Documenting the Early History of Women at the University of New Mexico

The University of New Mexico has debuted a new online archive entitled “And Yet She Persisted: Documenting Women’s History in New Mexico.” The exhibit was conceived and curated by Mary Wise, assistant professor and digital humanities librarian, and Amy Winter, program specialist of the Digital Initiatives and Scholarly Communication Program in the College of Libraries and Learning Sciences at the University of New Mexico.

The first phase of the project explores structures governing women, attitudes about women and female academic achievements at the University of New Mexico. The project will be expanded in the coming months. “While campus borders limit the initial scope of the project, we hope that the project will grow in our second phase beyond the boundaries of campus,” the curators said.

In addition to historic images, the exhibit includes data and visualizations, interpretive essays and primary sources. The curators were surprised to learn that from 1916 to 1947, the number of women who graduated from the university was very similar to the number of men. After World War II, male graduates increased far more rapidly than was the case for women.

Some early women graduates of the University of New Mexico