Fires of Wisdom: Mills College Alumnae Oral History Project, update for 2023

Recently, I have been asked to speak about a project near and dear to my heart, one to which I contributed many years of labor and creativity. I was able to work with excellent colleagues. Mills College is no more, but the history of the place, the lives of the women who found their way to this college are very vivid and compelling. The alumni want to keep this memory alive, just as we did in this oral history project, Fires of Wisdom.

For many years, I was active with my college’s Alumnae Association. I helped to found a group called Fires of Wisdom: the Mills College Alumnae Oral History Project. I had an internship as an undergraduate at Mills College. Our goal was to interview the eldest living alumnae and friends of the college first and to meet women who were returning to campus for their “golden” reunion of 50 years or more. We wanted to make these stories of traditions and memories available at the Mills College Library, so other researchers could have access to what we learned.

We went about doing interviews with the eldest of our college alumnae and Mills friends. We wrote curriculum and researched training methods for teaching volunteers how to conduct oral history interviews; we drew on the work of other oral history groups like the Regional Oral History Office at University of California at Berkeley. We initially found assistance from professors at Mills, like Marianne Sheldon and at other schools across the U.S. who were implementing this type of research.  Oral history methodology at that time was not in the forefront of academia. In fact, when I begun this work, there was only one book on the topic at our campus library.  All of the interviews, the teaching, the assistance for this project was done by volunteers like me, with very little funding from the Alumnae Association. Many years after we began this work, we combined forces with other scholars to archive our interviews with the Oakland Living History Project at the Mills Olin Library.

You can look up the archives of the Fires of Wisdom Mills College Alumnae Oral  History Project in the Mills Olin Library here.

Mills College differed from the many colleges in the San Francisco Bay Area in that it is was, until recently, a women’s college for the undergraduate programs. After World War II, the graduate programs were coeducational. One of the most famous graduates of Mills was musician Dave Brubeck. You may have seen an amazing interview with Mr. Brubeck, a native of California,  in Ken Burns’ jazz documentary.

Through our interviews we learned what campus and off-campus life was like in various decades before the 1990s. We heard  about past traditions at the college, student perspectives on historical events and about the formidable personality, mission and rhetorical skills which comprised the character of Aurelia Henry Reinhardt, the college president from 1916-1943. During her time at Mills, Aurelia experienced two world wars and addressed issues of these conflicts openly and with a compassion that makes her unique. Her commitment to women’s education was inspiring. We began dedicating our work to this intriguing past president of the college when our  volunteer group began doing Dramatic Readings at Mills College Reunions, complete with slide shows of our interviewees (also known as narrators) and with our group dressed in vintage dress to represent the decades of women we interviewed.

2009
2009

For this project, we made every effort to locate and interview alumnae of color and find people with diverse economic and cultural backgrounds, not just the famous folks with the most successful careers or those who already had the most written accounts or interviews of their lives. Those had already been done. We wanted to create a kind of mosaic of perspectives on life in the SF Bay Area during the tenure of President Reinhardt.

While I was at Mills College, (1992-1994) as a Resuming Student, I commuted to campus. I was a member of the the Mary Atkins resuming students’ lounge, where nontraditional-aged students could form study groups and support each other as we returned to school. Some of my classmates were over 40 years old, some were in their seventies. Many had children to support and jobs while completing their undergraduate degrees. I was 29 when I graduated with my Bachelor of Arts degree in American Studies, after many years of working and attending college part-time at other universities.  The Olin Library on Mills campus was a refuge for me as was the Reinhardt Alumnae House, where I did much of my research and met up with advisers, interviewees and volunteers for the project.

During my 11 years of volunteering for the Alumnae Association, I made a lot of friends who were alumnae. I met students and college staff members. To thank volunteers for their time, we had to find a fun way to gather. So we started having tea.

2008
2008

Through Fires of Wisdom, which we named after the college’s anthem or hymn, the core group of volunteers started some  new traditions and reclaimed some others. One is based on stories of Holiday Tea with the President Reinhardt. Several members of our group collect vintage clothing. Many of us just like hats. We all seem to like tea. So, we dress up, with our hats, gloves, shoes, purses and enjoy High Tea at Lovejoy’s Tea in San Francisco..

Although we have since archived all of the interviews we did with Mills College Alumnae and friends at the Olin Library, we still like to get together, dress up and share our stories. Here is this year’s photograph of our participants:

Fires of Wisdom 2011 Tea at Lovejoy's in San Francisco
Fires of Wisdom 2011 Tea at Lovejoy’s in San Francisco

The other members of the group in the 2011 photo are, left to right: Moya Stone, Erika Young, Betsy McCall, Beth Woolbright, Jane King, Cecille Caterson, Kathleen McCrae and on the far right, Malvena Pearl’s Emporium proprietor, Suzette Lalime Davidson.

Please note that my dear friend Jane Cudlip King is at the center, in the photo, here. She graduated from Mills in 1942 and had done decades of volunteer service with the college. She prepared young people to take the S.A.T. and had the best memory for the works of Shakespeare quotations that I’ve ever encountered. She also did a great impression of President Aurelia Henry Reinhardt, with all of her vast elocutionary skills.

Two people who I meant to have in this photo were the other founders of the project: Kristen B. Caven and Penny Peak. We trained more than 30 volunteers for this project and only a handful are as enthusiastic about “dressing up” as we are.

We are grateful to Nancy MacKay, formerly of the Mills College Library, for assisting with the archive of all the interviews;  Professor Marianne Sheldon, Professor Andy Workman and Professor Sherry Katz.

Mills Oral History Project, the early years, 1996

News for May 2017

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Emporium Proprietor continues to do a lot of Volunteer Activities. When presented with a volunteer opportunity, our Proprietor asks herself, “What would Grammie Do?” The answer is always clear.

We support the following non-profit organizations and awareness building campaigns in our communities:

 

 

 

 

Seasonally, we offer Discounted Tickets to the Great Dickens Christmas Fair, with special rates for groups of people who are in school, and for elders and seniors. Please contact us with these requests!

 

 

 

And we are also please to introduce a place for you to express your interest in doTERRA Essential Oils  ~  From there you may also request Wellness workshops or private consultations.   As our friends over at Mrs. Greenbalms Healing Salves tells us, “the plants remember Paradise.” And as musician Laurie Anderson tells us, “Paradise is exactly where you are, right now, only much, much better.”

 

We are also continuing to offer our Letter Writing workshops at libraries and bookshops around the San Francisco Bay Area and on the East Coast. Stay tuned for upcoming class schedules and ways that you may participate or purchase supplies.

Jane Austen Mini-Convention in San Mateo, CA

Our friends with the Jane Austen Society of Northern California let us know that there was a mini-convention in the works for March, 2017, and we got prepared.

Our proprietor was able to find a suitable outfit to wear, created and loaned by creative and  talented Lynn McMasters, who also created the outstanding Timeline of Fashionable Hats for Ladies and Gentlemen during the time period of Jane Austen, that was on display at the Public Library in San Mateo.

We had delightful historical and literary presentations by a number of members of the Jane Austen Society, live music and country dancing.  Ann Morton provided delicious cakes and other desserts for our consumption. We had a game of Whist, presided over by Deborah Borlase. Our Proprietor offered a hands-on writing workshop for those who wanted to learn or revive their skills with the quill pen and ink, folding paper and sealing it with wax. We had a marvelous turn-out of all ages of people, met some old friends and made some new ones.

It’s now been requested that we help organize a program, like this one, as a fundraiser for the Vassalboro Grange in Maine, with Full Circle Farm founders Jody and Bernie Welch, our Proprietor’s sister and brother-in-law. So stay tuned, gentle readers, for more information about that event, coming your way in August, 2017.

Update on Costume Academy

On Sunday, March 19, 2017, the Greater Bay Area Costumer’s Guild will hold their annual Costume Academy in Berkeley.  Malvena Pearl’s Emporium will be there with many different wares. There will be several other vendors available there. They may include our friends from Decades of Style Pattern Company, Lynn McMasters, Renaissance Fabrics and possibly our Dickens Fair workshop friends Dorothy O’Hare of Farthingale’s Supplies and Persephone, owner of Fitting and Proper. We may have lovely beaded jewelry from Sandi Ball (morse code necklaces) and Brandi S. Mills of Many Moods Creations.

This event will be held in Berkeley, CA at Language Studies International, 2015 Center St, Berkeley, CA 94704. Drop us a line if you’d like more information!

Costume Academy 2012 MPE

2017 Events planned so far

SLD at Bellevue 2017

The photo above was taken at our friend Kristen Caven’s book release party, an event called An Afternoon at Caffe Florian. It was held at the Bellevue Club in Oakland, CA.

Just prior to the Afternoon at the Bellevue Club, our Proprietor attended a dance with friends in Alameda, CA that was a Hogwart’s Reunion Ball, hosted by PEERS. Evidence of her attendance is below.

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But wait! There’s MORE! Coming up in March, our Proprietor will be attending the Jane Austen Society of Northern California’s Mini-Con at the San Mateo Library. She will be instructing students in the art of letter writing, using a variety of historically appropriate quill pens, ink, sealing wax and paper.

We are getting sponsors for this event, and the most prominent is the San Mateo Public Library, where last year’s event was held and was a huge success.  So that’s on Saturday, March 25, 2017, from  Noon – 4:00 PM at 55 West 3rd Avenue, San Mateo, CA 94402. Many of us will be dressed up in our Regency attire, which is in no way required. There will be presentations, dance instruction, lectures on various Jane Austen related topics and of course hands-on workshops like this one on Letter Writing, entitled,  “Creating Regency Letters with the Tools of Jane Austen’s Time.” Who knows? There may even be tea served!quill

Events in 2016

4490625591_4ab86ee2e6_bOur Proprietor has been so busy, this year, she realized that she hadn’t taken the time to enter a proper Update for this season’s events.

The first photo is from the Blind Baby Foundation’s Beeper Egg Hunt, a few years back, with the pictured pals Kenny and Kate, plus Costumer’s Guild members (Helena, Lynne, Dawn and the Proprietor) creating the costumes and helping out. We had an Alice in Wonderland Tea Party for the young guests; and gathered contributions of tea, cookies and all sorts of raffle prizes from kind Oakland vendors.  That day at the BBF Beeper Egg Hunt was much fun.  So, this year, our Proprietor remembered that she might borrow the Alice costume that Helena created and is wearing in the photo for a similar event at the Camron-Stanford House! In the next photo she’s wearing the Alice dress, standing next to the amazing docent training officer, Molly (on her right) as they both admire the handiwork of  Dragonfly Cakes in Sausalito. “Eat Me,” the cake told Alice.

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March Hare Tea at the Camron-Stanford House, Oakland, CA with Molly (right)

 

 

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2016 Edwardian Ball, San Francisco

 

 

Here are some other photos from events we attended. The black, silk, beaded shirt was a gift from Sara, who received it from a design teacher. It was apparently beaded in Paris in the early 1900s, so the Proprietor wore it to the Edwardian Ball in San Francisco.

 

 

And here is evidence that the Emporium’s Proprietor does a fair amount of community work on behalf of women and girls. She’s performing the monologue called “The Flood,” in Eve Enslers’s Vagina Monologues. This year, with a cast of 9 women, they were able to raise $1,200 to give to Oakland Elizabeth House for women and their children who are homeless.

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V-Day at the Uptown Lounge. “The Flood.”

Fires of Wisdom 2011 Tea at Lovejoy's in San Francisco
Fires of Wisdom 2011 Tea at Lovejoy’s in San Francisco

 

We recently learned of the passing of our dear friend Jane Cudlip Coblentz King, Mills College class of 1942.  She is pictured, above, at the center of our group in the grey and black jacket. Jane was 93 years old when she passed last fall. She retired from tutoring just the year before and boy howdy, could she tell jokes, stories and remember Shakespeare, line, act and scene! She is dearly missed by our group of volunteers in Fires of Wisdom, the Mills College Oral History Project, pictured above. We miss her so much, some of us made a gift to the American Heart Association in her memory.

~~ Malvena Pearl’s Emporium staff also witnessed the glory that is/was the Pan Pacific Exposition, entitled Jewell City.    There are many images,  including a lot of stories, here. ~~

Finally, the Proprietor started off in January of this year assisting some clients with their outfits for the NOIR CITY Film Festival at the Castro Theater in San Francisco. Here are some happy film goers!

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Christmas time 2015

Dear Friends and Neighbors,

Since you may have missed hearing the carols at the Great Dickens Christmas Fair, here is another opportunity to hear these arrangements sung in a festive, Victorian setting. Tea will be served by the volunteers of the historical society.

Where?  at the Camron-Stanford House

http://www.cshouse.org/visit/

The Camron-Stanford House is located at 1418 Lakeside Drive on the banks of Lake Merritt in the City of Oakland. Open EVERY Sunday for tours at 1, 2 and 3 p.m. and by special appointment (call 510-874-7802).Admission

Adults $5.00 Seniors $4.00 Children Free

When? SUNDAY 12/27 – Tomorrow – between 1 pm and 4 pm

What? Tea and baked goods in a beautiful setting, surrounded by art work, the latest exhibit of the historical society and four part, acapella harmonies of Christmas carols from 1860 and earlier.

–Suzette L. Davidson, Proprietor
Malvena Pearl’s Emporium

holly

Welcome to London! (inside the Cow Palace, Daly City, CA)

holly

Hello, hello. It’s that time of year when theater, dance and literature enthusiasts from all over the greater San Francisco Bay Area congregate to prepare the Great Dickens Christmas Fair, to go on beginning November 22, 2014, 10 AM – 7 PM– we are open for five weekends, including the Friday after Thanksgiving, through December 21, 2014.  Check out this Map of London!

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On behalf of the Emporium, Miss Charlotte Badger would like to Cordially Invite You to help us celebrate the holidays in the tradition of Charles Dickens! Miss Badger has agreed to step in to the hubbub of the Fair on behalf of the Emporium proprietor; she’s  been helping out at Dickens workshops by hemming pants, finding suitable hats, locating lace and caps and helping our friend Jacqueline with her hand-sewn bonnet commissions.   In just a few short weeks, Miss Badger will be singing with the Coventry Carolers  and working at the Green Man Publick House at the Great Dickens Fair.

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Would you or your loved ones would like to come see the spectacle, eat delicious foods, greet Father   Christmas, encounter various characters from the works of Charles Dickens, see Her Majesty Queen Victoria and her retinue, or dance at Fezziwigs? Yes?! Then please contact the Emporium so we may assist Miss Badger with preparing the appropriate amount of discounted tickets for you on the day you wish to attend.

 

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From our friends over at Shear Madness

From the Stuff We Love files, here is another “competition” for the most crafty, beautiful, clever and creative entries we’ve seen in costuming – this is focused on Embellishment of costumes. This from Shear Madness, The Joy of Impractical Costuming

“The Shear Madness Mascot is heavily embellished.  Embroidery and trim on her boots.  Embroidery, beadwork, trim and chain on her skirt.  A faux-mechanical fronts-piece with findings, gears, copper strapping and copper vent-covers.  Embroidered lapels.  Hand-beaded silk sleeves.  Bloomers covered with lace, trim, beads and cording.  A copper beaded ruff with copper mesh.  A beaded crown on her knit and crocheted wig.  I don’t think there is a single piece on this that isn’t embellished, other than the pre-made gloves.”

And here is the Malvena Pearl’s Emporium Proprietor dressed as the First Doctor (can you spot her hiding between Glynnis and Nell?) in this group of Doctor Who(s) plus Cindy Lou Who:

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All the Whos in Whoville

 

 

 

Update: Malvena Pearl’s Emporium has moved!

Good day to you, adoring fans. Our proprietor would like to make the official announcement that we have had a major transition. The Emporium is now set up in a house in the lovely village of China, Maine.  Some of the House Elves are calling it “the future Command Central” of the Emporium. In fact, ur new location is just a few doors down from The Albert Church Brown Memorial Library in China, Maine.

What’s that you say? You don’t see a link describing the namesake of said library? Or anything about it? That’s because the Emporium’s Wikipedia House Elves need to get their butts in gear and research that and update Wikipedia with that vital, missing information. WOOT!!

In other news, Please note that our committee was only able to bring four bags with us on our journey here. We only had room for basics because we stopped off to join the lovely and talented hi-jinks ringleader, Laura Ulak, along with Renaissance Seamstress Arte Moltabocca, Saharazara, and The Cheap Chick in Edina, Minnesota, for CONvergence 2013. For more details about that now-lost weekend and all of our preparations, please see Arte’s blog, Diary of a Renaissance Seamstress, entry here. For another version of our Costume Sorority week at Chez Ulak, please see Laura’s blog, Rocking the Frock.

So, as we return to the topic at hand, let me remind you that we do not yet have access to our paper library, which was amassed previously by our proprietor. Aherm.  We currently only have the digital resources, which while they are very helpful are not what we are Accustomed To. Nor do we have — ulp — our major tool, the sewing machine handed down to our proprietor by the proprietor’s mother, that once belonged to Grammie Robbins, aka Malvena Pearl herself. We are also in need of a real ironing board and iron. But that will come with time. We do have a functioning washer, dryer and internet access. And our phone number has not changed!

Please bear with us as we complete our set up of our new diggs. We are available for design, hand-sewing, repair and other consultations.

Our new address is:  Malvena Pearl’s Emporium, 809 Lakeview Drive, China, Maine, 04358

For driving directions, please email the proprietor as the exact location is just down the road from the mailing address.

SIDE NOTE: Our friends and allies from BIBLIOMANIA Bookshop in Oakland, California have given us an Ephemera mission, to aid them with their collection of postcards – only of LIBRARIES. So that will be one assignment that our Ephemera Elves (a sub-set of the House Elf Committee) will be taking on this month. Dear readers, if you find any inexpensive vintage postcards of libraries in your area, do please drop us a line! The folks at Bibliomania want old postcards in good condition – no matter if they have already gone through the mails – that is usually a bonus.