Hutchins Library News Blog

March is Women's History Month. This is an annual observance where we take time to acknowledge and highlight the many achievements and contributions of women in society. In the United States, it has been a tradition for the President of the United States to sign a proclamation to recognize the observance (link to the 2025 proclamation from the White House).

Want to learn more about the month and observance? Here are some online resources:

• Women's History Month site from the U.S. Government.
• The Wikipedia entry, which provides some additional information for the observance internationally. This entry includes links to previous US presidential proclamations if you wish to view them going back to the mid-1980s. You can also check the list of references for additional information.
• Women's History Month from the Smithsonian American Women's History Museum.
• Women's History Month from the National Women's History Museum.

You can also visit Hutchins Library to find books and other resources on women's history and accomplishments during March and throughout the year. I did some searching in the library catalog, and I found some books that may be of interest. Books are listed in no particular order. If you need assistance finding these or other resources, you can visit the Reference Desk at Hutchins Library or contact us via chat on the library website. Our website also offers additional information on ways to contact us.

Herstory by Deborah G. Ohrn (Editor); Gloria Steinem (Introduction by); Ruth Ashby (Editor)

Call Number: Stacks 305.409 H5726

ISBN: 9780670854349

Publication Date: 1995-06-01

This book contains 120 biographical sketches of women who changed the world, placing them in the context of their times, & taking the viewpoint that women's history has largely been ignored. The section on Mead's anthropological work also includes two lesser-known female anthropologists: Elsie Clews Parsons & Ruth Benedict. Introduction by Gloria Steinem, extensive bibliography, & three indexes: geographical, alphabetical, & occupational.

 

Mobilizing Minerva by Kimberly Jensen

Call Number: Stacks 940.373 J547m 2008

ISBN: 9780252032370

Publication Date: 2008-02-08

American women did more than pursue roles as soldiers, doctors, and nurses during World War I. Mobilizing Minerva: American Women in the First World War reveals women's motivations for fighting for full citizenship rights both on and off the battlefield. The war provided chances for women to participate in the military, but also in other male-dominated career paths. Intense discussions of rape, methods of protecting women, and proper gender roles abound as Kimberly Jensen draws from rich case studies to show how female thinkers and activists wove wartime choices into long-standing debates about woman suffrage and economic parity. The war created new urgency in these debates, and Jensen forcefully presents the case of women participants and activists: women's involvement in the obligation of citizens to defend the state validated their right of full female citizenship.

 

Hidden Figures by Margot Lee Shetterly

Call Number: Stacks 510.925 S554h 2016

ISBN: 9780062363596

Publication Date: 2016-09-06

The phenomenal true story of the black female mathematicians at NASA at the leading edge of the feminist and civil rights movement, whose calculations helped fuel some of America's greatest achievements in space--a powerful, revelatory contribution that is as essential to our understanding of race, discrimination, and achievement in modern America as Between the World and Me and The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. The basis for the smash Academy Award-nominated film starring Taraji P. Henson, Octavia Spencer, Janelle Monae, Kirsten Dunst, and Kevin Costner. Before John Glenn orbited the earth, or Neil Armstrong walked on the moon, a group of dedicated female mathematicians known as "human computers" used pencils, slide rules and adding machines to calculate the numbers that would launch rockets, and astronauts, into space. Among these problem-solvers were a group of exceptionally talented African American women, some of the brightest minds of their generation. Originally relegated to teaching math in the South's segregated public schools, they were called into service during the labor shortages of World War II, when America's aeronautics industry was in dire need of anyone who had the right stuff. Suddenly, these overlooked math whizzes had a shot at jobs worthy of their skills, and they answered Uncle Sam's call, moving to Hampton, Virginia and the fascinating, high-energy world of the Langley Memorial Aeronautical Laboratory. Even as Virginia's Jim Crow laws required them to be segregated from their white counterparts, the women of Langley's all-black "West Computing" group helped America achieve one of the things it desired most: a decisive victory over the Soviet Union in the Cold War, and complete domination of the heavens. Starting in World War II and moving through to the Cold War, the Civil Rights Movement and the Space Race, Hidden Figures follows the interwoven accounts of Dorothy Vaughan, Mary Jackson, Katherine Johnson and Christine Darden, four African American women who participated in some of NASA's greatest successes. It chronicles their careers over nearly three decades they faced challenges, forged alliances and used their intellect to change their own lives, and their country's future.  

 

Becoming by Michelle Obama

Call Number: Stacks 973.932 O122b 2018

ISBN: 9781524763138

Publication Date: 2018-11-13

 In a life filled with meaning and accomplishment, Michelle Obama has emerged as one of the most iconic and compelling women of our era. As First Lady of the United States of America--the first African American to serve in that role--she helped create the most welcoming and inclusive White House in history, while also establishing herself as a powerful advocate for women and girls in the U.S. and around the world, dramatically changing the ways that families pursue healthier and more active lives, and standing with her husband as he led America through some of its most harrowing moments. Along the way, she showed us a few dance moves, crushed Carpool Karaoke, and raised two down-to-earth daughters under an unforgiving media glare.   In her memoir, a work of deep reflection and mesmerizing storytelling, Michelle Obama invites readers into her world, chronicling the experiences that have shaped her--from her childhood on the South Side of Chicago to her years as an executive balancing the demands of motherhood and work, to her time spent at the world's most famous address. With unerring honesty and lively wit, she describes her triumphs and her disappointments, both public and private, telling her full story as she has lived it--in her own words and on her own terms. Warm, wise, and revelatory, Becoming is the deeply personal reckoning of a woman of soul and substance who has steadily defied expectations--and whose story inspires us to do the same.

 

A Vindication of the Rights of Woman by Mary Wollstonecraft; Carol H. Poston (Editor)

Call Number: Stacks 305.42 W864v 1988

ISBN: 9780393024272

Publication Date: 1987-10-01

The First Edition of this Norton Critical Edition was both an acclaimed classroom text and ahead of its time. This Second Edition offers the best in Wollstonecraft scholarship and criticism since 1976, providing the ideal means for studying the first feminist document written in English.

 

 

Bell Hooks: the Last Interview by bell hooks; Mikki Kendall (Introduction by)

Call Number: Stacks 305.488 H784b 2023

ISBN: 9781685890797

Publication Date: 2023-07-18

 bell hooks was a prolific, trailblazing author, feminist, social activist, cultural critic, and professor. Born Gloria Jean Watkins, bell used her pen name to center attention on her ideas and to honor her courageous great-grandmother, Bell Blair Hooks. hooks's unflinching dedication to her work carved deep grooves for the feminist and anti-racist movements. In this collection of 7 interviews, stretching from early in her career until her last interview, she discusses feminism, the complexity of rap music and masculinity, her relationship to Buddhism, the "politic of domination," sexuality, and love and the importance of communication across cultural borders. Whether she was sparking controversy on campuses or facing criticism from contemporaries, hooks relentlessly challenged herself and those around her, inserted herself into the tensions of the cultural moment, and anchored herself with love.

 

Bad Feminist by Roxane Gay

Call Number: Stacks 824.92 G285b 2014

ISBN: 9780062282712

Publication Date: 2014-08-05

 A collection of essays spanning politics, criticism, and feminism from one of the most-watched cultural observers of her generation In these funny and insightful essays, Gay takes us through the journey of her evolution as a woman (Sweet Valley High) of color (The Help) while also taking readers on a ride through culture of the last few years (Girls, Django in Chains) and commenting on the state of feminism today (abortion, Chris Brown). The portrait that emerges is not only one of an incredibly insightful woman continually growing to understand herself and our society, but also one of our culture. Bad Feminist is a sharp, funny, and spot-on look at the ways in which the culture we consume becomes who we are, and an inspiring call-to-arms of all the ways we still need to do better, coming from one of our most interesting and important cultural critics.

 

Sister Outsider by Audre. Lorde

Call Number: Stacks 824.914 L867s 2020

ISBN: 9780143134442

Publication Date: 2020-02-25

Presenting the essential writings of black lesbian poet and feminist writer Audre Lorde, Sister Outsider celebrates an influential voice in twentieth-century literature, with a foreword by Mahogany L. Browne. In this charged collection of fifteen essays and speeches, Lorde takes on sexism, racism, ageism, homophobia, and class, and propounds social difference as a vehicle for action and change. Her prose is incisive, unflinching, and lyrical, reflecting struggle but ultimately offering messages of hope.

 

This Bridge Called My Back by Gloria Anzaldúa (Editor); Cherríe Moraga (Editor)

Call Number: Stacks 820.809 T448

ISBN: 9781438454382

Publication Date: 2015-03-01

Originally released in 1981, This Bridge Called My Back is a testimony to women of color feminism as it emerged in the last quarter of the twentieth century. Through personal essays, criticism, interviews, testimonials, poetry, and visual art, the collection explores, as coeditor Cherríe Moraga writes, "the complex confluence of identities--race, class, gender, and sexuality--systemic to women of color oppression and liberation." Reissued here, nearly thirty-five years after its inception, the fourth edition contains an extensive new introduction by Moraga, along with a previously unpublished statement by Gloria Anzaldúa. The new edition also includes visual artists whose work was produced during the same period as Bridge, including Betye Saar, Ana Mendieta, and Yolanda López, as well as current contributor biographies. Bridge continues to reflect an evolving definition of feminism, one that can effectively adapt to, and help inform an understanding of the changing economic and social conditions of women of color in the United States and throughout the world.

 

In Search of Our Mother's Gardens by Alice Walker

Call Number: Stacks 828 W177s

ISBN: 9780151445257

Publication Date: 1983-10-10

As a woman, writer, mother, and feminist, Walker explores the theories and practices of feminism, incorporating what she calls the “womanist” tradition of African American women.

 

 

 

Need or want some popular and/or academic articles? You can try one of our databases. Please note: to access our databases off campus you will need to authenticate with your Berea College credentials and DUO. These and other databases can be accessed through the library website under "Databases A-Z."

• Academic Search Complete
• Humanities International
• Alt Press Watch
• J-Stor
• CQ Researcher
• Project Muse
• Hein Online

 

Image credit: From the U.S. Embassy in Argentina This is a US Government publication and thus not subject to copyright so can be used by the public.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pride Month is typically observed during the month of June. The idea came to life after the Stonewall Riots in New York City (link to Library of Congress). On June 28, 1969, police raided the bar Stonewall Inn. Activists resisted and rioted against the police. A year later, the first Pride Marches started in various U.S. cities. Recognition of the monthly celebration in the United States has been somewhat inconsistent over time. President Clinton first recognized it as Gay and Lesbian Month in 1999. President Obama expanded it beyond that to include the LGBT community, President Trump refused to acknowledge it. President Biden has observed it, including in his 2024 Presidential Proclamation for Pride Month (link to the White House briefing room). 

Hutchins Library joins in celebrating, and we encourage our community to come check out resources available for our campus community.

To start, here are 10 books you may want to check out and read. This is a small selection that includes fiction and nonfiction. Books are not listed in any particular order.  To find additional books on LGBTQIA topics or any other topic you can use the library catalog. You can also visit our Pride Books Display, which is located on the main floor next to the New Books Display across from the Circulation Desk. The Pride Display is curated by our library student workers.

All Boys Aren't Blue by George M. Johnson

Call Number: Stacks 306.766 J671a 2020

ISBN: 9780374312718

Publication Date: 2020-04-28

In a series of personal essays, prominent journalist and LGBTQIA+ activist George M. Johnson's All Boys Aren't Blue explores his childhood, adolescence, and college years in New Jersey and Virginia. From the memories of getting his teeth kicked out by bullies at age five, to flea marketing with his loving grandmother, to his first sexual relationships, this young-adult memoir weaves together the trials and triumphs faced by Black queer boys. Both a primer for teens eager to be allies as well as a reassuring testimony for young queer men of color, All Boys Aren't Blue covers topics such as gender identity, toxic masculinity, brotherhood, family, structural marginalization, consent, and Black joy. Johnson's emotionally frank style of writing will appeal directly to young adults.

 

 

And Tango Makes Three by Justin Richardson; Peter Parnell; Henry Cole (Illustrator)

Call Number: Hutchins Library Exhibit/Display - Print R5235an 2005

ISBN: 9780689878459

Publication Date: 2005-06-01

And Tango Makes Three is the bestselling, heartwarming true story of two penguins who create a nontraditional family. At the penguin house at the Central Park Zoo, two penguins named Roy and Silo were a little bit different from the others. But their desire for a family was the same. And with the help of a kindly zookeeper, Roy and Silo get the chance to welcome a baby penguin of their very own. Selected as an ALA Notable Children's Book Nominee and a Lambda Literary Award Finalist, "this joyful story about the meaning of family is a must for any library" (School Library Journal, starred review).

 

Cinderella Is Dead by Kalynn Bayron

Call Number: Young Adult B3615ci 2021

ISBN: 9781547606641

Publication Date: 2021-06-29

It's 200 years after Cinderella found her prince, but the fairy tale is over. Teen girls are now required to appear at the Annual Ball, where the men of the kingdom select wives based on a girl's display of finery. If a suitable match is not found, the girls not chosen are never heard from again. Sixteen-year-old Sophia would much rather marry Erin, her childhood best friend, than parade in front of suitors. At the ball, Sophia makes the desperate decision to flee, and finds herself hiding in Cinderella's mausoleum. There, she meets Constance, the last known descendant of Cinderella and her step sisters. Together they vow to bring down the king once and for all--and in the process, they learn that there's more to Cinderella's story than they ever knew . . . This fresh take on a classic story will make readers question the tales they've been told, and root for girls to break down the constructs of the world around them.

 

 

Flamer by Mike Curato (Illustrator)

Call Number: Graphic Novels 741.597 C975f

ISBN: 9781627796415

Publication Date: 2020-09-01

I know I'm not gay. Gay boys like other boys. I hate boys. They're mean, and scary, and they're always destroying something or saying something dumb or both.I hate that word. Gay. It makes me feel . . . unsafe. It's the summer between middle school and high school, and Aiden Navarro is away at camp. Everyone's going through changes--but for Aiden, the stakes feel higher. As he navigates friendships, deals with bullies, and spends time with Elias (a boy he can't stop thinking about), he finds himself on a path of self-discovery and acceptance. Award-winning author and artist Mike Curato draws on his own experiences in this debut graphic novel, telling a difficult story with humor, compassion, and love.

 

Gender Queer: a Memoir by Maia Kobabe

Call Number: Graphic Novels 306.7608 K754g

ISBN: 9781549304002

Publication Date: 2019-05-28

In 2014, Maia Kobabe, who uses e/em/eir pronouns,thought that a comic of reading statistics would be the last autobiographical comic e would ever write. At the time, it was the only thing e felt comfortable with strangers knowing about em. Now, Gender Queer is here. Maia's intensely cathartic autobiography charts eir journey of self-identity, which includes the mortification and confusion of adolescent crushes, grappling with how to come out to family and society, bonding with friends over erotic gay fan fiction, and facing the trauma and fundamental violation of pap smears. Started as a way to explain to eir family what it means to be nonbinary and asexual, Gender Queer is more than a personal story: it is a useful and touching guide on gender identity--what it means and how to think about it--for advocates,friends, and humans everywhere.  

 

This Book Is Gay by Juno Dawson; David Levithan (Introduction by)

Call Number: Exhibit/Display - Print 306.76 D272b 2021

ISBN: 9781728254326

Publication Date: 2021-09-07

The bestselling young adult non-fiction book on sexuality and gender! Lesbian. Gay. Bisexual. Transgender. Queer. Intersex. Straight. Curious. This book is for everyone, regardless of gender or sexual preference. This book is for anyone who's ever dared to wonder. This book is for YOU. This candid, funny, and uncensored exploration of sexuality and what it's like to grow up LGBTQ also includes real stories from people across the gender and sexual spectrums, not to mention hilarious illustrations. Inside this revised and updated edition, you'll find the answers to all the questions you ever wanted to ask, with topics like: Stereotypes--the facts and fiction. Coming out as LGBT. Where to meet people like you. The ins and outs of gay sex. How to flirt. And so much more! You will be entertained. You will be informed. But most importantly, you will know that however you identify (or don't) and whomever you love, you are exceptional. You matter. And so does this book. This book is for: LGBTQIA+ teens, tweens, and adults. Readers looking to learn more about the LGBTQIA+ community. Parents of gay kids and other LGBT youth. Educators looking for advice about the LGBTQIA+ community.

 

Uncomfortable Labels by Laura Kate Dale

Call Number: Stacks 306.768 D139u 2019

ISBN: 9781785925870

Publication Date: 2019-07-18

"So while the assumption when I was born was that I was or would grow up to be a neurotypical heterosexual boy, that whole idea didn't really pan out long term." In this candid, first-of-its-kind memoir, Laura Kate Dale recounts what life is like growing up as a gay trans woman on the autism spectrum. From struggling with sensory processing, managing socially demanding situations and learning social cues and feminine presentation, through to coming out as trans during an autistic meltdown, Laura draws on her personal experiences from life prior to transition and diagnosis, and moving on to the years of self-discovery, to give a unique insight into the nuances of sexuality, gender and autism, and how they intersect. Charting the ups and downs of being autistic and on the LGBT spectrum with searing honesty and humour, this is an empowering, life-affirming read for anyone who's felt they don't fit in.

 

Vice Patrol by Anna Lvovsky

Call Number: Stacks 306.766 L979v 2021

ISBN: 9780226769646

Publication Date: 2021-05-24

In the mid-twentieth century, gay life flourished in American cities even as the state repression of queer communities reached its peak. Liquor investigators infiltrated and shut down gay-friendly bars. Plainclothes decoys enticed men in parks and clubs. Vice officers surveilled public bathrooms through peepholes and two-way mirrors.   In Vice Patrol, Anna Lvovsky chronicles this painful story, tracing the tactics used to criminalize, profile, and suppress gay life from the 1930s through the 1960s, and the surprising controversies those tactics often inspired in court. Lvovsky shows that the vice squads' campaigns stood at the center of live debates about not only the law's treatment of queer people, but also the limits of ethical policing, the authority of experts, and the nature of sexual difference itself--debates that had often unexpected effects on the gay community's rights and freedoms. Examining those battles, Vice Patrol enriches understandings of the regulation of queer life in the twentieth century and disputes about police power that continue today. 

 

The Gay Revolution by Lillian Faderman

Call Number: Exhibit/Display - Print 306.766 F144g 2015

ISBN: 9781451694116

Publication Date: 2015-09-08

The fight for gay, lesbian and trans civil rights is the most important civil rights issue of the present day. Based on rigorous research and more than 150 interviews, The Gay Revolution tells this unfinished story not through dry facts but through dramatic accounts of passionate struggles, with all the sweep, depth and intricacies only an award-winning activist, scholar and novelist like Lillian Faderman can evoke. A defining account, this is the most complete and authoritative book of its kind.

 

The Savvy Ally by Jeannie Gainsburg

Call Number: Exhibit/Display - Print 306.76 G143s 2023

ISBN: 9781538169230

Publication Date: 2023-03-31

Bursting with passion and humor, The Savvy Ally: A Guide for Becoming a Skilled LGBTQ+ Advocate is a treasure trove for allies to the LGBTQ+ communities. This fully revised second edition includes: The most current information on identities and LGBTQ+ language. Tips for respectfully sharing, gathering, and using pronouns. LGBTQ+ etiquette, including common language bloopers to avoid. Tools for navigating difficult conversations. Best practices for creating LGBTQ+ inclusive spaces. Appropriate actions to take after messing up. Techniques for self-care and sustainable allyship. The Savvy Ally is a vital resource for teachers, mental health professionals, healthcare providers, college professors, faith leaders, family members, and friends who want to support and advocate for the LGBTQ+ people in their lives and help make the world a safer, more inclusive place. This informative, encouraging, and easy-to-understand guidebook will jump-start even the most tentative ally.

 

If you would like to find articles and other research on LGBTQIA topics, you could try the following periodical databases. To find these and other databases, you can visit our library website and click on "Electronic Resources" to get our full list of available databases and online resources.

 

• Academic Search Complete
• Alt Press Watch
• America: History and Life
• J-Stor
• LGBTQ Magazine Archive

 

Want to learn even more? Here are some free online resources from the web:

• "Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer Pride Month" from the Library of Congress.
• "LGBTQI+ Pride Month" from the National Archives and Records Administration.
• "LGBTQIA+ Pride Month: June 2024" from the U.S. Census Bureau for various statistics.

 

 

We continue celebrating women and their accomplishments now for Women's History Month and always. Today we are featuring 7 biographies of American first ladies. These books are available on our shelves, so feel free to visit the library and check them out.

Martha Washington by Helen Bryan

Call Number: Stacks 973.4109 W319zb

ISBN: 9780471158929

Publication Date: 2002-04-01

A contemporary anecdote not only confirms that Martha commanded respect in her own right during her lifetime, but also suggests an awkward truth later historians have preferred to ignore-that without Martha and her fortune, George might never have risen to social, military, and political prominence.Toward the end of his life, George Washington, war hero, retired president, and object of universal fame and veneration, was negotiating to purchase a plot of land in the new capital city, to be named in his honor. The seller, an aged veteran of the Revolution, was reluctant to part with the plot, even to so distinguished a purchaser. Washington persisted until the veteran's patience snapped: 'You think people take every grist that comes from you as the pure grain. What would you have been if you hadn't married the Widow Custis!' -from the Introduction to Martha Washington: First Lady of Liberty. From the glittering social life of Virginia's wealthiest plantations to the rigors of winter camps during the American Revolution, Martha Washington was a central figure in some of the most important events in American history. Her story is a saga of social conflict, forbidden love affairs, ambiguous wills, mysterious death, heartbreaking loss, and personal and political triumph. Every detail is brought to vivid life in this engaging and astonishing biography of one of the best known, least understood figures in early American life.

 

 

Abigail Adams by Edith B. Gelles

Call Number: Stacks 973.44 A211zga 2002

ISBN: 9780415939454

Publication Date: 2002-02-08

In this book, Edith B. Gelles asserts that Abigail Adams' vivid, insightful letters are "the best account that exists from the pre- to the post-Revolutionary period in America of a woman's life and world." Adams' spontaneous, witty letters serve dual purposes for the modern reader: it provides an intriguing first hand account of pivotal historical events and it shows how these events from the Boston Tea Party to the War of 1812 entered the private sphere. Included in the book is a chronology, notes and reference section and a selected bibliography. This book will be a must for all scholars of American literature, history and politics seeking to understand this literary figure.

 

 

 

A Perfect Union by Catherine Allgor

Call Number: Stacks 973.5109 M1815za 2006

ISBN: 9780805073270

Publication Date: 2006-04-04

An extraordinary American comes to life in this vivid, groundbreaking portrait of the early days of the republic - and the birth of modern politics. When the roar of the Revolution had finally died down, a new generation of American politicians was summoned to the Potomac to assemble the nation's newly minted capital. Into that unsteady atmosphere, which would soon enough erupt into another conflict with Britain in 1812, Dolley Madison arrived, alongside her husband, James. Within a few years, she had mastered both the social and political intricacies of the city, and by her death in 1849 was the most celebrated person in Washington. And yet, to most Americans, she's best known for saving a portrait from the burning White House, or as the namesake for a line of ice cream.Why did her contemporaries give so much adulation to a lady so little known today? In A Perfect Union, Catherine Allgor reveals that while Dolley's gender prevented her from openly playing politics, those very constraints of womanhood allowed her to construct an American democratic ruling style, and to achieve her husband's political goals. And the way that she did so - by emphasizing cooperation over coercion, building bridges instead of bunkers - has left us with not only an important story about our past but a model for a modern form of politics.Introducing a major new American historian, A Perfect Union is both an illuminating portrait of an unsung founder of our democracy, and a vivid account of a little-explored time in our history.

 

 

Mary Todd Lincoln by Jean H. Baker

Call Number: Stacks 973.709 L738zb 2008

ISBN: 9780393333039

Publication Date: 2008-10-17

This definitive biography of Mary Todd Lincoln beautifully conveys her tumultuous life and times. A privileged daughter of the proud clan that founded Lexington, Kentucky, Mary fell into a stormy romance with the raw Illinois attorney Abraham Lincoln. For twenty-five years the Lincolns forged opposing temperaments into a tolerant, loving marriage. Even as the nation suffered secession and civil war, Mary experienced the tragedies of losing three of her four children and then her husband. An insanity trial orchestrated by her surviving son led to her confinement in an asylum. Mary Todd Lincoln is still often portrayed in one dimension, as the stereotype of the best-hated faults of all women. Here her life is restored for us whole.

 

 

Eleanor by David Michaelis

Call Number: Stacks 973.917 R781zmic 2020

ISBN: 9781439192016

Publication Date: 2020-10-06

In the first single-volume cradle-to-grave portrait in six decades, acclaimed biographer David Michaelis delivers a stunning account of Eleanor Roosevelt's remarkable life of transformation. An orphaned niece of President Theodore Roosevelt, she converted her Gilded Age childhood of denial and secrecy into an irreconcilable marriage with her ambitious fifth cousin Franklin. Despite their inability to make each other happy, Franklin Roosevelt transformed Eleanor from a settlement house volunteer on New York's Lower East Side into a matching partner in New York's most important power couple in a generation. When Eleanor discovered Franklin's betrayal with her younger, prettier social secretary, Lucy Mercer, she offered a divorce and vowed to face herself honestly. Here is an Eleanor both more vulnerable and more aggressive, more psychologically aware and sexually adaptable than we knew. She came to accept FDR's bond with his executive assistant, Missy LeHand; she allowed her children to live their own lives, as she never could; and she explored her sexual attraction to women, among them a star female reporter on FDR's first presidential campaign, and younger men. Eleanor needed emotional connection. She pursued deeper relationships wherever she could find them. Throughout her life and travels, there was always another person or place she wanted to heal. As FDR struggled to recover from polio, Eleanor became a voice for the voiceless, her husband's proxy in presidential ambition, and then the people's proxy in the White House. Later, she would be the architect of international human rights and world citizen of the Atomic Age, urging Americans to cope with the anxiety of global annihilation by cultivating a "world mind." She insisted that we cannot live for ourselves alone but must learn to live together or we will die together. Drawing on new research, Michaelis's riveting portrait is not just a comprehensive biography of a major American figure, but the story of an American ideal: how our freedom is always a choice. Eleanor rediscovers a model of what is noble and evergreen in the American character, a model we need today more than ever.

 

 

Hard Choices by Hillary Rodham Clinton

Call Number: Stacks 328.7309 C641h 2014

ISBN: 9781476751443

Publication Date: 2014-06-10

Hillary Rodham Clinton's inside account of the crises, choices, and challenges she faced during her four years as America's 67th Secretary of State, and how those experiences drive her view of the future. "All of us face hard choices in our lives," Hillary Rodham Clinton writes at the start of this personal chronicle of years at the center of world events. "Life is about making such choices. Our choices and how we handle them shape the people we become." In the aftermath of her 2008 presidential run, she expected to return to representing New York in the United States Senate. To her surprise, her former rival for the Democratic Party nomination, newly elected President Barack Obama, asked her to serve in his administration as Secretary of State. This memoir is the story of the four extraordinary and historic years that followed, and the hard choices that she and her colleagues confronted. Secretary Clinton and President Obama had to decide how to repair fractured alliances, wind down two wars, and address a global financial crisis. They faced a rising competitor in China, growing threats from Iran and North Korea, and revolutions across the Middle East. Along the way, they grappled with some of the toughest dilemmas of US foreign policy, especially the decision to send Americans into harm's way, from Afghanistan to Libya to the hunt for Osama bin Laden. By the end of her tenure, Secretary Clinton had visited 112 countries, traveled nearly one million miles, and gained a truly global perspective on many of the major trends reshaping the landscape of the twenty-first century, from economic inequality to climate change to revolutions in energy, communications, and health. Drawing on conversations with numerous leaders and experts, Secretary Clinton offers her views on what it will take for the United States to compete and thrive in an interdependent world. She makes a passionate case for human rights and the full participation in society of women, youth, and LGBT people. An astute eyewitness to decades of social change, she distinguishes the trendlines from the headlines and describes the progress occurring throughout the world, day after day. Secretary Clinton's descriptions of diplomatic conversations at the highest levels offer readers a master class in international relations, as does her analysis of how we can best use "smart power" to deliver security and prosperity in a rapidly changing world--one in which America remains the indispensable nation.

 

 

Becoming by Michelle Obama

Call Number: Stacks 973.932 O122b 2018

ISBN: 9781524763138

Publication Date: 2018-11-13

 As First Lady of the United States of America--the first African American to serve in that role--she helped create the most welcoming and inclusive White House in history, while also establishing herself as a powerful advocate for women and girls in the U.S. and around the world, dramatically changing the ways that families pursue healthier and more active lives, and standing with her husband as he led America through some of its most harrowing moments. Along the way, she showed us a few dance moves, crushed Carpool Karaoke, and raised two down-to-earth daughters under an unforgiving media glare.   In her memoir, a work of deep reflection and mesmerizing storytelling, Michelle Obama invites readers into her world, chronicling the experiences that have shaped her--from her childhood on the South Side of Chicago to her years as an executive balancing the demands of motherhood and work, to her time spent at the world's most famous address. With unerring honesty and lively wit, she describes her triumphs and her disappointments, both public and private, telling her full story as she has lived it--in her own words and on her own terms. Warm, wise, and revelatory, Becoming is the deeply personal reckoning of a woman of soul and substance who has steadily defied expectations--and whose story inspires us to do the same.

 

 

 

March is Women's History Month, a month to honor women's contributions in history and society. You can learn more about this observance by visiting these links:

• "Women's History Month", federal government website from the National Archives, Library of Congress and other agencies.
• The National Women's History Alliance, for 2024 the Women's History Month Theme is "Women Who Advocate for Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion."
• Learn about some women's history firsts in this highlighted article from Access World News (Newsbank): "Women have made their mark in history." Note: if you are outside the Berea College domain, you may need to log in to access this resource. Access World News is our news resources database covering news from the nation and the world.

To celebrate and honor women's achievements and stories, here is a list of 8 nonfiction books available in our library that you can check out. This list is in no particular order, and it is a small sample of what is available in our collections. Want to find more? You can check out the library catalog via the library website.  Need help finding anything? Stop by the Reference Desk.

The Agitators by Dorothy Wickenden

Call Number: Stacks 974.768 W636a 2021

ISBN: 9781476760735

Publication Date: 2021-03-30

 From the executive editor of The New Yorker, a riveting, provocative, and revelatory history of abolition and women's rights, told through the story of three women--Harriet Tubman, Frances Seward, and Martha Wright--in the years before, during and after the Civil War.  In the 1850s, Harriet Tubman, strategically brilliant and uncannily prescient, rescued some seventy enslaved people from Maryland's Eastern Shore and shepherded them north along the underground railroad. One of her regular stops was Auburn, New York, where she entrusted passengers to Martha Coffin Wright, a Quaker mother of seven, and Frances A. Seward, the wife of William H. Seward, who served over the years as governor, senator, and secretary of state under Abraham Lincoln. During the Civil War, Tubman worked for the Union Army in South Carolina as a nurse and spy, and took part in a spectacular river raid in which she helped to liberate 750 slaves from several rice plantations. Wright, a "dangerous woman" in the eyes of her neighbors, worked side by side with Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony to organize women's rights and anti-slavery conventions across New York State, braving hecklers and mobs when she spoke. Frances Seward, the most conventional of the three friends, hid her radicalism in public, while privately acting as a political adviser to her husband, pressing him to persuade President Lincoln to move immediately on emancipation. The Agitators opens in the 1820s, when Tubman is enslaved and Wright and Seward are young homemakers bound by law and tradition, and ends after the war. Many of the most prominent figures of the era--Lincoln, William H. Seward, Frederick Douglass, Daniel Webster, Charles Sumner, John Brown, William Lloyd Garrison--are seen through the discerning eyes of the protagonists. So are the most explosive political debates: about the civil rights of African Americans and women, about the enlistment of Black troops, and about opposing interpretations of the Constitution. Through richly detailed letters from the time and exhaustive research, Wickenden traces the second American revolution these women fought to bring about, the toll it took on their families, and its lasting effects on the country. Riveting and profoundly relevant to our own time, The Agitators brings a vibrant, original voice to this transformative period in our history.

 

 

The Secret History of Home Economics by Danielle Dreilinger

Call Number: Stacks 640.92 D771s 2021

ISBN: 9781324004493

Publication Date: 2021-05-04

The term "home economics" may conjure traumatic memories of lopsided hand-sewn pillows or sunken muffins. But common conception obscures the story of the revolutionary science of better living. The field exploded opportunities for women in the twentieth century by reducing domestic work and providing jobs as professors, engineers, chemists, and business people. And it has something to teach us today. In the surprising, often fiercely feminist and always fascinating The Secret History of Home Economics, Danielle Dreilinger traces the field's history from Black colleges to Eleanor Roosevelt to Okinawa, from a Betty Crocker brigade to DIY techies. These women--and they were mostly women--became chemists and marketers, studied nutrition, health, and exercise, tested parachutes, created astronaut food, and took bold steps in childhood development and education. Home economics followed the currents of American culture even as it shaped them. Dreilinger brings forward the racism within the movement along with the strides taken by women of color who were influential leaders and innovators. She also looks at the personal lives of home economics' women, as they chose to be single, share lives with other women, or try for egalitarian marriages. This groundbreaking and engaging history restores a denigrated subject to its rightful importance, as it reminds us that everyone should learn how to cook a meal, balance their account, and fight for a better world.

 

The Code Breaker by Walter Isaacson

Call Number: Stacks 576.5 D728zi 2021

ISBN: 9781982115852

Publication Date: 2021-03-09

When Jennifer Doudna was in sixth grade, she came home one day to find that her dad had left a paperback titled The Double Helix on her bed. She put it aside, thinking it was one of those detective tales she loved. When she read it on a rainy Saturday, she discovered she was right, in a way. As she sped through the pages, she became enthralled by the intense drama behind the competition to discover the code of life. Even though her high school counselor told her girls didn't become scientists, she decided she would. Driven by a passion to understand how nature works and to turn discoveries into inventions, she would help to make what the book's author, James Watson, told her was the most important biological advance since his codiscovery of the structure of DNA. She and her collaborators turned a curiosity of nature into an invention that will transform the human race: an easy-to-use tool that can edit DNA. Known as CRISPR, it opened a brave new world of medical miracles and moral questions. The development of CRISPR and the race to create vaccines for coronavirus will hasten our transition to the next great innovation revolution. The past half-century has been a digital age, based on the microchip, computer, and internet. Now we are entering a life-science revolution. Children who study digital coding will be joined by those who study genetic code. Should we use our new evolution-hacking powers to make us less susceptible to viruses? What a wonderful boon that would be! And what about preventing depression? Hmmm...Should we allow parents, if they can afford it, to enhance the height or muscles or IQ of their kids? After helping to discover CRISPR, Doudna became a leader in wrestling with these moral issues and, with her collaborator Emmanuelle Charpentier, won the Nobel Prize in 2020.

 

 

Code Girls by Liza Mundy

Call Number: Stacks 940.548 M965c 2017

ISBN: 9780316352536

Publication Date: 2017-10-10

 Recruited by the U.S. Army and Navy from small towns and elite colleges, more than ten thousand women served as code breakers during World War II. While their brothers and boyfriends took up arms, these women moved to Washington and learned the meticulous work of code-breaking. Their efforts shortened the war, saved countless lives, and gave them access to careers previously denied to them. A strict vow of secrecy nearly erased their efforts from history; now, through dazzling research and interviews with surviving code girls, bestselling author Liza Mundy brings to life this riveting and vital story of American courage, service, and scientific accomplishment.

 

 

The Three Mothers by Anna Malaika Tubbs

Call Number: Stacks 306.874 T884t 2021

ISBN: 9781250756121

Publication Date: 2021-02-02

 Much has been written about Berdis Baldwin's son James, about Alberta King's son Martin Luther, and Louise Little's son Malcolm. But virtually nothing has been said about the extraordinary women who raised them. In her groundbreaking and essential debut The Three Mothers, scholar Anna Malaika Tubbs celebrates Black motherhood by telling the story of the three women who raised and shaped some of America's most pivotal heroes.  Berdis Baldwin, Alberta King, and Louise Little were all born at the beginning of the 20th century and forced to contend with the prejudices of Jim Crow as Black women. These three extraordinary women passed their knowledge to their children with the hope of helping them to survive in a society that would deny their humanity from the very beginning--from Louise teaching her children about their activist roots, to Berdis encouraging James to express himself through writing, to Alberta basing all of her lessons in faith and social justice. These women used their strength and motherhood to push their children toward greatness, all with a conviction that every human being deserves dignity and respect despite the rampant discrimination they faced. These three mothers taught resistance and a fundamental belief in the worth of Black people to their sons, even when these beliefs flew in the face of America's racist practices and led to ramifications for all three families' safety. The fight for equal justice and dignity came above all else for the three mothers. These women, their similarities and differences, as individuals and as mothers, represent a piece of history left untold and a celebration of Black motherhood long overdue.

 

 

The Woman Who Would Be King by Kara Cooney

Call Number: Stacks 932.01 H365zc 2015

ISBN: 9780307956774

Publication Date: 2015-10-13

An engrossing biography of the longest-reigning female pharaoh in Ancient Egypt and the story of her audacious rise to power.   Hatshepsut--the daughter of a general who usurped Egypt's throne--was expected to bear the sons who would legitimize the reign of her father's family. Her failure to produce a male heir, however, paved the way for her improbable rule as a cross-dressing king. At just over twenty, Hatshepsut out-maneuvered the mother of Thutmose III, the infant king, for a seat on the throne, and ascended to the rank of pharaoh. Shrewdly operating the levers of power to emerge as Egypt's second female pharaoh, Hatshepsut was a master strategist, cloaking her political power plays in the veil of piety and sexual reinvention. She successfully negotiated a path from the royal nursery to the very pinnacle of authority, and her reign saw one of Ancient Egypt's most prolific building periods. Constructing a rich narrative history using the artifacts that remain, noted Egyptologist Kara Cooney offers a remarkable interpretation of how Hatshepsut rapidly but methodically consolidated power--and why she fell from public favor just as quickly. The Woman Who Would Be King traces the unconventional life of an almost-forgotten pharaoh and explores our complicated reactions to women in power.

 

 

When They Call You a Terrorist by Patrisse Cullors; asha bandele

Call Number: Stacks 323.119 K452w 2020

ISBN: 9781250306906

Publication Date: 2020-01-14

A poetic and powerful memoir about what it means to be a Black woman in America--and the co-founding of a movement that demands justice for all in the land of the free. Raised by a single mother in an impoverished neighborhood in Los Angeles, Patrisse Khan-Cullors experienced firsthand the prejudice and persecution Black Americans endure at the hands of law enforcement. For Patrisse, the most vulnerable people in the country are Black people. Deliberately and ruthlessly targeted by a criminal justice system serving a white privilege agenda, Black people are subjected to unjustifiable racial profiling and police brutality. In 2013, when Trayvon Martin's killer went free, Patrisse's outrage led her to co-found Black Lives Matter with Alicia Garza and Opal Tometi. Condemned as terrorists and as a threat to America, these loving women founded a hashtag that birthed the movement to demand accountability from the authorities who continually turn a blind eye to the injustices inflicted upon people of Black and Brown skin. Championing human rights in the face of violent racism, Patrisse is a survivor. She transformed her personal pain into political power, giving voice to a people suffering inequality and a movement fueled by her strength and love to tell the country--and the world--that Black Lives Matter. When They Call You a Terrorist is Patrisse Khan-Cullors and asha bandele's reflection on humanity. It is an empowering account of survival, strength and resilience and a call to action to change the culture that declares innocent Black life expendable.

 

 

The Sisterhood by Courtney Thorsson

Call Number: Stacks 820.992 T522s 2023

ISBN: 9780231204729

Publication Date: 2023-11-07

One Sunday afternoon in February 1977, Toni Morrison, Alice Walker, Ntozake Shange, and several other Black women writers met at June Jordan's Brooklyn apartment to eat gumbo, drink champagne, and talk about their work. Calling themselves "The Sisterhood," the group--which also came to include Audre Lorde, Paule Marshall, Margo Jefferson, and others--would get together once a month over the next two years, creating a vital space for Black women to discuss literature and liberation. The Sisterhood tells the story of how this remarkable community transformed American writing and cultural institutions. Drawing on original interviews with Sisterhood members as well as correspondence, meeting minutes, and readings of their works, Courtney Thorsson explores the group's everyday collaboration and profound legacy. The Sisterhood advocated for Black women writers at trade publishers and magazines such as Random House, Ms., and Essence, and eventually in academic departments as well--often in the face of sexist, racist, and homophobic backlash. Thorsson traces the personal, professional, and political ties that brought the group together as well as the reasons for its dissolution. She considers the popular and critical success of Sisterhood members in the 1980s, the uneasy absorption of Black feminism into the academy, and how younger writers built on the foundations the group laid. Highlighting the organizing, networking, and community building that nurtured Black women's writing, this book demonstrates that The Sisterhood offers an enduring model for Black feminist collaboration.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hutchins Library is pleased to announce that the Feminist Artists of Kentucky (link to their Facebook page) are presenting their 2024 exhibit in the main floor of the library. The exhibit is in honor of Women's History Month. The exhibit runs throughout the month of February and into middle of March. It can be viewed during library regular hours. The exhibit is free and open to the public .

The Feminist Artists of Kentucky are:

• Pat C. Jennings
• Mary Ann Shupe
• Patricia Watkins
• Karen Tillquist
• Heather Dent
• And guest artist Jackie Pullum

The artists provided the following statement for the exhibit:

"We are still here...

We are still working...

We are still relevant...

2024

Welcome to our celebration of Women's History Month. We are pleased to return to Berea College Hutchins Library for another year celebration of women and art. We are a group of mature working artists who combine our efforts and talents to expand our creativity and create art for social justice causes.

As a group, we meet weekly to create, critique, and expand growth in our art. We enthusiastically support social justice and work to bring light to the needs of our community and our world.

We believe women and art can change the world.

If you wish to purchase the for sale art, commission a custom piece, or make a donation, you can message us and follow us on Facebook at feministartistsofky.

Thank you for coming and we hope you enjoy our exhibit."

Celebrated annually on August 26 in the United States, Women's Equality Day commemorates the adoption of the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution in 1920. The 19th Amendment prohibits the federal government and states from denying the right to vote to U.S. citizens on the basis of sex. It was first celebrated in 1971. Congress designated the observance in 1973. Traditionally, the President of the United States issues a proclamation for the observance every year starting with President Richard Nixon in 1973. 

Here are some websites where you can learn more: 

• "From Suffrage Day to Women’s Equality Day: A Brief History of Celebrating August 26" via Library of Congress.
• "Women’s Equality Day" via National Women's History Alliance. 
• "Women’s Equality Day: August 26, 2023." Some facts and figures about it via the U.S. Census Bureau.

If you are interested in doing further research on this topic you can try the following databases, which you can find on the library website under "Electronic Resources:"

• Gale Virtual Reference Center. A collection of e-book reference works. 
• Hein Online. For legal and government documents research. 

From our shelves, here are some books that may be of interest: 

Gendered Citizenship by Rebecca DeWolf

Call Number: e-book

ISBN: 9781496228291

Publication Date: 2021-10-01

By engaging deeply with American legal and political history as well as the increasingly rich material on gender history, Gendered Citizenship illuminates the ideological contours of the original struggle over the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) from 1920 to 1963. As the first comprehensive, full-length history of that struggle, this study grapples not only with the battle over women's constitutional status but also with the more than forty-year mission to articulate the boundaries of what it means to be an American citizen. Through an examination of an array of primary source materials, Gendered Citizenship contends that the original ERA conflict is best understood as the terrain that allowed Americans to reconceptualize citizenship to correspond with women's changing status after the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment. Finally, Rebecca DeWolf considers the struggle over the ERA in a new light: focusing not on the familiar theme of why the ERA failed to gain enactment, but on how the debates transcended traditional liberal versus conservative disputes in early to mid-twentieth-century America. The conflict, DeWolf reveals, ultimately became the defining narrative for the changing nature of American citizenship in the era.  

 

American Women's Suffrage: Voices from the Long Struggle for the Vote 1776-1965 (LOA #332) by Susan Ware (Editor)

Call Number: 324.623 A512 2020

ISBN: 9781598536645

Publication Date: 2020-07-07

For the first time, here is the full, definitive story of the movement for voting rights for American women, of every race, told through the voices of the women and men who lived it. Here are the most recognisable figures in the campaign for women s suffrage, like Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony, but also the black, Chinese, and American Indian women and men who were not only essential to the movement but expanded its directions and aims. Here, too, are the anti-suffragists who worried about where the country would head if the right to vote were universal.

 

Suffrage At 100 by Stacie Taranto (Editor); Leandra Zarnow (Editor)

Call Number: 320.082 S946 2020

ISBN: 9781421438689

Publication Date: 2020-08-04

Suffrage at 100 looks at women's engagement in US electoral politics and government over the one hundred years since the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment. In the 2018 midterm elections, 102 women were elected to the House and 14 to the Senate--a record for both bodies. And yet nearly a century after the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment, the notion of congressional gender parity by 2020--a stated goal of the National Women's Political Caucus at the time of its founding in 1971--remains a distant ideal. In Suffrage at 100, Stacie Taranto and Leandra Zarnow bring together twenty-two scholars to take stock of women's engagement in electoral politics over the past one hundred years. This is the first wide-ranging collection to historically examine women's full political engagement in and beyond electoral office since they gained a constitutional right to vote. The book explores why women's access to, and influence on, political power remains frustratingly uneven, particularly for women of color and queer women. Examining how women have acted collectively and individually, both within and outside of electoral and governmental channels, the book moves from the front lines of community organizing to the highest glass ceiling. Essays touch on * labor and civil rights * education * environmentalism * enfranchisement and voter suppression * conservatism vs. liberalism * indigeneity and transnationalism * LGBTQ and personal politics * Pan-Asian, Chicana, and black feminisms * commemoration and public history * and much more. Contributors: Melissa Estes Blair, Eileen Boris, Marisela R. Chávez, Claire Delahaye, Nicole Eaton, Liette Gidlow, Holly Miowak Guise (Iñupiaq), Emily Suzanne Johnson, Dean J. Kotlowski, Monica L. Mercado, Johanna Neuman, Kathleen Banks Nutter, Katherine Parkin, Ellen G. Rafshoon, Bianca Rowlett, Sarah B. Rowley, Ana Stevenson, Barbara Winslow, Judy Tzu-Chun Wu, Nancy Beck Young.

 

Vanguard by Martha S. Jones

Call Number: 323.3409 J781v 2021

ISBN: 9781541600256

Publication Date: 2021-12-07

"An elegant and expansive history" (New York Times) of African American women's pursuit of political power--and how it transformed America      In Vanguard, acclaimed historian Martha S. Jones offers a new history of African American women's political lives in America. She recounts how they defied both racism and sexism to fight for the ballot, and how they wielded political power to secure the equality and dignity of all persons. From the earliest days of the republic to the passage of the 1965 Voting Rights Act and beyond, Jones excavates the lives and work of Black women--Maria Stewart, Frances Ellen Watkins Harper, Fannie Lou Hamer, and more--who were the vanguard of women's rights, calling on America to realize its best ideals.       Now revised to discuss the election of Vice President Kamala Harris and the vital contributions of Black women in the 2020 elections, Vanguard is essential reading for anyone who cares about the past and future of American democracy. 

 

 

Hutchins Library is pleased to announce that the Feminist Artists of Kentucky (link to their Facebook page) are presenting their March 2023 exhibit in the main floor of the library. The exhibit is in honor of Women's History Month. The exhibit runs throughout the month of March and can be viewed during library regular hours. The exhibit is free and open to the public .

The library would also like to announce it will host a reception for the artists on Wednesday, March 15 in the library's main floor. All are welcome to attend; the event is free and open to the public as well. The reception will run from 4:30pm to 6:00pm. Light refreshments will be served. 

The Feminist Artists of Kentucky are: 

• Pat C. Jennings
• Mary Ann Shupe
• Suzanne Thompson
• Patricia Watkins

and friends: 

• Jackie Pullum
• Karen Tillquist
• Linda Kuhlman

The artists submitted the following statement on the exhibit: 

We are still here...

We are still working...

We are still relevant...

Welcome to our celebration of Women's History Month. We are a group of mature working artists who combine our efforts and talents to expand our creativity and create art for exhibition and sale. We use our proceeds to fund a variety of social justice causes, both local and global. With an average age of 73, one of our biggest accomplishments was raising $25,000 to put a roof on a community center in Ghana. We have also funded a spay neuter clinic for Madison County animals, contributed funds to the local food bank, sponsored a student by procuring pottery tools to help her become a sustainable artist, and made numerous Little Library Quilts. 

If you wish to purchase the art for sale or make a donation you can message and follow us on Facebook at feministartisifky. 

Thank you for coming and hope you enjoy our exhibit. 

Please note: the library does not handle any transactions or sales related to the exhibit. You would need to contact the artists directly. 

Tim Binkley, Head of Special Collections and Archives, is pleased to announce the following events at SC&A for the months of February and March 2023. 

3:00-4:00 PM, January 27 – February 24

Explore the Writings of Carter G. Woodson

Berea College graduate Carter G. Woodson, Ph.D. (1875-1950) was a prominent historian who initiated the field of Black studies. In 1926 he founded “Negro History Week,” the predecessor to today’s annual Black History Month. This year during Black History Month, Hutchins Library invites you to spend an hour (or more!) each week reading published and unpublished writings of Dr. Woodson that are in the Berea College Special Collections and Archives.

“Friday Finds” tours of Woodson’s books and letters will begin at the Hutchins Library foyer at 3 PM each Friday starting January 27 and ending February 24. To participate in these free events, please register in advance at https://bctrace.com/explore/. For additional information, or to schedule a group visit on days other than Fridays, please contact Tim Binkley at binkleyt@berea.edu or 859-985-3267.

3:00-4:00 PM, March 2 – 31

Explore the Writing of bell hooks

Former Berea College professor bell hooks (Gloria Jean Watkins, Ph.D., 1952-2021) is no longer with us. Fortunately, many of her writings and recordings are preserved in the Berea College Special Collections and Archives. Throughout Women’s History Month 2023, Hutchins Library invites you to spend an hour (or more!) each week reading from bell hooks’ writings and listening to episodes of the recent Think Humanities podcast series, “bell hooks: becoming, being, and beyond.” 

“Friday Finds” tours of bell hooks materials and recordings will begin at the Hutchins Library foyer at 3 PM each Friday in March. To participate in these free events, please register in advance at https://bctrace.com/explore/. For additional information, or to schedule a group visit on days other than Fridays, please contact Tim Binkley at binkleyt@berea.edu or 859-985-3267.

Special Collections and Archives presents "In Memoriam: bell hooks." This is an exhibit recalling and celebrating the life, career, contributions, and legacy of Dr. bell hooks. The exhibit features items and materials from the bell hooks papers collection. This exhibit is co-sponsored the bell hooks center and Hutchins Library.

The exhibit runs from February 1 through March 30, 2022. It can be viewed in the library's main floor during library regular hours. Note that access to the building, due to COVID, is limited to Berea College ID holders (faculty, students, and staff) at this time.

For visitors outside of campus, please contact Library Director Calvin Gross at 859-985-3274 or via e-mail at grossj@berea.edu to set up an appointment.

A sample of the carefully curated materials of the bell hooks papers, from Special Collections and Archives.

Hutchins Library is pleased to invite the campus community to see our book display to honor the life and works of bell hooks. The display can be viewed in the library's main floor during regular library hours. Books on the display are available for check out. The display will run through the end of January 2022.