The finding aid for the Barbara Karkabi Papers is now available online. This collection includes articles written by Karkabi, correspondence, notes, and research materials.
Barbara Karkabi was a journalist for the Houston Chronicle. In 1979 she began her career with the Chronicle generating feature stories on a variety of topics ranging from health to women and religious issues to trends in the city’s minority communities. An article she wrote in 1990 about river blindness garnered the attention of local philanthropist John Moores. In response to the story, Moores donated $25 million to an effort by a University of Houston optometry professor, William Baldwin, to distribute a highly effective drug to those in need.
Besides her work with the Chronicle, Karkabi also spent time engaged in women’s organizations. She was a long time board member of Friends of Women’s Studies, a nonprofit that supports the University of Houston’s Women’s Studies program and wrote the first story about the Carey C. Shuart Women’s Archive and Research Collection at the UH Library. Karkabi also helped found the Association for Women Journalists Houston chapter in the 1990s.
A selection of her materials was also on display at the 16th Annual Table Talk hosted by the Friends of Women’s Studies.
For more information about what is contained in the collection, be sure to take a look at the finding aid. The original materials can be viewed in the Special Collections Reading Room.
Librarians from Special Collections and the University of Houston Libraries are looking forward to attending the 16th Annual Table Talk Luncheon. Hosted by the Friends of Women’s Studies, Table Talk will take place on Wednesday, February 27th from 12-1:30pm at the Hilton Americas Hotel Downtown. The event provides a unique opportunity for guests to meet and talk with Houston women who have forged their own paths in various disciplines. Among the conversationalists at the tables will be Houston’s Mayor Annise Parker, Dr. Mae Jemison, former NASA Astronaut and the first African American woman to travel in space, and Dr. Monica Perales, UH History Professor and author of Smeltertown: Making and Remembering a Southwest Border Community. Proceeds benefit the Women’s Gender & Sexuality Studies Program at the University of Houston and the Carey C. Shuart Women’s Archive and Research Center in Special Collections at the University of Houston Libraries.
The Shuart Women’s Archive will once again prepare a display of highlights from the Barbara Karkabi Papers, honoring the memory of one of the Archives’ long-time supporters and journalist for the Houston Chronicle. Don’t forget to stop by our table and say hi to the Shuart Women’s Archivist, Vince Lee. We look forward to seeing you there!
The finding aid for the ROADwomen Records is now available online. This collection of materials, part of the Carey C. Shuart Women’s Archive and Research Collection, is primarily concerned with the River Oaks Area Democratic Women, an organization for politically active women that was incorporated in 1997.
ROADwomen’s main goal was to fill a void in Democratic activity within Houston, where 25 groups existed for Republican women in Harris County. The group’s goals were to elect Democrats to office, especially pro-choice women, to influence the Democratic Party to continue its role in social justice and equal rights, and to educate the city’s citizens about important political issues.
The collection, covering the time period from 1994 to 2008, includes materials for both Democratic and Republican candidates. It contains correspondence, business and financial records, photographs, and copies of the group’s newsletter.
For more information about what is contained in the collection, be sure to take a look at the finding aid. The original materials can be viewed in the Special Collections Reading Room.
The finding aid for the Andrea White Papers is now available online. This collection includes speeches, written works, and other materials that document White’s civic and professional live.
Perhaps best known in Houston as the wife of former mayor and Texas gubernatorial candidate Bill White, Andrea White is also the author of eight young adult books. Her works have been featured on the Texas Bluebonnet List, and she was awarded the 2006 Golden Spur Award by the Texas State Reading Association. The collection contains drafts and translations of some of these works, along with research notes and correspondence.
Also found in the collection are drafts of speeches given by White, including while campaigning for her husband, and works documenting the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.
The original materials are available for use by the public in the Special Collections Reading Room.
Blanche Espy in her first evening dress, circa 1912.
Materials from the Carey C. Shuart Women’s Archive & Research Collection are featured in the latest digital collection from Special Collections. Blanche Espy Chenoweth, Her Life, Her Times, contains photographs documenting the life of Blanche Espy Chenoweth during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
The collection contains 67 individual photographs and a 48-page scrapbook. The photographs include formal portraits and snapshots, which provide examples both of formal dress and photographic customs from the time period and shots of life unscripted.
Chenoweth was a a lecturer, writer, and voice on the radio who covered topics related to women’s social customs, homemaking, and general well-being. She was born in Iowa in 1875 and spent the last 25 years of her life in Houston, prior to her death in 1960.
Blanche E. Chenoweth (far right) and others enjoy watermelon while in North Carolina, dated August 1923.
Throughout her adult life she lived and travelled in various cities giving lectures on women’s dress and grooming and their importance in a happy life. In the 1920s, she lectured and wrote on the problems of women at the Chautauqua Institute in New York, and in the 1930s she had a radio program in Chicago which gave advice on women’s personal problems.
Visit the collection in the UH Digital Library to see all of the photographs!