59. Kansas Story-Shapers: Clarina Nichols, Annie Diggs, & Mamie Dillard with Dr. Sarah Bell, Kansas Museum of History Director
In Walks a WomanShow Notes
If you’re into Women’s History, you will LOVE this episode. Dr. Sarah Bell, Director of the newly-renovated Kansas Museum of History in Topeka, Kansas, joins IWAW and shares fascinating stories of three Kansas women: Clarina Nichols, Annie Diggs, & Mamie Dillard.
In the 19th century, the story of women was supposed to take place–exclusively–in the “home,” and yet, everything outside the home profoundly affected women. The only way forward was to change the narrative. And that’s what these three women did, rewriting women’s story through writing, public speaking, teaching, and mentoring.
You may not know this, but Kansas claims a lot of “firsts” in American history, and the lives of Nichols, Diggs, and Dillard intersect with crucial 19th century issues like abolition, suffrage, reforms in women’s dress and diet, temperance, and gaining custody and property rights for women. Dr. Bell says, “Kansas is full of surprises,” and, indeed, so is her interview. Have you heard of the Moneka Women’s Rights Association? Do you know why voting rights and prohibiting alcohol went hand-in-hand? And what on earth was the Octagon Colony? Dr. Bell knows!
Along the way, Sonja organizes a field trip, and Vanessa explains how she got a glass bowl with a rose floating in it 25 years ago.
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Clay Wirestone, award-winning opinion editor at the Kansas Reflector, was so generous to join us in studio for a great interview about his new book, Opinionated: Kansas Journalists Who Proved Why Commentary Matters — Then and Now, published by the University Press of Kansas. In his impressive tour of Kansas journalism from the 1920s to the 1970s, Clay honors some truly remarkable women who helped build and sustain their communities through their writing. Clay shares wonderful details about Mamie Boyd of Mankato, Zula Bennington Greene of Topeka, Donna Burough Opat of Lindsborg, and Lucile Bluford, who edited the Kansas City Call. We talk about a time when newspapers were truly local, and the people writing them were deeply woven into the lives of their towns. These women wrote about their neighbors, their politics, and their daily lives, and much of that writing has been lost, buried in the archives of small towns, some of which are nearly ghost towns today. Clay's book brings their words back into the light. Kansas is remarkable for so many reasons, and its legacy of fearless local opinion writing is one of them. As an opinion writer himself, Clay isn't studying the craft from the outside. He explores these columnists with the insight of someone who knows exactly what it takes to put your opinions in print, week after week, for the community you call home.
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