Truth Telling: Frances Willard and Ida B. Wells
A Community History Project of the Frances Willard House Museum and Archives
In the 1890s, Woman’s Christian Temperance Union President Frances Willard and journalist and activist Ida B. Wells fought a war of words in the international press over Willard’s lack of public support for Wells’ anti-lynching campaign. Wells called Willard’s moral leadership into question and demanded that Willard and the WCTU join her anti-lynching campaign. Under Willard’s leadership, the WCTU eventually passed resolutions opposing lynching, but Willard’s language and actions complicate her legacy.
On Thursday March 14, 2019 the Frances Willard House Museum and Archives launched Truth Telling: Frances Willard and Ida B. Wells, a community history project that explores this conflict. The project includes a digital exhibit of original archival sources, community conversations, and public programs. The goal of the project is to uncover the full truth of the conflict, and explore its many meanings and ramifications for our world today.
To visit the new website, click here.
Just Released – 2018 CWHL Annual Report
Please click here to view the 2018 Center for Women’s History and Leadership Annual report.
NEWS
CENTER FOR WOMEN’S HISTORY AND LEADERSHIP BEGINS WORK ON WCTU ADMINISTRATION BUILDING
EVANSTON, IL – On Friday, February 1, 2019, a project was kicked off by the Center for Women’s History and Leadership (CWHL) to upgrade the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union’s (WCTU) Administration Building. Working with the Evanston architecture firm of McGuire Igleski & Associates, the project will focus on improvements for the safety and comfort of the staff and users of the Frances Willard Memorial Library and Archives and other areas of the building. The project is being funded in part by grants from the National Trust for Historic Preservation and from Landmarks Illinois.
The WCTU Administration Building, located at the back of 1730 Chicago Avenue in the WCTU Local Historic District in Evanston, was named to the National Register of Historic Places in 2002. In 1910, the WCTU built the new Publications Building behind the Willard House to accommodate their publishing business. In 1922 the building was expanded to include offices for the WCTU headquarters and became the WCTU Administration Building. Both the original building and the addition were designed by noted architect Charles Ayars. In 1939, the centenary of Willard’s birth, Earl Reed, known for his skill as an architect of libraries, designed the addition to the building which was named the Frances Willard Memorial Library for Alcohol Research. Today, it houses the archives of Frances Willard, the WCTU, and related materials.
Glen Madeja, Executive Director of the CWHL, said, “This is a great step forward as part of our mission to safeguard the future of the property and ensure the legacy of the WCTU. This and other activities recently completed and currently planned provide for the proper stewardship of the Frances Willard House Museum and the Frances Willard Memorial Library and Archives so that they remain open to the public and available to researchers long into the future.”