From: Ann Haskell
Question: As someone whose
research is usually about women in the
14 C., I'm atypically (and interestingly, for me) working
on a mid-20 C. research project and need to find a list
of those who were present on June 30, 1966 at the founding
of NOW in Washington, DC.
I'm searching, especially, the presence of the late (d.
1975) Ann London (Scott), who worked, I believe, as legislative
vice president of NOW, after leaving an academic position
at SUNY/ Buffalo, following the University of Washington,
in Seattle.
I'll appreciate anything you may be able to tell me.
Answer: Dear Dr. Haskell,
Ann London Scott’s papers are
now at the Schlesinger Library at Radcliffe. Here’s
the catalog description of the collection with a brief
biography of Ann Scott:
Harvard University - Radcliffe College
Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe College
Address: Cambridge, MA 02138.
Shelving control number: T-275; Vt-89
Notes and Summaries: Vice-president for legislation of
the National Organization for Women and a founder of the
Buffalo, N.Y., chapter of NOW, Ann (London) Scott graduated
from the University of Washington (B.A. 1952, Ph.D. 1970).
A poet and translator, she was an editor of Poetry Northwest
while in Seattle, and taught English literature and composition
at the State University of New York at Buffalo (1965-1972).
After her election to NOW's national board in 1970, she
devised much of the organization's lobbying strategy for
the ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment, and wrote
about sex discrimination in business and at colleges and
universities. Scott died of cancer in 1975.
Collection includes family and personal correspondence,
photographs, financial records, and correspondence concerning
her memorial fund; correspondence, audiotapes, speeches,
and articles by her concerning her work with NOW and her
work on sex discrimination at colleges and universities;
college papers, a portion of her dissertation, poems,
a film script, drafts of other writings, and audiotapes
of poetry readings.
The curator of Manuscripts at the Schlesinger, Kathryn
Jacob, is an old associate of mine from her days with
the National Historical Publications and Records Commission.
If you get in touch with Kathy, I’m sure she’ll
be glad to provide you with detailed information on Ann
London Scott’s professional and organizational activities.
I think you’ll find her very helpful. Don’t
hesitate to use my name, and please give her my best wishes.
Kathy probably has a list of those present at the June
1966 NOW meeting – and it’s probably easier
to get the full list from her (if you need it) than from
NOW headquarters.
Good luck with your work in the 20th centuries. As a loyal
daughter of Upstate New York (born and raised in Elmira),
I always take pleasure in helping out someone from my
homeregion.
From:Taeko
Shibahara
Question: Dear Dr. Mary-Jo Kline :
I am a graduate student at American Studies Doshisha
University, Japan. Today my former adviser Dr. Zikmund
(BBZ) sent this website to me. This website is greatly
wonderful and helpful for me in many ways.
Could you help me to find an archive? It is about the
archive of the League for Women Voters, if any. In the
early 20th century, Japanese women suffragists had close
contact with the members of the League for Women Voters,
I guess. A Japanese women's organization was formed
modeling after the LWV. I would like to research the
relationships of those organizations.
I emailed the League for Women Voters about archives
a few months ago, but I have received no answer.
So, if possible, could you tell me how to reache the
LWV archive, if any?
Thank you very much in advance.
Taeko Shibahara
Ph.D Student of American Studies
Doshisha University, Kyoto, Japan
Answer: Dear
Ms. Shibahara:
Thanks to the efforts of Mrs. Frances Schutz, the administrator
for the Virginia State League of Women Voters, I've
found the archives of the League of Women Voters. These
records are now part of the collections of the Manuscript
Division of the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C.
Best of all, there's an existing microfilm of the collection,
and there should be a good chance that you can obtain
the reels either by purchase or by what we American
librarians would call "interlibrary loan."
(I'm sure that the same system is used in Japanese libraries,
but I don't know its name.)
Here is the Library of Congress's catalog record for
the collection. I deleted the list of the dozens of
subject headings assigned to the collection, but I've
left in all of the other information in case you will
need it:
Library of Congress Manuscript Division Catalog Record
for archives of the League of Women Voters (U.S.):
Author: League of Women
Voters (U.S.), Title: Records of the League
of Women Voters (U.S.), 1884-1986 (bulk
1920-1979). Description: 514,400 items, 2,234
containers plus 11 oversize, 98 microfilm reels
900 linear feet. Local Call No: 0801E, Oversize
4:8 (Series I, cont. 87) Oversize (Series IV,
10 conts.) Microfilm 20,228-98P.
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The Library of Congress also owns the papers of Carrie
Chapman Catt and other early leaders of the League of
Women Voters. You might also want to look at this section
of "American Memory," the Library of Congress’s
website for the online publication of the Library’s
own collections. They have a very interesting section
on the American woman suffrage movement:
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/browse/ListSome.php?
category=Women's%20History
Of course, they have thousands of other items not published
here on the Web. I’d suggest that you use this
website to get in touch with a librarian in the Library’s
Manuscript Division as soon as possible.
http://www.loc.gov/rr/askalib/ask-mss.html
Good luck with your research. Mary-Jo Kline
From: Susan Ditmire
Question:
I am working on a book about the women who attempted to
vote in Vineland, NJ, in 1868. I am not an academic person,
but I have become obsessed with this untold story and
have been doing research for about ten years. Right now,
I am trying to figure out if Lucy Stone and Portia Gage
knew each other when they were both living in the Chicago
area. I believe that Portia and her husband John Gage
were the keystone to the activity in Vineland, although
there were a lot of other very important contributors
to the events. If you have any ideas on where I might
discover any information about the Chicago connection,
I would be most grateful.
One of these days, I hope to get up to do some research
at the Collection, but in the meantime, I just wanted
to send a note on the great journal.
Answer: Dear
Susan,
I attach a list of recent books on Lucy Stone that may
be of help -- and also a citation for the reference work
"Notable American Women," with which you're
probably already familiar.
Lucy Stone:
Blackwell, Alice Stone. Lucy Stone, pioneer of women's
rights. Boston: Little, Brown, and Company, 1930.
Hays, Elinor Rice. Morning star : a biography of Lucy
Stone, 1818-1893. New York: Harcourt Brace &
World, 1961.
Kerr, Andrea Moore. Lucy Stone : speaking out for
equality. New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University
Press, 1992.
Million, Joelle. Woman's voice, woman's place : Lucy
Stone and the birth of the
woman's rights movement. Westport, Conn.: Praeger,
2003.
Stone, Lucy. Friends and sisters : letters between
Lucy Stone and Antoinette
Brown Blackwell, 1846-93. Edited by Carol Lasser
and Marlene Deahl Merrill. Urbana: University of Illinois
Press, 1987.
Stone, Lucy. Loving warriors : selected letters of
Lucy Stone and Henry B.
Blackwell, 1853 to 1893. Edited and introduced by
Leslie
Wheeler. New York: Dial Press, 1981.
Notable American women, 1607-1950; a biographical
dictionary.
Edward T. James, editor, Janet Wilson James, associate
editor, Paul S. Boyer, assistant editor. Cambridge, Mass.:
Belknap Press of Harvard University Press,
1971.
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