The Civil Rights History Project: Survey of Collections and Repositories

The life and times of Rosie the Riveter videotapes

Repository: Harvard University. Radcliffe Institute. Schlesinger Library

Collection Description (CRHP): In the film, African American women address racial discrimination and their efforts to combat it. The film makes for an interesting comparison between the experiences of black and white women during World War II and the social conditions they faced in the United States generally.

Collection Description (Extant): The motion picture The Life and Times of Rosie the Riveter was produced in about 1980 by Connie Field and Clarity Educational Productions. It consists of interviews with women who did war work during World War II. More than half of the interviewees in these videotapes are African American, including Frances Albrier, who also appears in the Schlesinger Library's Black Women Oral History Project. Only five 'Rosies' appear in the final production: Lola Weixel, Margaret Wright, Lyn Childs, Gladys Belcher, and Wanita Allen . . . . This collection includes only the outtakes from The Life and Times of Rosie the Riveter. The final production is catalogued separately as 331.409043 F81A (videocassette) . . . . Transcripts and audiotapes related to this production were given with these videotapes, but the transcripts do not correspond to the videotapes. The transcripts and audiotapes are cataloged and shelved separately.

Access Copy Note: An appointment is necessary to use any audiovisual material.

Condition Note: There is intermittent static through almost all the tapes, and most are grainy.

Date(s): 1977-1979

Digital Status: No

Existing IDs: Call No.: Vt-47

Extent: 23 videotapes (1/2 inch videotape); transcripts; audio tapes

Finding Aid URL: http://oasis.lib.harvard.edu/oasis/deliver/deepLink?_collection=oasis&uniqueId=sch00704

Language: English

Interviewees: Albrier, Frances Mary, 1898-1987
Allen, Wanita
Camille Almada, Nellie Brown, Lyn Childs, Adeal Crooms, Gwen Edwards, Beulah Hatten, Elizabeth Looney, Eleanor McCarthy, Cartreenn Ross, Mary Ruggiero, Arlene Slaughter, Delphine Smith, Eleanor Pearl McDonald Smith, Gertrude Steinberg, Lynn Underwood, Emma Wilson, Ruth Wolf, Beulah Work

Rights (Extant): Connie Field retains copyright in the collection for fifty years or until her death, whichever comes first, at which time copyright will be transferred to Radcliffe College for the Schlesinger Library.

Subjects:

African American women--Employment
Discrimination in employment
Women--Employment
World War, 1939-1945--Participation, African American
World War, 1939-1945--Women

Genres:

Interviews
Sound recordings
Transcripts
Videorecordings