#ywca

[tomoleary]

Alphonse Mucha (1860-1939) ČS. / Y.W.C.A (1922) Source

[dandyads]

YWCA War Work Council, 1917

[vintagecamping]

Official Girl Scout Shoes

1956

[yearningforunity]

Y.W.C.A. camp for girls, Highland Beach, Maryland, 1930.

The youth were attending Camp Clarissa Scott, a YMCA camp named for Harlem Renaissance writer and poet Clarissa Scott Delany. Photographed by Addison Scurlock. Courtesy of the Scurlock Studio Records, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution.

[petervintonjr]

"It has been said, 'The Negro woman in politics would be a failure.' Let us make this statement false. Let us have a mind of our own and use it, make it do your own thinking, asking God for divine leadership, unselfish, untarnished and unbiased. Take a stand for the right, and stand anyhow, stand for the right if you must stand alone. Remember that God and one is a majority."

Meet orator and suffragist Ida M. Bowman Becks, one of the unsung heroes of the Urban League and an early voice in the still-coalescing National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. More about her at: https://www.petervintonjr.com/blm/lesson96.html

Random decks of twelve of these trading cards are available for the asking --as many decks as you need, to share with your classroom, congregation, or workgroup. No cost, no strings attached. Email the artist for details.

[weirdyearbook]

Source details and larger version.

Here's my gallery of unusual imagery from vintage college yearbooks.

[newyorkthegoldenage]

Stanford White’s old home was opened by the YWCA as a club for girls and women of foreign birth, shown here being taught English in 1920.

Photo: NY Daily News

[uwmspeccoll]

Staff Pick of the Week

Today’s Staff Pick is Mimi Pond’s delightful book Half Off. Pond is a dedicated cartoonist, graphic novelist, and writer with writing credits that include The Simpsons, Pee Wee’s Playhouse, and Designing Women. She has also been a longstanding cartoonist for the Los Angeles Times and won an Inkpot Award in 2014 after her the release of her graphic novel Over Easy. 

Half Off presents witty observational stories centered around swimming at the YWCA, bargains shopping at Woolworth’s and Capwell’s, and Pond’s years as a waitress at Mama’s Royal Café in California. The stories are accompanied by relief engravings in Pond’s distinct illustrative style and exuberant color palette. Published by Rebis Press in 1981, Half Off was designed, printed, and bound by Pond and Rebis partner Betsy Davids in an edition of 115 copies signed by both the artist and publisher. The book is joyously finished with a half-shower cap binding and bubblegum pink fishnet overlay. Of the 115 copies made, Special Collections holds number 97, signed by the artist and publisher.  

View more Staff Picks.

-- Jenna, Special Collections Graduate Intern