A Different Point of View

Archived Newsletters: Fall 2003

Senate Bill S. 1741 Provides Museum Site

On November 21st, Senate Bill 1741, The National Women’s History Museum Act of 2003, unanimously passed the Senate.  Twenty senators have agreed to cosponsor the bill along with its author Senator Susan Collins.  Currently, S. 1741 is being held at the desk in the House of Representatives. 

On October 16th, Senator Susan Collins of Maine, chair of the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee and member of the NWHM’s Honorary Board of Directors, introduced S. 1741.  This bill will provide a permanent site for the NWHM.  The Senate Governmental Affairs Committee unanimously approved the bill, paving the way for the Senate’s unanimous consent. 

After the bill was passed on November 21, Senator Collins and Senator Lisa Murkowski, who also serves on the NWHM Honorary Board of Directors, engaged in a colloquy about the need for the National Women’s History Museum.  Senator Collins explained the importance of having a place to learn of women’s accomplishments.  She recognizes know that having positive role models helps girls see exactly what they can achieve.  She explained that when she was a senior in high school, she met Maine Senator Margaret Chase Smith.  Now she  “realize[s] that that was the first step in a journey that led [her] to run for her seat 25 years later.”

After years of working to secure a permanent site for the Museum, the dream is well on its way to becoming reality.  The proposed site for the NWHM is in downtown Washington, DC adjacent to the Old Post Office Building.  The Pavilion Annex, as it is called, is a three story glass enclosed building.  Currently it is unoccupied.  When the developers of the Pavilion Annex went bankrupt, the General Service Administration (GSA) took possession of the building.  The bill directs GSA to enter into a long-term occupancy agreement with the NWHM.  By taking over the Pavilion Annex space, the Museum would be able to put the unoccupied building to use for exhibitions and educational programming. 

The Pavilion Annex is located on America’s main street - Pennsylvania Avenue.  Just blocks from the White House and a short walk from the National Mall, this location is perfectly suited for a museum.  In fact, the Memorials and Museums Master Plan, which was developed by the National Capital Planning Commission, considers the Pavilion Annex an ‘ideal’ site for a museum.

It is important to note that the S. 1741 provides the opportunity for the NWHM to acquire a permanent site.  The building will not be given to the NWHM.  It will still be up the NWHM to raise the funds to purchase and redesign the building.  This will cost several million dollars. 

This is an important milestone for the NWHM.  Senate Bill 1741 represents the next major step for the National Women’s History Museum.  The building blocks that have been in place to date - volunteers, educational programs, dedicated members, the National Coalition, and so many other pieces - will now have actual bricks and mortar to show for all their work.

Enterprising Women Reception

On November 3rd the National Women's History Museum hosted its annual Advisory Board meeting. This year's meeting coincided with the Washington, D.C. stop for the traveling exhibition Enterprising Women: 250 Years of American Business. The National Museum of Women in the Arts served as a venue for the meeting as well as a reception for the exhibition. The meeting was attended by many representatives of organizations in the NWHM's National Coalition. NWHM President Susan Jollie presented each organization with a notebook detailing the aspects of membership in the National Coalition, including assisting the NWHM in its efforts to secure a permanent building site. Topics discussed at the meeting included the NWHM's upcoming exhibition Partners in Winning the War: Women in World War II and Senate Bill 1741, which could result in a permanent site for the Museum.

The meeting was immediately followed by a reception for the exhibition. Edith Mayo, curator of Enterprising Women, led a guided tour. Ms. Mayo has worked with the NWHM extensively in the past, including curating the online exhibition Motherhood, Social Service, and Political Reform: Political Culture and Imagery of the Woman Suffrage Movement. She is curator emeritus of the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History, where she curated the famous First Ladies exhibition and From Parlor to Politics, an exhibition on women's roles in social reform.

Enterprising Women continues to travel across the country. Installations are scheduled for stops in Los Angeles and Detroit. View the exhibit online.

 

Holiday Feasting

As the year draws to a close, for many people, a season of good meals and good company begins. These dinners have long been associated with toiling over a hot stove making a huge meal for friends and family. Traditionally, women have been responsible for preparing the meals. Often all of this work involves a shortcut or two, and at the end of the meal, the inevitable leftovers. The following three women influenced American culture through shortcuts and leftovers.

In 1953 Betty Cronin, a bacteriologist at Swanson, had to answer the leftover question on a much larger scale than many people could ever imagine. When confronted with over 500,000 pounds of surplus turkey, Swanson had Cronin develop the techniques needed to freeze food so that it could be reheated at that time. The result? The TV Dinner.

For those who don't have to use up to 250 tons of turkey, saving the leftovers in plastic containers is a convenient way to store everything in the refrigerator. One of the most famous plastic container brands is Tupperware, but without the efforts of Brownie Wise, the Vice President of Marketing, the famous containers might have never caught on with Americans. Wise was the inventor of the Tupperware Party, a revolutionary "home party" technique for sales. In 1954, Wise was the first woman to appear on the cover of Business Week.

As for the shortcuts, for those without enough time to bake a pie, many turn to Mrs. Smith's. Few people realize though that there really was a Mrs. Smith whose homemade pies started the commercial bakery. Amanda Smith, of Pottstown, Pennsylvania, was a homemaker and mother who went into business with her son. Mrs. Smith would make the pies in her kitchen, and her son would sell them. At first they only sold pie by the slice at the local YMCA, but eventually they were selling whole pies to restaurants and grocery stores.

Take Me Out to the Ballgame

In September NWHM President Susan Jollie was invited to represent the NWHM at the final game of the third season of the "Tee Ball on the South Lawn." According to the White House, Tee Ball has been played on the White House lawn since May 2001 as a way to "foster a spirit of teamwork and service for America's youth, and to help generate interest in America's pastime."

The September 7th game featured two coed teams. The focus of the day was on women in sports. Linda Cohen of ESPN and Jennie Finsh of the USA Women's Softball team served as announcers for the game. The First Base Coach was Dolores "Dolly" Brumfield White, who is the president of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League (A-APGBL) Players Association. Also present was former A-AGPBL pitcher Gloria Cordes (now Gloria Cordes Elliot). Ms. Cordes Elliot was an All Star 1952-54.

While it is wonderful to see coed little league teams now, the members of the A-AGPBL are living proof that women have been succeeding in athletics for generations. Women's sports, however, often need a catalyst to get widespread attention. In the case of women's baseball, it was World War II. When the war effort threatened to destroy the game due to players leaving to serve in the war "All-American Girls" were given a chance to play the game.

Unlike the ballplayers they were replacing, the All-American Girls were expected to follow rules of conduct that included never wearing slacks or shorts in public, that lipstick must "always be on," and that players could not change residence "without the permission of the chaperone." Proving the femininity of the "new" female athletes was a top priority for League founder Philip Wrigley, who also owned the Chicago Cubs. Wrigely arranged for Helena Rubinstein's Beauty Salon to meet with players during spring training. Until 1945 players were also expected to follow the instructions of the League's Charm School, including what to pack into their official beauty kits and to "not use a loud voice." A variety of factors played a role in the League's demise, among them the advent of the televised Major League Baseball Games. The A-AGPBL folded in 1954.

Letter from our President

I am sure you will agree that the news on our building site is exciting. But it may be hard for many of our members to visualize what the museum will look like. The key consideration is the location, and we could not have done any better than a Pennsylvania Avenue address next to the other national museums that are visited by millions of people each year.

The space is currently configured for use as a retail center, not for exhibitions and educational programs. But the structure is a sleek and modern design of metal and glass construction - and yes, the arched glass ceiling is an architectural element that we think is ironically fitting!

I can clearly envision how we will be able to work within the confines of this space to develop a state-of-the-art museum with exciting themes that will be of interest to everyone. NWHM will be able to use its space to tell a comprehensive story of the country's development and the central role women played in this growth. It is possible to see through women's eyes how we as a people lived and made our homes and communities better, and to learn from the struggle for political and social freedom and opportunity.

While this news is extremely exciting, it is important to keep an eye towards the practical considerations as well. Even if the Senate bill is enacted into law, it does not simply "give" the Museum a new home. We will be responsible for the hiring of architects, engineers, and other professionals to redesign the space and develop the content of the exhibitions to make NWHM a muse-see destination for the millions of Americans who visit the nation's capital to discover their heritage.

Despite our success in getting this far, there is still a long road ahead of the NWHM . But at least now we're officially on our way.

Celebrate These Women Born in Fall

In 1916, Dr. Ethel Andrus (9/21/1884) became the first woman to serve as a high school principal in California. After retiring from education, she founded the National Retired Teacher Association in 1947. As a retired teacher, she understood that retired teachers needed health insurance. She also wanted to promote her idea of 'productive aging' for retired people. After hearing from many retirees who were interested in her programs but were not teachers, she decided to expand her organization. In 1958, Andrus founded the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP). AARP turned into a 33 million-member national organization that has made a significant difference in the lives of older Americans. Andrus also founded and edited the AARP's signature publication, Modern Maturity. She died in 1967.

One of the most famous females of the American Revolution is Molly Pitcher, a wife of an artillery soldier who earned her nickname during the Battle of Monmouth in June 1778. To relieve the thirsty soldiers, she brought pitchers after pitcher of water onto the battlefield. When her husband collapsed during the battle, she took his post and served as a gunner for the remainder of the battle. While records of eighteenth century women are often hard to find, researchers believe that Mary Ludwig Hays McCauley (10/13/1754) was most likely the woman behind this Revolutionary War hero. After the war, she returned to Pennsylvania and was awarded a pension for her work during the Revolution, one of only three women to receive the honor. She died in 1832. In 1916, a life-size statue of her was placed next to her gravesite in Carlisle, Pennsylvania.

Dorothy Dandridge (11/9/1923) is best known for her Oscar-nominated performance as the title character in Carmen Jones. As Carmen Jones, Dandridge was able to show her considerable talents for singing, dancing, and acting. Despite her Oscar nomination in 1955, there were few quality roles for African-American actresses at that time and she was limited in her choice of parts. Dandridge died in 1965.

 

Margaret Mead (12/16/1901) was arguably the most famous anthropologist of her time. Her book Coming of Age in Samoa, which was based on fieldwork she conducted in the 1920s in the South Pacific, was a best-seller. Much of her professional life was based out of New York's American Museum of Natural History. Mead used her overseas fieldwork as a way of studying modern American life. She made her research available to the general public by publishing in both scientific journals and popular magazines, such as Redbook. She served as the president of various professional organizations, including the American Anthropological Association and received 28 honorary doctorates. After her death in 1978, she was posthumously awarded the Presidental Medal of Freedom.

 

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