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History of Restaurant Reviewers
I am writing an entry about restaurant reviewers for the Encyclopedia of Food and Agriculture Ethics. Other than Duncan Hines (this was before he became better known for his cake mix company), most reviews of restaurants were found in the food sections of the women’s pages. The NY Times’ Craig Claiborne is probably the best known early newspaper food critic as he invented the four-star rating system. Jane Nickerson had reviewed restaurants for the NYT prior to Claiborne. Here is a previous entry about food critics and the women’s pages.
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Food Studies Presentation: Ohio Food Editor History
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History & Social Media
I recently wrote a newsletter article for Clio – the publication of the History Division of AEJMC. I wrote about the need for mass communication educators to use social media. I made the reference to Twitter and Western Union telegrams – both use short forms of writing. This image is from the papers of Roberta Applegate in the National Women & Media Collection. Roberta was a groundbreaking women’s page journalist in Detroit and Miami in the 1950s.
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News of Gerda Lerner’s Death
I was sad to learn about the death of historian Gerda Lerner. Lerner worked with NOW pioneer and the longtime head of the Wisconsin Commission on the Status of Women, Kathryn “Kay” Clarenbach. At Kay’s memorial service, Lerner said:“Kay was the foremost organizer of the modern women’s movement, recognized as such by all who worked with her . . . the reliable, sustaining force without which there is no social change.” Kay worked with women’s page editors to cover feminist topics in a positive way. I found proof of this in Kay’s papers at the University of Wisconsin. The finding guide is available here. Here is a previous post about…
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Wisconsin Badgers, Rose Bowl & Discrimination
In honor of the Wisconsin Badgers in the Rose Bowl this year, here is a women’s page reference from a previous Badger Rose Bowl appearance – from a former Wisconsin women’s page journalist Dorothy Kincaid. Dorothy was the longtime food journalist at the Milwaukee Sentinel. (The cookbook that she edited is pictured above – I found it on eBay.) When she retired, she shared this memory of banned from the press box during the 1963 Rose Bowl she traveled to California with the University of Wisconsin Badgers football team. Her assignment was to write a color piece about the parade and game. Shehad tried to make advance plans to cover…
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Happy Anniversary!
Today Lance & I have been married for nine years – which means we have been researching women’s page editors for about the same amount of time. We have spent countless hours going through archives and writing about the women whose stories we feel lucky to document. Together, we spent several days at the home of Curtis and Vivian Castleberry in Dallas. We got to interview the daughter of Ruthe Deskin. In 2008, Lance gave a great talk about our work together: “Tales of an Accidental Journalism Historian: What Four Archives in Four Months Taught a College Media Adviser About Pre-Women’s Liberation Newsrooms.” Here is a link to the speech.…
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Florida Field to Feast Cookbook
Lance got me the cookbook, Field to Feast for Christmas. It is co-authored by Orlando Sentinel food editor Heather McPherson. On the back of the book is a reference to Jeanne Voltz’s Florida Cookbook. Jeanne was the food editor in the women’s pages of the Miami Herald in the 1950s and the food editor in the women’s pages of the Los Angeles Times in the 1960s. Here is my article about Jeanne. This was my first dish from the cookbook – Strawberry Pie. Tonight I am trying the recipe for Baked Penne with Four Cheeses.
A website devoted to the history of newspaper women's pages
