Wisconsin Women Library Workers
Designer and Assembler: Christie Brokish
Quilt Coordinators: Kathy Rohde and Mary Knapp
Winner: Shannon Lang
Introduction
This quilt represents the combined efforts of ten square designers and a
multitude of quilters. The annual project is raffled and provides the main
source of funding for programming projects for WWLW. Consisting of individuals
affiliated with libraries in every type and size of library, WWLW is a
feminist organization committed to improving the status of women in the
library field and to the elimination of sex role stereotyping and sex bias.
WWLW works toward providing a feminist support network for all workers in the
library field; improving the status, pay and image of library work; improving
information resources on women's issues in Wisconsin libraries; providing a
forum for political action and education; linking libraries and library
workers with the broader women's movement.
Forward by Barb Sanford
In 1893, the Janesville Ladies Afternoon Club commissioned Madison artist
Jean Pond Miner Coburn (1865-1967) to create a sculpture representative of her
state for the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago. She made Forward as
an allegory of devotion and progress. For 100 years (1895-1995), Forward
greeted visitors on the North Hamilton Street entrance to the Capitol Square.
The statue was removed--weather and pollution were degrading its delicate
copper surface. A group of Wisconsin women raised money to create a bronze
replica of Forward (now displayed at the State Street entrance to the
Capitol Square) and to conserve and relocate the original sculpture in the
lobby of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin. Coburn was born in Menasha
and spent her girlhood in Madison. She attended Downer College and the
Chicago Art Institute. She taught at the Institute and at the McGowan School
for the Deaf in Chicago. She intended to become a portrait painter, but while
in Chicago she became a protege of Lorado Taft and turned to sculpting. In
1893, she became the artist-in-residence at the Wisconsin Pavilion of the
World's Columbian Exposition. Later in life, Coburn returned to pastel
drawing and worked up to the week of her death at the age of 101.
Caddie Woodhouse by Heidi Marleau
Born in 1853, Caroline August Woodhouse grew up near Menominee, Wisconsin.
Her girlhood was popularized in Caddie Woodlawn written by granddaughter
Carol Ryrie Brink. Caddie was eleven and twelve in 1864 and 1865 when the book took place. Known as a Tom-boy, Caddie liked to play with her brothers
more than her sisters. Hunting and farming were more interesting to Caddie
than the usual sewing and baking. Caddie's personality was as fiery as her
flowing, red hair. Her real-life friendship with the Native Americans as
well
as her bravery make Caddie a wonderful role model for children.
Maginel Wright (Enright) Barney by Christine Jenkins
Artist and illustrator Maginel Wright (Enright) Barney (1877-1966), sister of
Frank Lloyd Wright, was born in Massachusetts but her family soon moved to
Wisconsin. As a child Maginel lived in Madison, Spring Green, and in Oak
Park, IL, where Frank began his career as an architect. Maginel returned
to Spring Green; she graduated from Hillside Home School, an integrated,
coeducational progressive school run by two of her mother's sisters. The main
building of Hillside later became the original structure of Frank Lloyd
Wright's studio, Taliesin. Maginel was formally trained as an artist at the
School of the Chicago Art Institute, where she enrolled in 1897. In 1898
she
was employed as an illustrator of commercial catalogs. Children's book and
magazine illustration followed. During the 20s and 30s her cover
illustrations were regularly featured on magazines such as Ladies Home
Journal, Woman's Home Companion, and Woman's World. She branched out to
fashion design; her embroidered jackets were high fashion items, and during
the 40s she worked for Capezio designing shoes. The central image in my square
is (a copy of) one of Maginel's needlework pieces, a portrait of rural
Wisconsin titled "The Harvest" done entirely in longue point embroidery.
The
red ribbon frame reflects the decorative look of Frank Lloyd Wright's Prairie-
style architecture.
Kathryn Clarenbach, 1920-1994 by Nancy McClements
Kathryn "Kay" Clarenbach was a leader in the women's movement both in
Wisconsin and the nation. She chaired the Governor's Commission on the Status
of Women for nearly 15 years, until it was disbanded by Governor Dreyfus.
Clarenbach is credited with getting the Wisconsin legislature to revise laws
on sexual assault, divorce, and marital property. In 1979 she was one of
the
founders of the Wisconsin Women's Network, a coalition of organizations and
individuals dedicated to ensuring that women's rights are a priority of state
policy makers. Clarenbach was a co-founder and first chairwoman of the
National Organization for Women. For a time, NOW's national office was
headquartered in her Madison home. She also chaired the National Women's
Political Caucus, committed to seeing that women were elected to office.
She
retired in 1988 after many years with the University of Wisconsin-Extension,
developing continuing education for women.
The quilt square is pieced to look like a repetition of the letter KS for
Kay. The NOW button symbolizes one of Clarenbach's most lasting contributions
to the women's movement.
Belle Case La Follette by Sue Searing
Belle Case La Follette (1859-1931) was born in a log cabin and grew up on a
farm near Baraboo. At sixteen she entered the University of Wisconsin in
Madison, where she fell in love with Robert La Follette. When they married
in
1881, Belle asked that the word obey be omitted from her vow, and Bob
agreed. "Fighting Bob" went on to a tumultuous career as governor and
senator,
facilitated by his wife's political savvy, organizational skills, and
nurturing care during his sporadic bouts of illness. Although she mothered
four children and kept homes in Madison and Washington, D.C., Belle was far
more than a traditional helpmate. Independent and outspoken, she championed
the causes of women's suffrage, workers' rights, racial desegregation,
and world peace. She was a popular speaker at political rallies and on the
Chautauqua circuit. With her husband, she co-founded LaFollette's Magazine,
which later under her direction became The Progressive, still published to
day.
To honor Belle and Bob's partnership, which bridged their private and public
lives, I chose the "Double Wedding Ring" pattern.
Lutie Sterns by Kathy Rohde
Between 1895 and 1914, Lutie Stearns traveled thousands of miles in the
rural
areas of Wisconsin, helping establish over 150 free public libraries and 1,400
traveling libraries. She understood libraries' power to inform and entertain,
as well as their potential as a force for education and social action. When
she began her work with the Wisconsin Free Library Commission in 1895, there
were only 35 free public libraries in the state and over 80 percent of the
1,700,000 residents of Wisconsin lived in rural areas with no access to books.
Her ability to convince people that they needed libraries was her greatest
asset.
After her library work, Stearns, campaigned for woman suffrage, world peace,
temperance, better working conditions for women, educational reform and a
host
of other Progressive issues.
Women's Suffrage by Jane Pearlmutter
This block celebrates the tireless efforts of the Wisconsin Women Suffrage Association. The verse is from a suffrage banner of 1912.
Laura Ingalls Wilder by Cheryl Becker
Laura Ingalls was born in 1867 in a log house in what she called "The
Big
Woods" near Pepin, Wisconsin. Laura and her family lived in that house that
year, and again in 1871-73. Years later, in 1932, the stories about those years
became The Little House in the Big Woods, the first in the series of Little
House books by Laura Ingalls Wilder. The series tells the story of Laura's
family as they traveled, homesteaded and lived in the pioneer West (Wisconsin,
Kansas, Missouri, Minnesota, Iowa, South Dakota). The quilt square represents some of the elements in the The Little House in the Big Woods: Pa's fiddle,
the woods, a crazy quilt, a straw hat made by Ma, the wagon in which the
family journeyed west, bees from the honey tree, Laura's cornhusk doll,
and
the little house itself. As an old woman, Laura marveled at the changes she
had seen in her lifetime, but reflected, The Little House books are stories
of long ago. . .But the real things haven't changed. . .It is not things
you
have that make you happy. It is love and kindness and helping each other.
. .
WWLW by Maureen Welch
Wisconsin Women Library Workers (WWLW) is a feminist organization committed to improving the status of women in the library field and to the elimination
of sex role stereotyping and sex bias. For over 20 years, WWLW has worked
toward providing a feminist support network for all workers in the library
field; improving the status, pay and image of library work, which has been
undervalued because it is characterized as women's work; improving information
resources on women's issues in Wisconsin libraries; providing a forum for
political action and education on issues of concern to women; and linking
libraries and library workers with the broader women's movement. Wisconsin
women making a difference in Wisconsin libraries.
Nancy Goodrich by Julie Anne Chase
Nancy Goodrich, a pioneer woman from western New York, moved to Milton,
Wisconsin in 1839. She and her husband, Joseph, established the Milton House,
the first inn in the state. Upwards of 25 stagecoaches arrived daily. In
the
midst of all this activity, fugitive slaves were housed, fed, and sent on
their way to freedom through an elaborate system of tunnels connecting the
Inn
to various outbuildings on the property. Nancy Goodrich was one of several
women known to be actively involved in Wisconsin's underground railroad.
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Last update: October 26, 2000
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