Tagged: women’s history month

Exhibit Highlight | UO Women’s Track and Field

We proudly celebrate the recent accomplishments of the UO women’s track and field team winning third place, winning 1st place in the distance medley relay, and winning the 3,000m individual title at the 2019 NCAA Division I Indoor Track and Field Championships.

The current exhibit, “Oregon Spirit: The Legacy of Track and Field,” highlights some key moments in the history of women’s track and field. The Women’s Athletic Association was founded in 1913, which offered additional opportunities for women to engage in athletics beyond physical education courses. According to the 1914 edition of the Oregana:

The first athletic organization ever to be perfected in the University in the interests of women’s athletics is the Women’s Athletic Association, which was organized during the past year. The purpose of this association is to encourage athletics among the women of the University and to develop a physically more efficient Oregon woman. (p.261)

Women participated in intramural, interclass and intercollegiate contests.  The exhibit includes two field day programs featuring track contests held on the hockey field, and on cemetery ridge.

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Collection Highlight | Oregon Women’s Political History Collection

 

Political poster that reads "Win with Women"
Political poster, Oregon Women’s Political Caucus Records, Coll 369, Special Collections and University Archives, University of Oregon Libraries, Eugene, Oregon

In honor of Women’s History Month, Special Collections and University Archives is highlighting the Oregon Women’s Political History Collection.

The Oregon Women’s Political History Collection comprises over a dozen individual manuscript collections. These collections constitute over 200 linear feet of manuscript material and represent women’s political and activist work in Oregon in the latter half of the twentieth century.  The collection was started in the 1990s as a collaborative collection development effort among UO Libraries, the Center for the Study of Women in Society (CSWS), and the Friends of the Oregon Women’s Political History Collection.

The collections include:

  •  Anderson, Jean Fuller Papers (Coll 312) 1978-1990, Finding aid
  • Davis, Eleanor Papers (Coll 351) 1963-1989  Finding aid
  • Dost, Jeanne Papers (Coll 366) 1972-1988  Finding aid
  • Dunn, Nancy Papers (Coll 362) 1986-1990  Finding aid
  • Eugene Women’s Crisis Center Records (Coll 313) 1977-1991  Finding aid
  • Fadeley, Nancy Papers (Coll 349) 1971-1989  Finding aid
  • Frye, Helen Papers (Coll 348) 1971-2011  Finding aid
  • Hendriksen, Margie Papers (Coll 365) 1971-1992  Finding aid
  • Kafoury, Gretchen Papers (Coll 353) 1971-1983  Finding aid
  • Milligan, Marian Papers (Coll 370) 1974-1983  Finding aid
  • Novick, Jane Papers (Coll 368) 1968-1990  Finding aid
  • Oregon Now Records (Coll 371) 1971-2006  Finding aid
  • Oregon Women’s Political Caucus Records (Coll 369) 1971-1999  Finding aid
  • Ryles, Nancy Papers (Coll 364) 1972-1990  Finding aid

Political pamphlet that says "We have a lot to win"Pol,tical button that says "I'm pro-choice and I vote"The activist women represented in these collections worked to increase women’s political engagement in Oregon and empower women to fully participate in elective politics and government agencies at the local, county, and state levels. The story of women’s political work in Oregon in the mid-to-late twentieth century has not been fully told; these primary documents–the sources necessary for the writing of history–are essential to that process. Through support by LSTA funding administered by the Oregon State Library, grant project staff were able to process, catalog, and publish finding aids for these collections and provide access to these collections.

Researchers can find out more about related SCUA collections documenting Women, Gender, and Sexuality in our research guides.