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Working at the University of Wisconsin Archives
We spent this week searching through the papers of Kathryn “Kay” Clarenbach at the University of Wisconsin in Madison thanks to a grant from UCF. The papers were in the University Archives at the Steenboch Library. Her files were extensive – there was a 94-page finding guide. We made hundreds of copies. We found some wonderful material. There were references to several women’s page editors, including Dorothy Jurney and Vivian Castleberry. There were informative letters between Kay and feminist leader Catherine East. (We went through East’s papers at Harvard University a few years ago.) We also found the background material that we had been searching for regarding the NOW-initiated lawsuits…
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More about Vivian Castleberry
I just learned that long back-ordered DVD about Dallas women’s page editor Vivian Castleberry will soon be available for shipping. Here is a link. It would be a great addition to any journalism history class. Also, the Dallas Observer blog just posted an interview with me and more of my transcript from one of Vivian’s talks at the Sixth Floor Museum. Here is a link. I love when Vivian gets the recognition she deserves. So many women’s page editors are forgotten.
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Exploring the Historical Process
This is a narrative about discovering Bobbi McCallum and about the historical process. Often, as scholars, we focus on the results – what it is we found. This is the story of how I got to the results. It is patterned after the work of Gabrielle Burton in Searching for Tamsen Donner. In the book, Barton explored her own research process as a writer.
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Fashion Writers Marian Christy & Bobbi McCallum
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Soft news? Hard news? Or, quilted news.
Most of journalism history considers the content of women’s pages to be soft news. Yet, a closer examination of the women’s sections in the 1950s and 1960s shows more complex content. There was soft news – personality profiles, fashion stories and features. Yet, there were also stories about politics, education news and family violence. The women’s page editors created a new kind of news within the social fabric of their communities – a kind of quilted news. Quilts have become recognized as art – largely women’s art – in recent decades. Some credit the counterculture’s arts-and-crafts movement in the 1960s for the renewed attention to the craft. Others view the…
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Vivian Castleberry and the Sixth Floor Museum
I have spent the last three days transcribing the taped speeches of Dallas women’s page editor Vivian Castleberry at the Sixth Floor Museum in Dallas. I am working on a book about Vivian. Some of the information confirmed what I have already known. I also heard some new stories. For example, Vivian explained the difficulties that married women faced under Texas law. She told the story of graduating from college and getting her first Neiman Marcus charge card. At the time, she was a writer for a chemical company magazine. After she married, she called Neiman Marcus to get the name changed on her credit card. Instead, the company cancelled…
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Great new image from the Penney-Missouri Award workshop
Yesterday, I received a copy of this image. (It can be found in the papers of the Penney-Missouri Awards at the University of Missouri’s Western Historical Manuscript Collection.) In this photo, taken at a Penney-Missouri Awards’ workshop, are three award-winning women’s page editors: Sandra Wesley, Betty Preston and Edee Greene. One of the strengths of the award program was the workshops that allowed winners to share their secrets for success. I presented a paper about Edee Greene, the women’s page editor at Fort Lauderdale News, last year. She was a fascinating person – a caring friend, a community advocate and a funny writer. I am working on a revision on…
A website devoted to the history of newspaper women's pages
