Viewing page 6 of 33

This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.

Family Communications
Family Communications, Inc.
4802 Fifth Avenue
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15213
412/687-2990

E. Jane Beckwith
Associate Director of Public Relations

Producers of MISTER ROGERS' NEIGHBORHOOD


MISTER ROGER'S NEIGHBORHOOD

November 27, 1984

Edith P. Mayo
Curator, Division of Political History
National Museum of American History
Smithsonian Institution
Washington, D.C. 20560

Dear Edie:

What a pleasure it was to meet you!

I'm enclosing Karen's paper on the developmental history of Eleanor Roosevelt which I hope you will enjoy. Feel free to keep it and pass it along to others who worked on the project with you and who may be interested.

I'm going through my notes and papers on War Brides. I felt it might be most helpful to you to see the scope of the articles as presented in the Reader's Guide.

What a catalyst for great changes war always is. Certainly developments in emerging medicine and drug therapy, technology and materials productivity improvements can all be traced to wartime needs.

I have always felt that the condition of this generation of feminists could be traced to many factors directly tied to war developments:

-"Rosie-The-Riveter" as treated superficially in the film Swing Shift: First, women being propogandized [[propagandized]] to do men's work and then being exhorted to return to the home once the war was over.

-A great influx of foreign-born women. As I said, our last great "wave" of immigrants to be enculturated. My discussions with these women have been very interesting. Much moving material that could be treated a las Studs Terkel.

-Women executives in the armed forces--as you mentioned the Wacs and Waves, etc.--are a rich resource.

Family Communications, Inc.
4802 Fifth Avenue
Pittsburgh, PA 15213
(412) 687-2990