She started her journalistic career while attending high school in her hometown, Joliet, Illinois. Stateville, a maximum security state prison, sits on the rolling edge of the neighboring town of Crest Hill situated on Route 53. It is 37 miles south of Chicago. The prison was then and remains now, home for some of Chicago’s [...]
Attending Chicago's Old Town Art Fair is a June ritual for residents and out-of-town visitors. The Fair and its art center have played an essential role Lucille Hecht (IWPA archives) in defining that Near North Side neighborhood. It is uniquely Chicago. Years ago, when forces were coming together to create the first art [...]
In a time when women had limited options, Daisy M. Seright lived her very full and long life in the southern Illinois town of Harrisburg. When she Daisy M. Seright died in 1988 at the age of 102, she had been the chairwoman and president of the Register Publishing Co. for more than [...]
The story of the National Federation of Press Women began more than 80 years ago when Helen Miller Malloch had a vision Helen Miller Malloch 20th president of IWPA for a national organization of professional newspaperwomen and writers in 1935, similar to the vision Marion MacBride from the Boston Post had in 1884, [...]
Fanny Butcher image circa 1910 courtesy Fanny Butcher Papers, The Newberry Library, Chicago Fanny Butcher turned to the “News of the Women’s Clubs” page of the Chicago Tribune. There she found listings for a wealth of meeting and event announcements. The year was 1912 and the Chicago woman’s club movement was thriving and [...]
Image of Lillian Russell by Falk from the United States Library of Congress's Prints and Photographs Division Lillian Russell was flamboyant, talented and the unmistakable beauty of her generation. Her voice and appearance led her to a celebrated career and lifestyle unmatched in the late 19th and early part of the 20th centuries. [...]
Georgene Faulkner The “Chicago Story Lady” had a remarkable knack for telling a good fairy tale. Born the tenth child in a family of eleven children, Chicago native, Georgene Faulkner realized she had a gift for writing and performing enchanting stories. Dressed in costumes appropriate for her tales, Georgene spun her talent into [...]
Kathryn Winslow Her name was Kathryn Winslow. She was a novelist, businesswoman, a publicist for a World’s Fair, and a reporter and columnist for the Chicago Tribune. She was also the first woman honored by the Illinois Woman’s Press Association as its “Woman of Achievement.” The author of three books, the first Big [...]
Maude Swalm Evans During the 1920s, Chicago newspapers often featured the activities of the Illinois Woman’s Press Association in their “Women’s Club Page.” Two such events during this time hosted by IWPA’s active membership included an Easter “Charity Bazaar” which was held at the Blackstone Hotel. The Association collected autographed books from Illinois [...]
Jessie A. Ackerman was featured in Prominent Women of Illinois published in 1932 by the Illinois Woman’s Press Association. She was often referred to throughout her life as the most traveled woman in the world by her peers. From those travels she worked as a social reformer, authored books, was a journalist and lectured advocating [...]
