Iowa Women's Archives

The Iowa Women's Archives collects and makes available primary sources about the history of Iowa women from all walks of life, chronicling the lives and work of Iowa women, their families, and their communities. Please send research questions to...

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Preparing for Passover can be challenging, as this previous Passover post shows, especially for Iowans in small towns with limited community resources. But even in larger Jewish communities, preparations for Pesach observances are open to the input of the presiding Rabbi. In Sioux City, the Shaare Zion Synagogue’s Rabbi Allen shares his “Passover Preliminaries”:

The Torah describes how we are to observe Pesach. “Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread…for whoever eats leavened bread…shall be cut off from Israel” (Ex. 12/14-17). It is from this passage the rabbinic laws of kashrut for Pesach are derived. Passover becomes more meaningful when one takes seriously some form of dietary restriction. It is hoped the information provided here will enable each of you to make a commitment at some level to the dietary observance of Passover. […] Pesach calls upon us to discipline ourselves in order to be truly free. This year be free by observing some level of dietary restrictions. Make Pesach the most joyous, healthy and happy festival of our year.

Rabbi Daniel Allen, The Shaare Zion Messenger, vol. 57 no. 7, 1985

As this passage implies, Passover preparation takes forethought and planning for the observances. In Cedar Rapids, an integrated congregation of both Orthodox and Reform members called the Cedar Rapids Jewish Community Council celebrated Shabbat Hagadol, or the Great Shabbat, together before holding separate gatherings for the Passover Holiday as shown on the leaflet above. Community leaders sought this arrangement for an integrated congregation so that more resources, such as the Model Seder, could be provided.

Jewish communities continue to make up a relatively small percentage of the overall Iowa population, but this has not deterred the traditional celebrations from taking place with ample amounts of attention and preparation. Throughout Iowa history, Jewish women have played important roles in community and family life, maintaining cultural and religious traditions, working in businesses and on farms, and participating in civic life. The documents and images included here were gathered from 2014-2017 as part of the Jewish Women in Iowa project at the Iowa Women’s Archives.

Article by Heidi Parker

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A big thank you to the Women’s archives.

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IWA librarian, Anna, spoke about our lesbian history resources last weekend at the Intergenerational Lesbian Conference. Thanks, @cowboyjen68 for giving us the chance to be involved!

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With snow on the ground and more winter weather on the way, the University of Iowa campus is currently picturesque for those remaining indoors and perfect for those who prefer outdoor activities as well. This student from the 1920′s used the UI Department of PE’s ski equipment to make the most of their snowy day.

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Image from League of Women Voters of Johnson County Box 96, Iowa Women’s Archives.

This Get-Out-the-Vote campaign flyer is from 1924, nearly a century ago from today’s midterm elections, yet every vote counts now as much as it did then. Voters in Iowa can register to vote same day, so it is not too late to get out there. Voter information can be accessed through Iowa’s Secretary of State website or at GetToThePolls.com.

The Get Out the Vote Campaign worked with national, state, and local chapters of the League of Women Voters as well as other women’s clubs and associations in an effort to contact every eligible voter in response to decreasing polling numbers from all demographics since the end of the nineteenth century.

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#OnThisDay in 1899, the RARE Club was founded in Walker, Iowa. The women’s study club held an annual Halloween banquet in celebration of the founding. This clipping recounts the annual banquet from 1907. 

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Even with the first weeks of fall classes culminating at the University of Iowa, summer persists. These 20-somethings from Cedar Rapids knew how to beat the heat, pictured both in a row boat and a motor boat out on Lake Macbride in the early 1940’s.

The man steering in both images, Norman Berg, and the woman on the left, Hannah Scheer Berg, were on their honeymoon when World War II came to the United States in 1941 with the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Norman Berg volunteered three times to join the military and was rejected twice before being enlisted for service in 1942.

Newly wed and freshly enlisted, letters kept the two in contact. Their near daily letters from 1942-1946 are held in the Iowa Women’s Archives.

Images from the Harris-Scheer-Berg family papers, Iowa Women’s Archives, University of Iowa

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We can't get enough of 6 on 6 Girls' Basketball! Fans of the game in Guthrie Center, Iowa say 6 on 6 was an "Iowa Fairytale" and they've created t-shirts, a story book, and a board game all about it!

This new way to play 6 on 6 and many other wonderful items currently reside in the IWA!

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Iowa City Women’s Press records, Iowa Women’s Archives, The University of Iowa Libraries, Iowa City.   “As impersonator” / “In street clothes”

Black lesbians: an annotated bibliography (1981) includes the above photographs of Gladys Bentley, one of 341 women with a bibliographic entry in the printed work. Though the book was published through Naiad Press in 1981, the Iowa Women’s Press collaborated on the project. The photographs are now housed with the Press’s collection at the Iowa Women’s Archives.

Gladys Bentley, otherwise known on stage as Bobbie Minton, played through the Harlem Renaissance as a contemporary to Langston Hughes, Bessie Smith, and Ma Rainey. Her performances were unlike these others, however, as her act featured cross dressing, drag, raunchy rewrites of popular songs, and openly flirting with female audience members. Bentley’s private life was no less demure – she was known for her many glamorous girlfriends and once claimed to have married or entered into a civil union with a white woman in New Jersey, though sources vary on the facts. Through the 1920’s and 30’s, Bentley performed on the East coast in Harlem and the New York jazz scene and recorded for Okeh Records. With the declining popularity of the Harlem scene, Bentley moved to the West coast in the late 1930’s to take care of her mother. She continued playing gay clubs there during the 1940’s with an influx of patronage by gay service members during and following World War II as well as recording for the Excelsior label. But Bentley eventually came up against policing of gay clubs at the beginning of the McCarthy era with her signature cross dressing and reverted to performing in dresses to avoid legal issues. Later, Bentley was devoted to the Temple of Love in Christ and prepared to be ordained before an untimely death in 1960 at the age of 52.

The Iowa Women’s Archives is located in Iowa City, which has a strong tradition of drag performances, both by kings and queens, in the LGBT+ community. This last week the residents of Iowa City celebrated Pride with several performances, information for which can be found here: https://www.iowacitypride.org/ .

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Though few of the names and faces on the supersisters trading cards can be immediately identified by contemporary audiences, certain people on the roster need no introduction, such as Rosa Parks and Gloria Steinem. But the founders, Lois Rich and Barbara Egerman, did this intentionally. Far from being a popularity contest, they intended the cards to be used as teaching tools, giving exposure for relatively unknown but successful women in a variety of fields and professions.

Iowa’s very own supersister and co-founder of the Iowa Women’s Archives, Mary Louise Smith, is number 15 in a series of 72 baseball-style trading cards.

Aside from jabs about the lack of bubblegum associated with these baseball-style cards, critics varied in opinion regarding the supersisters cards that debuted in 1979. A general consensus among dissenters belabored the trivial nature of cards while in the same breath validating their presence with mentioning that even “serious collectors” of baseball cards showed an interest in these cards.

Unfortunately, supersisters only had the initial set of 72 printed and sold, even though a second set of 72 supersisters were in the works. According to past interviews with Rich and Egerman, “life got in the way”. However, it is estimated that over 10,000 individual sets were sold of the original printing.

A complete set of 72 supersisters cards resides in the Iowa Women’s Archives digital collection through the Iowa Digital Library.

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Give to the @IWArchives during #1DayforIowa to support the digitization of films that cannot be used without fear of serious damage. A generous donor is matching the first $7,000 in donations to this fund. https://goo.gl/FcpCWc

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“It was a web of Women, a web of Women, that kept the Hebrew children alive...

It was a web of Women, a web of Women, that helped the Hebrew children to survive... -- from A Web of Women by Rabbi Jack Schechtman Gabriel

In 1994, some women from Iowa City’s Agudas Achim Sisterhood attended a Women’s Seder. Women’s Seders, which began in the 1970s, focused on women in the Passover story and beyond. Yocheved, and Miriam, but also Gluckel of Hameln and Emma Lazarus. This script for a Women’s Seder includes songs, prayers, and stories that bring a feminist perspective to Passover. 

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While combing through the Dorothy and Warren Wirtz papers, we found this photograph of a handsome pupper and his unknown owner. 

Happy National Puppy Day everyone! 

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Do you ever wonder where you'll be on your 90th birthday? 

Raymond Martinez, of Davenport, Iowa, chose to spend his at the Iowa Women's Archives! Raymond's mother, Esperanza, came to Iowa 100 years ago. You can see more pictures of Esperanza, Raymond, and their family in the Adella Martinez papers here at IWA!

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Spring break in Iowa City is still on the chilly side, but wherever this week has you, some UI folks from our #WPAscrapbook were having a marvelous time on the golf course in the 1930s.

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To celebrate the strength and beauty of Latinx women in Iowa, we present to you some excerpts and photos from the Migration is Beautiful website at the Iowa Women’s Archives in the University of Iowa Libraries.

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Today’s #WPAscrapbook project update is an #InternationalWomensDay shoutout to the amazing members of the UI Department of Physical Education who looked they were having a lot of fun in Halsey Hall in 1938.

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Happy International Women’s Day from Iowa Women’s Archives to you! 

May we all live long, outrageous lives until we “discorporate from sheer joy!”

Photograph of WRAC newsletter vol. 7 no. 8 from Women’s Resource and Action Center records at the Iowa Women’s Archives