This semester I worked with the Civic Club of Harrisburg on their Women’s History Garden, and on March 29 the work we did was unveiled. The research, writing, and design had been completed, and the women were inducted into the garden. It was a wonderful event where these women were celebrated for all their incredible accomplishments. The event was even attended by two inductees, LaTasha C. Williams and Wanda Williams.
Since my last post, I have finished researching the three historic women: Maude Coleman, Genevieve Blatt, and Hannah Callowhill Penn. Once the research was completed, I started writing short bios for the women as well as audio recording scripts. After this was finished, they went through heavy editing to ensure that they were ready for the public to see and hear.
When the short bios were close to being final, I began designing the posters that would be displayed around the Women’s History Garden. I wanted my posters to look similar to the ones from past years but also have their own unique style. The background of these posters also includes a picture of a postcard of the Civic Club that Dr. David Pettegrew found in the Historical Society of Dauphin County Archives. After all of this was completed, we sent everything over to the Civic Club to be approved and printed for the Induction Ceremony.
The Induction Ceremony was an incredible event, and we were able to see our hard work in its final form in the garden. Once we went inside, we were able to see the beautiful details of the historic house in which the Civic Club exists. We were also graced with incredible live music. There were also beautiful works of art created by local artists. When we finally went upstairs, we were fed some delicious food catered by Bernice Kenney, a member of the Civic Club. The event was also guided by Contrena Baltimore, Merry-Grace Majors, Natalya Mathis-Jones, and many other wonderful members of the Civic Club.
All the women who were being honored had wonderful descriptions of their lives read and many of the people who were speaking about these women had personal ties to the women making it even more special. I found it especially moving when one of Maude Coleman’s relatives, Yvonne Hollins, was speaking about all that she had heard about her and how happy she was to know that her ancestor was being honored. This made the challenging work feel worth it.
The final step of this project was recording the audio for the website that will provide more information about all the women. I had already written the audio recording scripts before this event but unfortunately did not have enough time to record, so I accomplished this shortly after the event. In recording the audio, I worked hard to ensure that I spoke in a way that would be easy to understand. This process, although daunting at first, was simple and easy to do. I listened through all my recordings and then sent the best ones to the Civic Club so that the women can be posted to the Women’s History Garden website.
I am extremely grateful to the Civic Club for allowing me to work alongside them on this project and to have been able to share the story of the incredible historic women to the public. I learned a lot about working with an organization and writing for a public audience. This experience will help me in the future to be a better partner to the community and public organizations when sharing history.
Sarah Onufer is a junior at Messiah University. She is majoring in Public History. She is also a work-study for the History Department and an intern at the Brethren in Christ and Messiah University archives.
Digital Harrisburg 