Skip to main content

Correspondence

 Series

  • Staff Only
  • Please navigate to collection organization to place requests.

Scope and Contents

From the Collection:

The Frances "Francie" Hornstein papers date from 1972 to 1999 and measure 15 linear inches in three boxes. The papers are arranged in five series: Administrative, Correspondence, Activities, Court Cases, and Resources. The collection represents one decade of Hornstein's life during which she was employed by the Feminist Women's Health Center in Los Angeles, California.

The Administrative series (1974 – 1981) includes some records of the Feminist Women's Health Clinic, Self Help Clinic One, which Hornstein co-directed in the 1970s. Aside from reports, statistics of clinic services, and questionnaires meant to be given to patients, the series also has two folders of Hornstein's professional papers, maintained in their original order. These two folders, entitled "Francie Hornstein" have some professional correspondence along with employment information and other administrative items.

The Correspondence series (1975 – 1983) contains correspondence to and from Self-Help Clinic One, the first permanent Feminist Women's Health Center founded by Carol Downer. The correspondence covers a variety of aspects of running a women's health clinic including book projects, grant funding, and patient experiences.

Feminist publications, events, and organizations are the three main themes of the Activities series (1974 – 1980). Among the publications, researchers will find both finished and in-progress projects such as discussions of the book project that would become A New View of a Woman's Body by the Feminist Women's Health Center, brochures advertising the FWHC services, and a final printed copy of Frances Hornstein's article, Lesbian Health Care. Additionally, the Activities series covers educational events hosted by the FWHC. Covering topics such as population control, and the cutoff for legal abortions in California. These folders contain schedules, programs, and notes about specific events. Finally, the series contains some materials related to organizations adjacent to the FWHC: the Abortion Rights Movement (ARM) and the Association of Radical Midwives.

In the late 1970s, the Feminist Women's Health Center, led by Carol Downer, was involved in two court cases in the state of Florida. The Court Cases series (1977 – 1978) houses information about these. The Downer v. Florida case stemmed from 1977, when Carol Downer, Linda Curtis, Virginia Cassidy, and Janice Cohen, members of Women Acting Together to Combat Harassment (WATCH), entered the Tallahassee Memorial Hospital after visiting hours to inspect the conditions of the hospital's maternity facilities. The group was charged with trespassing and denied rehearing of the case in 1979. This series contains feminist publications defending Downer and the other women of WATCH, as well as correspondence and research about infection control procedures in neonatal units. The other court case, Feminist Women's Health Center, Inc. v. Mahmood Mohammad et al. (1978), was an antitrust suit filed by the Feminist Women's Health Center in Tallahassee, Florida alleging that a group of local OB-GYNs were behaving as a monopoly. This series features a variety of documents about the antitrust case compiled into a notebook, including notes about trial preparation, question lists for various witnesses, correspondence, memos, and publications about the case.

The final series Resources (1973 – 1999) contains published pamphlets and photocopies of articles on topics related to women's health. Two of the topics, LGBTQ rights and Parenting and Artificial insemination focus most prominently on lesbian experiences while others, such as pamphlets on hysterectomies and menstrual extraction apply to women more broadly. This series also includes a copy of the 1973 pamphlet "Academic Feminists and the Women's Movement" and one issue of Quest, a feminist quarterly.

Dates

  • Creation: 1972 - 1999

Creator

Conditions Governing Access

The papers are open for research.

Extent

From the Collection: 1.25 Linear Feet

Language of Materials

From the Collection: English

Repository Details

Part of the Iowa Women's Archives Repository

Contact:
100 Main Library
University of Iowa Libraries
Iowa City IA 52242 IaU
319-335-5068
319-335-5900 (Fax)