Women's Hall Research Articles

Historic Tales of Macomb County by Barb Pert Templeton

Reviewed by: Historic Tales of Macomb County by Barb Pert Templeton Katie Doelle Barb Pert Templeton. Historic Tales of Macomb County. Charleston, SC: The History Press, 2020. Pp 142. Index. Photographs. Paperback: $21.99. Macomb County was founded in 1818 and named after War of 1812 veteran Alexander Macomb Jr. Today, Macomb County, part of Metro Detroit, has the fifth-largest population in Michigan. Historic Tales of Macomb County provides a superb introduction to the history of Macomb and the unsung heroes who have left their mark on the community. The book, presented in Barb Pert Templeton's own voice, brings to life some interesting facts about the twenty-seven villages, cities, and townships, including the people who have made a difference to the district. Each of the fourteen chapters features the origins of the township and its name, a select history, and its size (in miles and population), along with tales of several prominent people who have resided in the respective villages and cities. [End Page 159] The focus is on the people who have left a lasting impression on their community—politicians, inventors, soldiers, and farmers—including Mayor Tom Welsh (St. Clair Shores), Governor Alexander J. Groesbeck (Warren) and librarian Naomi Gibbing (Utica). Many of the individuals and families Templeton presents are significant residents of the county, who not only left their mark locally, but also on the state, and, in some cases, nationally. Some of the standout subjects include the Weiss family, who supplied roses to the White House; Shirley A. Mason, the quiet but likable art teacher who became the inspiration for Sybil in the best-selling 1973 non-fiction book by Flora Rheta Schreiber and the 1976 TV movie; and Franklin Harold Hayward, a painter and sculptor whose paintings were displayed in museums in France, England, and across the United States. Templeton also introduces the reader to immigrants who traveled thousands of miles to the United States and made Macomb County their home. Among them are the Kuchenmeister family, who arrived from Germany in 1884, and Robert Nelson Sr., who, with his three acrobat brothers, sailed from England to the United States in 1886 and made Mount Clemens his permanent home in 1887. While it is these lesser-known individuals who take center stage, Templeton also presents stories of nationally known individuals such as Joe Louis, Harlan Perry Howard, and Thomas Edison. What makes the book particularly interesting is the insight Templeton provides on the smaller townships in Macomb County. For instance, the community of Memphis, located in just one square mile with 1,200 residents, has provided the United States with a Country Music Hall of Fame songwriter, a significant lawmaker (inducted into the Michigan Women's Hall of Fame), and the builder of Michigan's first self-propelled vehicle in 1884. Templeton clearly enjoys sharing the history of Macomb County. As a journalist and freelance writer in Metro Detroit, she has selected content that highlights the significance of the communities and covers a broad spectrum of topics, dates, and locations. No two stories are the same, and it is evident Templeton had a lot of fun researching the material, delving into history, and telling significant tales. Historic Tales of Macomb County will prove popular to lifelong residents of the county, to people like me who are new to the area, or to those who take pleasure in discovering noteworthy stories about the place they live. Local history enthusiasts will also enjoy the book. [End Page 160] Katie Doelle St. Clair Shores, Michigan Copyright © 2022 Historical Society of Michigan

Flossie Wong-Staal (1946–2020)

Trailblazing HIV researcher

Remembrances of Sarah Woolfolk Wiggins

Remembrances of Sarah Woolfolk Wiggins Ruth Smith Truss and David E. Alsobrook Click for larger view View full resolution IN MEMORIAM Sarah Woolfolk Wiggins 1934–2020 Photo courtesy Rebecca Minder ruth smith truss Remarkable. This word has many connotations and is overused. Yet, it captures much about Sarah Wiggins—who she was and what she accomplished. Other terms are just as meaningful and apt: elegant, strong, intelligent, forthright, supportive, demanding, exceptional. Trying to capture the essence of Sarah Wiggins in a way that would make her proud and reflect well on her life’s work is a daunting task. Indeed, even as I write this tribute, I hear her voice and feel her influence. I met Dr. Wiggins in 1985 when I visited her office, in an old home (since razed) on the campus of the University of Alabama. That home, with its high ceilings, wooden floors, tiled bathroom, and wide porches front and back, situated in a yard of mature oak trees, came to symbolize so much of my sense of Sarah Wiggins. Here more than any other place, she passed on her love of Alabama history, her dedication to the profession, and her work ethic during countless hours in the “parlor” area of that house, reading manuscripts submitted to the Alabama Review. At an old dining room table, Dr. Wiggins evaluated submissions, assigned them to her research assistant for source- and fact-checking, and proofread multiple revisions on the path to publication. If an error crept in at any stage of the process, it did so at its own peril, because Dr. Wiggins’s eye, like her mind, was keen. From October 1976 (vol. 29, no. 4) to April 1996 (vol. 49, no. 2), Dr. Wiggins edited the Review. As editor, she allowed the author’s voice to shine; her work and contribution remained behind the scenes. The result was a journal that was uniformly polished, professional, [End Page 196] and recognized as a model for state-level publications. In short, she had the rare ability and rarer willingness to enhance rather than override the author’s voice. She was satisfied knowing that the published article was the best and most accurate work possible. Click for larger view View full resolution Dr. Ruth Truss (left), professor of history at the University of Montello, and Sarah Woolfolk Wiggins attend the induction of Sarah Haynsworth Gayle into the 2016 Alabama Women's Hall of Fame. Truss and Wiggins co-edited The Journal of Sarah Haynsworth Gayle: A Substitute for Social Intercourse, published in 2013 by the University of Alabama Press. Photo courtesy Rebecca Minder. A native of Montgomery, Sarah Woolfolk early developed a love for the stories of Alabama, both the state and the people. She left for Baton Rouge to attend graduate school, taught briefly in Virginia, and then in 1961, twenty-seven-year-old Sarah returned to her home state, to Tuscaloosa, to take a history faculty position at the University [End Page 197] of Alabama. On the day she moved into one of three apartments in a converted house, a charming fellow tenant with a wonderful smile knocked on her door and offered lunch—a bacon, lettuce, and tomato sandwich and a Coke. In the telling, over twenty-five years later, she smiled reminiscently as she recalled the meeting that eventually led to her marriage to Peyton Wiggins, a young English professor. In my five years as her research assistant, Dr. Wiggins rarely shared personal information, making this story even more special. I quickly realized that Dr. Wiggins had definite priorities, in this order: daughter Henrietta, first; work, second. Her family retained always that ranking in her heart; by the time of her death, her family included not only her beloved Henri but also her son-in-law and two granddaughters. I trust that her granddaughters will come to appreciate fully their maternal grandmother and know that she was immensely proud of them, appreciating and valuing their individual identities, talents, and accomplishments. Dr. Wiggins’s work as a historian never ended. In her own research and writing, she was meticulous, a perfectionist; her approach was to be concise, accurate, and true to the sources—and to use...

Betty Bumpers: Champion of Childhood Immunization and Peace Anna L.Eblen and MarthaJane Eblen, Editors. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 2013.

Bumpers: Champion of Childhood Immunization and Peace Anna L. Eblen and Martha Jane Eblen, Editors. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 2013.For people outside of Arkansas, Bumpers may not be a familiar figure. She should be. In the spirit of her hero and role model, Eleanor Roosevelt, Bumpers used her position as First Lady of and US Senate wife to bring about social change. An advocate for children's health, justice, women's leadership, and world peace, she represents an often neglected type of woman: the political wife of a bygone era who worked as an activist without holding office herself. In Bumpers: Champion of Childhood Immunization and Peace, editors Anna L. Eblen and Martha Jane Eblen bring together Bumpers's own words, transcribed from speeches, writings, and interviews, and reminiscences of Bumper by those who worked with her. What emerges is the portrait of a remarkable woman whose story, the editors note in their preface, has spanned almost a century-from a childhood in the rural Dust Bowl to adulthood in the DC Beltway's halls of power to elder years back in Little Rock, Arkansas (xi). editors' purpose is to bring an account of Bumpers's activist work to a larger audience, while preserving her informal and likable manner of speaking (xi). Several sections titled simply Conversations with Betty speak to this end, showcasing her engaging, no-nonsense voice, and tales of perseverance.The first three chapters of the book, collected in a section titled Advocacy, outline Bumpers's major accomplishments. Inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame in Seneca Falls, New York, in October 2005, Bumpers distinguished herself through her efforts to save children's lives through early immunizations and to bring about world peace. A chapter titled Networking for Children's Health includes Bumpers's discussion of her work in the 1970s when her husband Dale was elected governor of and she learned from the Center for Disease Control that Arkansas's immunization levels were woefully low and was asked if she would take on the task of trying to raise them (13). She led the Every Child by '74 campaign, attempting to have every child in the state immunized, and met with great success. After Dale Bumpers was elected to the US Senate in 1974, she took her crusade to a national level, later working with the Carter Administration. As Rosalynn Carter tells it, The first person to knock on the front door of the White House after we got there was Bumpers. She wanted me to help her with the immunization (17). Carter Administration set a goal of having seventy-eight percent of children in every state immunized. Although that program was successful, a measles epidemic that killed nearly 120 infants between 1989 and 1990 made it apparent that many children were not being immunized early enough. …

Review of Compassionate Woman: The Life and Legacy of Patricia Locke by John Kolstoe

Review of John Kolstoe's Compassionate Woman: The Life and Legacy of Patricia Locke by Patricia Verge

AANP Congratulates Dr. Loretta Ford on her Induction to the National Women's Hall of Fame

AANP Congratulates Dr. Loretta Ford on her Induction to the National Women's Hall of Fame

Engineer Lisa Poyneer inducted into Women's Hall of Fame

Engineer Lisa Poyneer inducted into Women's Hall of Fame Engineer Lisa Poyneer inducted into Women's Hall of Fame

The economic proposals of Charlotte Perkins Gilman and gender budgeting in Italy

Charlotte Perkins Gilman anticipated Amartya Sen's theories on the economy of wellbeing and the theory of the capabilities by placing humanity at the centre of economic politics, the full development of abilities of the entire population and the participation in all the social, economic and political activities of men and women, as a premise for social progress and genuine democracy. In particular, she highlighted the value of women's competences and female innovative contribution towards the achievement of these goals. Today, the European Union considers these issues as a priority but in Italy they are not fully taken into consideration. Gilman, the American authoritative sociologist and economist, defined in 1993 by the Women's Hall of Fame as one of the 10 most influential women of the twentieth century, thanks to her studies and her in-depth analysis of women's real conditions of life, reached the conclusion that the origins of the traditional sexual roles – and of the female ‘natural’ subordination to man – are not due to nature, but to the economic dependence on man. Consequently, she believed that true freedom and effective citizenship for women are possible only with economic independence. Through the denunciation of the myths and traditional stereotypes that tie women to the so-called ‘natural roles’, Gilman showed the damages that the exclusion of women from socioeconomic activities cause to the progress of human society, and proposed the new woman. The new woman is well-educated – and thus endowed with a critical mind – and professionally prepared, and is aware of the necessity of her full citizenship. Women are also aware of the fundamental social value of maternity. Consequently they are aware that the ‘unpaid caring works’ should not be exclusively assigned to women but rather should be shared by both family and society. Gilman's theories and proposals for the social and economic reorganization, and her criticism of the traditional myths and stereotypes, supply a valid contribution to the present gender politics and in particular to the affirmation of gender budgeting in economics. These policies Gilman had indicated in her study Women and economics, published in 1898!

Founding Mothers, Myths, and a Martyr

Founding Mothers, Myths, and a Martyr Nancy Isenberg (bio) Lori D. Ginzberg . Untidy Origins: A Story of Woman's Rights in Antebellum New York. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 2005. xiv + 222 pp. ISBN 0-8078-2947-1 (cl.); 0-8078-5608-8 (pb). Linda J. Lumsden . Inez: The Life and Times of Inez Milholland. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2004. xii + 265 pp.; ill. ISBN 0-253-34418-2 (cl.). Sherry H. Penney and James D. Livingston . A Very Dangerous Woman: Martha Wright and Women's Rights. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 2004. xiii + 315 pp.; ill. ISBN 1-55849-446-4 (cl.); 1-55849-447-2 (pb.). Judith Wellman . The Road to Seneca Falls: Elizabeth Cady Stanton and the First Woman's Rights Convention. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2004. xxii + 297 pp.; ill. ISBN 0-252-02904-6 (cl.); 0-252-07173-5 (pb.). In recent years, popular biographers David McCullough, Ron Chernow, Walter Isaacson, and other nonhistorians have created an industry of books on the founding fathers. There is nothing new in Americans' desperate desire to envelop the story of national origins for the United States in a quasi-religious faith. Since the deaths of Benjamin Franklin and George Washington in the 1790s, eulogists immortalized the Revolutionary leaders for their singular genius and divine calling. David Edwin's painting Apotheosis of Washington (1800) gave the incomparable first president a halo, and made him into a "savior." The same tendency exists among those who would construct a pantheon of founding mothers. Journalist Cokie Roberts received a large advance for her puerile homily on great women, Founding Mothers. As historian Gerda Lerner put it, in the past women's historians relied on compensatory history, recording women's achievements without any critical analysis.1 How can such celebratory prose, often vapidly patriotic, be considered anything other than pseudohistory? There is no excuse for this kind of writing anymore. Publishing for a popular audience presents certain dangers. It can lead experienced women's historians to adopt the heroic narrative. Judith Wellman has been researching and writing on the origins of the Seneca Falls [End Page 185] convention for twenty-five years. Whether or not her book is designed as such, The Road to Seneca Falls is an homage to the Women's Rights National Historical Park. Her dedication is telling; she mentions not only the national park, but also the Elizabeth Cady Stanton Foundation, the National Women's Hall of Fame (in Seneca Falls) and "especially local historians," who collectively "keep the home fires burning for all of us." The Road to Seneca Falls begins with an imaginative re-creation of Stanton's walk to the convention on 19 July 1848, and it ends with the grand opening of the Women's Rights National Park in July 1982. That final chapter is a strangely condensed summary of everything meant to have taken place between 1848 and 1982. The book is both a story of origins and a celebration of the movement's local origins. "Locally inspired," Wellman writes, "the Seneca Falls woman's rights convention attracted immediate national attention. Like a magnifying glass, it transformed widespread but unorganized public sentiment into a focused movement for change." Echoing what Stanton wrote in her Autobiography, Wellman asserts that the convention "initiated a crescendo of activism on behalf of women." Stanton is the star of the show, the movement's "main organizer" and "catalyst" (10–11, 13). Wellman's political agenda obliges her to uphold the sacred role of the Women's Rights National Historical Park as keeper of the flame. Wellman's book is part biography and part community study. The first two chapters cover Stanton's childhood and life before the convention, while the latter chapters describe the social and reform environments she encountered when she moved to Seneca Falls in 1847. As a thorough social historian, she provides the reader with a detailed economic history of Seneca Falls and nearby Waterloo. She highlights the various reform influences in the area, such as Quaker dissent, antislavery, and efforts at legal reform in New York State. This meticulous local history is the best part of the book, because it reveals...

Inventor of Kevlar® to be Inducted into National Women's Hall of Fame

Inventor of Kevlar® to be Inducted into National Women's Hall of Fame

A Hall Of Fame Selects Kevlar Inventor

The scientist whose discovery stops speeding bullets was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame in Seneca Falls, N.Y., on Oct. 4. Stephanie L. Kwolek, a retired research chemist from DuPont, was honored for research that led to the development of Kevlar, an aramid fiber five times stronger than steel. DuPont credits bullet-and knife-resistant body armor made of Kevlar with saving the lives of nearly 3,000 law enforcement officers. Kwolek, 80, started work for DuPont in 1946 as a laboratory chemist in Buffalo, N.Y. She planned to stay with the company just long enough to save up for medical school. But the freedom and creativity she experienced in the DuPont environment led her to stay with the company for 40 years. The Hall of Fame's 11 other inductees for 2003 represent an extraordinary range of achievements. This year's honorees join the 195 other women who have been inducted into the Hall of Fame since ...

Dear Mum and Dad: letters home from a women's hall of residence at the University of Nottingham 1952‐55

Editor's note: ’Dear Mum and Dad’ is rather different from the kind of academic article that the Journal usually publishes, in that it is an autobiographical account of one person's educational experiences. The paper tells the story of a young woman's three years as a student at Nottingham University through her letters to her parents written between 1952 and 1955. Memory and reflection engage with this contemporary source to produce both a vivid and humorous reconstruction of student life in the 1950s, and the identification of a set of serious issues concerning gender and higher education. Young middle‐class women at university were involved in learning financial independence, developing communal life in their halls of residence, investigating relationships with male students individually and collectively, and making subject and career choices. This subjective account reminds us that the parameters of the feminine norm were not cultural fixtures of the higher education institutions of the 1950s, to be p...

Is there a case for the freshman women's residence hall?

Because most institutions are experiencing student migration from residence halls, the educational function of the halls is being promoted, resulting in numerous variations in design and staff organization. The purpose of this study was to investigate the merits of one of these variations—the all‐freshman women's residence hall. Freshman women in three types of halls (all‐freshman women, all‐undergraduate women, and coeducational) were compared on the basis of academic achievement, attitudes about the campus environment, and conduct. Results indicated that on those factors, no case can be built in support of housing women in an all‐freshman women's hall.

AN OUTBREAK OF FOOD POISONING PROBABLY DUE TO "RAT VIRUS"

A typical outbreak of gastro-enteritis was reported. Oct. 23, 1924. The cases were restricted to about 140 persons of 225 eating regularly at the dining room of the women's hall of West Virginia University. Of 193 girl students questioned, 124 were affected with an acute gastro-enteritis, preceded by cramps, chills and fever, and vomiting, and accompanied by muscular pains, diarrhea and prostration. All made a prompt and uneventful recovery. The earliest case reported began at midnight Monday, October 20. Other cases followed rapidly, 109 cases being reported on Tuesday, thirteen on Wednesday, and one mild and atypical case on Thursday. On Wednesday, forty-five girls were prostrated in bed. The peak was between noon and 6 p. m. Tuesday, when thirty-three cases were reported. Subsequent study based on written questionnaires traced the source of trouble beyond reasonable doubt to the Monday noon meal. During the period of a week preceding to