Washington Post article on recipe testing

The Washington Post has published an article about food sections and recipe testing. It is available here.

The writer did not include anything about the Milwaukee Journal's food section - which had a testing kitchen for decades. Here is the brief history included in the Washington Post article which excluded the long history of women's pages:

"Perhaps surprising, many of the editors contacted for this story said their recipe-testing budgets have not been targeted for reduction or elimination — at least to their knowledge. What might be more surprising, however, is that some of them had to persuade their bosses to institute recipe testing in the first place. It would seem that the era of recipe testing at newspapers is a more recent invention; old timers recall when food editors in the 1980s published recipes straight from publicists and major food manufacturers, no questions asked."

This explanation is seriously flawed - which I have proved and will continue to document. Most food writers did not simply publish the work of food publicists.

I plan to research more about food sections and recipe testing as a way of writing women into newspaper history.

Joan Younger Dickinson & the Ladies Home Journal

Lance & I sent in our paper about wire and magazine writer Joan Younger Dickinson to a journal this week. Much of Younger Dickinson's magazine writing in the 1950s and 1960s focused on women's political & volunteer work - which was like the content found in progressive women's pages of newspapers.

We went through her papers at the University of Wyoming several years ago and presented a paper at the Popular Culture Association convention in San Francisco in 2007. My fingers are crossed that the papers finds a home.

The end of A.P.I.

I was sad to hear that A.P.I. (American Press Institute) is merging with N.A.A.F. Here is more about the merger.

In the 1950s, prior to the beginning of the Penney-Missouri Awards, the seminars at A.P.I. were one of the only places that women's page editors could network. Editors Gloria Biggs, Vivian Castleberry, Anne Rowe and Dorothy Jurney attended and presented at A.P.I. Castleberry said in her oral history that API gave her the motivation to make her section progressive.

Lance and I went to a API seminar about Lifestyle Editors in Virginia a few years ago although the topics were more 1950s than Vivian likely encountered.

Writing about Beverley Morales

We spent Sunday at out favorite beach - Playalinda at Cape Canaveral. It was a perfect day - 78 degrees and not a cloud in the sky. I worked on my presentation on women's page editor Beverley Morales and her years at the Sun Sentinel. I will present the paper at the Florida Conference of Historians in Lake City next month.

The talk is largely based on her letters to and from Penney-Missouri Awards' Director Paul Myhre that are housed at the University of Missouri. I will be comparing and contrasting her career to other Florida women's page editors.

Drue Lytle's master's thesis

I recently came across the master's thesis of Hawaii women's page editor Druzella "Drue" Lytle. She wrote "A study of the plays of Rachel Crothers," under her maiden name Druzella E. Goodwin while at Occidental College in 1937.

The UCF ILL was able to track it down and send me a copy. It was very well written although the dedication page did not include a reference to her family. I have not been able to track down information about Drue prior to her college years.

I am in the early stages of outlining Drue's life and career.

Book chapter about women and gossip

I learned on Friday that my proposal for a book chapter about women and gossip had been accepted - the CFP was on H-Net. This was the call for proposed chapters.

I am looking at the concept through the role of gossip both in the political columns and the advice columns that ran in women's pages. While both kinds of columns have been discounted because either they contained "women's news" or were in the "women's sections," these columns played important roles.

One of the most significant political columnists was Vera Glaser - she is pictured above. Lance and I went through her papers several years ago at the University of Wyoming. Here is a link to part of my paper about Vera that was presented at the American Journalism Historians Association-Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication, History Division, Meeting, March 2009, New York City.

This book chapter will shine the light on several marginalized women in journalism history, including Vera Glaser.

New Eleni Epstein image

I just found this new image of Washington Star fashion editor Eleni Epstein at her desk. It is available here.

I am working on a revise-and-resubmit about Eleni and her influence on newspaper fashion reporting.

Eleni Epstein: Revise & Resubmit

Lance & I got great news this week about our article about Washington Star fashion editor Eleni Epstein. It was a positive and helpful revise-and-resubmit that we should be able to complete in the next few weeks.

Fashion journalism often gets marginalized as unimportant because it is "women's news." Yet, as we proved, it is an important business with significant social and political meanings - especially in Washington, DC.

We spent several visits going through Eleni's papers at the University of Missouri in 2006 and 2007. It has taken many years to put her story together. We are so pleased to see her story closer to publication.

Mitt Romney's Father George Romney

With GOP presidential hopeful Mitt Romney in the news, I have been reminded of his father George Romney. He was a governor of Michigan in the 1960s and also worked at HUD. Women's page journalist Roberta "Bobbi" Applegate's brother Albert Applegate worked for George Romney.

(Bobbi Applegate was the first woman to work as a governor's press secretary - for Michigan Governor Kim Sigler - before moving on to become the club reporter for the women's pages of the Miami Herald. My article about her appeared in a 2008 issue of Michigan History Magazine.)

Also in 2008, I nominated and helped to induct Roberta into the Michigan Journalism Hall of Fame.

Roberta's brother Albert - the one who worked for George Romney - accepted the award on his sister's behalf. Below is the video of him speaking about Bobbi:

Wisconsin Badgers in the Rose Bowl

In honor of the Wisconsin Badgers in the Rose Bowl this year, here is a women's page reference from a previous Badger Rose Bowl appearance - from a former Wisconsin women's page journalist Dorothy Kincaid. Dorothy was the longtime food journalist at the Milwaukee Sentinel. (The cookbook that she edited is pictured above - I found it on eBay.)

When she retired, she shared this memory of banned from the press box during the 1963 Rose Bowl she traveled to California with the University of Wisconsin Badgers football team.

Her assignment was to write a color piece about the parade and game. She
had tried to make advance plans to cover the game knowing she would
likely not be allowed in the press box due to her gender. The plans
fell through and she asked if she could have space to file her story.
Instead, she had to file her story from a public phone booth under the
stadium as the University of Southern California marching band was
practicing.

Here is a link to the story.

End of the St. Petersburg Times

Today was the first day that the St. Petersburg Times officially became the Tampa Bay Times. After a long and significant history, the St. Petersburg Times now longer exists - at least by name. Here is the story.

For many years, the St. Petersburg Times had one of the top women's pages in the country. The newspaper was one of the first to transition into a lifestyle section - although the Washington Post usually gets all the credit. (At the Times, it was known as the "Day" section.)

For many years, the women's page editor (and later the Day editor) was Anne Rowe - later Goldman. That is a photo of her below as she reported on a story about Elvis.

My article, "Anne Rowe Goldman: Refashioning Women's News in St. Petersburg, Florida," was published in the FCH Annals: Journal of the Florida Conference of Historians, March 2011, 104-111.

I hope the stories of the women of the St. Petersburg Times don't get lost as the newspaper changes its name.