Evanston women's history project

The Evanston Community Foundation is coordinating the Evanston Women's History Project (EWHP), a three-year collaborative effort of Evanston organizations begun in 2007. The Project will document and celebrate significant women's history in Evanston, as well as the continuing contributions of women to the community. The Project is funded through the leadership of several Foundation donors and the Foundation's Fund for Women and Girls.

“This project is a great example of the Foundation's ability to connect local resources of knowledge, funding, and individual and organizational interest so that we might celebrate this community of strong women,” says Sara Schastok, President and CEO of the Foundation.

New exhibit

Be sure to visit the Evanston History Center, 225 Greenwood Street, to see "Lifting as We Climb: Evanston Women and the Creation of a Community" -- the project's new exhibit opening March 19, 2010. Spend some time with women's history and get inspired!

Creative collaboration

The project is generously supported by partnering organizations and individual donors to the Evanston Community Foundation’s Fund for Women and Girls. Project Partners include Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. Delta Chi Omega Chapter, the Evanston Community Foundation, the Evanston History Center, the Evanston Public Library, the Frances Willard Historical Association, the League of Women Voters, Northwestern University, Planned Parenthood of Illinois, Shorefront, the Woman’s Club of Evanston, the McGaw YMCA and the YWCA Evanston/North Shore.

In addition to the involvement of the partner agencies, EWHP will rely on the work of interested independent researchers and scholars.

Goals

Overall, EWHP's goals are to bring Evanston women's history to life and to make Evanston a destination for women's history for tourists and scholars. Since Evanston 's founding in the 1850's, local women have been key players in our community and nationally – and that history is still being created.

Over the next year, the project will launch:

• an online research database of Evanston women and women's organizations

• a new women's history exhibit at the Evanston History Center

• women's history curriculum for schools

• girls leadership program materials

• tourism materials and public programs marking our new women's history trail.

“We think girls and young women will be inspired in their own lives by understanding this history,” says Lori Osborne, Project Coordinator. “From Dr. Isabella Garnett, one of the first African American physicians in Illinois and co-founder of the Evanston Sanitarium, to Elizabeth Boynton Harbert, founder of the Woman's Club of Evanston and president of the Illinois Woman Suffrage Association, to our current mayor, Evanston women have made their mark.”

For more information and a full schedule of all the public programs coming up this spring, check the project's web site at www.evanstonwomen.org. 

For more information, contact Lori Osborne, Project Coordinator at (847) 328-7500 or ewhp@sbcglobal.net.