A blog devoted to newspaper women's page editors, with an emphasis on the work of fashion and food editors, beginning during World War II through the early 1970s. It documents the quilted news that the women created: a mix of hard and soft news. It also explores the women's pages association with advertising and public relations.
Scholarship: http://ucf.academia.edu/KimberlyVoss
I just got an email letting me know that the article Lance and I wrote about Texas and Florida women's page editor Marjorie Paxson is being included in an Advanced Placement history class. Here is a link to the syllabus.
I am so happy that these students will be learning about Marjorie. She is an amazing woman.
I just finished reading a chapter about Carol Sutton in the above book, It Happened in Kentucky. Carol was an award-winning women's page editor at the Louisville Courier-Journal. She transitioned her section from traditional to progressive prior to the introduction of the Washington Post's Style section. She went on to become the first female managing editor at a metro daily.
Yesterday I found this column Anne Rowe Goldman (a former women's page editor) wrote in her role as ombudsman at the St. Pete Times during the late 1970s. Goldman was like many of her fellow women's page journalists who reinvented their careers after the end of the women's sections. Carol Sutton took on a similar position at the Louisville Courier-Journal after being the women's page editor and then a brief tenure at a managing editor.
Yesterday I received this image of Bobbi McCallum's parents. (They are the couple in the middle.) It can be found in the Seattle P-I photos at the Museum of History & Industry in Seattle.
I am working on the captions for my article on Bobbi who was a women's page journalist at the P-I in the 1960s. She died suddenly at age 25. The article is scheduled to run this Spring.
I am working on my conference paper about St. Pete women's page editor Anne Rowe Goldman. I am adding information today from the Penney-Missouri papers at the University of Missouri, including the Matrix article in this post.
One of Rowe Goldman's biggest projects was transforming the women's page into a features section called "Day."
I found this Miami Herald article written by women's page journalist Roberta Applegate in the Nixon Presidential Library. Although the Herald typically had a strong women's page, this story is just fluff. It must have been a disappointing assignment for Roberta who had a hard news background. (I wrote an article about Roberta in 2007.)
I am looking through the Nixon finding guides for information about a White House Task Force about women hat included women's page journalist Vera Glaser.
I just came across this video of St. Pete's women's page editor Anne Rowe Goldman. It's the first time I have heard her speak and seen an image of her husband, Sanford. Here is a link to a transcript of the interview. Here is a link to a story about their house - it was designed by Sanford Goldman.
I am speaking with one of her daughters later today.
I am working on an article about Anne for presentation next month.
Below are two images of Seattle women's page journalist Bobbi McCallum that I just came across. They can be found in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer collection at the Museum of History & Industry. I love the image of her working at her desk.
My article about Bobbi is coming out this Spring.
Note that she has her reporter's notebook in her hand while at the beach.
Today I am writing three entries for the Encyclopedia of the Sixties, published by ABC-Clio. The entries are for "bra burnings," the National Organization for Women (NOW) and Katherine Graham, publisher of the Washington Post - pictured above.
The Washington Post, and Ben Bradlee, are credited with transitioning the women's page into a style section. The truth is more complicated. For example, Carol Sutton had transformed her women's section of the Louisville Courier-Journal a year prior to the Post.
This morning I am working on a paper about the debate over women wearing pants. This debate was about more than fashion as pants symbolized the change in women's roles in society and the fear over that change. I have collected New York Times articles about women wearing pants as I look for themes in that coverage. Some of the articles are in the women's pages but the story also reached the news sections.
In the article above, a judge is critical of a woman who wore pants to traffic court.
This paper is part of my research agenda that looks at the four Fs of the women's pages: family, fashion, food and furnishings.
Helen Muir was a Miami women's page journalist and a library activist. She was a good friend of fellow women's page journalists Dorothy Jurney and Jeanne Voltz. I have gone through her papers at the University of Miami. Below is a clip of Helen from a PBS program.
Several women's page editors worked to include more news from the black community in their sections. Editors Vivian Castleberry (Dallas), Carol Sutton (Louisville) and Edee Greene (Fort Lauderdale) fought to include the photos of black brides in their sections in the 1960s. This was at a time when the news sections rarely included coverage of any black residents.
Years later, Sutton worked on several initiatives to hire more black reporters at the Louisville newspaper.
I also heard from one of Edee Greene's granddaughter yesterday and I hope to meet her soon. (Edee was the women's page editor at the Fort Lauderdale News.) My article about Edee is coming out in 2011.
Yesterday, I received an email from Charles Whaley, husband of Louisville women’s page editor Carol Sutton. (Carol went on to become managing editor of the Louisville Courier-Journal - the first woman in this position.) Carol is included in a book about Kentucky’s history and the newspaper reviewed the book yesterday. Below is a photo of Carol from the book review.
A wonderful researcher has collected some clips of the newspaper the Beulah Independent. Beverley Brink Morales (a Florida women's page editor in the 1960s) and her husband Hector Morales owned the newspaper in the 1950s.
Above is one of several editorials that Beverley wrote while running the newspaper.
This is the wedding notice of her sister. Beverley's maiden name was Brink.
I am working on an article about Beverley's long career especially the ways she reinvented herself after the end of the women's pages.
In this clip is a reference to a document showing President Nixon’s reluctance to appoint women to significant governmental positions. This was something that Vera Glaser (women’s page and political journalist) and government employee Catherine East worked on.
I have gone through the most recent batch of information made available from the Nixon Library in the hopes of finding references to East or Glaser. I did not finding anything about those women. (In another women’s page reference, until recently, the Nixon Library was run by the son of Detroit and Phoenix women’s page editor Jean Taylor.)
I did find a reference to an article about Miami Herald’s women’s page journalist Roberta Applegate: "650 Women Turn Out in Furs, Finery for Snug Brunch With Mrs. Nixon.” I published an article about Roberta a few years ago and nominated her for induction into the Michigan Journalism Hall of Fame.
I am going to contact the Nixon Library about finding more references on East and Glaser.
I have discovered new information about my research topic in a collection at one of the Duke University Libraries. In the papers of the Veteran Feminists of America, I found documents about women's page and political journalist Vera Glaser and government source Catherine East. Included in the papers is a DVD tribute to East. I just placed an order to get copies of the materials.
I have already gone through East's papers at Harvard University and Glaser's papers at the University of Wyoming.
I am working on a paper about how Glaser and East worked together to hold the government and media accountable. I hope to present the paper at a conference next fall.
I am writing a paper about St. Petersburg Times and St. Petersburg Evening Independent women's page editor Anne Rowe for an upcoming history conference.
In 1910, the owner of the Evening Independent declared St. Petersburg the "Sunshine City" and made the famous "Sunshine Offer": On any day the sun didn't shine, the newspaper would be given away. There were only 200 times this happened in nearly 80 years. Here is more information.
Anne helped to transform the women's section of the Evening Independent in the 1960s. I discovered great information about the transformation in the Penney-Missouri papers at the University of Missouri.
I just received these two new images of Seattle P-I women's page journalist Bobbi McCallum. They were taken by her boyfriend Mark in the weeks before she died.
I just received the new Molly Ivins biography. (Molly largely avoided the women's pages although she was a fan of Dallas women's page editor Vivian Castleberry.)
I went through Molly's papers at the University of Texas last year and plan to start working on an article about Molly soon - especially her early career in Minnesota.
I just found several new photos of Bobbi McCallum - a Penney-Missouri Award winning women's page journalist at the Seattle P-I in the 1960s. They are part of the P-I photo collection at the Seattle Museum of History and Industry. I am going to order some copies today.
My article about Bobbi is coming out this Spring. The above image is from the Penney-Missouri Papers at the Western Historical Manuscript Collection at the University of Missouri.
The new issue of the Florida Historical Quarterly is out. It is a peer-reviewed journal published by the Florida Historical Society.
The issue includes an article I wrote about the media's coverage of the Equal Rights Amendment in Florida in the 1970s - especially the coverage of Florida Sen. Lori Wilson.
With one more free week before classes start, I am doing some work on my article about women's page journalist and food editor Jeanne Voltz. She wrote under her own name in the 1950s while she was at the Miami Herald. When she moved to the L.A. Times in the 1960s, she initially wrote under the pen name "Marian Manners." That's a photo of the original Marian Manners above. Here is an article about her.
One item missing from the L.A. Times story was that the initial food editor reported to the advertising department. It was not until Jeanne Voltz that the food editor moved over to the editorial side and could exercise objectivity. This is the area I am developing in my article about Voltz.
In honor of New Year's, here are my research resolutions for 2010 • Get started on a book about Dallas women’s page editor Vivian Castleberry. This is a follow up to my article about Vivian that ran in 2007 in Southwest Historical Quarterly.
• Write an article about the friendship and activism of Catherine East and women’s page journalist Vera Glaser. I have gone through both of their papers – East at Harvard and Glaser at the University of Wyoming. I have lots of material and I need to start writing.
• Finish revising articles about women’s page journalists Eleni Epstein and Betty Preston (that's her in the photo above) and a conference presentation about Anne Rowe.
• Start drafting an article about Molly Ivins based on the material collected at the University of Texas.
