Guest post by Dr. Heather Cooper, Visiting Assistant Professor in History and Gender, Women’s, and Sexuality Studies During LGBTQ History Month in October 2018, I worked with the Iowa Women’s Archives and University Special Collections to organize an archives visit for students from West Liberty High School. The several students who were able to attendContinue reading “Activists in the Archives: Connecting High School Students with Local LGBTQ History”
Category Archives: From the collections
New Website Celebrates Mildred Wirt Benson, the First Carolyn Keene
In 1930, the Stratemeyer Syndicate published the first Nancy Drew mystery, The Secret of the Old Clock by Carolyn Keene. Since then, Nancy Drew has become known around the world. But who was behind Carolyn Keene? The mystery of the pseudonym persisted until a 1980 court case identified Mildred Wirt Benson, a journalist and IowaContinue reading “New Website Celebrates Mildred Wirt Benson, the First Carolyn Keene”
Lupita Larios Travels through Time with Mujeres Latinas Oral Histories
Guest post by Lupita Larios Have you ever heard a story that your grandparents, for example, told you and you were so fascinated to hear the story that you still remember it? With oral histories, a person is able to travel through time and imagine all the events and experiences that the narrator was livingContinue reading “Lupita Larios Travels through Time with Mujeres Latinas Oral Histories”
Dr. Myrtle Hinkhouse: From China to the Iowa Women’s Archives
In 1916, a young doctor by the name of Myrtle Hinkhouse stepped onto a ship heading toward China. Years earlier, the Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions appointed her to serve in Tengchoufu and, after studying at the Women’s Medical College in Philadelphia, she was ready to begin her work. Hinkhouse worked in China for threeContinue reading “Dr. Myrtle Hinkhouse: From China to the Iowa Women’s Archives”
Ordinary People, Extraordinary Things: Iowans of the Greatest Generation
In the window of the Main Library Gallery sit two bags, a trunk, an Army uniform, and the navy nurse’s cape that Evelyn Crary Bacon wore as a student at the State University of Iowa (now the University of Iowa.) What do all of these items have in common? They belonged to members of “TheContinue reading “Ordinary People, Extraordinary Things: Iowans of the Greatest Generation”
A Donation 46 Years in the Making!
In 1972, the University of Iowa’s Manuscript Librarian, Robert McCown, wrote a letter to Nora Leander. He hoped that she would donate the papers of her aunt, Esther Bacon, an Iowan and missionary to Liberia from 1941 – 1972. In 2018, Leander’s niece, Ann Prekker, found the letter among Bacon’s papers and decided to contactContinue reading “A Donation 46 Years in the Making!”
Passover in Iowa
What makes this night different from all other nights? That’s a good question, and one that has been asked by generations of children celebrating the Passover or Pesah, the Festival of Spring. According to the Reuben family’s 1958 copy of The Jewish Home Beautiful, “Pesah tells of the rebirth of a nation, the redemption fromContinue reading “Passover in Iowa”
National Girls and Women in Sport Day
Today we’re celebrating National Girls and Women in Sport Day! Since it was inaugurated in 1987 by a Presidential Proclamation, NGWSD has recognized the on and off-field achievements of female athletes, from girls active in school and community sports to elite international athletes. [side note–if you’re not already following our #WPAscrapbook project about a 1930sContinue reading “National Girls and Women in Sport Day”
Celebrating Women and Sport
One of our graduate student workers spent last semester processing additions to IWA’s University of Iowa Department of Physical Education for Women collection. The new material included everything from Women as Leaders conference records to faculty publications. But one item in the new material surprised us–a scrapbook from the 1930s with “Work Projects Administration” inscribedContinue reading “Celebrating Women and Sport”
25 for 25: Iowa Suffrage Memorial Commission
It is in part thanks to the Iowa Suffrage Memorial Commission that the IWA has such a collection of materials on the suffrage movement in Iowa. The commission, incorporated in 1922, was organized “to commemorate the efforts of the Pioneer Suffragists and the long procession of workers who helped secure the final enfranchisement of women.”Continue reading “25 for 25: Iowa Suffrage Memorial Commission”