Tuesday, March 12, 2013

Not Small Souled Creatures


Eva MacDonald

Retired University of Wisconsin-Superior professor Richard Hudelson will present a program about women in the labor movement from 1880 to 1930 in the Western Lake Superior region. The program is part of the library’s One Book, One Community area-wide reading project.

The talk, titled “Not Small Souled Creatures,” begins at 10:30 a.m. March 23 at the Cloquet Public Library.  Richard Hudelson chose the title from a March 10, 1914 letter from Orvokki of Pike, Minnesota that appeared in Toveritar.   Hudelson states “The relevant part reads as follows: "We women of Pike ought to show that we are people too, and not small souled creatures."  If there is anything that seems to me to unite the different women I want to talk about, other than their being women active in the labor movement, it is how impressive each is as a thinking, feeling, active person. “ 

During the turn-of-the-century era, women in the Northland fought for a better world for women, workers and those who came after them as did the main character in this year’s One Book title, “Clara and Mr. Tiffany” by Susan Vreeland. Hudelson will provide vignettes of some of the women active in the labor movement in the region.

The program is free and open to the public. Hudelson will also present the program at 6:30 p.m. March 18 in the Green Room at the downtown Duluth Public Library and at noon March 21 at the Virginia Public Library.

Friends of the Duluth Public Library, Duluth Public Library Foundation, Minnesota Legacy Amendment Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund are primary funders of the 2013 One Book, One Community project in partnership with the Duluth Public Library, the Cloquet Public Library, Friends of the Cloquet Public Library, Arrowhead Library System, Arrowhead Reading Council, The Bookstore at Fitger’s, Duluth Public Schools, Fitger’s Inn, Virginia Public Library and Friends of the Virginia Public Library.
Updated information about One Book, One Community events are listed on the Duluth library’s website, www.duluth.lib.mn.us.

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