In observance of Women’s History Month, West Virginia Senior Legal Aid salutes a vital historic preservation effort to commemorate feminist activist endeavors that have changed our world.
Focusing on West Virginia’s feminist activists is the purpose of a new collection of information, documents and artifacts that is growing ever larger at WVU‘s West Virginia Regional & History Center. See why it’s important at https://wvrhc.lib.wvu.edu/collections/west-virginia-feminist-activist-collection
“Don’t Throw It Out” was an online session held in March 2021 to explain the purpose of the West Virginia Feminist Activist Collection. It will chronicle the Mountain State’s participants in the women’s rights movement and establish a searchable online base for oral histories, appropriate records, and items relating to the ground-breaking efforts on economic justice, social justice, health issues, professional development and other areas of concern.
Whether a person organized a rally, set up issue development sessions, marched in a protest or was a female pioneer in her professional field, that information can become a part of the collection. Feminist activism took many forms, and all were needed.
Event posters, handwritten documents, newspaper clippings, photos, mailings, and any other items that relate to the women’s movement as it played out in West Virginia are welcome. Some examples are shown on this website: https://wvrhc-feminist-archives-a-curated-selection.webnode.com/.
For those who can recommend a person to be profiled for the archives or have documents and items that could be added to it, please contact Lori Hostuttler at 304-293-1116 or lori.hostuttler@mail.wvu.edu. This is history that should not be forgotten!
