The Women and Leadership Archives is an archives in Chicago, Illinois. Located on the Campus of

Loyola University Chicago Loyola University Chicago (Loyola or LUC) is a private Jesuit research university in Chicago, Illinois. Founded in 1870 by the Society of Jesus, Loyola is one of the largest Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Cathol ...

. Established in 1994, the Women and Leadership Archives (WLA) collects and makes available permanently valuable records of women and women's organizations, which document women's lives, roles, and contributions. Organizationally, the WLA is part of both the Ann Ida Gannon, BVM, Center for Women and Leadership, and part of Loyola University Chicago's Library system.

Piper Hall

Housed in historic Piper Hall, the WLA maintains an archive in the basement and a reading room on the third floor. Piper Hall is one of the last lakefront mansions left in Chicago. Built in 1909 by Cassie and Albert Wheeler, Mundelein College acquired the building in 1934. When Mundelein affiliated with Loyola University Chicago in 1991, the building fell under the control of the university. Meticulously restored in 2005, it is now home to the Gannon Center for Women and Leadership and the Women and Leadership Archives.

History

The Women and Leadership Archives has its roots in

Mundelein College Mundelein College was the last private, independent, Roman Catholic women's college in Illinois. Located on the edge of the Rogers Park and Edgewater neighborhoods on the far north side of Chicago, Illinois, Mundelein College was founded and adm ...

, which was founded and operated by the

Sisters of Charity of the Blessed Virgin Mary The Sisters of Charity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, known by its initials BVM, is a Roman Catholic religious institute founded in the United States by Mother Mary Frances Clarke. Its founders were Irish Catholics. The BVM currently works in t ...

(BVM), and provided education to women from 1930 to 1991, when it affiliated with Loyola University Chicago. The Gannon Center for Women and Leadership, named after Mundelein College's longest serving president, Sister Ann Ida Gannon was created to carry on Mundelein's heritage of fostering women leaders. The WLA grew out of the need to preserve Mundelein College records and expanded to collect papers of women leaders, including several Mundelein graduates. The Women and Leadership Archives serves a wide variety of users including students, scholars, and the general public.

Collections

Scope

Collection strengths include the subject areas of activism and women's issues; authors; education; environmental issues; public service; social justice; women religious; and the fine, performance, band visual arts. Geographically, the WLA prioritizes collecting first within Chicago, its suburbs, and Illinois; second within the Great Lakes region (Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, and Wisconsin); and third within the United States.

Manuscripts

The Women and Leadership Archives store the records of many different individuals and organizations from the Chicago area. *

Sister Jean Sister Jean, BVM (born Jean Dolores Schmidt, August 21, 1919), is an American religious sister of the Sisters of Charity of the Blessed Virgin Mary and chaplain for the Loyola Ramblers men's basketball team of Loyola University Chicago. Earl ...

Dolores Schmidt, BVM, the now famous

chaplain A chaplain is, traditionally, a cleric (such as a Minister (Christianity), minister, priest, pastor, rabbi, purohit, or imam), or a laity, lay representative of a religious tradition, attached to a secularity, secular institution (such as a hosp ...

for the Loyola Ramblers men's basketball team, was a teacher at Mundelein College before being hired by Loyola. Her manuscript collection is housed in the WLA. *Jean Fritz, a 51-year-old mother of three, found herself in the middle of one of the most publicized a controversial trial of her time. She spent four months sequestered in a hotel and separated from her family and the outside world as she, and the other eleven jurors, held the fate of seven young defendants in their hands. One of the twelve jurors from the infamous Chicago Seven Trial following the riots of the

1968 Democratic National Convention The 1968 Democratic National Convention was held August 26–29 at the International Amphitheatre in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Earlier that year incumbent President Lyndon B. Johnson had announced he would not seek reelection, thus making ...

, donated her papers to the Women and Leadership Archives. *The Women and Leadership Archives also holds the collection for the Chicago Based feminist art organization,

Sister Serpents Sister Serpents was a radical feminist art collective that began as a small group women in Chicago in the summer of 1989, as a direct response to the Webster v. Reproductive Health Services Supreme Court decision. They continued their work through ...

. The SisterSerpents anonymously published radical feminist art to raise awareness of women's rights and confront misogyny. * Mercedes McCambridge academy award-winning actress and graduate of Mundelein College. * Sister Therese Langerbeck earned he B.A. in botany from Northwestern University, Masters in physics and astronomy from University of Michigan, and her Ph.D. in astrophysics from Georgetown University in 1948. Sister Langerbeck became an acclaimed physics teacher at Mundelein College and received many accolades for her work in the field. Her records are located within the Mundelein college collection at the WLA.

References

External links

* {{authority control Archives in the United States Loyola University Chicago History of women in the United States 1994 establishments in Illinois