News from the University of Wisconsin-Madison

Dovie Horvitz Collection Showcases Extraordinary Evolution of Ordinary Women

Bum pads, cockade feather fans, petticoats, talcum powder tins, postcards depicting the “10 Commandments for Wives,” and garters made by prisoners. The breadth of the Dovie Horvitz Collection reflects the lives and progress of women over the last two centuries – exactly what the collection’s namesake intended. 

“Everything from the artwork, to the post cards, to the clothes, even the makeup all tells a story,” Horvitz said. “I look back now and think of how extraordinary the transformation has been. This isn’t about showcasing celebrities. It’s about the day-to-day lives of ordinary women.” 

Now, more than 1,300 images and scanned texts of items in Horvitz’s are available through the University of Wisconsin Digital Collections site. While the collection is new to the site, it actually is decades in the making.

‘Dress thyself like an old witch’ postcard. The seventh in a series of ten postcards titled, “The 10 commandments for wives.” From the Dovie Horvitz Collection / UW Digital Collections 2010.27.1 

Read the rest of the story at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Libraries website.

Categories: digital content, new collections

News from Princeton

From Princeton.edu:

"The papers of Nobel laureate Toni Morrison are now part of the permanent library collections of Princeton University, where the renowned author served on the faculty for 17 years.

The announcement was made today [October 17, 2014] by Princeton President Christopher L. Eisgruber to a packed audience in Richardson Auditorium, addressing attendees of the conference "Coming Back: Reconnecting Princeton's Black Alumni." Eisgruber made the announcement after a tribute to Morrison's legacy at Princeton by trustee Ruth Simmons and before Morrison's on-stage interview with Claudia Brodsky, professor of comparative literature.

Eisgruber said: "Toni Morrison's place among the giants of American literature is firmly entrenched, and I am overjoyed that we are adding her papers to the Princeton University Library's collections. This extraordinary resource will provide scholars and students with unprecedented insights into Professor Morrison's remarkable life and her magnificent, influential literary works. We at Princeton are fortunate that Professor Morrison brought her brilliant talents as a writer and teacher to our campus 25 years ago, and we are deeply honored to house her papers and to help preserve her inspiring legacy."

Click here to read the rest of the article at Princeton.edu.

Categories: new collections, news

News from LSU

Political Strategist Donna Brazile Donates Her Papers to LSU

Though she has made her name and home in Washington D.C. for the past three decades, distinguished LSU alumna, veteran political strategist and commentator, author, and Democratic Party official Donna Brazile makes no secret of her pride in being a native of Louisiana and an LSU graduate. Now an important piece of Brazile’s personal history has returned to her home state with the recent donation of her papers to the LSU Libraries Special Collections.
Photographs, correspondence, speeches and other writings, memoranda, reports and analyses, campaign management and research files, and memorabilia comprise the collection. Together the 32 boxes of materials document Brazile’s involvement in Democratic politics and the Democratic National Committee; her interest in and efforts to mobilize African American voters, elect women to office, and advocate for voting rights; her public speaking and teaching; her work with the Louisiana Recovery Authority; and her participation in every presidential campaign between 1976 and 2000, including as manager of the Gore-Lieberman bid for the White House. She was the first African American to lead a major presidential campaign. Visit the link above to read the rest of the news release.

Categories: new collections

News from Chicano/a Research Collection, Arizona State University Libraries

We're deeply honored to preserve the work of Dr. Michelle Téllez. She's an interdisciplinary scholar trained in sociology, Chicana/o studies, community studies and education.

Left: Dr. Téllez speaking at a Wage Theft Forum, July 2012
In her twenty years of community engagement and activism, she has been involved in multiple projects for change at the grassroots level utilizing critical pedagogy, principles of sustainability, community-based arts, performance, and visual media. Her writing and research projects seek to uncover the stories of identity, transnational community formation, gendered migration, autonomy, resistance and Chicana mothering. She is a founding member of the Arizona Ethnic Studies Network, and is on the editorial review board for Chicana/Latina Studies: The Journal of Mujeres Activas en Letras y Cambio Social.

Categories: new collections

News from the University of Texas at San Antonio

From UTSA, June 2, 2014:

Leticia Van de Putte, state senator and Democratic nominee for Lieutenant Governor of Texas, has donated her personal papers to the UTSA Libraries Special Collections for use by students and scholars alike. 

Donated in late 2013 and recently made available to the public, the Leticia Van de Putte papers consists of 12 boxes of correspondence, newspaper clippings, photographs and awards, while excluding official records from her political offices. The papers will be available to scholars, students and researchers interested in examining her impact across two decades in civil service. 

“State Senator Van de Putte is creating a significant political legacy here in San Antonio,” said Nikki Lynn Thomas, manuscripts curator who inventoried the papers. “Just as her leadership will have a lasting impact, so will her papers have an enduring relevance for scholars examining the political history of our region.”

Read the rest of the article here.

Categories: new collections

Collection news you may have missed - Vanderbilt University

Vanderbilt News, July 1, 2013: “Tennessee statesman James Sasser donates papers to Vanderbilt”

You may have overlooked this headline if searching for women’s collections news, but the Sasser collection includes the papers of his wife, Mary. From the article:

Mary Sasser taught in public schools in Memphis and Nashville after graduating from Vanderbilt. In Nashville, she was active in organizations that included the Nashville Women’s Political Caucus, League of Women Voters and Historic Nashville. During her husband’s years in the Senate, she co-founded a celebrity speakers bureau with a list of prominent authors, journalists, athletes and business leaders. While in Beijing, she hosted many groups to promote the advancement of women in business around the world. One of the goals was to identify universal and culture-bound factors that have led to the success or failure of women entrepreneurs. She also hosted several exhibitions of Chinese and American art at the ambassador’s residence to showcase the richness and variety of the art of both cultures.

Categories: new collections

Latina Icon Donates Papers to UConn Archives

News from UCONN Today:

A decade after Puerto Rico became a United States “protectorate” in the 1950s, scores of islanders streamed into New York City. Among them were poets, writers, musicians, and artists who used poetry and prose to question and examine their newfound identity, culture, and history in what became known as the Nuyorican Literary Movement. Magdalena Gómez, a figure in that nascent movement, who used her voice to decry the oppression she observed and encouraged the disenfranchised to work to realize their potential, has recently given her personal papers to the UConn Libraries’ Archives & Special Collections in the Thomas J. Dodd Research Center.

Read the full story at UCONN Today.

Categories: new collections

Dorothy Allison Papers Arrive at Duke

After a nearly twenty year period of considering this momentous decision, Dorothy Allison, author of Bastard Out of Carolina and renowned activist in the LGBTQ community, has selected the Sallie Bingham Center for Women's History and Culture, part of the Rare Book, Manuscript, and Special Collections Library at Duke University, to be the repository for her papers. Bingham Center and literary curatorial staff collaborated on the initial acquisition of nearly 60 boxes of Allison's papers, including drafts of her writings, extensive correspondence and research files, personal journals documenting her life and creative process, and more. Read the whole story on the Special Collections blog: http://dukelibrariesrbmscl.blogspot.com/2010/09/dorothy-allison-papers-arrive-at-duke.html

Another blog post about Allison: http://dukelibrariesrbmscl.blogspot.com/2010/09/my-rbmscl-reading-dorothy-allison.html

Finding aid: http://library.duke.edu/digitalcollections/rbmscl/allisondorothy/inv/

Categories: new collections, repositories