spaces as a historian.

I would specifically like to thank Janet Weaver and Anna Holland for their guidance and assistance in the archives. Additionally, I really valued the support I received from Erik and Heather over the course of my internship in the archives and regarding prospective graduate study. I have greatly appreciated my time in the IWA over the summer and I am grateful for the opportunity to contribute to an archives so crucial to the University and the Iowa City community.

Jun 25 2021

IWA’s 2020 Kerber Grant Recipient: Yazmin Gomez

Posted on June 25, 2021June 24, 2021 by Anna Holland

After the pandemic postponed her research trip, Yazmin Gomez, the 2020 Linda and Richard Kerber Travel Grant recipient, finally made it to IWA! Linda Kerber, May Brodbeck Professor in the Liberal Arts and Professor of History Emerita, and her husband Richard founded this grant to help researchers, especially graduate students, travel to the Iowa Women’s Archives. Thanks to the Kerbers, IWA can award $1000 every year to a promising researcher like Gomez, whose work would benefit from travelling to Iowa and using IWA’s collections for an extended period.

Gomez, graduate student from Rutgers University is focusing her dissertation research on the labor and educational activism of Latinas in the Midwest. Her work has been years in the making. As an undergraduate at Marquette University, she enrolled in the Ronald E. McNair Post Baccalaureate Achievement Program, aimed at helping first generation students and students from underrepresented groups prepare for graduate school. It was her first taste of independent research and archival work. By the time she’d finished her senior thesis, “Viva La Raza, Viva Las Latinas: Late 20^th Century Female Activism in Milwaukee’s Latinx Community” she knew she wanted to keep studying Latina activism at Rutgers.

Kerber Travel Grant recipient, Yazmin Gomez, in the IWA reading room.

At IWA, Gomez is seeking to broaden the scope of the research she did on Latina activism in Wisconsin to include a larger picture of the Midwest. She believes that the region, though it has a smaller Latinx population than other areas of the US, has greater internal diversity within its Latinx communities that has created a unique situation for activism. She’s particularly interested in the intersection of gender and race among the Latinas she has studied. “They weren’t exactly Gloria Steinem, women’s liberation feminists, their activism was community-based,” Gomez said. They were focused on things like unionizing and expanding the role of women in established organizations like the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC).

Using collections like the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) Council 10 (Davenport, Iowa) records, the Shirley Sandage papers and the Mujeres Latinas Oral Histories Project, Gomez is searching for connections and common themes shared by the dynamic community of Latinas she found in Milwaukee and Iowa. She’s found some promising materials on the shelves at IWA. For instance, while looking at some Migrant Action Program reports from Iowa she recognized the name of a Wisconsin activist she’d encountered before, who had helped to fund the report in another state.

She’s also finding connections to other civil rights activists and battles. The oral history of Mary Campos, whose work on behalf of Latinx people in Iowa earned her a place in the Iowa Women’s Hall of Fame, introduced her to a wider web of activism. Campos worked for a Dr. Griffin, the husband of civil rights activist Edna Griffin, known for her fight to desegregate Katz Drug Store in Des Moines. Reading Griffin’s FBI file, Gomez found a familiar story in how female activists of the mid 20^th century were underrated. Even the government agents assigned to trail Griffin didn’t understand why they were following “just a housewife.”

Aside from the connections to her own research, Yazmin Gomez has enjoyed finding personal items in the collections she’s seen mixed in with community activism. While learning about Cesar Chavez’s visit to Iowa, she might see a graduation cap and tassel, photographs of a first communion, or her favorite, a newspaper clipping about a local man who grew a potato that looked kind of like an elephant. By encountering items like these in the Archives, Gomez has been able to spend the last two weeks in IWA immersing herself in the lives and community networks of Latinas over 50 years ago. She’s excited to take what she’s learned back to Rutgers as she moves closer to a PhD.