Elizabeth Gurley Flynn postcard
From Chapter 1
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Drawing on feminist and material rhetorics, the authors of Women Making History demonstrate that, by creating postcards, Helaine Victoria Press aimed to do more than provide a convenient writing surface or even affect collective memory; instead, they argue, the press generated feminist memory. The cards, each with the picture of a woman or group of women from history, were multimodal. Pictures were framed in colors and borders appropriate to the era and subject. Lengthy captions offered details about the lives of the women pictured. Unlike other memorials, the cards were mobile; they traveled through the postal system, viewed along the way by the purchasers, mail sorters, mail carriers, and recipients. Upon arriving at their destinations, cards were often posted on office bulletin boards or refrigerators at home, where surroundings shaped their meanings.
Women Making History shows that Helaine Victoria Press’s cards, like the movement from which they emanated, were dynamic and participatory. They were, in short, a multidirectional, open ended, rhetorically evolving process of transforming feminist consciousness. The print edition includes many images from the press’s records, and the digital edition offers additional images plus audio and video clips from press participants.
This is the first book to demonstrate the relationships between the feminist art movement, the women in print movement, and the scholars studying women’s history. Readers will be drawn to both the large quantity of illustrative materials and the theoretical framework of the book, as it provides an expanded understanding of rhetorical multimodality. Scholars of gender and women’s studies, art history, media studies, and the history of rhetoric, as well as members of the public with interests in feminism, Lesbian feminist culture, postcards, fine letterpress printing, and papermaking will be inspired by this richly produced history.
About the authors
Julia M. Allen is professor emerita of English at Sonoma State University.
Jocelyn H. Cohen is an artist, arborist and co-founder of Helaine Victoria Press, Inc.
The complete manuscript of this work was subjected to a fully closed (“double-blind”) review process. For more information, please see our Peer Review Commitments and Guidelines.
From Chapter 1
Elizabeth Gurley Flynn postcard
The caption on the back of the card includes a reproduction of the sheet music for “The Rebel Girl,” words and music by Joe Hill, an itinerant IWW laborer framed for murder and executed by the state of Utah.
From Resources only
Radclyffe Hall (left, 1883*-1943) and Una Lady Troubridge (1892*-1963). Hall and Troubridge, both British, lived and traveled together from the time they med until Hall’s death 27 years later. Her second book, Adam’s Breed, became an instant best seller in 1927 and established her literary reputation. It was a sensitive and unique story of a prosperous head waiter who became so weary of rich foods that he starved himself to death. Success spurred Hall to what she considered her duty in writing The Well of Loneliness, a semiautobiographical novel of “inversion” calculated to enlist public understanding. The first British edition was instantly seized by the Home Office and tried in the Magistrates Court. The publicity led to enormous sales and favorable reviews in other countries, but the proceedings took a heavy toll on Hall’s spirits and health. Una Troubridge supported all her efforts and became her biographer soon after she died. Both women were well known in the Italian and French cultural salons of the time, including that of Romaine Brooks, the American-born Parisian portraitist who painted Lady Troubridge. *Birth dates approximate; exact dates not known
From Chapter 2
Mme. M. Blanchard headed the commercial and military air forces (one balloon) under Bonaparte and Louis XVIII, until she was killed by an accident aloft over Paris in 1819. Her work often included appearances at weddings and festivals, etc., where her ascent was the dramatic feature of the day. She was the widow of J.-P. Blanchard, first balloonist to carry international air mail (France to England).
From Introduction
Amelia Earhart (1898-1937). A strong individual since childhood, Earhart once chose her high school in a new city by interviewing various principals. As a nurse’s aide in Canada in World War I, she developed an interest in medical science, social work, pacifism—and aviation. In California during her twenties, she worked at the phone company to pay for flying lessons. Later, as a social worker in Boston, she was approached by a group of public relations specialists to be the first woman to fly the Atlantic (1928). On that trip, she was a passenger, but she was the first woman to solo the trip in 1932. She twice broke the transcontinental speed record and was first to solo from Honolulu to the mainland (1935). She disappeared in 1937 flying around the equator. Earhart and navigator Fred Noonan were presumed dead, but the disappearance has never been explained. Earhart was a scholar, sportswoman, and author. Her publisher and promotional manager was George Putnam, whom she married in 1931, with the option of dissolving the marriage in a year if either wished to and the household expenses to be split.
From Chapter 2
Emily Carr (Canadian, 1871-1945). A powerful painter and writer who devoted her life to expressing what she felt and saw in the British Columbia woods, including the totem poles and villages of the Native American West Coast Indians. She grew up in Victoria when it was under English rule and studied in San Francisco during the Chinatown tong wars. She was a true Canadian who lived in the woods simply with her animals including her many beloved sheep dogs. In the conservative atmosphere of 19th-century Victoria, she was considered eccentric and felt a sense of “otherness,” often remaining isolated. She grew produce, raised hens and rabbits, made pottery and rugs, and took boarders to supplement her art. Overdue recognition and fame arrived in the 1920's and increased with the publication of two of her books, Klee Wyck and The Book of Small. A vivid picture of her life and the places she went and people she met are revealed in these and her other books. All of her work, from painting to writing to rugmaking, remained uninhibited by academic standards.
From Resources only
Emily Carr (Canadian, 1871-1945). A powerful painter and writer who devoted her life to expressing what she felt and saw in the British Columbia woods, including the totem poles and villages of the Native American West Coast Indians. She grew up in Victoria when it was under English rule and studied in San Francisco during the Chinatown tong wars. She was a true Canadian who lived in the woods simply with her animals including her many beloved sheep dogs. In the conservative atmosphere of 19th-century Victoria, she was considered eccentric and felt a sense of “otherness,” often remaining isolated. She grew produce, raised hens and rabbits, made pottery and rugs, and took boarders to supplement her art. Overdue recognition and fame arrived in the 1920's and increased with the publication of two of her books, Klee Wyck and The Book of Small. A vivid picture of her life and the places she went and people she met are revealed in these and her other books. All of her work, from painting to writing to rugmaking, remained uninhibited by academic standards.
From Chapter 2
Ernestine Rose (1810-1892). Polish American feminist orator and activist, reformer, and freethinker. Born in a Polish Russian ghetto, the daughter of a rabbi, she ran away from home in her teens to make her own way in the world. She travelled and learned languages with great fluency, supporting herself by inventing and marketing an early kitchen deodorant. In England, she met and married silversmith William Rose, a man of her own views on every subject, the beginning of a long and harmonious marriage. They emigrated to America in 1836. In this country, they devoted their lives to humanitarian causes: free education, women’s rights, abolition. Ernestine Rose made her name as Page 142 →“Queen of the Lecture Platform,” with a moving, eloquent style and perfection of debating skill that packed halls wherever she went. Women speakers were an oddity, and detractors were many, but her charm and sincerity won the crowd in most cases. A close friend and colleague of Anthony and Stanton, she was considered to be the greatest speaker on her causes in her time by many of her contemporaries.
From Resources only
Olive Schreiner (1855-1920). South African novelist and social theorist. Largely overlooked today, Schreiner was one of the best-known writers in English from the 1880s to the 1920s. Born to English and German missionary parents, she personified rebellion against Victorianism at the height of the Victorian age. She was a passionate pacifist, feminist, and critic of organized religion (although very religious). Her novel, The Story of an African Farm, about a defiant unwed mother, the first specifically feminist work in English fiction, stunned the reading public in 1881. She was both pro-Boer and a supporter of rights for Black Africans; and was militantly opposed to Cecil Rhodes. While imprisoned by the English during the Boer war, she wrote Woman and Labor, a major nonfiction socio-economic treatise. She married S.C. Cronwright in her late thirties, and they shared the surname of "Cronwright-Schreiner." Hampered by money troubles and asthma all her life, Olive retained a vibrant personality even in her last years. Contemporary accounts use the word "genius" more than any other in describing her. And a poor Lancashire working woman who had read African Farm said: "I think there is hundreds of women what feels like that but can't speak it, but she could speak what we feel."
From Resources only
Elizabeth Gurley Flynn (1890-1964). Irish American labor and free speech leader. Born to an adamant socialist father and feminist mother, she was an expert champion of the Bill of Rights all her life. In her New England childhood, she was irrecoverably shocked by laborers with 12-hour shifts and no safety provisions. She met children and women (some pregnant or nursing) with missing fingers and other permanent injuries. Her career as a spellbinding speaker began at 16, when she was arrested during a pro-labor speech in New York. Her long association with the Socialist and later Communist parties was simply based on her belief that they offered the best break to the working classes of her times. A travelling organizer for the Industrial Workers of the World, she was a leader in the New England and New Jersey textile strikes of 1912-13 and the Spokane 1909 Free Speech demonstrations. She was a devoted worker in defense of Sacco and Vanzetti in the '20's. She was jailed many times, lastly as an elderly woman during the infamous sedition trials of the McCarthy Era in 1952. The major work of her youth and prime is beautifully told in her autobiography, The Rebel Girl.
From Resources only
Elizabeth Gurley Flynn (1890-1964). Irish American labor and free speech leader. Born to an adamant socialist father and feminist mother, she was an expert champion of the Bill of Rights all her life. In her New England childhood, she was irrecoverably shocked by laborers with 12-hour shifts and no safety provisions. She met children and women (some pregnant or nursing) with missing fingers and other permanent injuries. Her career as a spellbinding speaker began at 16, when she was arrested during a pro-labor speech in New York. Her long association with the Socialist and later Communist parties was simply based on her belief that they offered the best break to the working classes of her times. A travelling organizer for the Industrial Workers of the World, she was a leader in the New England and New Jersey textile strikes of 1912-13 and the Spokane 1909 Free Speech demonstrations. She was a devoted worker in defense of Sacco and Vanzetti in the '20's. She was jailed many times, lastly as an elderly woman during the infamous sedition trials of the McCarthy Era in 1952. The major work of her youth and prime is beautifully told in her autobiography, The Rebel Girl.
From Chapter 2
Cheerful holiday postcard using dingbats and piece borders.
From Chapter 1
Equal Rights Amendment postcard, front
From Chapter 1
Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex. The Equal Rights Amendment.
From Resources only
Amelia Earhart, president of the 99's, women pilots’ organization, posing with 3 members for a benefit roller skating party held in 1933 to raise funds for a plane. Left to right: Earhart (1897-1937) often expressed that women can and must take on challenges. She set an example in her love of flying, as she said, "for the fun of it." Elvy Kalep, the first civilian pilot in Estonia, created aviation books and toys and is an artist and linguist; Frances Marsalis (ca. 1890-1934), racing pilot, set the endurance record of 10 days aloft; Betty Gillies (b. 1908) demonstrated and sold planes and was a commander in the WASPS.
From Introduction
Women of History accordion album of eight postcards, viewed with album open. Helaine Victoria Press’s premier offering, showcasing their creative letterpress style and craft.
From Chapter 2
Women of History accordion album of 8 postcards, front cover. Helaine Victoria Press’s premier offering, showcasing their creative letterpress style and craft.
From Chapter 2
Women of History postcard accordion set, back cover
From Resources only
George Sand (1804-1876). Her fictional heroines always combined passion of spirit, body, and intellect, reflecting Sand's own rebellious, brilliant life. She dressed, spoke, and loved as she pleased, despite public outcry. Her 120 books attest to her genius, though few are available in English. Margaret Fuller, visiting the great Frenchwoman in 1847, wrote: "What fixed my attention was the expression of goodness, nobleness and power that pervaded the whole .… it made me very happy to see such a woman. I loved, shall always love her."
From Resources only
Aphra Behn (ca. 1640-1689). The first woman known to have made her living by her pen in English; a major author and dramatist of the Restoration era. Hired as a British spy, she made valuable findings at Antwerp which were ignored. Her racy life and writing provoked both prim opposition and highest literary praise. Behn's style and spirit, which championed women as artists and as persons, remain powerful and passionate to the modern reader.