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Maryland Women's Heritage Center Volume 1, Issue 1
 
Fall 2008 
 
Special Note in This Election Year: Did you know that Margaret Brent of St. Mary's City, Maryland, was the first colonial woman to ask for the right to vote - in 1648? 
 Honor the many women - and supportive men - who worked tirelessly to gain the right of women to vote.     
 Please exercise your right to vote on November 4!
In This Issue
Letter from the President of the Board
Letter from the Executive Director
Update on the Center
New Mailing Address and Phone Number
WomanTalk Live Partnership
The Baltimore Women's Film Festival
WHIJEC
WOW: Women of Wonder Spotlight
Quick Links
 
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Maryland Women's Heritage Center
501 (c) (3) Non-Profit Organization    
 
Jill Moss Greenberg, Executive Director

 
Executive Board:

Frances Hughes Glendening, President,
Former First Lady of Maryland

Catherine Curran O'Malley,
First Lady of Maryland
 
Kendel S. Ehrlich,
Former First Lady of Maryland
 
Shoshana S. Cardin,
Maryland Commission for Women

Michelle Duffy-Orr, Development Chair 
 
Nancy S. Grasmick,
State Superintendent of Schools
 
Susan Morris Shaffer,
Mid-Atlantic Equity Consortium
 
Sharon Pinder,
The Pinder Group, LLC

Charles Edward Senseney, Accountant

Mark L. Shaffer, Counsel
 
Linda A. Shevitz, Coordinator of Maryland Women's History Project
 
 
Honorary Board:
 
Lucille Clifton, Poet and Author, former Maryland Poet Laureate  
 
Dominique Dawes, Olympic Champion  
 
Helen Delich Bentley, Former Congresswoman and First Woman Director of the U. S. Maritime Commission
 
Barbara A. Mikulski, United States Senator 
 
Cokie Roberts, Commentator and Author  
 
Nora Roberts, International Best-Selling Author of Mystery and Romance Novels
First Quarterly Newsletter  
 
We are excited to launch the Maryland Women's Heritage Center's first quarterly newsletter! This newsletter will keep you updated on events and activities of the Maryland Women's Heritage Center, as well as our progress in making the Center a reality. If you have any comments or questions, please feel free to e-mail us.
 Letter from the President of the Board
 
Frances Hughes Glendening
 
It is both an honor to serve as president of the Board of Directors for the Maryland Women's Heritage Center (MWHC) and a special pleasure to collaborate in this historic endeavor with two other Maryland First Ladies, the Hon. Catherine Curran O'Malley and Kendel S. Ehrlich.  I am proud to represent an organization with a mission so near and dear to my heart - to preserve the past, understand the present, and shape the future by recognizing the contributions of Maryland women and girls.
 
As a national first, our Center will provide a place for Marylanders to come together to meet, learn about, and act upon issues of importance to girls, women, families and communities. We also are developing leadership programs for girls and women in conjunction with the James MacGregor Burns Academy of Leadership.
 
From the beginning, the Center has been a joint effort of the Maryland Commission for Women and the Maryland State Department of Education. In fact, Maryland Superintendent of Schools, Dr. Nancy Grasmick, and Maryland Commission for Women Chair, the Hon. Helen Holton, both serve on the MWHC Board.  Significantly, establishing this history-making Center is a public-private partnership, made possible through the support of the Maryland General Assembly, spearheaded by the Women Legislators of Maryland. 
 
Although we continue to make significant progress, we need your active participation and help to continue the momentum. As 2008 comes to a close, please consider making a tax-deductible donation to the Center to honor a Maryland woman or girl who is or has been important in your life. As a 501(3)(c) nonprofit organization, all gifts are fully tax-deductible.  In addition, we always need volunteers. If you are interested in lending your time and talents, please e-mail Jill Moss Greenberg.
 
Thank you for all you do to help make the Maryland Women's Heritage Center a reality.
 
My very best to you always,
 
Frances Hughes Glendening
President
Maryland Women's Heritage Center
 Letter from the Executive Director  
 
Jill Moss Greenberg  
 
We are pleased to send this first issue of the Maryland Women's Heritage Center e-newsletter to you. As the Executive Director of the Center, I am very excited to have this regular vehicle of communication to the friends and supporters of the Maryland Women's Heritage Center and of women's issues. The e-newsletter will be issued four times a year in October, January, April, and July, and I hope that you will help spread the word about the Center by forwarding your copy to others who would be interested in learning more about this important project. If there are people who you think should be added to our distribution list, please feel free to send their e-mail addresses to me and I will have him or her added to our list!  
 
The e-newsletter will contain information about and updates on the Maryland Women's Heritage Center, as well as photos from past events and information on upcoming events. There will also be a regular feature on a Maryland woman or women written by board member Carolyn B. Stegman, author of the book "Women of Achievement in Maryand History." Her first article discusses Maryland's Unsung Heroines, "notable" women who have often gone unrecognized and unpraised. 
   
In our role as a clearinghouse, we will provide information about events related to women and women's issues.  If you know of conferences, meetings, lectures, or other programs or activities of particular interest to girls, women and families, please send the information to us so that the event might be listed in our Calendar of Events.

We are all looking forward to a number of events and initiatives in the coming year, including the establishment of an annual signature fundraising event for the Center and the launch of an online store on our Website. Last but not least, we are hoping to be able to announce the Maryland Women's Heritage Center's temporary home in March 2009 during Women's History Month. Look for more information on this in the next e-newsletter. 
 
With all good wishes,

Jill Moss Greenberg
Executive Director
Maryland Women's Heritage Center
World Trade Center Update on the Center Site
 
We are getting closer to securing a site for the Maryland Women's Heritage Center. We hope to open our temporary location in March 2009. Look for more site news in the next newsletter!  

 mailboxNew Mailing Address and Phone Number 

We have a new mailing address and phone number! Please update your records.

Send all correspondence and donations to:
Maryland Women's Heritage Center
P.O. Box 719
Brooklandville, MD 21022-0719
 
Phone:  410-767-0675
 
E-mail address remains the same:  [email protected] 
Link LogoWomanTalk Live Partnership   

We are a proud sponsor of WomanTalk Live, hosted by Ginny Robertson and Ann Quasman on Saturdays from 6 - 7 p.m. on WCBM-AM 680. Each week, the show includes a Women's History tidbit courtesy of the Maryland Women's Heritage Center. Tune in to test your women's history knowledge and share other tidbits!  
 BWFF LogoThe Baltimore Women's Film Festival
 
The Baltimore Women's Film Festival takes place Thursday, October 23 - Sunday, October 26 at Landmark's Harbor East Theatre at 645 President Street, Baltimore.
 
More than 100 films will be screened at the festival, including shorts, features, documentaries, animations, and music videos, all by women filmmakers. All tickets are $10; VIP all-access passes are available for $80. A portion of all proceeds go to support breast cancer patients at the Johns Hopkins Avon Foundation Breast Center. 
 
Festival Highlights: 
For a complete schedule visit the Website 
 
Friday, October 24 at 2:30 p.m.
Followed by a book signing of "Journal: A Mother and Daughter's Recovery from Breast Cancer" with actress Lynn Redgrave and daughter Annabel Clark.
 
-Who Does She Think She Is (Pamela Tanner Boll)
Saturday, October 25 at 1 p.m.
 
-Women Behind the Camera (Alexis Krasilovsky)
Sunday, October 26 at 11:30 a.m.
Free screening as part of Free Fall Baltimore.
 
-Women and Sports (Series of Short Documentaries) 
Sunday, October 26 at 2:30 p.m.
Free screening as part of Free Fall Baltimore.
 
-Vanaja (Rajnesh Domalpalli)
Sunday, October 26 at 8:30 p.m.
womenglobeWomen's Heritage International Joint Exchange
 

We are excited to announce a partnership with the Center for Transnational Women's Issues (CTWI) and the International Exchange Institute (IEI) in the creation of a Women's Heritage International Joint Exchange Competition (WHIJEC). This will mark the first time the International Joint Exchange Competition will be used to promote awareness of Maryland and international women's heritage in the state and abroad. More information about the WHIJEC will be available in the coming months. 
WOW: Women of Wonder Spotlight
Maryland's Unsung Heroines 

Carolyn Stegman
  
 
carolynThroughout history, Maryland women have accomplished outstanding achievements in their communities, state, nation, and around the globe. 
 
However, many of these women have remained obscure, their stories of service unrecognized and unpraised. These are our mothers, grandmothers, sisters, aunts, neighbors, and friends. Legions of women have labored tirelessly, yet their names are unrecorded and their labors forgotten.

These are Maryland's unsung heroines.

The unsung heroine has always been strong, individually and collectively. Her many faces include the indigenous woman teaching pride to her children, Rosie the Riveter working in our factories, and the contemporary woman sustaining her religious and community organizations. She is many colors, shapes, sizes, cultures and philosophies. She is young and she is old, sophisticated and homespun.

She is the mountain woman and the farm woman and the woman inhabiting the tidewaters of Chesapeake Bay. She scrubbed the steps of Baltimore and fed the poor family down the block. She tended the stove at every church supper and she chaired the committees of a thousand worthy causes.

She has been athlete, domestic worker, scientist, artist, elected official and adventurer. She has been nurturing and creative, sensitive and strong. She has been the anonymous poet, economist, architect and military strategist. She preserved and transmitted our diverse heritages. She has fought to improve her community in battles that ranged from better sanitation to building schools. She has been in the forefront of every single struggle for human dignity and civil rights. She has typed the letters, sewn the banners, and marched the streets.   
 
Her volunteer work has kept our hospitals running, her employment has kept our families afloat.

The unsung heroine historically has sustained, and continues to sustain, her family and community. She has reached and grown, despite the obstacles, and has challenged each new generation. Although her acts in and of themselves may not seem profound, they are essential building blocks of Maryland's future. Whether volunteering in the community, leading an organization, campaigning for a political candidate, or creating a work of art, the unsung heroine forges a positive path for all who follow and carry on.

Lucille Clifton, Maryland's Poet Laureate from 1979-1985, once wrote:  Red Logo                               
i need to know their names
those women I would have walked with
all those women who could have known me  
where in the world are their names
                                  

Unfortunately, we might never know their names. However, one mission of the
Maryland Women's Heritage Center is to acknowledge the vast contributions of these women and honor them. In essence, today's Maryland women, and all of our state's legendary women, have been able to reach for the stars because they climbed on the shoulders of our unsung heroines.

Carolyn B. Stegman is author of the book, Women of Achievement in Maryland History. Excerpts from this book contributed to this article.
2008 Heritage Happenings 
 
*Women's Art: Women's Vision
Monday, March 3 - Sunday, March 30, with a Reception on Tuesday, March 18
World Trade Center, Baltimore  

The Maryland Women's Heritage Center highlighted Maryland women artists with an art exhibition in celebration of Women's History Month.  Artists exhibiting were Wilhelmina Burress of Bowie (functional glass sculpture), Chrissy Gubernatis of Baltimore (acrylic paintings and photography), Loretto Gubernatis of Baltimore (prints), Stephanie Hopkins of Baltimore (photography), Joan Lok of Columbia (watercolors), Sandra Magsamen of Glen Arm (ceramic and beads inspirational plaques), and Eliner Tryon Elgin of Bel Air (pastels and oil paintings).
 
     
    
*Women's History Tour of Baltimore
Friday, March 28    
Sites included The Jewish Museum of Maryland, The Flag House, Baltimore Women's Industrial Exchange, and St. Frances Academy
 
In celebration of Women's History Month, the Maryland Women's Heritage Center in conjunction with Renaissance Productions and Tours hosted a bus tour of Baltimore to explore the innovative and exciting women of Maryland's past. The tour visited five important Baltimore sites showcasing the accomplishments of Maryland women, including The Jewish Museum of Maryland (Henrietta Szold, humanitarian and founder of adult education for immigrants in the United States, and Ida Rohr, Russian Jewish immigrant to Baltimore in the early 1900s), The Flag House (Mary Young Pickersgill, flagmaker of the Star Spangled Banner that flew over Fort McHenry during the Battle of Baltimore in the War of 1812), Baltimore Women's Industrial Exchange (founded in 1880 to help young women achieve financial independence), Orchard Street Church (a stop on the Underground Railroad where individuals such as Harriet Tubman led slaves to freedom), and St. Frances Academy (Mother Mary Elizabeth Lange, founder of the first order of Black nuns). At each stop, a dramatic presentation or information sharing session explored the rich contributions of these remarkable Maryland women. Students from Cherry Hill School in Baltimore actively participated.
    
MWHCTour      
*Invest In Yourself
Saturday, May 3 
Wor-Wic Community College, Salisbury
 
Organized by board member Linda Busick, Invest in Yourself was a dynamic, empowerment seminar for women, presented by the Maryland Women's Heritage Center and Worcester County, in partnership with the Maryland Commission for Women, The Domestic Violence/Sexual Assault Prevention Coalitions of Worcester, Wicomico and Somerset Counties, and the Life Crisis Center of the Lower Eastern Shore. More than 100 women attended this free conference sponsored by Verizon Wireless. A motivational speech by Dr. Carolyn B. Stegman, board member of the Maryland Women's Heritage Center and author of Women of Achievement in Maryland History, opened the event.
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Investthree     Investtwo
*Exclusively For Women Expo
Saturday, May 10
Ripken Stadium, Aberdeen 

The Maryland Women's Heritage Center participated in the inaugural Exclusively For Women Expo - A Day for Women: A Day That Inspires in Harford County, which attracted more than 1,378 women. Board member Ellie Elgin created an interactive trivial pursuit style Maryland Women's Herstory game providing a fun, educational experience for those who stopped by our booth. Another board member, Dr. Carolyn B. Stegman, gave the keynote address. 
 
     

Maryland Women's Heritage Center Mission
The mission of the Maryland Women's Heritage Center is to preserve the past, understand the present, and shape the future by recognizing, respecting, and transmitting the experiences and contributions of Maryland women of diverse backgrounds and regions.
 
Maryland Women's Heritage Center
P.O. Box 719
Brooklandville, MD 21022-0719
Phone:  410-767-0675
E-mail:  [email protected]
MWHC Women