crown CU Home > Libraries Home
Columbia Center for Oral History Portal >

Washington Press Club women in journalism oral history collection, 1987-2006 bulk 1987-1994

Project: Washington Press Club women in journalism oral history collection,
(see all project interviews)
Phys. Desc. :Transcripts: 7295 pages Sound recordings: 427 sound cassettes Videorecordings: 165 Betacam videocassettes Videorecordings: 2 U-matic videocassettes Videorecordings: 2 VHS videocassettes Videorecordings: 2 Hi8 videocassettes Videorecordings: 3 reels Videorecordings: 1 DVcam videocassette Research files: 2.25 linear feet
Location: Columbia Center for Oral History
Full CLIO record >>

Biographical Note

The Washington Press Club Foundation traces its origins to the Women's National Press Club, a professional organization that was founded in 1919. In 1971, the organization changed its name to the Washington Press Club and began admitting men to its membership. In 1985, the Washington Press Club merged with the National Press Club, with the newly merged organization keeping the name of the National Press Club. The assets of the Washington Press Club were transferred to a newly formed nonprofit, the Washington Press Club Foundation (WPCF). The WPCF strives to promote professional excellence, education, and diversity and equality in journalism. The Women in Journalism oral history project was an early initiative of the WPCF. It started in 1986 with the goal of collecting life histories of women journalists who had made significant contributions to society from the 1920s through the time of the interviews. Interviewees were selected with consideration to diversity, geographic distribution, journalistic role, and WPCF's subjective analysis of professional impact and historical significance. The WPCF had three chronological periods of focus: women who began their careers prior to 1942, those who became journalists between 1942 and the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and those whose careers developed after 1964. The WPCF developed a partnership with Columbia University's Oral History Research Office (OHRO) early in the project, and the WPCF began sending OHRO collection materials starting in 1990. Interviewing for the first phase of the project concluded in 1994. In the early 2000s, the project was revisited with OHRO taking a greater administrative role. Two additional interviews were collected as a result

Scope and Contents

The Washington Press Club Foundation women in journalism oral history collection documents the lives and careers of sixty-one women who made important contributions to journalism in the 20th century. The project was undertaken by the Washington Press Club Foundation and examined how the increased participation of women in the field of journalism changed the coverage of society. Interviewees worked in print and broadcast journalism. During project planning, interviewees were considered in three chronological periods: women who began their careers between the 1920s and 1942, those who became journalists between 1942 and the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and those whose careers developed after 1964. They represent news organizations across the United States. Interviewees were selected from diverse backgrounds, and many discuss the Black press or their experiences as Black women or women of color at predominantly white media organizations. Examples of topics addressed across interviews include career trajectories, work environments, the women's movement, the civil rights movement, and lawsuits at the New York Times against sex discrimination and minority discrimination. Interviewees also discuss developments in the profession such as changes in journalistic ethics and technology. Many reflect on coverage of major events of the 20th century The collection's narrators are: Marie Anderson; Edith Evans Asbury; Tad Bartimus; Lucile H. Bluford; Christy C. Bulkeley; Mary Lou Butcher; Elsie M. Carper; Betty Werlein Carter; Vivian Castleberry; Sylvia Chase; Connie Chung; Marvel Cooke; Belva Davis; Jane Eads Bancroft; Ann Cottrell Free, Frances Lide, Ruth Montgomery, and Malvina Stephenson; Mary Garber; Dorothy Gilliam; Ellen Goodman; Fran Harris; Katherine Beebe Pinkham Harris; Deborah Howell; Charlayne Hunter-Gault; Kathryn Johnson; Dorothy Misener Jurney; Tonnie Katz; Iris Turner Kelso; Mary Ellen Leary; Deborah Leff; Frances L. Lewine; Flora Lewis; Monica Lozano; Melissa Ludtke; Sarah McClendon; Mary McGrory; Edythe Meserand; Helen Kirkpatrick Milbank; Gladys Montgomery Singer; Aline Mosby; Charlotte G. Moulton; Frances L. Murphy II; Ruth Cowan Nash; Geneva Overholser; Marjorie Paxson; Ethel Payne; Virginia Pitt Sherlock; Lynn Povich; Margaret Plummer Richards; Marilyn Schultz; Eileen Shanahan; Eileen Shanahan and Betsy Wade; Isabelle Shelton; Catherine Shen; Beth Campbell Short; Carole Simpson; Harriett Skye; Barbara J. Tanabe; Ruth Ashton Taylor; Helen Thomas; Betsy Wade; and Lois Wille. Also included are a recording of interviewer Donita Moorhus describing the oral history project on the radio show CounterSpin and a recording of the memorial service of Isabelle Shelton. Many interviews' transcripts include appendices with copies of primary source documents collected from the interviewees. Additionally, there are five manuscript boxes of research files containing primary source documents collected from interviewees, research materials compiled by interviewers, and interviewer notes

Subjects

Using this collection

Columbia Center for Oral History

Address:
Columbia University
535 West 114th Street
801 Butler Library, Box 20
MC1129
New York, NY 10027
Telephone:
(212) 854-7083

Email:
oralhist
@libraries.cul.columbia.edu

Website:
Columbia Center for Oral History