#women of library history

[usnatarchives]

Oval Office Vulcan salute - President Obama and Nichelle Nichols. Photo by Pete Souza. Obama Library, NARA ID 200283671.

Nichelle Nichols at NASA's Glenn Research Center, 4/20/1977, NARA ID 17468123.

#RIP Nichelle Nichols Star Trek's Lt. Uhura goes to the final frontier By Miriam Kleiman, Public Affairs

Nichelle Nichols - NASA Recruitment Film 1977.

“Last night, my mother, Nichelle Nichols, succumbed to natural causes and passed away. Her light however, like the ancient galaxies now being seen for the first time, will remain for us and future generations to enjoy, learn from, and draw inspiration. Hers was a life well lived and as such a model for us all." Statement from Nichols’ son, Kyle Johnson

Nichols with adoring fans at NASA's Glenn Research Center, 4/20/1977, NARA ID 17468124 .

Nichelle Nichols holds a piece of a satellite presented by Capt. David Martin at NORAD, 1/6/1977, RG 342. Online here.

NORAD press release 1/6/1977, RG 342, Records of US Air Force, online.

More online:

In Memoriam: Nichelle Nichols (1932-2022), National Archives News.

To Boldly Go Where No (Wo)Man Has Gone Before… by Archives Specialist Netisha Currie.

Nichelle Nichols Helped NASA Break Boundaries on Earth and in Space, NASA.gov

Mae Carol Jemison- The First African American Woman in Space, Pieces of History by Dena Lombardo.

Space Exploration - NASA Records at the National Archives

#nasa #stem #blm #representation matters #star trek #i love star trek #women in stem #black women in stem #rip nichelle #rip nichelle nichols #obama #obama library #rip #black women rock #black history #african american history #rediscoveringblackhistory #norad #greatwomen #nichelle nichols

[detroitlib]

View of woman engineer, at drafting table, drawing an automobile body with pencil and drafting triangle. Stamped on back: "Photo by N. Lazarnick, 244-6-8 W. 42nd St., New York. Tel. 594 Bryant." Handwritten on back: "First and only woman automobile engineer."

National Automotive History Collection, Detroit Public Library

#first and only woman automobile engineer #only #first #first and only #women #history #engineers #lazarnick #drafting table #women's history #vintage #detroit public library

[riesenfeldcenter]

Happy Women's History Month! To kick off March, here is a photo from our archives of the first three women to graduate from the University of Minnesota Law School in 1893. Flora, pictured on the right, was the first woman to begin classes at the law school in 1890.

Left to right: Marie A. McDermott, Nora L. Morton, Flora E. Matteson

#riesenfeld center #umn #university of minnesota law #university of minnesota law library #umn law #archives #special collections #law school #old photos #vintage photography #portraits #women's history month #women's history #women lawyers #women in law

[hometoursandotherstuff]

As a librarian and a woman, I’m glad they didn’t listen to this shit.

#libraries #library history #what women had to deal with #other stuff

[popculturelib]

Hillbilly Women (1974) by Kathy Kahn

A Book of Heroines They live in the towns and hamlets of southern Appalachia. They are the women of the coal-mine camps and mill towns; they are members of a fiercely proud sisterhood. For in spite of enormous abuse from mine and mill operators, welfare agencies, corrupt union officials and their hun thugs, these women remain undaunted. Hillbilly Women tells their stories in their own words--sometimes angry, sometimes tender, always compelling and direct. This is a vivid and moving picture of hillbilly life: its tragedies, its rewards, and its indominable resiliency.

The Browne Popular Culture Library (BPCL), founded in 1969, is the most comprehensive archive of its kind in the United States.  Our focus and mission is to acquire and preserve research materials on American Popular Culture (post 1876) for curricular and research use. Visit our website at https://www.bgsu.edu/library/pcl.html.

#bgsu #libraries on tumblr #women's history month #hillbilly #hillbilly women #appalachia #southern appalachia

[sovietpostcards]

In the General Alphabetical Catalog of Soviet Literature in the All-Union Book Chamber (Moscow, 1961)

#1960s #libraries #working women #soviet #ussr #russia #history #photography #black and white

[queerliblib]

mood for the whole month. (check out our reading recommendations for women’s history month here!)

#queer liberation library #qll #women’s history month #women’s history includes trans women!! explicitly!! always!

[coochiequeens]

Technology just revealed a new name to women’s history.

For nearly 1,300 years, no one knew it was there. The name of a highly educated English woman, secretly scratched on to the pages of a rare medieval manuscript in the eighth century, but impossible to read – until now.

Academics have discovered the Old English female name Eadburg was repeatedly scored into the surface of the religious text, using a method that kept it hidden from the naked eye for more than 12 centuries.

The covert writing of the woman’s name was finally revealed when researchers at the Bodleian Library in Oxford used cutting-edge technology to capture the 3D surface of the ancient manuscript, a Latin copy of the Acts of the Apostles that was made in England between AD700 and AD750.

It is the first time this technology, capable of revealing “almost invisible” markings so shallow they measure about a fifth of the width of a human hair, has been used to record annotations on the surface of a manuscript.

“There are only a limited number of surviving early medieval manuscripts which contain clear internal evidence of a woman having created, owned or used them,” said Jessica Hodgkinson, a PhD student at the University of Leicester who made the discovery while researching her thesis on women and early medieval manuscripts.

“Most of these manuscripts are from the continent – it is much rarer to find evidence of this in surviving manuscripts which were made and used in the geographical area we now call England.”

Writing Eadburg’s name on the book quietly asserted her power and high status at a time when only a few elite, highly educated women were able to write and read both Old English and Latin. “It’s a hugely significant and very powerful text – the word of God, conveyed through the apostles. And I think that might be at least part of the reason why somebody chose to write Eadburg’s name into it, so that she was close to that.”

It is not clear why the name was written so stealthily, with a drypoint stylus, rather than ink. “Maybe it was to do with the resources that person had access to. Or maybe it was to do with wanting to leave a mark that put that woman’s name in this book, without making it really obvious,” Hodgkinson said. “There could have been some reverence for the text, which meant the person who wrote her name was trying not to detract from the scripture or compete with the word of God.”

Significantly, she found Eadburg’s name passionately etched into the margins of the manuscript in five places, while abbreviated forms of the name appear a further 10 times.

This suggests it is likely to have been Eadburg herself who made the marks. “I could understand why somebody might write someone else’s name once. But I don’t know why you would write somebody else’s name so many times like that,” Hodgkinson said.

An Old English transcription, and tiny, rough drawings of figures – in one case, of a person with outstretched arms, reaching for another person who is holding up a hand to stop them – were also discovered etched on to the small book, which is barely bigger than an A5 pamphlet.

Hodgkinson hopes further study will reveal the meanings of these figures and the ancient transcription, which has so far proved impossible to translate.

She also hopes to eventually discover who Eadburg was. Certain features of the manuscript suggest the book was produced in Kent, where a woman called Eadburg was abbess of a female religious community at Minster-in-Thanet in the mid-eighth century. However, there are at least eight other known contenders for the role.

But whether or not these mysteries are ever solved, for Hodgkinson there is something very empowering and meaningful about the discovery of Eadburg’s name. “Still, to this day, there’s this human urge to leave a mark of your presence on something that is meaningful to you or is a record of where you’ve been,” she said. “We don’t know all that much about Eadburg, but now, because of this amazing technology, we’ve seen her name, we know she was there. She’s here, in this book – and it speaks across the centuries.”

#England #Eadburg #Women in history #medieval history #old english #Acts of the Apostles #Latin #Bodleian Library in Oxford

[californiastatelibrary]

Today we unboxed a new accession, a game called "What Shall I Be?" from 1976, created by the same designers as Scrabble. The previous version of the game, from 1966, had only six professions for women: model, actress, nurse, teacher, flight attendant, and ballet dancer.

#libraries #special collections #board games #scrabble #womens history #womens history month

[thoughtportal]

Miss M.F. Lewis’ Fungi collected in Shropshire and other neighborhoods on the Internet Archive:

Volume I

Volume II

Volume III

#article #open culture #women in art history #women in stem #women in art #women in history #mushrooms #fungi #science history #science #art history #history #M.F. Lewis #books and libraries #books #public domain

[usnatarchives]

Ruby Bridges escorted to school by U.S. Marshals, 11/4/1960. NARA ID 175539851.

#OTD: Ruby Bridges Makes History A small step for a little girl, a great step for Civil Rights By Miriam Kleiman, Public Affairs

On November 14, 1960, six-year-old Ruby Bridges changed history when she walked into William Franz Public School in New Orleans following the court-ordered desegregation of New Orleans schools. 

Fifty years later, President Obama welcomed her to the White House to see Norman Rockwell’s painting of her historic first day. "The Problem We All Live With” (1963) was displayed in the West Wing in summer 2011. See the Obama White House blog: President Obama Meets Civil Rights Icon Ruby Bridges, preserved by the Obama Library.  

President Obama and Ruby Bridges at the White House, 7/15/2011. NARA ID 219775135.

Video: President Obama and Ruby Bridges at the White House!

See related:

Executive Order 10730: Desegregation of Central High School (1957)

Federal Records Relating to the Brown v. Board, ReDiscovering Black History blog by Tina Ligon

Teaching with Documents: Brown v. Board

Teaching with Documents: Bios of Key Figures in Brown v. Board

Eisenhower Library: Civil Rights: Brown v, Board

#ruby bridges #civil rights #obama library #black women #desegregation #blm #black lives matter #black history #new orleans #norman rockwell #rubybridgesfoundation

[detroitlib]

Portrait of women in front of wood frame home in Grosse Pointe, Michigan. Recorded in glass negative ledger: "M/Localities-Grosse Pointe."

Burton Historical Collection, Detroit Public Library

#portrait #women #grosse pointe #michigan #michigan history #glass negative #vintage #group portrait #vintage fashion #19th century #detroit public library

[riesenfeldcenter]

An all-woman courtroom!

We recently framed this wonderful watercolor done by Twin Cities courtroom sketch artist, Nancy Muellner. This piece was commissioned for our 2019 exhibit, Women in the Law and felt perfect to share this month.

#riesenfeld center #umn #university of minnesota law #university of minnesota law library #umn law #special collections #law school #archives #courtroom #lawyer #women's history month #women #watercolor #sketch #women in law

[neptunezo]

I can’t even lie, if i’m dating someone who doesn’t like any form of literature besides graphic novels, instant break up.

like babe what do you mean you don’t like to read? you literally do it everyday!

what do you mean you think sense and sensibility, picture of dorian gray, the Iliad and the odyssey, any George Orwell books, Percy Jackson, Harry Potter, edgar allan poe, oscar wilde, jane austen, wuthering heights, and little woman sound boring?

nothing wrong with graphic novels but when thats all you read, you aren’t reading to read

#picture of dorian gray #classic literature #jane austen #percy jackson #harry potter #edgar allan poe #george orwell #book quotes #books & libraries #wuthering heights #little women #ugh i love classic literature so much #i fr might study it along with arr history #i love graphic novels but what i said stands #graphic novel

[garadinervi]

Courtney Thorsson, The Sisterhood. How a Network of Black Women Writers Changed American Culture, Columbia University Press, New York, NY, 2023

Cover Art: June Jordan, on far right, with Toni Morrison, Alice Walker, Nana Maynard, Ntozake Shange, Vertamae Grosvenor and others, The Sisterhood, 1977 [Inscription: Verso, front row left to right: Nana Maynard, Ntozake Shange, possibly Louise Meriwether; back row left to right: Vertamae Grosvenor, Alice Walker, possibly Louise Meriwether, Toni Morrison, June Jordan] [June Jordan Papers. Folder ‘Jordan with others, 1977-1999’, Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America, Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA]

#graphic design #book #cover #book cover #courtney thorsson #june jordan #nana maynard #ntozake shange #louise meriwether #vertamae grosvenor #alice walker #toni morrison #the sisterhood #columbia university press #schlesinger library on the history of women in america #1970s #2020s

[statelibraryqueensland]

*clears throat* so we hear y’all like cats and cool women in history?

Meet Jean Batten: record setting New Zealand aviatrix, international pilot extraordinaire... 

... And Buddy, her kitten and newfound mascot. 

Buddy was a gift received in 1934 courtesy of the Diggers (aka Australian soldiers) at the Prince of Wales military hospital in Sydney. 

Described as being “as much a centre of attraction as the wonder girl herself”, Buddy the cat flew with Jean many times throughout the years, though he reportedly didn’t enjoy the experience very much. 

Jean broke the record for fastest solo flight from England to Australia in 1934, unseating the previous women’s record held by esteemed pilot Amy Johnson by a little over four days. The success of her long-distance journey catapulted her to celebrity status, and she enjoyed a four week tour of Australia where she was greeted by large crowds of well-wishers.    

She continued to fly for many years after setting her record, continuing on to become the first person to hold both records for fastest solo flights between England and Australia simultaneously. 

Image 1: LINK

Image 2: LINK

#1930s #1930 #aviation #aviatrix #womens history #awesome #women #historical #queensland history #new zealand #amelia earhart #amy johnson #jean batten #pilot #female pilot #from the collections #library #libraries #support libraries #museum #antique #history #australian history #state library of queensland #librarian aesthetic #libraries and museums #dark academia #did you know #cat #cats