Articles in the Missouri Historical Review
- Lukomski, Jennifer. "From the Stacks: Western Historical Manuscript Collection-Columbia: The National Women and Media Collection."
Missouri Historical Review 101 (April 2007): 183-186. - "National Women and Media Collection Continues to Grow."
Missouri Times 3 (November 2007): 6. - Voss, Kimberly Wilmot. "Celebrating Women and Journalism: Twenty-five Years of the National Women and Media Collection."
Missouri Times 8 (November 2012): 8.
Biographies
Catalog
Many of the State Historical Society’s holdings are included in Merlin, the shared library catalog of the four University of Missouri campuses. The best terms to search for sources about the history of women working in the media are simply “women,” and “women in media."
Digital Collections
The National Women and Media Collection includes records of women’s organizations and professional and personal papers of women journalists, editors, newspaper and magazine publishers, journalism and mass communication educators, press secretaries, and public relations personnel, as well as radio, television, and film producers and personalities. The digital collection contains the diaries of Los Angeles Times editorial writer Kay Mills, as well excerpts from interviews conducted by Mills.
Historic Missourian Biographies
The Society’s Historic Missourians website contains biographies of a number of women who made significant contributions in the field of media.
- Lucile Bluford - Lucile Bluford was a well-respected editor and publisher of the Kansas City Call, an important African American weekly newspaper. She was also a brave and persistent civil rights activist, challenging the University of Missouri’s policy of excluding blacks and forcefully advocating for racial justice.
- Martha Gellhorn - Martha Gellhorn was a journalist and writer who became a noted war correspondent. Beginning in 1937 with the Spanish Civil War, she reported on several of the most significant conflicts of the twentieth century, including World War II and the Vietnam War.
- Mary Paxton Keeley - Mary Paxton Keeley was the first woman graduate of the University of Missouri School of Journalism. A female pioneer in the field of professional journalism, she served as a mentor, teacher, and friend to countless students.
- Mary Margaret McBride - Mary Margaret McBride was a writer and journalist who became one of the most popular radio broadcasters of the 1930s to the 1950s. She was known as “The First Lady of Radio.”
Manuscripts
The National Women and Media Collection (NWMC) documents the roles women have played in the field of mass communication, both as employees of media organizations and as objects of media coverage. The collection offers opportunities to study how those roles have been altered over time and how attitudes toward women have changed.
The National Women and Media Collection was established in 1987 through the efforts of two University of Missouri School of Journalism graduates, Marjorie B. Paxson and Jean Gaddy Wilson. The NWMC was developed in collaboration with the School of Journalism. The collection includes the records of women’s organizations and the professional and personal papers of women journalists, editors, newspaper and magazine publishers, journalism and mass communication educators, press secretaries and public relations personnel, and radio, television, and film producers and personalities.
View All Women and Media Manuscript Collections
Newspapers
Well before Mary Paxton Keeley became the first female graduate of the MU School of Journalism in 1910, women had been making journalism history in Missouri. During the nineteenth century, many women who were related to Missouri editors and publishers assisted their husbands, fathers, and brothers in newspaper work, from typesetting to editing and writing for the papers. While much of this early work went unnoticed, by the turn of the twentieth century a number of women were beginning to gain recognition in the newspaper business.
Some were single women such as Junia E. Heath, the editor and publisher of the Walnut Grove Tribune in Greene County from 1903 to 1916 before moving on to the Wright County Republican in Hartville. The sister team of Eva and Fidelia Mize worked as editors at the Newton County News from 1890 to 1907. Another set of sisters, Jennie and Artie Dickson, also worked as editors at newspapers in Grundy County during the 1910s and early 1920s. Ada L. Wightman worked with her brother Sam Wightman as co-editor and publisher of the Bethany Clipper beginning in 1905.
Other women assisted their husbands or took over their spouse’s newspaper duties when they became ill or died. Christina Graf took over publishing the Hermanner Volksblatt, a German-language newspaper, after her husband, Jacob Graf, died in 1870. She also assumed ownership of the English-language Hermann Advertiser and continued publishing both papers until she sold them to her sons in 1880. The New Cambria Leader was run by several couples over the years, beginning with G. and Nellie Hunton in 1920. They later sold it to Frank and Bettie Robertson. After Bettie died, Frank married his assistant, Jennie Jones, in 1947, and she continued to run the paper after his death the following year.
The stories and professional work of these and many other women editors, publishers, reporters, and columnists can be found in the Society’s newspaper collection. Below is a listing of a number of Missouri newspapers in which women played key roles. Their names, job titles, and dates of employment are included.
For a list of all digitized newspapers, visit the Missouri Digital Newspaper Project.
For a list of newspapers on microfilm at The State Historical Society of Missouri, visit the newspaper catalog.
| County | City | Title | Also Available On | Date Range | Name/Role/Dates |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Audrain | Vandalia | Vandalia Leader | Microfilm | 1880-1882; 1895-1898; 1901-present (incomplete) | Lily Herald Frost, Editor, 1907-1922 |
| Boone | Rocheport | Rocheport Progress | Microfilm | 1908-1917 | Annie Chapman, Editor and Publisher, 1906-1917 |
| Franklin | St. Clair | St. Clair Chronicle | Microfilm | 1927-1977 | Dorothy O. Moore, Publisher, 1952-1985 |
| Gasconade | Hermann | Hermann Advertiser | Microfilm | 1875-1877 | Christina Graf, Editor and Publisher, 1874-1877 |
| Gasconade | Hermann | Hermann Advertiser-Courier | Microfilm | 1877-1993 | Christina Graf, Editor and Publisher, 1877-1880 |
| Gasconade | Hermann | Hermanner Volksblatt | Microfilm | 1860-1872 | Christina Graf, Editor and Publisher, 1870-1873 |
| Gasconade | Hermann | Hermanner Volksblatt | Microfilm | 1875-1879 | Christina Graf, Editor and Publisher, 1874-1880 |
| Gentry | King City | King City Democrat | Microfilm | 1898-1899; 1903; 1905-1918 (incomplete) | Maggie A. Bowman, Editor, 1892-1918 |
| Greene | Walnut Grove | Walnut Grove Tribune | Microfilm | 1904-1918 | Junia E. Heath, Editor and Publisher, 1903-1916 |
| Grundy | Spickard | Grundy County Gazette | Microfilm | 1901-1907; 1910-1922 | Jennie Dickson and Artie Dickson (sisters), Editors, 1910-1922 |
| Grundy | Spickard | Spickard Herald and Grundy County Gazette | Microfilm | 1907-1910 | Jennie Dickson and Artie Dickson (sisters), Editors, 1907-1910 |
| Harrison | Bethany | Bethany Clipper | Microfilm | 1905-1922 | Ada L. Wightman (with brother Sam Wightman), Editor and Publisher, 1905-? |
| Henry | Clinton | Clinton Eye | Microfilm | 1885-present | Amanda E. Moore Woolf (aka “Shawnee Shifters”), Columnist, 1891-1939 |
| Jasper | Webb City | Webb City Daily Register | Microfilm | 1903-1907 | Alice Creswell Rozelle, Reporter, Editor, and Publisher, 1903-1918 |
| Jasper | Webb City | Webb City Register | Microfilm | 1907-1917 | Alice Creswell Rozelle, Reporter, Editor, and Publisher, 1903-1918 |
| Johnson | Holden | Holden Enterprise | Microfilm | 1876-1937 | Dora J. Sankey, Editor, 1876-? |
| Macon | New Cambria | New Cambria Leader | Microfilm | 1914-1961 | Editors and Publishers: G. and Nellie Hunton, 1920-1926; Frank and Bettie Robertson, 1926-1943; Jennie Jones Robertson (second wife of Frank), 1947-1950 |
| Marion | Hannibal | Hannibal Daily Courier | Microfilm | 1873-1889 | Julia M. Bennett, Editor, 1879-? |
| Newton | Newtonia | Newton County News | Microfilm | 1890-1907 | Eva and Fidelia Mize (sisters), Editors, 1890-1907 |
| Pettis | Sedalia | Rosa Pearle’s Paper | Microfilm | 1894-1909 | Elizabeth Dugan, Publisher, 1894-1911 |
| Pettis | Sedalia | Sedalia Weekly Bazoo | Microfilm | 1871-1895 | Elizabeth Dugan, Editor and Reporter, 1872 |
| Phelps | Rolla | Rolla Herald | Microfilm | 1877-1953 | Edwarda McCrae Woods, Publisher, 1899-1942 |
| Platte | Dearborn | Dearborn Democrat | Microfilm | 1898-1977 | Nancy Jane "Jennie" Watson, Editor, 1905-? |
| Pulaski | Waynesville | Pulaski County Democrat | Microfilm | 1902-1917 | Mary Louise Wheeler, Editor and Publisher, 1906-1912 |
| Shelby | Shelbina | Shelbina Democrat | Microfilm | 1870-1918 | Martha Jewett, Editor, 1902-1910 |
| Taney | Forsyth | Taney County Republican | Microfilm | 1895-1992 | Mary Elizabeth Prather Mahnkey, Columnist, 1930-1948 |
| Wright | Hartville | Wright County Republican | Microfilm | 1911-1957 | Junia E. Heath, Editor and Publisher, 1916-? |