CONNEE L. CHIVERS:

Material created or collected by Connee Chivers while conducting research on the African American women involved with the Phyllis Wheatley Settlement House, later referred to as the Phyllis Wheatley Community Center, in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The research was intended to be included in a book entitled Women at Phyllis Wheatley 1924-1970, however the book was never completed.

Chivers proposal for the book contains a narrative description of its content, a listing of primary and secondary sources, and an outline of significant objectives she intended the book to achieve. The proposal is followed by a folder of research notes, two letters sent to Chivers concerning individuals who worked at the House, and a draft of an article she based on the research.

The next several folders contain source material primarily related to the administration of the Center including annual reports, rosters of the board of directors, annual meeting reports, photocopied newspaper clippings, and a group of photographs, mostly copies, of individuals connected with the Center. Photocopied correspondence, reports, studies and newsletters found at the University of Minnesota Social Welfare Archives and the Sabathani Community Center in Minneapolis are also included.

The last group of material consists of audio recordings, notes, and photographs documenting oral interviews Chivers conducted with seven women who were program participants or staff workers at the Center. The women were asked why they went to the Center, what activities they participated in, and what contributions they made as adults at the Center and elsewhere in the community.

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Access Restrictions:

The restricted oral histories in this collection have no signed release forms and are not available online, but can be accessed upon request for use in the Gale Family Library reading room. Please consult reference staff for more information.

Preferred Citation:

[Indicate the cited item and/or series here]. Connee L. Chivers Papers. Minnesota Historical Society.

See the Chicago Manual of Style for additional examples.

Accession Information:

Accession Number: 15,240

Location of Master Files:

Digital masters of the audiocassettes are maintained on the Society's secure digital collections storage servers and are managed and preserved in accordance with archival best practices.

The original audiocassettes were disposed after the material was digitally reformatted into wav files.

Processing Information:

Processed by: Frank P. Hennessy, May 1998

Digitization and encoding by April Rodriguez, June 1, 2022.

Digital audio of oral history interviews conducted by Connee L. Chivers was transferred from master audiocassettes by the Minnesota Historical Society for preservation purposes (June 2022).

Digitization was made possible by the Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund through the vote of Minnesotans on November 4, 2008.

Catalog ID number: 990017345680104294

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The Phyllis Wheatley Community House Records are in the Minnesota Historical Society manuscript collections.

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This collection is indexed under the following headings in the catalog of the Minnesota Historical Society. Researchers desiring materials about related topics, persons or places should search the catalog using these headings.

Topics:

African American women -- Minnesota -- Minneapolis -- Charities.

African American women -- Minnesota -- Minneapolis -- Housing.

African American women -- Minnesota -- Minneapolis -- Recreation.

African American women -- Minnesota -- Minneapolis -- Services for.

African American women -- Minnesota -- Minneapolis.

Charities -- Minnesota -- Minneapolis.

Community centers -- Minnesota -- Minneapolis.

Social settlements -- Minnesota -- Minneapolis.

Women -- Minnesota -- Minneapolis -- Services for.

Women in charitable work -- Minnesota -- Minneapolis.

Young women -- Minnesota -- Minneapolis -- Charities, protection, etc.

Place:

Minneapolis (Minn.) -- Social conditions -- 1918- .

Persons:

Cyrus, Barbara, author.

Grissom, Katherine, author.

Johnson, Josie, 1930-, author.

Lewis, Margaret Moore, author.

McElroy, Marion, author.

McWatt, Katie, author.

Smith, Bertha Johnson, author.

Organizations:

Phyllis Wheatley Settlement House (Minneapolis, Minn.).

Phyllis Wheatley Community Center (Minneapolis, Minn.).

Types of Documentation:

Interviews.

Sound recordings.

Photographs.

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