Greetings!

Hello my friends, I hope you are all doing well.


I have completed my newest exhibit on Loyola's own, Feminist Forum. Please check it out.


http://wla-archives.tumblr.com/

This past week has been quite exciting at the WLA. I was asked to transcribe some documents that recently came in. This was quite an interesting experience because the documents were near impossible to read. I had to hold them up against the light and literally attempted to define each letter. The document was so badly maintained and the print was nearly all gone. Fortunately, I was transcribing letters/cards so each one did not take as long. I want to thank the graduate students for letting me help them!


Next on the list has been my newest exhibit that I am working on. The Taproots is a non-profit organization dedicated to educating young adults/teens on safe sex and also providing services to young parents.

This is a description of the group from my display.



Taproots was founded by Monica Cahill, BVM, and began as a center for teenage mothers in the rectory of St. Thomas Aquinas Church in 1978. In 1980, Taproots (Teen-Age Parents Realizing Ongoing Orientation Toward Success) moved to a six-room flat at 2424 W. Polk St. Located on Chicago’s West Side, Taproots was offered its services to help ease the difficulties of teen-age pregnancy and single parenthood.

Taproots’ initial focus on teenage pregnancy eventually expanded to include an outreach program which serviced the entire community. Its three-pronged program included empowerment training for young mothers, a child development laboratory for parenting instruction, and adolescent pregnancy forums held throughout the community. Taproots focused on skills training in parenting, nutrition, hygiene, career awareness, and assistance in reaching proper community resources to help teenage parents.

Here are some photos from our archives.

Please check back next week!

Take care everyone,

Sebastian

Hey everyone!

I hope you all had a splendid week and that you are excited for Thanksgiving. This past week I was able to complete my display on Carol Ronen.

http://wla-archives.tumblr.com/

Please check it out!


This week, I decided to change my mind on the organization I will focus on. I felt compelled to research the Feminist Forum because it has been non-existent this year, but they actually held their first meeting last night. I attended and the group was very pleased to know that I am making an exhibit for them.

Here are some photos and papers I am including into my display.

These are only a few examples of what I have been going through this past week. It has all been very interesting because this is an inspirational and respected organization at our school and I am able to trace its origins. The downfall to the collection we have at the WLA is that we hold information from 1995 to 2002. This leaves a ten year gap which does not allow me to look into what they have been working on recently. I have contacted the WSGS department, but they told me that they do not have a lot of information on file. Something specific I wanted to point out is that in the photo posted above, Gloria Steinem attended Loyola. This woman has been active in feminist issues in the United States for quite some time, so I hope my readers enjoy learning about her in my display.

Greetings viewers!

I hope you all had a restful weekend. I have finally been able to finish my latest project on Carol Ronen this past Friday. However, I am still waiting to hear back on some edits from my supervisor so I will post the link next week. I hope you are all excited to see that display because this woman was extremely active in issues such as same sex rights and child/adolescent care. I had honestly never heard of her before, but I could not believe everything she has done. This is one of the first times when I realized how difficult it was creating a display for a person. There were just too many things to share and I also did not want my piece to be too long. As a result, I did struggle more than usual with creating this display, but I hope you all enjoy it.

As for this upcoming week! I am still going through our collections trying to look for areas I have not covered. As a part of this internship, I want to really expand my understanding of women leadership through a multitude of lenses. Therefore, the collection on Church Women United Peoria has really caught my attention. This is a church organization founded in 1941 that represents the Roman Catholic and Protestant faith. They identify as a racially, culturally, theologically inclusive Christian women’s movement, celebrating unity in diversity and working for a world of peace and justice. There are still operating today with over 1, 200 local and state units in the US and Puerto Rico. 

The fact that this group works specifically in Puerto Rico is something that caught my attention right away. There are a lot of material in our archives that speaks to the work committed within the United States, and so I believe that Puerto Rico would provide a different insight. Their culture is different than ours and their national language is not even English. Although, this may already seem as common knowledge, I believe this would greatly affect the inner components of an organization. 

For the next week, I will be going through all of their documented notes from meetings and programs they held. I do not believe that this collection contains photos, so I will need to search on the web. For example, some events that I want to discuss in my next display would be May Fellowship Day (May), World Day of Prayer (March), and World Community Day (November).

Well, I hope everyone has a great week and thank you so much for reading. I appreciate all of the support.

Take care

Good Afternoon,

I hope everyone had an exciting and healthy week. I recently completed my exhibit on the WILPF, so please check it out.

http://wla-archives.tumblr.com/


 As for today, I have been going through the manuscript collections trying to discover the next piece I would like to work on. I have decided on Carol Ronen and for some general background information, she served as an Illinois State Representative in the 17th District from 1993-2000, prior to which she served as Executive Director of the Chicago Commission on Women. Carol was then appointed to the Illinois State Senate for District 7 in 2000 after the resignation of her predecessor, Arthur Berman, and was subsequently elected without an opponent. In 2006, she won reelection by defeating Republican Frank Thomas. In 2007, she announced that she would be resigning as Senator and officially stepped down on February 10, 2008. I was also reading online about her resignation and I came across something that discussed a scandal between her and Governor Blagojevich. I have yet to delve into this topic so I do not have much to share as of right now. Today, I was able to pull up some photos from the archives so I will display these below.

These are just some photos that I was able to scan but there is still a lot of work to do on this project. Please stay tuned until next week. Thank you for reading.

Cheers!

Sebastian

Good Evening!

It is wonderful to be back on here. I hope everyone is doing well. I actually had a tremendous week because I was able to finish my display on the WILPF and I have become working on the life of Joan Heath Fortner. I have just finished writing a little summary about her that I will include in my final display. It still requires a little bit of editing, but this is what I have so far.

Joan Heath Fortner was born in 1932 to Mr. and Mrs. Norbert A. Heath. She is an alumna of Immaculata High School (1950), Mundelein College (1954, BFA), the New York Fashion Academy (1955), and Loyola University (1979, M.A. in Education). From a young age, Fortner was extremely passionate about art and she actually became the youngest person to win the Chicago Tribune American Fashions Competition. In addition to this award, she was the 1950 recipient of the Bishop O’Brien scholarship to the Art Institute in Chicago. In 1953 she won a second scholarship to the New York Fashion Academy for a design she submitted to a contest by the Evans Fur Company.

During her lifetime, Fortner has been involved in art organizations in Chicago and suburbs for years. She is currently the president of the Des Plaines Art Guild and the executive director of Art Cubes, a nonprofit art service organization funded by the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and the Illinois Arts Council that brings the arts to older adults. Due to the dedication to her work, Fortner has won many awards and today she is still extremely active in her community. Along with teaching art classes, she is currently working on watercolor and acrylic paintings. This exhibit will highlight various works of Fortner and the impact she has made on Art and Fashion. 

I am extremely excited to continue my work on this project because this individual is quite different from anyone I have worked on before. She is quite talented in the Arts and has this immense passion for fashion. I share this interest with Fortner in that I am a major fan of runways and clothing designs so it is quite an honor to work on this exhibit. I hope I do her justice! I will continue to work on this next week so please stated tuned!

Also, here is the link for my latest display. Please check it out.

http://www.tumblr.com/blog/wla-archives

Take care!

Good Afternoon,

This week has been going very well for the Women and Leadership Archives! We actually held an event today and the description is below. If anyone was able to attend, I hope they had a wonderful time.

The Women & Leadership Archives Speaker Series
Paradoxical Patriarchs: Reconstructing Masculinity in Revolutionary Virginia
Presented by Aaron M. Brunmeir


As for my work this week, I have been spending a lot of going through correspondences and images, so the process is taking a bit longer than I had expected. Although the archives are stored at Loyola and that Chicago had its own branch of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, there is not a lot of information available. In my display, I will do the best that I can to include information about the programs held in Chicago. I wanted to upload some interesting photos and other information I have been looking at this week.

 

 These only represent a few of the images I have been going through during the past week. I am designing a display that will show one image and then switch off to a letter or correspondence. There is actually quite a lot of textual material that I have to work with. This organization is quite interesting in that it focuses on a wide variety of issues. If you look at the beginning images, these are all of magazines and their covers represent the different projects of the WILPF. They have focused especially on ending nuclear warfare, world hungry, sexual assault,etc. Overall, there is a theme of empowering women to enact change within their communities. I have even checked out their site this past week and they only employ women. On their international office website, their employee statement for internships reads, "*The internships are reserved for women in recognition of the fact that women remain largely excluded from positions concerned with questions of foreign policy, international relations and management, although their presence in these crucial areas is much needed. Priority is given to women between the ages of 20 and 30." 

I will keep everyone updated as I continue to work on my display. Thank you for reading!


Take care



**All information was provided by Women and Leadership Archives and  http://www.wilpfinternational.org/

Good Afternoon,

So the first thing I would love to share is the link for my newest post!

http://wla-archives.tumblr.com/

Please check it out and learn about the interesting life of Mary Agnes Curran, OSF.

As I mentioned last week, I have begun working on my newest project which focuses on the history of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF). This organization has been around for almost a century and our own Jane Addams, founder of the Hull House, was instrumental in the creation of the WILPF. This group actually met in Holland for the first time, but their main offices are in New York City, New York and Geneva, Switzerland. Today, they are present in thirty-seven countries! WILPF has promoted global cooperation and women’s equality and empowerment since its founding. Unfortunately, the branch in Chicago ceased operation in 1995, but there is still a good amount of material at Piper Hall that speaks to the work they did. My job for this week and the following is to sort through their material. Thus far, I have been reading through some of the correspondence letters and what I am beginning to look at are events and various political activism papers. In total, there is a selection of newsletters, mailings, meeting minutes, Principles and Policies, promotional materials, programs and events, newspaper clippings and political activism papers. Also present are newspaper clippings and promotional materials for other women’s groups. I am extremely excited to delve into the information and create a display that highlights the contributions this organization has made. I especially do not want to forget that the WILPF focused on several prevailing political issues, including nuclear disarmament, Cold War and post-Cold War international relations, reduction of Defense spending and funding of domestic human-needs programs, peace in the Middle East, and racism. Although the information stored in Piper Hall may be more restricted since many of these problems were international, I will still dedicate a substantial amount of time to investigating any participation the Chicago branch had.


Please wait patiently as I begin to research this international organization.

Jane Addams

 Image provided by: http://www.nndb.com/people/495/000082249/jane-addams-3.jpg

Information provided by The Women and Leadership Archives.

Good Morning,

I have been finally able to upload the link for my first tumblr post, which I submitted earlier this week. As I said last week, I had been working on another exhibit and that was of Mary Agnes Curran. I should be able to upload this post in the coming week so please check it out. Now that I feel more experienced with using the archives and locating information on certain individuals, I believe that it is time to try something a bit different. The next project I am selecting will focus on the history of a very important organization called the UNIFEM Chicago Chapter. Below you will see an image of their organization and they are quite unique in the global presence they maintain. However, for this project, I will only be focusing on the group based in Chicago that was created in 1989 as a volunteer organization that worked to support projects in developing nations of the world through the affiliation with UNIFEM. In the files, there is large overview that describes what the history of this group and the different events and programs they have created. Also, there is more specific information that covers correspondence, membership informaiton, by-law revision and annual reports. My goal with this project is to spend time researching every aspect of this group with the eleven years worth of material that we have. From there, I will begin to focus on certain individuals who truly made an impact and the certain programs they created. I will also investigate the goals of these specifics programs and why certain issues were being addressed in certain areas. In boxes 4-6 in the archives, there are photographs, VHS tapes, and textile souvenirs from past meetings. I will especially take advantage of the photographs for my display, but will also gather as much information as possible from the tapes. I believe that it is essential to include as much visual primary source material as possible. It is simply a stronger and more stimulating way to present information.
My research begins next week, so I will keep everyone posted.

Have a great day!

Good Morning,

So I have been able to fix the problems with my tumblr post and it is fully operational!

Please check out the link below.


Take care


http://wla-archives.tumblr.com/post/32683361977/helen-sauer-brown

Good Afternoon!

So I have been diligently working on my next project which I discussed last week a little bit. Mary Agnes Curran was an exceptional woman and she not only did service in the United States, but she also worked in Nicaragua and Mexico. She actually stayed in Nicaragua during their revolution and has documents she and other members in her order wrote. These documents describe living through specific battles and they represent the instability and danger within the country during this time. Unfortunately, due to the danger, Curran ended up leaving and moving to Oaxaca for ten years. In this time, she created a women's center that focused on teaching women how to provide for themselves and their families. There were certain instructional classes held that discussed nutrition and parenting techniques. This center also provided these women with jobs within the town so they could financially provide for their families or at least improve their living situation. Curran worked in this center until 1994 and then she decided to move back to the United States where she spent the last eight years of her life working in New Mexico.

This woman was extremely interesting and was very much driven by her faith. As a sister of the Maryknoll order, she began to develop a strong appreciation for the Latin culture. Before embarking on her mission trips to these Spanish speaking countries, she actually took Spanish language courses where she became fluent. In her final years when she was working in New Mexico, she created a similar instructional program as the one in Mexico. However, this focused on how to improve living conditions for undocumented immigrants.

In the display I am currently putting together, I am have already scanned some of the certificates she achieved. She obtain her second M.A. in Religious Studies from Mundelein College in 1982.

We are quite fortunate to say that this woman is a graduate of Mundelein College.

I also plan to scan the written documents of her stay in Nicaragua and make them a main focus of my display. I have been reading through her personal written entries that explain how this experience affected her, but it is not yet clear what she was specficially doing in the country. I will set out right now to answer this question.

Please stand by for the link to my first tumblr post for the WLA!

Take care!

Good Afternoon,

This past week I have been working on a post for the WLA blogger that focuses on the involvement of Helen Sauer Brown in issues of women's equality and war peace activism. I went through all of her speeches and writings in order to find precisely what I wanted to represent. I would submit a link to the blog post right now, however, I just submitted it to be revised by my supervisor so I will send it along next week when everything has been finalized. However, I can share its contents which highlight her education at Mundelein, parts of her war resistance letter, her involvement in peace marches in Washington D.C., speaking in Springfield, Illinois to advocate for the passage of the ERA amendment, and a wedding photo which was taken sixty-eight years ago. I was extremely fascinated by the life this woman led and how she was able to contribute so much to her community while raising nine kids. Something unfortunate about what we have in our archives is that there is no information on what she has been doing in the past ten or so years. I am sure that she has settled down recently, but I would be interested to know what she is still doing with her time. As I said earlier, I will submit the link in the upcoming post.

As for today, I have recently begun working on another project. This will focus on the life of Mary Agnes Curran. She was a teacher, social rights activist, and a missionary. She dedicated a majority of her life to working with Latina women in the United States who have experienced physical assault. Not only this, but she also brought in solar technology for households with no electricity. This was conducted through a ministry she created in Parajarito Masa, New Mexico. Another interesting component of this woman's life is that she was present during the Nicaraguan Revolution in which there was constant killing for a long period of time. Unfortunately, she ended up leaving this country, but did create a women's center in Mexico. There is a lot of information to highlight when studying this woman, and so I may spend more time than the last project creating my display. I need to be careful in not having a large focus and truly discussing the essentials of her life.  Please stay posted for the updates on my new project!

Cheers.

Good Evening,

This is my first official week of working at the WLA. I have decided to take on a project that focuses on Helen Sauer Brown. She graduated Mundelein College in 1944 and she also returned for her masters in religious studies which she received in 1970. She was extremely involved within her community and spend some time teaching Religion at Nazareth Academy. However, I will be focusing on her political career that involved marching in Washington D.C. as a peace activist and also in Springfield as an organizer of the Equal Rights Amendment on behalf of the Illinois Catholic Women. There are some speeches and letters that I have been reading that reveal her political and religious views. Below is a portion of one of the letters she wrote to the Nazareth Academy explaining why she did not agree with a war tax. Once I have collected enough information and structured what I want to say, I will be posting my work to the WLA blog.

This section of her letter is only a mere representation of the frustration she felt towards the American government during the Vietnam War. Brown believed that it was illogical that the government was spending money on certain issues that, in her opinion, did not concern the United States. She strongly advocated for addressing the problems within this country and not allowing issues of war distract Americans from problems such as poverty or gender inequality. 

All information was provided by: 

• http://www.luc.edu/media/lucedu/wla/pdfs/Brown,_Hellen_Sauer1.pdf
• http://content.library.luc.edu/cdm4/document.php?CISOROOT=/coll7&CISOPTR=10&REC=1
• http://content.library.luc.edu/cdm4/item_viewer.php?CISOROOT=%2Fcoll18&CISOPTR=7&DMSCALE=50&DMWIDTH=600&DMHEIGHT=600&DMMODE=viewer&DMFULL=0&DMX=940&DMY=300&DMTEXT=&DMTHUMB=1&REC=12&DMROTATE=0&x=139&y=256

Good Afternoon,

This is my first official week of working at the WLA. I have decided to take on a project that focuses on Helen Sauer Brown. She graduated Mundelein College in 1944 and she also returned for her masters in religious studies which she received in 1970. She was extremely involved within her community and spend some time teaching Religion at Nazareth Academy. However, I will be focusing on her political career that involved marching in Washington D.C. as a peace activist and also in Springfield as an organizer of the Equal Rights Amendment on behalf of the Illinois Catholic Women. There are some speeches and letters that I have been reading that reveal her political and religious views. Below is a portion of one of the letters she wrote to the Nazareth Academy explaining why she did not agree with a war tax. Once I have collected enough information and structured what I want to say, I will be posting my work to the WLA blog.

This section of her letter is only a mere representation of the frustration she felt towards the American government during the Vietnam War. Brown believed that it was illogical that the government was spending money on certain issues that, in her opinion, did not concern the United States. She strongly advocated for addressing the problems within this country and not allowing issues of war distract Americans from problems such as poverty or gender inequality. 

All information was provided by: 

• http://www.luc.edu/media/lucedu/wla/pdfs/Brown,_Hellen_Sauer1.pdf
• http://content.library.luc.edu/cdm4/document.php?CISOROOT=/coll7&CISOPTR=10&REC=1
• http://content.library.luc.edu/cdm4/item_viewer.php?CISOROOT=%2Fcoll18&CISOPTR=7&DMSCALE=50&DMWIDTH=600&DMHEIGHT=600&DMMODE=viewer&DMFULL=0&DMX=940&DMY=300&DMTEXT=&DMTHUMB=1&REC=12&DMROTATE=0&x=139&y=256

Orientation!

Greetings! I have just completed my first day of work at the WLA. For those of you who are not familiar with Piper Hall, it is a four story building on campus that holds the archives for many organizations and people that represent female leadership. Although today was only my orientation, I was given an intensive tour of the facility and I learned in extensive detail how the dynamics of archiving works. For example, I spent about a good thirty minutes surveying the basement because this is where the majority of all of the information is stored. I learned that each column is broken down into 4 letters (A-D) and each row is broken down into (1-6). The number 1 represents the top row which is always empty and the numbers only go up with each row going down. I hope that was not too confusing. My supervisor told me that I will be working on a number of research projects that can cover anything from specific events to organizations, to individual activists. This weekend I will spend time online searching more about topics that interest me and I begin my official research on Tuesday morning. I will have a lot more to say then, but I am very excited to have this position and to see what happens. Lastly, I inserted a photo that I learned a little bit about from my supervisor. The artist's name is Virginia Gaertner Broderick and she is one of the most influential religious artists of the 21st century. Also, she attended Mundelein college and graduated magna cum laude with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in 1939. This is only the beginning of the thorough investigations I will conduct, so everyone should be waiting in suspense for my next post. Thank you and take care!