{"id":939,"date":"2016-03-03T11:15:26","date_gmt":"2016-03-03T17:15:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/iwa\/?p=939"},"modified":"2021-01-18T12:06:34","modified_gmt":"2021-01-18T18:06:34","slug":"meet-dorothy-wirtz","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/iwa\/2016\/03\/03\/meet-dorothy-wirtz\/","title":{"rendered":"Meet Dorothy Wirtz"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Wirtz1\"<\/a>
Dorothy and Warren “Jack” Wirtz, students at the University of Iowa, 1938<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A few years after the Iowa Women\u2019s Archives opened, Dr. Dorothy Wirtz [1915 \u2013 2013] donated some pieces of her college years at the University of Iowa. Dorothy Wirtz\u2019s 1997 gift to the IWA includes her academic articles and a selection of her poetry. However, the papers mostly concern the exploits of Wirtz and her brother, Warren, as students at the University of Iowa in the late 1930s. Both French majors, the siblings balanced classes with extracurricular activities, worried about finances, and wrote home frequently. Dorothy\u2019s letters are especially candid about her determined penny-pinching, and reflect the struggle of affording college during the Great Depression. \u201cDo you realize,\u201d Dorothy wrote to her mother in 1937, \u201cthat I am going to be able to maintain myself for the entire year and also probably pay Ed back within the year? What a woman! After this, remember that I am not to be discouraged in anything I want to do.\u201d Her letters also describe an active social life with parties for French and German students and even seeing \u201cthe much talked of Black Angel,\u201d a statue at the local Oakland Cemetery rumored to be cursed.<\/p>\n

\"Wirtz<\/a>
A portion of Wirz’s recent donation<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Born in Keokuk, Iowa and a 1939 graduate of the University of Iowa, Wirtz left her home state for an impressive and lengthy academic career. She and her brother Warren \u201cJack\u201d Wirtz, a composer, led lives that reflected their artistic passions. Professor of French, pianist, published poet, and deputy treasurer of the state of Arizona, Wirtz\u2019s life was full, but her single box of papers at the Iowa Women\u2019s Archives did not match the extent of her accomplishments. We know that the Wirtz siblings made their home together in Phoenix, Arizona from the 1950s until Warren\u2019s death in 1972.  But after 1939, the correspondence and their collection nearly stops. Aside from a few poems, compositions, and papers, Dorothy and \u201cJack\u201d Wirtz might as well have disappeared.<\/p>\n

But th\"Wirtz<\/a>at is about to change. Dorothy Wirtz bequeathed the IWA approximately 12 linear feet of materials: letters, diaries, and artifacts from an extraordinary life. The materials in these 16 boxes should fill in the gaps, giving a more complete picture of the lives of two incredible University of Iowa alumni. Wirtz\u2019s gift included enough funds to hire me as the Dorothy Wirtz Graduate Research Assistant. This year, I will process these papers for researcher use and share my progress on the IWA blog and tumblr. Stay tuned for updates!<\/p>\n

— Annie Tunnicliff, Dorothy Wirtz Graduate Research Assistant<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A few years after the Iowa Women\u2019s Archives opened, Dr. Dorothy Wirtz [1915 \u2013 2013] donated some pieces of her college years at the University of Iowa. Dorothy Wirtz\u2019s 1997 gift to the IWA includes her academic articles and a selection of her poetry. However, the papers mostly concern the exploits of Wirtz and herContinue reading “Meet Dorothy Wirtz”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":189,"featured_media":1045,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,18,8,35],"tags":[59,40,251],"syndication":[20],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/iwa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/939"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/iwa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/iwa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/iwa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/189"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/iwa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=939"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/iwa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/939\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2013,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/iwa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/939\/revisions\/2013"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/iwa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1045"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/iwa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=939"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/iwa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=939"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/iwa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=939"},{"taxonomy":"syndication","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/iwa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/syndication?post=939"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}