Episode 19: April Anderson-Zorn: ISU Women in History
Rachel Kobus 0:10
Welcome to Redbird Buzz. I'm Rachel Kobus from alumni engagement. Today we are happy to have Illinois State's own university archivist April Anderson Zorn. April has been the keeper of knowledge and the protector of history when it comes to Illinois State University for over 11 years. She earned her master's in library and information science from Florida State and a master's in history from Central Florida. One of her biggest goals is to create greater awareness of the archives and provide comprehensive online access. And today she's here to share her knowledge and create awareness for several empowering women that made an impact on the history of Illinois State University.
So let's say hello to university archivist April Anderson Zorn. So April, what's the word Redbird? Tell us a little bit about the Dr. Joanne Rayfield Archives and what you're here to share with us.
Well, thanks, Rachel. I feel like I need a cape after that
to feel like I'm right. So I've been here since April of 2011. It's been it's been a few years. And I did come here from Florida. So it was also sort of a culture shock. I say culture shock like snow, I never seen snow until I moved here anyways, all the time. Oh my god, I totally spun out on College and Veterans. And there's gonna be people that like, I remember that Santa Fe that spun out on College and Veterans back in the day and April 2011. So that's not what we're here. The Rayfield Archives is the institutional repository for Illinois State. We collect the history of Illinois State. So what I like to call the institutional memory of Illinois State, and that encompasses lots of things. And actually, we collect in areas that a lot of archives don't necessarily collect, which is why I'm also here today, because we're lucky enough to have these papers that some institutions for better or for worse, don't collect. We, you know, keep the memory of Illinois State. And so how did it run as an academic institution, we collect the papers of the colleges, the departments, the schools, but we also collect faculty papers. And that's, that's a lot of stuff. That's a lot of stuff and a lot of space. But we do this for a reason. This is to document how we've taught in the last 160 plus years. I mean, obviously, we're a normal school, we were founded as a normal school, the first institution in the state of Illinois publicly funded higher institution, higher education institution. So we want to collect that memory of the faculty who have taught these subjects over the last 160 years. And with that, we can then trace Well, how was English taught in the last 160 years? How has the teaching of English changed, and it has, and it's a fascinating way to look at the history of education and really our very important place, but that's a whole separate podcast for separate time. So
I was gonna say, but we're gonna have you back multiple times, because there's so many different ways we can get into what we have. [I could go on for days, years, maybe.] That's what's so amazing about our archives and what you do too. So yeah, day though, you're sharing with us about some empowering women?
Unknown Speaker 3:20
Yes, yes, I did bring some materials for three women of various places in our University history. Some of you have probably already heard of June Rose Colby. So I did bring some Colby materials. We'll talk about her. And I'll even interject a little bit about her mom. All right, because her mom is an important figure in the community or was an important figure in the community. We'll also talk a little bit about Anna Ropp, who is an important figure for Mennonite College of Nursing and the materials that we have for Anna Ropp and also Patricia look-- there's people that are still in this community is going to go April you're butchering her last name.
Rachel Kobus 3:58
That's why you're here. That's why what for right or wrong?
I have heard it seriously, I've heard this pronounced me in five different ways. I'm going with Chesbro. Okay. Dr. Patricia, that's what I'm gonna say. Dr. Chesbro has really been an important figure in the development and education of women's history and women's rights and the development of the Women and Gender Studies program here at Illinois State back in the 70s and we'll talk a little about that as we get to her so I figured you want to kick off with Colby Yes,
let's do it and really we're gonna go here and we talked about this going yes, that's amazing. Yes it because April is so full of knowlege and is literally just going to take the show away and we're excited. So yeah, let's kick off with Dr. Colby.
Unknown Speaker 4:37
Well, so a lot of people don't know her sort of place in ISU history or Illinois State normally University history at the time. She technically was the third woman hired to be for all intents and purposes an instructor but she was really the first female faculty member that we hired. She was really hired to be a faculty member here at the institution to teach to English, she was the first woman to graduate with a PhD with her dissertation from the University of Michigan. And, and I had heard this rumor when I first started and I said no, really. And I went digging. And they've recently I'd say recently, within the last several years updated their records, you can go search online and it's online. And you can see she was the first woman who graduated with a dissertation or with her PhD with a dissertation talking about Shakespeare, and Shakespeare's role in English literature. I did you know what it's so funny, I brought my old PowerPoint that I use when I talk about June Rose Colby. So I'm going to hit I'm going to hit some highlights as I go through this presentation that you guys are getting my June Rose Colby presentation of it. So if you're really into Bloomington Normal history, you may have heard of her mother Celestia Rice Colby. So Celestia Rice Colby, I think June was the way that June operated later in life is thanks in large part to her mother's influence, particularly in women's rights, the role of a woman in modern society. Her mother was not necessarily part of the Underground Railroad, but was near it and saw it and experienced it and knew its importance and was obviously a supporter of it. She wrote various quote unquote, newsletters which we have in our collections, that talks about a woman's role in society in the community. She was she was married to a gentleman that she was in love with and then fell out of love with, mostly in part because he was married to the job. And he was away from home quite a bit. And she maybe grew a little resentful of that. And she had, you know, a few children. In fact, I'm going to show you will probably have photos of these. I brought you to take a look at some tintypes, old, those metal photos. Gosh,
Rachel Kobus 6:58
I know stuff. That's amazing, isn't this?
Unknown Speaker 7:01
I love these and they're super teeny, tiny. There's two larger photos, which tells me those are her parents. Her mother and her father and we know the mother. We've seen photos of her mother Celestia so we know that Celestia. Yeah. The the the male. We're pretty sure that's her father. And then there's these tiny little tin types, maybe no more than two inches in size. Yeah. And they're very you can see the faces a lot of those are her of her siblings over the years. And you know, they're named for tree parts. Yeah, Branch was one of her brothers. Yeah. June Rose, Branch. Vine, I think was one of the Yeah. So thanks in large part to her mother's influences, how June Rose Colby kind of kind of became the supporter that she was later in life of women's rights, particularly of her students. And I bring that up. And I did bring this example to you, again, will probably show this I'm sure. I have a Vidette I it's still bound, older the debt from 1908, February 4 1908, just a few years ago, just a couple of years ago, just down the road just a couple years ago. She wrote this article entitled, "Some often forgotten aspects of the relation of women in the industrial world." And the significance of this article is she basically was was was kind of telling Felmley to back off President Felmley at the time, President Felmley had made quite the ruckus, if you will, about women should not be teaching that teaching is a profession, a male should be a male dominated profession, but it is a profession. And it is not a woman's profession. And that we were bringing in quite a few women at the time, who maybe didn't need to be getting a teaching certificate or later than 1908, a teaching degree. And she felt very strongly opposed to his views, and wrote this article that was essentially a rebuttal of his of his public comments and had been public comments in the news. So so she was a defender of women's rights. She often held meetings in her home for women who were fighting to get the vote. So women's suffrage meetings, a strong supporter of women's rights, you know, long before we get into the 70s. And we talked about ERA, but you know, for all intents purposes, yeah, yeah. And we've digitized some of her writings and have them available at Milner there's there's ongoing work to digitize her whole collection, which isn't huge, but we'd like to get that stuff made available because she talks often about this, particularly, and how that intersects with education and how we educate both the students who were going to the Normal school at the time to teach people how to teach, but to teach students in the lab schools and really interject this idea of equality, equal rights, women's rights in particular and that this, this profession that she loved was not just a male profession. Yes.
Rachel Kobus 9:56
Yeah. And how amazing is that? And again, all at Illinois, Illinois State Normal University at the time too. So yeah, that is empowering. Yeah, yeah. And then obviously, a lot of our listeners may know that we did have a residence hall named after Colby in the end and yes, it is no longer there but the name lives on and we have tons of alums tons of Redbirds that talk about even the great times that her name is still in people's minds.
Unknown Speaker 10:20
Yeah, that whole South complex was named after very strong women and June Rose Colby was one of those very strong women and and I loved that you could be even then say a student who identified as female that came to school here and maybe resided in that hall. And you had this wonderful connection to a pioneer, quite frankly, in our history. Yes. For making sure that women received an education at this institution in a in a subject that they love to do. And they have that connection. You know what, 100 plus years later maybe may not have understood the significance, but by God, they were they are still connected to June Rose. So yeah, I love that. I love that they could have that. And they're still alums who are remembered. Oh, yes.
Rachel Kobus 11:02
Oh, yeah, absolutely. We hear about it all the time. And I love it too. Yeah. So we're going to move on then. Miss Ropp, Mrs. Mrs. Ropp. Is it Miss Ropp, Mrs. Ropp, that's a little bit about her background, I guess.
Unknown Speaker 11:13
Well, so Anna Ropp is a prominent or was she since passed away. But she was the mother of some prominent Okay, members, part of that Ropp family in the local community. She lived to be 100 years old. I know. Right, I'm a little exhausted to think about it.
Rachel Kobus 11:31
Again, did a lot during her time.
Unknown Speaker 11:33
Let me let me let me tell you all. So I got a couple of notes here too. So born in 1904. And she passed away in 2005. She went to--her significance was that she went to the Mennonites, excuse me. She went to the Mennonite Hospital School of Nursing in Bloomington and graduated in 1931. Before she came to Mennonite in the early 30s, she actually got some training on her own. So she left her home in Missouri in 1927. She got a little bit of training and then went to nursing school to kind of help her along. So she she got that training. But she got married and she lived on a farm. And so she wrote these diaries and what's amazing about these diaries, so I told you she lived for 100 years, she wrote daily in her diaries. So we've got a dozens of diaries that are these almost Twitter like entries. They're very short and succinct, but full of information about her day job, which was essentially or sometimes her night job, which was essentially the farm life of you know, being being the wife of a farmer and working on the farm. And what that entailed working as a night shift nurse and then a duty relief nurse later in life, which she eventually retired from, but still was associated with the hospital until long until she passed away. Yeah. And and talking about the local area, the region, even the weather, even the weather. And what makes these so fascinating. What I love to pull these out for classes is that these go across so many disciplines. And while she's representative of Mennonite College of Nursing, say there's a student interested in geological conditions, you know, for certain period of time in the region, they can easily go to her diaries and pull her account. -- exactly right, right. Maybe somebody in family consumer sciences might be interested in what her discussion was about canning corn, you know, I mean, there's lots of different crossover and disciplines with these diaries that are fascinating. And not just that connection to Mennonite, which is obviously a really important connection. But there's so many disciplines on campus. So I have a diary in my hand. I want to read this to you because so her son Ron, she had she had a couple sons. But I was in contact with Ron, who donated these and he pointed this out to me and I still every time I show these diaries I point this out. So if you're looking at the diary, it's so she has it's like a five year diary and it says August 13 and August 14 on August 13, and one page on August 14 on the other and then 1933 1934 1935 and so on. And then she'd write a couple sentences for each one of those days. So on Wednesday, August 19 1936 it was fair and hot. Canned24 pints of corn, washed feathers and dressed for chickens in evening. Mother here helped, took her to town and evening came home got sick, got ready. Went back to town. Ronald David born at 10:05pm What a ride to town rained real hard. Ina and Allen at mother's Pete at hospital until 3am. There's a lot that happened. But she didn't go and she did it in a tweet.
Rachel Kobus 14:50
She is the creator of tweets everybody we just didn't even know it's
just the woman fascinates me. Every diary I pick up there's something new and exciting. Talking about how they dumped bedpans in and elevators in the hospital. I mean, you name it, there's something for everybody.
And her diaries are online too, right? Like, yes, people, and you can access them online and read them yourself.
Unknown Speaker 15:11
If you can, in fact, go to the digital collections at library.IllinoisState.edu. So, there's a collections page, and there you'll find our digital collections. And it's the Anna Ropp Diaries, and you can browse these diaries at your heart's content and learn all about her really fascinating life that she led.
Rachel Kobus 15:29
And I'm glad you brought up too that--I mean, just one woman, you wouldn't think about the impact that she has on current, like students right now. And that even after she has passed that she can still make that impact and another empowering woman because of what she did, and the variety of things she did, too. So can
you imagine being the author of these diaries, and you just think you're recording what happened in the day, and my granny certainly had the little daily diary, and she wrote a few sentences. But can you imagine 100 years later, you know, we get we get 100 years out from her death. And still students are going to be using these diaries. That's what's so wonderful about what we do and
100 years. Yeah, so talk like she worked through 100 years. And all that happened in 100 years too is is fascinating itself. So even if it's not impacting your career, just be able to read that and see in 100 year span, what someone went through,
Unknown Speaker 16:08
exactly. And the idea that, you know, this is the original diary, I put this in students hands, and they are now connected to Anna for life. They they now have this physical connection. I have this slogan, I say, once you're part of history--once you touch history, you're part of history. Oh, I love so you know, they touch this diary. They're connected to her. They're connected to this life. That was a beautiful life that was lived. And they get to learn something from her. And again, did Anna, did she ever in her 100 years think that these diaries would be used this way? I hope she's somewhere looking at as, you know, extremely happy and tickled that they get used the way that they get used.
Rachel Kobus 16:54
again, another impact on Illinois State. So thanks for sharing that. Yeah, well, so I know we have one more woman before we let you go. And I'm going to call her Dr. Patricia too so I don't say her last name. But this I wanted April to bring Dr. Patricia up as well, just because I feel like she had so much impact on women's rights on moving like you said along the Women's Studies program and how that impacted campus throughout her time as a professor and as a dean, too. Exactly.
Unknown Speaker 17:24
Yep. Yep, she really worked. And she was an alum. So she wasn't alum here in the 40s. Yeah, she's an alum and came back in the 60s and started her career here. At one point, while she was still working towards her dissertation, she was an assistant dean, I believe assistant dean of women. And she earned her doctorate and came back, she earned her doctorate in psychology and came back and became part of the psychology department. But really, in her time here, I cannot emphasize enough her impact, particularly for women faculty, which in the 60s and 70s, they did not feel that they had representation for better or for worse, and whoever wants to argue me go ahead argue bring it absolutely did not have representation. And they felt as if their male counterparts were getting far better service, opportunities, they were getting better grant opportunities, they just weren't getting the same opportunities as their male counterparts. So she started the while she was on the first women's Faculty Association, she was the vice president in 1971. And worked on that, where they brought in a lot of scholarship money and brought in presenters and speaker series to speak on this topic of women in the profession. And how do we bring more representation for women faculty, which, you know, it's interesting, the topics that they talked about are things that we still talk about today. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. So how do you work as a professional mother? How do you it's, you know, how are these women? Say, breastfeeding in the workplace? We were still having these conversations today. These are things they were broaching at the time. And, you know, as I was digging up a couple of points to bring with me, it occurred to me, she would have been here for May 1 1973, when Betty Friedan and Phyllis Schlafly had their big debate in Capen auditorium about the Equal Rights Amendment. And it got a little heated. That got and I thought, oh, my gosh, to be a fly on the wall, but then to hear her I don't know, I'm sure she had very strong opinions. I would have loved to have heard her opinions on that debate, because that is something that's even been portrayed even most recently in the media. That very famous and hotly debated topic and debate that happened in Capen Auditorium in 73. And I'm like, Oh my gosh, she would have been here for that. But she's also responsible for the foundation and creation of what we know, as our current women Gender and Sexuality Studies, which was Women's Studies at the time. Early 70s. Really, they were Some classes but then in 73, is when it really took off later later offered as a minor. She even fought to make it a master's program with a joint master's program with IWU. Obviously, we're not doing that didn't exactly come to fruition. But really anything that had to deal with women's rights, representation for women, particularly women, who were faculty on this campus and in the region, she she absolutely, you would find her on one of those boards, Sandra Harmon still in the community and worked very closely with her to. And they work together on a lot of these projects. So I'm sure Sandra has something to say about Pat. Yes.
Rachel Kobus 20:37
And I was gonna say, and I was looking up, I mean, she has articles about not only in the archives, but on the Vidette as well to just her impact as assistant dean, like you said, in the women faculty association, and just thinking of someone's one voice has made such a big difference on our campus. And I think we continue to move forward because of women like her as well. Yeah.
So it's absolutely I'm inspired. I'm really I'm so happy again, faculty papers, we have her materials, both her advocacy for women faculty and her teaching materials while she was while she was teaching faculty. So we have this collection that again, I can pull things out. I did bring a couple of things from her too. Because I love it. You do I know
I do. Everything's out in the archives do that. It's easy. Like, I'm just gonna make this I'm gonna Yeah, you know, I
Unknown Speaker 21:19
mean, at one point, I made the joke. I was like, I might find Jimmy Hoffa in there.And
Rachel Kobus 21:24
if you do, please come back on. I'll
Unknown Speaker 21:25
tell you why. You know, we opened a time capsule once and the front page news was Jimmy Hoffa still not found and I made the joke to Ross Griffiths at the time, I looked and went, Oh, my God, we found Jimmy Hoffe, he was in the time capsule the whole time. Love it-- the jokes we pull at archives anyway. Yeah, no, I
Rachel Kobus 21:40
love and that's why, again, I hope we have you back because this is just three women out of all the history of Illinois State. And yes, the short amount of time we've had today, the impact that you shared with us, and I hope the impact of that everyone's listening to and starting to see that connection of what three people can do to move a university forward. And hopefully we continue to see that as Illinois State keeps moving forward. Absolutely. Absolutely. And then also, I guess, if anyone's interested in the archives, you want to share how they can get in contact or learn more about the archives. What sure
Unknown Speaker 22:11
we live in the world of email right now. So I think the easiest way to contact us is to email archives, so archive with an S--archives@ilstu.edu. Or you can say at Illinois state.edu. We're happy to answer questions there. Were also again on the library's website, so library dot Illinois state.edu. And if you click on the collections tab up at the very top, we are the Rayfield archives, and you can find us there with our other partner repositories like Special Collections who has a wonderful circus collection, the digital collections that's run out of Milner, you can even find the digitized Vidette there been digitizing the debt which by the way, where I get a lot of my information.
Rachel Kobus 22:53
Like I saw all these women Yeah, at one point in the other so very good. Well, thanks April again for being with us. So and like I said, hopefully we see you in the future as well.
Unknown Speaker 23:02
Absolutely. I'll be back thanks.
Rachel Kobus 23:18
So that was Illinois State University's archivist April Anderson Zorn. Thanks for listening to Redbird Buzz. and be sure to tune in next time for more stories from beyond the quad
Transcribed by https://otter.ai