Events – News from the Archives

Jul 12 2017

Iowa City Feminists: The Women’s Resource and Action Center

Posted on July 12, 2017July 11, 2017 by Anna Tunnicliff

“We will meet all of us women of every land. We will meet at the center, make a circle. We will weave a world we to entangle the powers that bury our children.” — cover art for WRAC’s December 1978 newsletter

Iowa City’s Women’s Resource and Action Center (WRAC) opened in 1971 as a place for women to meet about and organize around issues that mattered to them. With support from the University, members of WRAC hosted a rape crisis line, formed anti-racism organizations, and kept track of local LGBT friendly businesses and housed dozens of discussion and support groups for women from all walks of life.

WRAC published monthly newsletters for Newsletters frequently included schedules for women’s events in town, notices for

“A Feminist Prayer” from vol. 1 no 12 issue of the WRAC newsletter

for discussion and support groups, and opinion pieces on issues important to women. Newsletters also frequently included feminist poetry, such as “A Feminist Prayer,” printed in a 1975 issue.

WRAC, still on the UIowa campus, recently moved to a new, bigger location. If you would like to tour WRAC, it will be hosting a reception this Friday, July 14th, at 6pm as a part of the Iowa City Feminist Reunion.

Jul 11 2017

Celebrating Iowa City’s Feminists

Posted on July 11, 2017 by Anna Tunnicliff

Join us this weekend, July 14-15, for the Iowa City Feminists Reunion! Many of the women who created Ain’t I a Woman, the Iowa City Women’s Press, Nahuatzen, and other publications featured in the Main Library’s current exhibit, Power to the Printers, will be here to reflect on their experiences as activists in Iowa City in the 1960s, ‘70s, and ‘80s.

Festivities over Friday and Saturday will include a gala dinner, a variety of panel discussions, an open house at the Iowa Women’s Archives, and a reception at the Women’s Resource and Action Center. For a full schedule, please visit the event’s site.

Feel free to drop in this Friday and Saturday for the panel discussions in Shambaugh Auditorium in the Main Library. We hope to see you there!

Quilt squares about Iowa women, by Iowa girls.

Mar 21 2017

Every Girl Has a Voice: 8-14 Year Old Girls Explore IWA

Posted on March 21, 2017 by Colleen Theisen

Every girl has a voice. Every woman has a story!

This month the IWA held an event for area girls from ages 8 – 14. The girls learned about Iowa girls and women from decades past like Dora Martin Berry, the first black student to be named Miss State University of Iowa; Dorothy Fox Wurster, who joined the local boys 4-H club in order to competitively show cattle; and Phyliss Henry, Des Moines’ first police woman.
Using photocopies of what they found, the kids made their own mini-exhibits and decorated a quilt square about a girl or woman of their choice.

All who participated had a blast, and we hope to have a similar event in the future.

The girls examine our current exhibit "History as it Happens: Women's March 2017 — The girls examine our current exhibit “History as it Happens: Women’s March 2017

Curator Kären Mason shows the girls some artifacts from IWA collections.

Assistant curator Janet Weaver helps a girl write her exhibit caption, "And the women powered through it!" — Assistant curator Janet Weaver helps a girl write her exhibit caption, “And the women powered through it!”

Oct 19 2016

Do Not Miss Three Events from October 24th – 27th

Posted on October 19, 2016October 12, 2017 by Anna Tunnicliff

From October 24th – 27th Trudy Huskamp Peterson, the former Acting Archivist of the United States, and Jane E. Schultz, Professor of English and Medical Humanities at Indiana University-Purdue University-Indianapolis, will visit the University of Iowa.

A longtime friend of the Iowa Women’s Archives, Trudy Huskamp Peterson has made an international career of archives and human rights. Besides serving as the United States’ Acting Archivist, Peterson has consulted with truth commissions in South Africa and Honduras and worked for three years with the police archives in Guatemala. She is currently the chair of the International Council on Archives’ Human Rights Working.

On Monday the 24th Peterson will host an archival workshop for graduate students and researchers from 4:00 – 5:30 in 302 SH Commons. She will follow this on Tuesday the 25th with a public lecture entitled “What Every Citizen and Historian Should Know: How Governments Shape Archives.” The lecture will take place in 302 SH Commons from 12:30 – 1:45 and will include a light lunch.

Finally, on Thursday the 27th, the Universty of Iowa History of Medicine Society and the Iowa Women’s Archives will jointly present Jane E. Schultz. Schultz, a professor at Indiana University-Purdue University-Indianapolis, formerly consulted for the PBS miniseries “Mercy Street” and has written extensively about women and the Civil War. Her lecture “Civility on Trial: Nurses, Surgeons, and Medical Extremity in Civil War Hospitals will take place in the Medical Education Research Facility (MERF) 2117 from 5:30 – 6:30.

Hope to see you there!

Mar 11 2016

Public Talk March 24, 2016 at 4:00PM “Jewish Women and Community Life in Iowa”

Posted on March 11, 2016December 2, 2016 by Colleen Theisen

WE DID SO MUCH BEYOND THE HOME

JEWISH WOMEN AND COMMUNITY LIFE IN IOWA

A talk by Jeannette Gabriel, Graduate Research Assistant, Jewish Women in Iowa Project, Iowa Women’s Archives

Join us to hear the untold stories of Jewish women’s involvement in community activities throughout Iowa history, whether in cities with robust Jewish populations or in small towns where only one or two Jewish families lived.

Thursday, March 24, 2016 4:00-5:30 p.m.

Iowa Women’s Archives, 3^rd Floor, Main Library, University of Iowa

Reception at 4:00 p.m. — Talk will begin at 4:30 p.m.

RSVP lib-women@uiowa.edu Questions? 319-335-5068

Save this event to your profile on the University of Iowa Calendar of Events.

Presented by the Iowa Women’s Archives at the University of Iowa Libraries in celebration of Women’s History Month.

Jeannette Gabriel is a PhD candidate in the department of Teaching and Learning, College of Education. Her dissertation is ‘I Don’t See Race’: Examining History Teachers’ Use of Images through the Teaching Amerian History (TAH) Grant to Study African-American History”. The Jewish Women in Iowa Project has helped develop her understanding of historical memory and consciousness. Jeannette is deeply grateful and appreciative for the warmth and graciousness with which I have been received by the Jewish families and communities that have become part of this project.

Individuals with disabilities are encouraged to attend all University of Iowa-sponsored events. If you are a person with a disability who requires a reasonable accommodation in order to participate in this program, please contact (name of person or department) in advance at (telephone number).

Mar 01 2016

Two Women’s History Month Events in March

Posted on March 1, 2016December 2, 2016 by Colleen Theisen

Mujeres Latinas: Every Woman Has a Story

Saturday, March 5, 2016, 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Join us in the Iowa Women’s Archives to learn about the rich history of Latinas, their families, and organizations in Iowa.

~Bring a memento from your past to share with the group.

~Learn how to preserve it.

Refreshments will be served!

Iowa Women’s Archives, 3rd Floor Main Library, University of Iowa

RSVP: lib-women@uiowa.edu Questions? Call 319-335-5068

Presented by the Iowa Women’s Archives and Kirkwood Community College

Latino Americans: 500 Years of History has been made possible through a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the American Library Association.

See this event on the University of Iowa Calendar of Events

We Did So Much Beyond the Home:

Jewish Women and Community Life in Iowa

Thursday, March 24, 2016, Reception at 4 p.m., Talk will begin at 4:30 p.m.

A talk by Jeannette Gabriel, graduate research assistant, for the Jewish Women in Iowa Project

Iowa Women’s Archives, 3rd Floor Main Library, University of Iowa.

RSVP: lib-women@uiowa.edu Questions? Call 319-335-5068

See this event on the University of Iowa Calendar of Events.

Accommodations

Individuals with disabilities are encouraged to attend all University of Iowa–sponsored events. If you are a person with a disability who requires a reasonable accommodation in order to participate in this program, please contact the sponsoring department or contact person listed in advance of the event.

Jan 22 2016

January 28: Injections, Itches, and Institutions: The Experience of Rural Medicine in Iowa, 1910-1950

Posted on January 22, 2016January 22, 2016 by Colleen Theisen

The University of Iowa History of Medicine Society and the Iowa Women’s Archives
invite you to hear:
Injections, Itches, and Institutions:
The Experience of Rural Medicine in Iowa, 1910-1950

Jennifer Gunn
History of Medicine Endowed Professor
Director of the Institute for Advanced Study
University of Minnesota

Thursday, January 28, 2016, 5:30-6:30
Medical Education Research Facility (MERF) 2117

Free and Open to the Public

When Clara Skott, an Iowa farm wife living in South Dakota during the 1918 influenza pandemic, received a series of injections to stave off the flu, the hypodermic needle was a symbol of modern medical practice. Iowa doctors’ ledger books show “hypos” were a staple of their treatment repertoire. What was in the hypo was not always clear. Clara was given a homegrown influenza vaccine; other patients received barbiturates, vita-mins, or placebos. $1.00 for an injection was beyond the reach of many Iowans. This talk explores country doctors’ practices and the range of ways rural Iowans handled health issues in the first half of the 20th century.

If you are a person with a disability requiring an accommodation in order to participate in this program, please contact Donna Hirst, Hardin Library for the Health Sciences (donna-hirst@uiowa.edu), 335-9154. The UI History of Medicine Society website is located at: http://hosted.lib.uiowa.edu/histmed/

Apr 28 2015

Calling All Sleuths! 2015 Nancy Drew Iowa Convention

Posted on April 28, 2015October 6, 2015 by Jessica Lawson

University of Iowa Libraries, Special Collections Dept.

Come check out the 2015 Nancy Drew Iowa Convention, celebrating the 85th anniversary of Nancy Drew and the 110th anniversary of Iowa native and Nancy Drew author, Mildred Wirt Benson!

9:30am, Friday, May 1
University of Iowa Main Library, Room 2032.
This event is free and open to the public.

You can read about this event in the Iowa-City Press Citizen, and come learn even more about the life and work of Mildred Benson by exploring her papers at the Iowa Women’s Archives.

Mar 13 2015

Light and Letters: An Iowa Woman’s Experience of Tuberculosis

Posted on March 13, 2015December 2, 2016 by Jessica Lawson

Celebrate women’s history month with refreshments and conversation! Come join us for “Light and Letters: An Iowa Woman’s Experience of Tuberculosis,” a talk by Jennifer Burek Pierce, PhD, on Wednesday, March 25 at 4:00pm.

Prof. Burek Pierce will discuss the importance of reading and letters from home for Marjorie McVicker Sutcliffe during her treatments in a tuberculosis sanatorium, drawing on materials in the Judith Sutcliffe papers here at the Iowa Women’s Archives. An Associate Professor in the School of Library and Information Science, Burek Pierce writes about publishing trends and their implications for libraries, past and present. Her research considers what happens when ideas once shared face-to-face are committed to print. Her books include What Adolescents Ought to Know: Sexual Health Texts in Early 20th Century America (UMass Press, 2011) and Sex, Brains, and Video Games: A Librarian’s Guide to Teens in the 21st Century (ALA Editions, 2009).

May 30 2014

Nineteenth Century Davenport as a Hotbed of Controversial Alternative Medicine Schools

Posted on May 30, 2014July 1, 2014 by Ariana Santiago

The University of Iowa History of Medicine Society & the Iowa Women’s Archives invite you to:

Nineteenth Century Davenport as a Hotbed of Controversial
Alternative Medicine Schools
Featuring Greta Nettleton, University of Iowa author and historian
Thursday June 19, 2014, 5:30-6:30 PM
MERF Room 2117 (Medical Education and Research Facility across from Hardin Library)

Mrs. Dr. Rebecca J. Keck was a controversial, self-taught eclectic physician and the owner of Mrs. Dr. Keck’s Infirmary for All Chronic Diseases in Davenport, Iowa. Although forgotten today, she served up to 15,000 patients in her itinerant circuit. She successfully defended herself in court five times in Illinois for practicing medicine without a license from 1879 to 1900. How does her career illuminate the birth of other alternative medical theories such as Chiropractic?

View the event on Facebook

If you are a person with a disability requiring an accommodation in order to participate in this program, please contact Donna Hirst, Hardin Library for the Health Sciences (donna-hirst@uiowa.edu), 335-9154. The UI Histort of Medicine Society website is located at http://hosted.lib.uiowa.edu/histmed.