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Meta Schlichting Berger

Grayscale medium shot of Meta Schlichting Berger from the thighs up standing in a long sleeved blouse with high rigid collars. She wears a large hat adorned with floral pieces.
Meta Schlichting Berger won election to the Milwaukee school board in 1909, seven years after women could vote in such an election, and a decade before women earned the right to vote in the 19th Amendment to the Constitution. Berger remained on the school board for another 30 years. In this and other prominent public… Read More

Prostitution

An image of a page entitled "Resolutions" written in black bold font on the top center. The text beneath is divided into two sections. A fine line separates the left and right sections.
Trading cash for sex, either with streetwalkers or at brothels, is a practice as old as Milwaukee itself and, despite law and crusades against it, survives to this day, primarily men buying sex from women. The earliest references to prostitution in Milwaukee date back to the early 1850s, as articles appeared in the Milwaukee Sentinel… Read More

Second-Wave Feminism

Wide shot of Cheryl Keenan smiling while holding a shirt that reads "A woman's place is in the (White) House...and the Senate" in an outdoor space. A group of people appears in the background. Some sit and stand under the shade of trees.
The Oxford Living Dictionaries: English defines “feminism” as the “advocacy of women’s rights on the ground of the equality of the sexes” and dates the English usage of the term to the late nineteenth century. As the “woman movement” achieved its goal of suffrage for women in the early twentieth century, women’s activists began to… Read More

Sex

The cover page of the Sporting and Club House Guide to Milwaukee. It showcases the publication's title and summary at the top center. Its price, publisher's name, and year of publication are at the bottom center.
Sex is such a basic human activity that, like eating or sleeping or working, it is difficult to initially see what a general historical treatment of the subject might be, much less what a particular Milwaukee perspective might be. Relatedly, any analysis of sexual activity also quickly becomes enmeshed with a discussion of how other… Read More

Sexual Health

Blurry image of a public notice titled "Commissioner of Health" is written on a white background. The center of the image mentions the Milwaukee Health Department address and its service hours. The bottom of the notice is inscribed, "Avoid all Advertising Specialists and Patent Medicines"
The World Health Organization defines sexual health as “a state of physical, emotional, mental and social well-being in relation to sexuality” and emphasizes “it is not merely the absence of disease, dysfunction or infirmity.” In the context of Milwaukee’s history, the main focus of policies and practices surrounding sexual health, however, concerns the prevention and… Read More

St. Catherine’s Residence

A postcard displays a photo collage that portrays St. Catherine's Residence. The postcard's upper portion consists of an image of a young woman sitting and reading in a bedroom and a photo of the building facade. The postcard's bottom portion displays a photo of a church nave and an image of a dining hall.
St. Catherine’s Residence was established in 1894 to provide temporary housing to the large numbers of young women moving from rural areas to Milwaukee for jobs or schooling. The home, originally located at 1131 Sycamore Street (later West Michigan St.), was first known as St. Catherine’s Home for Working Girls. It was administered by the… Read More

Theodora Winton Youmans

Sepia-colored full shot of Theodora Winton Youmans posing in front of a painted backdrop. In a dress and a hat, Youmans stands facing the left while holding a fanion-shaped banner that reads "On Wisconsin" with her left hand. She makes direct eye contact with the camera lens.
Theodora Winton Youmans (1863-1932) was the first Wisconsin-born leader and last president of the Wisconsin Woman Suffrage Association (WWSA), which she reorganized as the Wisconsin League of Women Voters. She led lobbying to win the state’s historic first ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment. A prominent journalist, she joined the Waukesha Freeman in the 1880s and… Read More

Vel Phillips

Medium shot of Vel Phillips in a striped sweater and a necklace sitting behind a desk that is placed in the image's foreground. Her body faces the camera lens while her eyes glance slightly to the right. Phillips lays her hands atop documents on the desk. A nameplate with her name is in the center foreground. On its right behind is an empty glass ashtray. The background is blurred, showing a wall and some office supplies.
Vel Phillips (1924-2018), Milwaukee’s first alderwoman and the first African American on its Common Council, was born Velvalea Rodgers on the South Side of Milwaukee. While she was a child, her family moved to Bronzeville, where she later established her political career. She graduated from Howard University in 1946, returned to Wisconsin to attend law school… Read More

Woman Suffrage

Grayscale photograph of members of the Political Equality League sitting in an early model Ford car running to the right. The women appear in hats. A man in a beret hat is seated in the driver's seat. The automobile's side is draped with a banner that reads "Votes for Women." The exterior wall of a building is visible in the background.
In the 1840s, when settlers from the East and overseas were pouring into Milwaukee and Wisconsin, women did not have political rights to vote, run for public office, serve on juries, or participate in the formal political system. Advocates, however, of what came to be called the “woman movement” were voicing the first calls to… Read More

Women’s Clubs

A painted postcard showcases the Athenaeum Building on a street corner. The building's corner part is in the postcard's center. The building's side that faces to the left and the side that faces to the right are visible. Vines grow on both sides' walls. The two-and-a-half-story building's dormer windows are seen. Text at the top left reads, "Athenaeum Milwaukee 1129."
The “Woman’s Club Movement” dates from the mid-nineteenth century in the United States, as women expanded earlier more modest organizational efforts, such as reading clubs, sewing circles, and reform groups. Women’s clubs were more permanent organizations, run by women, for their own educational goals, civic improvement, and sociability. In 1890, club leaders from around the… Read More