A Different Point of View

Archived Newsletters: Fall 2004

Annual Advisory Board Meeting

On October 21, 2004, the National Women’s History Museum hosted the annual Advisory Board meeting and Special Showing of the exhibition Partners in Winning the War: American Women in World War II co-sponsored by the Women’s Memorial and NWHM.

President Susan Jollie reported to the Advisory Board on legislative efforts to obtain a permanent space for our Museum, which have progressed slowly in the House of Representatives following unanimous approval in the Senate. The Museum enjoys the political support of all of the women members in the Congress, more than half of the total members of Congress, and leaders of key committees as well as Cabinet members.

She noted that Partners has generated a lot of positive public response. The work on the temporary exhibit was helpful in developing the template for future programs. NWHM worked in collaboration with other organizations and dedicated volunteers to produce a high impact exhibition with true educational value on a very modest budget.

President Jollie also reported that NWHM has been developing new virtual exhibitions for the CyberMuseum, introducing American Women in the Olympics to fill in the missing parts of history not addressed in the media. In the coming year, NWHM is hopeful to secure funding to transition Partners to the CyberMuseum and to expand links to other websites that provide information on women’s history and women’s organizations.

The meeting was followed by a special showing of Partners in Winning the War: American Women in World War II.  NWHM members and their guests mingled with NWHM Board members and museum founder Karen Staser, who flew in from Alaska for the event. Participants received a complimentary copy of A Day in the Life of Rosie, a tribute publication supplied by Ford, which was one of the sponsors of the Partners exhibition.

Letter from our President

The National Women’s History Museum Web site was presented with a History Website of the Week Award for the week beginning November 8, 2004, and ending November 14 by The Old State House Museum, a nationally recognized museum of Arkansas history accredited by the American Association of Museums. The review states: “This is a Web site advocating a National Women's History Museum to be located in Washington, DC. Remarkably the website has most of the features one might expect if the museum already existed.”

NWHM appreciates this acknowledgement, as well as other recognition that we receive from time to time. Our Web site was conceived as the CyberMuseum—a natural complement to bricks and mortar in this electronic age. The structure permits limitless additions of “virtual exhibits” that can be on display for extendsive periods of time.

In the coming year, we will be looking to expand its reach. One means we are actively exploring is to provide links to other educational resources. We welcome our members’ input on informational sites that you have found to be particularly useful. You may e-mail suggestions to info@nwhm.org.

Please visit from time to time at www.nwhm.org to see how we are doing!

Happy Holidays and Best Wishes for the coming New Year!

 

Celebrate These Women Born in Fall

Patsy Takemoto Mink (12/06/1927) was born in Hawaii. She received a B.A. from the University of Hawaii and a J.D. from the University of Chicago Law School. After graduation in 1951, Mink returned to Hawaii.  She began practicing law and was the first Asian-American woman to do so.  She was active in Hawaii’s state politics and was in 1965 she was elected to the House of Representatives as a Hawaii Democrat and the first Asian-American Congresswoman, serving until 1977.  She served as Assistant Secretary of State for Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs, and then held the position of president of Americans for Democratic Action for three years.  In 1990 she was re-elected to Congress where she served until her death in 2002.  Her political focus was on education, childcare, the environment, and equal opportunity.

Sarah Grimke (10/26/1792) was born on a South Carolina plantation. In the late 1820’s she and her sister Angelina moved to Philadelphia, rejecting the institution of slavery. In 1835 Angelina wrote a letter that was published in the abolitionist newspaper The Liberator. She and Sarah each published pamphlets, Sarah’s being titled An Epistle to the Clergy of the Southern States. These pamphlets were publicly burned in South Carolina, and the sisters were warned not to return home. They were among the first women to lecture publicly; however they were severely criticized for speaking out. Sarah’s book Letters on the Equality of the Sexes linked the rights of women and the rights of slaves, as well as defining the difference between gender and sex. Her struggle for abolition and suffrage continued until her death in December 1873.

Ellen Swallow Richards (12/3/1842) introduced the word ecology to the United States in 1892. Ellen was home-schooled by her parents, both teachers, and studied at Vassar College, where she became interested in chemistry. She was particularly interested in environmental problems caused by urbanization. She was the first woman admitted to Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), earning a second bachelor’s degree. She attempted to obtain her graduate degree, but was not allowed to do so because she was a woman. She analyzed water and sewage systems for the Massachusetts Board of Health, and was recognized worldwide for her analyses of minerals in the earth. Her long list of achievements includes founding the study of home economics, and starting the work on the Pure Food Acts. She taught at MIT until her death in 1911.

The first African-American poet to be published was Phillis Wheatley (c.1753), a slave taken from the western coast of Africa. She was educated by her owners, and within sixteen months of her arrival in America she could read the Bible, Greek and Latin classics, and British literature. She also studied astronomy and geography. When she was 14 Phillis began to write poetry, publishing “An Elagiac Poem, on the Death of the Celebrated Divine George Whitefield” in 1770. Her book Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral was published in 1773 with financial support from the English Countess of Huntingdon. She presented a poem dedicated to George Washington in 1776. Phillis drew attention to her successful education, and her poems were reissued in the 1830s by abolitionists proving that African-Americans were intelligent, creative, and could be educated. Phillis died on 12/5/1784.

 

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