Scope and Contents From the Series:

The titles, summary descriptions and commentary are supplied by the author / presenter of the papers, and by members of the Winnetka Fortnightly.

Scope and Contents From the Series:

The titles, summary descriptions and commentary are supplied by the author / presenter of the papers, and by members of the Winnetka Fortnightly.

Paper description

About Chautauqua, NY: Founded in 1874 in the belief that everyone "has a right to be all he can be, to know all he can know". The institute nurtures and supports the creative process. Began as a Sunday school assembly, a camp meeting. Many famous guests and participants. Author and friend stayed at Chautauqua in 1999. Reference: Chautauqua: An American Utopia.

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A tale of discovery visiting South Africa in 1997 as it emerged from the apartheid years. Evocative and enthusiastic, the author takes us on a trip to the urban and rural lives of real people, plus the wonders of life on safari. With history: Mandela.

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An investigation of the "extraordinary appeal" of historic houses. The beauty, social history, mystery, and treasures. While mentioning many, the author focuses on Drayton Hall in South Carolina (an 18th-century plantation located on the Ashley River) and Bolduc House (French Colonial, American Colonial) in Missouri.

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Years in Mexico: Two Northwestern University students in the 1920s become life-long friends. Each marries an NU man and settles down near each other in Evanston to raise families. Tragedy strikes and Caroline's husband dies in the Depression. She moves to Tucson and ultimately to Mexico City. The tale focuses on Caroline's rich colorful life in the Zona Rosa, surrounded by an adoring coterie of Bohemians and Hippies.

Paper description

An investigation of memory - its acquisition and loss with age. Observations of a 2-year old grandchild's cognitive development; myths and philosophy of memory; and current findings of neurobiology.

Paper description Travels with long term and close friends: Fairfield and Art DuBois and others. Fond memories of time with the DuBois family, who own a cabin on a small island in the North woods, with no other residents and no electricity, or plumbing. The vacationers read, stretch out, and converse. An invitation to this group of friends comes from the DuBois - a stay in an Irish castle (Springfield Castle). The author describes an adventurous flight overseas, the passengers and fellow travelers, surprising...

Paper description Obituary writing for the newspaper is an art form, according to the author. She came across an obituary for Diana Epstein. That she was the world's foremost button collector inspired the author to look into button collecting, She learned that button making is an art form she never realized The author shows how the history of button making reveals history and the social, cultural and esthetic aspects of fashion. The oldest buttons are 4000 years old, used decoratively. Not until the 1200s...

Paper description This is a truly American story about growing up in the US, written by a speech writer/chronicler, who learned the story from the woman who lived it. Dr. Dolores Cross received her PhD from the University of Michigan before becoming "the first black woman to---" be on the faculty of Claremont Graduate School, serve as Chancellor at the City University of New York, be President of the New York Higher Education Service Corp, be an Associate Professor at the University of Minnesota, teach at a...

Paper description The author describes her pre-war London childhood of the 1930s: cranking up the Morris, Children's Hour on the radio, grandstand view of the wedding of the Duke of Kent and Princess Marina and the 1935 Silver Jubilee, and from her father's office on Trafalgar Square, the coronation in 1937. Hitler brought politics and chaos into her fairy tale childhood, beginning with boarding school in the Lake District, which was only the beginning of disruption of her life. The author describes the...

Paper description

As volunteer at the Northwestern Special Collections Library the author sorts through 200 boxes of collected papers from the Dublin Gate Theater shipped from Dublin to Evanston when the theater closed. The author includes the origins and history of the theater, the reopening and ongoing interest. Plus a one-week tour of Ireland. Irish actors mentioned.

Paper description

A young girl, trying to adjust to a world without her beloved father, remembering all the stories he told about Caucasian carpet weavers: the shapes, colors, and knots they used and the meaning of each design. Too ill to go to school, she lies in bed and creates her own stories, comforted by her grandmother, whose warmth and understanding make up for her mother's harshness. Gradually the secrets of her family's past come to light.

Scope and Contents From the Series:

The titles, summary descriptions and commentary are supplied by the author / presenter of the papers, and by members of the Winnetka Fortnightly.

Paper description

A first person paper focusing on the amazing life of Nels Hokanson, the second husband of her mother in law. He came to America (northern Minnesota) as a child with his Danish/Swedish family and moved through a remarkable life from poverty to real recognition. Real estate company Hokanson and Jenks, an admirable man. Note: humor and chuckles!

Paper description The story of Mabel Dodge Luhan, a woman whose life ranged from strict Victorian New York society and Florence, Italy, to the freedom and flamboyance of Taos, New Mexico. Her indomitable spirit with belief in her own consequence, was funded by a a substantial private income, making it possible for her four-volume autobiography. Her eventual life in Taos attracted a large group of the famous, such as Marsden Hartley, Georgia O'Keefe, Ansel Adams, Carl Jung, and John Dewey. Her life was as...

Paper description

A gathering of four friends and the mother of one who has just had successful stem cell therapy for cancer. A discussion of the science and potential of stem cell therapies. Another has a pregnant daughter. They talk of how germ cells from husband and wife combine to make a complete genome, how the fertilized egg differentiates, and the genes of the differentiated cell of an adult. Other topics: mutation, toxins, germs, effect of diet and exercise as the body ages.

Paper description In 1886, Captain George Wellington Streeter, a rambunctious, charismatic, wily, would-be gunrunner, went aground in his old 40 foot sloop about 450 ft. from shore in a fierce lake Michigan storm. According to a contemporary survey, at this time the Lake Shore was never more that 100 ft. from Michigan Ave. More and more sand and debris settled around the boat; Streeter and his wife were stuck; so Cap'n Streeted an Ma decided to live there just off Superior St. The "island" gres, the shore and...

Scope and Contents From the Series:

The titles, summary descriptions and commentary are supplied by the author / presenter of the papers, and by members of the Winnetka Fortnightly.

Paper description The author's experience, hopes and philosophies, as delegate to the 3rd Parliament of the World's Religions held in Cape Town, South Africa, December 1-8, 1999 (pre-9/11/2001). The first Parliament was held during the World Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893. The 2nd was held in Chicago in 1993. Also the author's inspiration for the Parliament: Common ground and Jim Kenney (Director of the International Interreligious Initiative of the Council for a Parliament of the World's Religions,...

Scope and Contents From the Series:

The titles, summary descriptions and commentary are supplied by the author / presenter of the papers, and by members of the Winnetka Fortnightly.

Paper description The author's personal story of her family and of growing up: what the grandchildren should know. Topics: Pittsburgh, the 1929 Stock Market crash, life on a farm, the Princeton Bank and Trust, changing schools 3 times in one year, the book My Virgin Isle, World War II, the death of her mother at age 37, Kirsten Flagstad (opera), crossing the ocean to Britain, gold in Scotland, school in Lausanne, Switzerland during wartime, France, traveling back to America, ice cream in America, college at...

Paper description

The author's husband, Dean of the University of Missouri School of Journalism, is invited for an official visit to China around 1979. The story details the Chinese reaction to their visit and their reactions to the Chinese, after 30 years of the closed door policy and the places visited and lectures given. Topics: Pearl Buck, Madame Sun-Yat-Sen, history of journalism and radio in China, the Cultural Revolution.

Paper description

About George Armstrong Custer, 19th century cavalry commander in the American Civil War and the American Indian Wars. Raised in Michigan and Ohio, Custer was admitted to West Point in 1858, where he graduated at the foot of his class. Also, history and life through the papers and letters of his wife, Elizabeth Clift Bacon Custer.

Paper description

The author’s story of her first escape from “a lonely, rather isolated childhood” where she felt like an “invisible jig saw piece”. At age 14 she left St. Paul, Minnesota, for boarding school in Virginia. Her happiness there (in the hands of the headmistress and among the other students) was cut short by recurring respiratory infections that forced her to transfer to a school in Arizona.