“Withniks,

Perhaps you can help with this puzzle. We have, in our very small museum, this tool:
http://people.whitman.edu/~lermanne/museum/What-is-this.html

If you could tell me of a similar tool, a person who may know about it, or any published information on such tools, the student in my Social History of Stuff” class who adopted it for her “artifact journal” (and indeed the museum staff) will be most grateful.

Many thanks! Nina”

 I’m sure funds that WITH receives in dues and other contributions mainly are applied to the travel award and our functions at SHOT.  I would like to see if there could be a category for such work as Melanie has done for our website, too.

Also, thanks, Heather, for getting back to me about your proposed panel.  Maybe it will be possible to present it, or a similar one, next year.  As some in WITH will remember, our first SHOT panel in 1976, along with the Dynamos and Virgins book that followed, had a paper by Vern Bullough on aspects of reproductive technologies.  Perhaps he and/or his wife would be interested in helping provide input w. r. t. your session, if it should be offered in the future at SHOT. 

I am glad that Daryl proposed a very interesting session for Lisbon involving another major area of the history of women and technology that was one of the earliest subject areas we dealt with in our first session and in the Dynamos and Virgins book.  I do hope it is accepted.

Re the discussion about women at MIT, Ellen Swallow Richards, about whom I’ve written in several books and papers, was, as far as I know, the first female student and faculty member there.  I think that is who Heather is referring to w. r. t. 1871. As those of us who have studied her know, she wasn’t treated very well, especially in the loss of her earned Ph. D. due to discrimination.  I interviewed some women faculty and former students at MIT in my 25-year study on the history of women in engineering.  Vi  Haas told me that when she was a Ph. D. student in math there, MIT gave her and several other female graduate students a broom closet, literally, as an office!  She said that the isolation she and the others felt there in the 40s and 50s was still quite extreme.  I myself wanted to attend MIT and was accepted for graduate work in chemistry there in the mid-1960s, when there were still very few women there.  MIT has publicly recognized for some time that Ellen Swallow Richards did not receive the best treatment there.  I feel sure that it is very different now, as I think some of our female colleagues in WITH and SHOT experience.

 My lengthy book, which was published in 1996 as an archival resource as well as a history New Images, New Paths: A History of Women in Engineering i n the U. S., 1850-1980 details some of this information and is held in various libraries and archives in this country and elsewhere. Marilyn Bever’s book also contains very useful information on women at MIT in the past.

Finally, that brings up Rachel and Daryl’s request that we send in bibliographic information for the WITH bibliography. When Daryl first asked us for this, I sent her something a year or two ago, and she said she received it.  I don’t know if Rachel has it, or it I should send another.  You can find most of the citations on my company’s webpage, T & L Enterprises.  I can send the information again, if you need me to do so.

Also, re the WITH at 21 and 50 comments, my copies of our earliest WITH newsletters, beginning in 1976, are still in boxes or filing cabinets in storage.  I never learned whether our WITH/SHOT archives holds these early copies.  I can find them, I’m sure.  I was the first WITH secretary and newsletter editor.  That was not noted in the WITH at 21.  That is one correction I can note.  I’m also concerned that we update accurately the names and dates of other secretary-treasurers and newsletter editors (I also took in dues, established a WITH account and served as the first WITH treasurer).  I think some have written the WITHlist about their involvements and dates.  We can probably get that information from the past WITH newsletters.

Sorry for the long post, but when I finally do get the time in this traveling, I respond to a week or so of posts.

 Martha 

There was a flurry of listserv activity in late 2000 and early 2001, followed by a long lull, and then a remarkable outpouring of issues in late September 2001 related to the terrorist attacks on the United States. While a portion of the discussion could be characterized as strictly scholarly, this year Withniks tended to use the listserv more as a means of professional support. The listserv became an important means of communicating with one’s colleagues the impact and impressions made by the unfolding events. The following is a summary of the various inquiries and discussions.

Non-member Aenne Soell (soell@hdk-berlin.de) asked for recommendations books and articles on women and speed, particularly in the context of the history of the automobile. Among the items mentioned was Taking the Wheel by Virginia Scharff, and Bayla Singer’s article, “Automobiles and Femininity”in Research in Philosophy & Technology, 1993.

Jonathan Coopersmith solicited suggestions for readings for a lecture on the history of birth control. This generated numerous responses which dominated the listserv in December 2000. Among the suggestions were The volume edited by Judy McGaw’s Early American Technology: From the Colonial era to 1850; Lost, Hidden, Obstructed and Repressed: Contraceptive and Abortive Technology in the Early Delaware Valley by Susan E. Klepp, pp 68-113; Body Talk, edited by Mary Lay and Laura Gurak; chapter three of Autumn Stanley’s Mothers and Daughters of Invention; Linda Gordon’s Woman’s Body, Woman’s Right: Birth Control in America; Kristin Luker’s Abortion and the Politics of Motherhood; a reading by Margaret Sanger from Kerber and De Hart, Women’s America; and Andrea Tone’s Controlling Reproduction. Judy McGaw called to the attention of those who teach about women and technology that WHYY (Philadelphia Public TV) aired a documentary about Rebecca Lukens early in 2001. Finally, there was some discussion of the appropriateness of job announcements on the WITH listserv, and it was generally agreed that these could continue to be posted.

Early in 2001 the discussion turned briefly to electrical blackouts, in part because California was experiencing “rolling” blackouts at the time.

A discussion of textiles that took place late in 2000 was followed in early 2001 with a query on potential sources for the history of carriage blankets. This took the textile talk along a new path after Karen Freeze initiated what became a fascinating dialog on the re-use of textiles such as flour sacks as clothes or other useful articles. Pretty soon, this became a debate on the nature of improvised, domestic “making-do” and bricolage. The discussion briefly got heated when some of the male subscribers slipped up and revealed one of the Big Male Secrets–that household repairs and tasks are thought of (by some men) as burdens that cut into more enjoyable pastimes. The list members then began debating the gender, class, and generational aspects of household maintenance.

After a long summer lull, the listserv cranked back to life in September following the terrorist attacks on the U.S. American scholars were particularly active on the list, sharing reflections about the events and telling about how they discussed the events with their students. The discussion was ongoing at this issue of the newsletter went to bed, so perhaps it can be archived more fully next time.

Following a contribution by Eleanor Maass of WITH newsletters dating to Vol.1; No. 1(Oct. 1,1977), the WITH archive was underway. Listserv members were asked for ideas about other contributions.

Sometimes history finds the historians and it is clear that the listserv provided a useful space for some of WITH’s members to explore the vertigo of intellect and emotion resulting from the events of September 11th. It was a great relief to all to hear from many living in or near the areas most directly affected. Online, WITH members conveyed myriad reactions both personal and professional. Poems and prayers were offered along with petitions and urgent pleas to contribute our voices as scholars to the national discourse. Several WITH members who teach in colleges and universities communicated the challenge of addressing and discussing the numbing issues with their students. To date much of that dialogue has been among WITH members living in the United States. The thoughts and contributions of our international members are most welcome. The decision to reprint this exchange is one which will be taken up at the meeting in San Jose.

In closing, it is important to acknowledge the many silent voices, those who have chosen not to participate in the online discussion or whose contact with WITH comes through this newsletter. To our knowledge no member of WITH lost her or his life on September 11th but it is likely that WITH members may have lost loved ones, friends or colleagues. To you we extend our collective sympathy.