Greater Grand Rapids Women's History Council

A Team of Her Own: Minnie Forbes & Negro League Baseball
2018-02-18 13:30 - 14:30 (America/New_York) | Grand Rapids Public Library, 111 Library NE, Grand Rapids, MI, United States
The last female owner of a Negro League baseball team will talk with former Grand Rapids Press columnist Jaye Beeler at Taste of Soul Sunday about playing softball at fifteen for Cook’s Brown Dolls, a traveling team from Grand Rapids, and playing baseball with the Kansas City Monarchs against the Grand Rapids Black Sox. When in 1956 Minnie Forbes took over her uncle Ted Rasberry’s team the Detroit Stars, black baseball was winding down because of integration into the American major leagues. But, along the way from player to owner, Forbes interacted with such players as Satchel Page and Ozzie Guillen and visited the White House as the guest of President Barack Obama. This program will have two sessions, at 1:30pm and 3:00pm. Co-sponsored by the Grand Rapids Study Club and the Greater Grand Rapids Women’s History Council.

African Americans in Early Grand Rapids
2018-01-20 13:00 - 13:45 UTC | Grand Rapids Public Library, 111 Library NE, Grand Rapids, MI, United States
At History Detectives, GGRWHC’s Ruth Van Stee will present African Americans in Early Grand Rapids—including, of course, more women’s history. From 1850 to 1920 African Americans here were a steady one percent of the city’s rapidly growing population. After an overview of this vibrant community as a whole, Van Stee will provide snapshots of individual business, political, and cultural leaders illustrating their life during an era that sometimes encouraged but often repressed their full involvement in this city.

Elective Detectives & Crowdsourcing Grand Rapids Women's History
2018-01-20 10:30 - 23:15 UTC | Grand Rapids Public Library, 111 Library NE, Grand Rapids, MI, United States
At History Detectives, the Grand Rapids Public Library’s day-long offering of local history programming, Julia Bouwkamp and Jo Ellyn Clarey will report on how the charting of 19th-century local women’s candidacy for public office is upending conventional wisdom and offering surprises about dates, the numbers of races, and the identities of losers. This unique historical accounting hopes to inspire cities across the nation to create their own comprehensive elective histories. And now a national crowdsourcing project, Her Hat Was in the Ring, has invited local researchers to share their data with the world, to help others complete and complicate American women’s history by seeking out every woman who ran before 1920.

The Wives (and Lives) of the Early Dutch Pastors - Janet Sheeres
2018-01-06 13:30 - 14:30 (America/New_York) | Ryerson Auditorium, Grand Rapids Public Library, 111 Library NE, Grand Rapids, MI, 49503, United States
START the new year with new women’s history!
On Saturday at 1:30pm, “The Wives (and Lives) of Early Dutch Pastors” — Unlike the biographies of early male ministers of the Christian Reformed Church in North America, which have been well documented and honored, the stories of their wives, who were important community builders in their own right, have been sadly ignored in the historical writings of the church. Now Janet Sjaarda Sheeres pulls them out of obscurity in her new book, For Better, For Worse. Adding to her increasing body of historical work on invisible Dutch women, Sheeres highlights the living conditions of these women and the challenges they faced. Sponsored by the Western Michigan Genealogical Society at the Grand Rapids Public Library: http://wmgs.org/news.htm (Free and open to the public)
Previously, Janet Sjaarda Sheeres has reported on early Dutch women midwives and single women immigrants, also sidelined in early historical records. Born in the Netherlands, Sheeres is the author of three books and over 70 articles in national and international journals. Among her many service positions, she has been president of the Association for the Advancement of Dutch American Studies, chair of the Christian Reformed Church Historical Committee, and is the associate editor of Origins, the historical magazine of Calvin College’s Heritage Hall Archives.

The Second Line of Defense: Grand Rapids Women and the Great War
2017-11-09 19:00 - 21:00 UTC | Ryerson Auditorium, Grand Rapids Public Library, 111 Library NE, Grand Rapids, MI, 49503, United States
Presenter: Melissa Fox, President, Greater Grand Rapids Women’s History Council
Upon U.S. entry into WWI, national women’s groups transformed their organizational structures for war work. Grand Rapids women are among the midwestern leaders whose pioneering efforts have been too long neglected. Get ahead of history–credit them!
Co-sponsored by the Greater Grand Rapids Women’s History Council, the Grand Rapids Historical Society, & the Grand Rapids Public Library

No Más Bebés
2016-03-29 18:00 - 20:00 UTC | Cook-Dewitt Auditorium, GVSU Allendale Campus, 10720 S Campus Dr, Allendale, MI, 49401, United States
The Latin American Studies & The Women’s Center at Grand Valley State University present: No Más Bebés, a documentary about Los Angeles County General Hospital’s sterilization abuse against Latinas. The film tells the story of Madrigal v. Quilligan, a historic lawsuit filed by 10 Mexican-American women who had been sterilized in the early ’70s after having emergency Cesarean sections.
More information can be found here.

Women, Art, and Social Change: The Newcomb Pottery Enterprise
2016-01-31 - 2016-04-17 | Grand Rapids Art Museum, 101 Monroe Center, Grand Rapids, MI, 49503, United States
The exhibition presents over 125 rarely-exhibited Newcomb ceramics, tableware, jewelry, textiles, bookbinding, and graphics, from one of the most remarkable collections of 20th century American pottery.
Between 1894 and 1948, some of the most beautiful and functional art objects of the Art Nouveau and Arts and Crafts movements were created at the Newcomb Pottery Enterprise in New Orleans. The Pottery was an innovative educational experiment as much as an operational facility: it was conceived in the late 19th century at Newcomb Memorial College, Tulane University’s coordinate institution for women, as an income-generating venture for women training in the applied arts.
