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GGRWHC Board of Directors
Mary Seeger,
Jo Ellyn Clarey,
Co-Presidents Susan Coombes
Vice President
Ruth VanStee,
Secretary
Connie Ingham
Treasurer
Jo Ellyn Clarey
Susan Coombes
Falinda Geerling
Sharon Hanks
Connie Ingham
Kyle Irwin
Mary Seeger
Ruth Stevens
Julie Tabberer
Ruth VanStee
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Gert, Grace, and the Berkey & Gay Girls
Women, War, & Work in 1910s Grand Rapids
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Berkey & Gay Girls Picnic, 1918
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7 p.m., Thursday, June 2, 2016
Grand Rapids Public Library, Main -
Auditorium
Co-sponsored by the Grand Rapids Public Library,
& the Greater Grand Rapids Women's History Council
If this sounds familiar, that's because it's a
repeat of our Women's History Month opener on March 1, the night of a snow storm. We're still celebrating the working women of Grand Rapids a hundred years back.
Using unique archival resources, three staff members in the Grand Rapids History and Special Collections department of the Grand Rapids Public Library will highlight some of the city's women employed outside their homes during World War I. The last decade of the heady Progressive Era opened doors both personal and professional for these 11,000 women, and the disruptions of wartime provided opportunities in a working world previously off limits.
Julie Tabberer makes use of what she discovered in the
Shop Mark, an employee newsletter of the Berkey and Gay Furniture Company,
to illustrate the lives of the women working at that company during WW I.
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Grace Van Hoesen, second from the left,
and the League for Women Voters
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Heather Edwards will illustrate Grace Van Hoesen's roles as a local suffrage leader, wartime chair of the industrial committee of the Woman's Committee of the Council on National Defense, and as a founder of the League of Women Voters.
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Gerturde Van Houten
with her cartoon image of Gert
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The third part, led by
Drew Damron, will introduce Gertrude Van Houten, an illustrator and cartoonist for the Grand Rapids Press. Gert quickly became a local celebrity, who was sent to draw on location in wartime Washington D.C. Damron has uncovered numerous examples of her work.
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Gert reports from Washington, March 1, 1918
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Free and open to the public.
For a full description of each of the three presentations see GGRWHC
website.
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| Join us or Update your Membership! |
Not a current member of GGRWHC?
Register or renew your membership and
help offset the expenses associated with annual research and programs. Your membership helps to set the record straight on the women who've made history here in our community.
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Board meetings are held on the second Wednesday of the month at 5:30 p.m. at the Vanderveen Center for the Book at the Grand Rapids Public Library. If you have suggestions for programs, oral histories, or other items, please
email us
or plan to attend a meeting.
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