Good Exercise in Writing

Margert

Good week but not the most productive as far as tangible outputs. I have been doing a lot of reading and collecting materials this week. I submitted the draft for the Margert Robins Poster. The graphics are ok but I'm not super happy with my text.  

Margert was a successful progressive reformer before she and Raymond were married. In many respects their marriage was an intellectual partnership with each being able to pursue personal interests and careers.  She was a volunteer in the Chicago settlement house movement where she became friends with Jane Addams. Then she served as the president of the Chicago Women’s Trade Union League 1907-14 and the simultaneously as the National President from 1907-22. Margert worked to educate women in trade union principles and organizational leadership. My impression of Margert is that she was a strong independent leader and that she believed in training women with the tools they needed in order to effectively demand their labor rights. She immersed herself into the lives she was working to improve by living in a cold water flat in Chicago for three years from 1904-1907 with Raymond living and working with her from 1905-1907. She was also an alliance builder working with labor unions, suffragists, and social reformers to advocate for labor reform legislation on issues such as an eight-hour workday, minimum wage laws and workplace safety standards. So, I am waiting to get feedback on the text in the poster. In many respects it is much easier to write ten pages of footnoted research than it is a hundred words in a museum graphic.  

I started a poster for Elizabeth Robins.  Mostly graphics ideas I need to sit down with are resident expert on Elizabeth and get her input on what to include and what not. Elizabeth was a very successful novelist, and actress but was also a writer of suffragette plays bring attention to the votes for women movement and a leader in women’s suffrage movement in England. She also working in humanitarian relief efforts during World War One providing aid to Belgium refugees. After the war, this humanitarian work continued in rural development and women’s health in rural England. Of the Robins, Elizabeth has the most primary and secondary sources readily available, which is sort of the problem. Where do you start and where do you stop.   

Regardless, this has been another good week diving into the business of presenting history to the public. I am enjoying the challenge of writing the posters and to be fair it is a good exercise for me. If you can say something in ten words I will likely say the same thing in fifty.