NETWORK NIGHT with the GR Press Club
Join us at Network Night with the GR Press Club this Wednesday, January 23rd, at the University Club downtown for drink specials and complimentary hors d'oeuvres before hearing the fascinating story of the first professional woman journalist in Grand Rapids!
The Ambitious Etta Smith Wilson
In 1886 Etta Smith Wilson became the first professional (translation: full-time and paid!) woman reporter in nineteenth-century Grand Rapids. Beginning with the Telegram-Herald, this mixed-race journalist wrote for over 50 years, founded and led women's press organizations in Michigan, and later became a nationally known ornithologist.
Don't think that peeking at the photo essay by GVSU's Cindy Laug and her research partner Connie Ingham will tell you the whole story. Laug has hot-off-the-press information about Smith Wilson's role founding press clubs exclusively for women in the 1890s.
Laug and Ingham have tracked Smith Wilson's history from Holland to Northport, chronicling her heritage from Congregationalist missionary and Odawa grandparents. Born in 1857 and the inheritor of conflicting cultures, Smith Wilson grew into an accomplished practitioner of Western print culture as well as a renowned ornithologist inspired by memories of her native forebears.
Join us Wednesday, the 23rd:
Open to the public
4:30 - 6:30 pm-- social time (bar available);
complimentary hors d'oeuvres
5:30 p.m. - short program
University Club, 111 Lyon NW, 10th floor of Fifth/Third building. Bring your parking ticket to be stamped for a reduced rate in either Fifth/Third lot. |
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| Not a current member of GGRWHC? Membership is easy and helps offset the expenses associated with research and programming presented each year. Your membership helps to set the record straight on the women who've made history here in our community. |
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And, continues to help women make history, every day! |
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Board meetings are held on the first Tuesday of the month at 5:30 pm at the Vanderveen Center for the Book at the Grand Rapids Public Library. If you have suggestions for programs, oral histories or other items, please email us at info@ggrwhc.org or plan to attend a meeting. |
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