Women’s Health, Women’s Bodies: a Collaboration between Special Collections and Women’s and Gender Studies

The purpose of The Compass Rose is to raise awareness of Special Collections' resources and to foster the use of these resources. The blog series also reports significant new programs, initiatives, and acquisitions of Special Collections. 

In celebration of Women's History Month, the UTA Libraries Special Collections has partnered with the UTA Women's and Gender Studies Program to bring you "Women's Health, Women's Bodies." This exhibit incorporates artifacts, documents, and photographs related to women's mental and physical health. 

This exhibit was a collaboration between Trudi Beckman from the Women’s and Gender Studies Program; Michael Barera, University and Labor Archivist; and myself. After being introduced by Janet Burka, Multidisciplinary Librarian here at UTA, we met to discuss the transfer of digital records to Special Collections. During those initial conversations, we also discussed the possibility of creating a mini exhibit in front of Special Collections for Women’s History Month. Michael and I worked with Trudi to identify themes and historical materials we might highlight from both Special Collections materials and items loaned from the Women and Gender Studies program. During the exhibit’s development, I also reached out to UTA Health Services, who donated a current women’s health rack card to compare historical materials with their modern equivalents. 

Several items were loaned to Special Collections by the Women’s and Gender Studies Program, including a signed book and magazine by Sarah Weddington, political buttons, a stethoscope, and a novel with a theme of mental health.  

In addition to the artifacts and books, the exhibit also features several historic documents and photographs related to women’s health.  

The exhibit focuses on athletics as a facet of women’s health. This image shows the UTA women’s basketball team celebrating a victory in 2005. 

Sarah Weddington is best known as the Texas lawyer who successfully argued before the U.S. Supreme Court in the landmark Roe v. Wade case. This case led to the legalization of abortion in the United States on January 22, 1973. Weddington graduated from the University of Texas Law School in 1967. After law school, she joined a group of graduate students at the University of Texas at Austin who were researching ways to challenge anti-abortion laws. By the time she went before the Supreme Court with her co-counsel, Linda Coffee, Weddington had never tried a legal case. After arguing Roe v. Wade, Weddington was elected to three terms in the Texas House of Representatives from 1973-1977. In addition to her work in Texas, she served as general counsel of the U.S. Department of Agriculture in 1977 and as an assistant on women’s issues to President Jimmy Carter from 1978-1981. After her political career, she spoke to audiences across the country and taught courses at the University of Texas at Austin. Sarah Weddington died on December 26, 2021. 

The Free University Press served as a way for students, faculty, and administrators at the University of Texas at Arlington to express their viewpoints outside of the establishment. Much of the content of the papers was representative of the counterculture of the 1960s and 1970s. The front page of this issue was chosen because of the focus on the Women’s Liberation Movement. The issue focuses on birth control, abortion, and motherhood.  

The Berachah Home was established in Arlington, Texas in 1903 as the Berachah Industrial Home for the Redemption of Erring Girls. It was operated by Reverend James Toney “J.T.” and Margaret “Maggie” Upchurch, under various names. It was formed as an establishment for white women, specifically those without housing or who were pregnant. The home reflected the personal beliefs of the Upchurches who had set out to “redeem” women who came to the home. The Home closed in 1935 but was reopened later that year as the Berachah Child Institute by the Upchurches' daughter, Allie Mae, and her husband, Frank Wiese, a Church of Nazarene minister. The Institute operated as an orphanage and adoption agency before closing in 1942. The land was eventually purchased by Arlington State College (now the University of Texas at Arlington). The only remaining piece of the home is the Berachah Cemetery, which is located on UTA’s campus.  

In 1921, Margaret Sanger founded the American Birth Control League. The name was officially changed to Planned Parenthood in 1942. Planned Parenthood is a nonprofit organization that provides reproductive health care in the United States. This pamphlet from 1976 was created by the Planned Parenthood Association of Northeast Texas.