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Welcome to Fridays With Eva!

We are a group of undergraduate students at Simmons University, and through funding from the Council of Independent Colleges, for the past year we have been doing research in the Simmons University Archives and the Boston City Archives to create a series of exhibits about the Elizabeth Peabody House, a settlement house in the former West End of Boston. In particular, we have been working in the Eva Whiting-White collection at Simmons, who was the first graduate of Simmons' School of Social Work in 1907 and was the head worker and director of the Peabody House for over 30 years.

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Project Timeline

Meet The Team

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Anna Boyles

She/Her/Hers

Anna is a History major and a member of the class of 2022. She enjoyed reading correspondances that Eva kept, such as from social work pioneer Jane Addams and former Simmons president Bancroft Beatley, as well as her resignation letter to the Boston Housing Authority. 

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Noah Cabral

He/Him/His

Noah is a history and political science major of the Class of 2020. His favorite part of the project was working with our community partners to learn more about life in the West End from the 1920s-60s.

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Sarah Carlon

She/Her/Hers

Sarah is a History major with a Journalism minor in the class of 2021. Her favorite document was a letter written by a worker at the EPH expressing her unfiltered opinions about the EPH as well as the larger picture of American society and immigration at the time. 

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Chloe Feuerstein

She/Her/Hers

Chloe is a member of the class of 2020 with a major public history and an Italian language minor. Her favorite part of this project was transcribing entries from Eva Whiting White's diary.

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Maddie Gosselin

She/Her/Hers

Madeline is a History and English major in the Class of 2020. She joined the project in its second semester, but her favorite part was collaborating with the team and learning about children's activities at the Elizabeth Peabody House.

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Lavender Martin

He/Him/His

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Lavender is an English and Women's and Gender Studies double major in the class of 2020 at Simmons University. Their favorite part of the project was getting to see Eva's correspondences with various organizations that covered a large range of topics.

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Kathleen McCarver

She/Her/Hers

Katie is a member of the class of 2021, studying history and information technology. Her favorite part was getting to spend time in the Boston City Archives as well as the Simmons University Archives.

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Mavis Reardon

She/Her/Hers

Mavis is a History major in the class of 2021. Her favorite part of this project was uncovering the connection Eva had to the community through the correspondences she saved.

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Madeline Short

She/Her/Hers

Madeline is a History major in the class of 2022. Her favorite documents to read were the letters from Joseph Portanova after he left the community to become a sculptor in California. Reading how Whiting White and Portanova stayed in touch for so many years spoke well to the impact Eva made on so many people.

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Lilli Thorne

She/Her/Hers

Lilli is a History and Political Science double major in the class of 2020. Her favorite part of the project was going through the boxes of photographs and seeing how much fun was had at the Elizabeth Peabody House!

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Hanna van Belle

She/Her/Hers

Hanna is a member of the class of 2020 at Simmons University. More information about this team member will be available shortly!

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Jordan Ziese

She/Her/Hers

Jordan is a History and Economics major in the class of 2021. Her favorite part of this project was that she found correspondance between Eva Whiting White and YWCA Boston, which is where she is interning this semester. It was a fun surprise to see the past connected with her present in a very real way.

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Laura Prieto

She/Her/Hers

Laura R. Prieto is a professor of History and of Women’s and Gender Studies at Simmons University in Boston. She is also the inaugural Alumni Chair in Public Humanities at the college. She writes in many places about many things, but especially about women, gender, and race in American culture. Find her website at lauraRprieto.com.

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Jason Wood

He/Him/His

Jason Wood is the Simmons University Archivist and Deputy Director of the University Library. He is a graduate of Simmons's School of Library and Information Science (2001) and Simmons School of Management (2011) and also teaches in the Simmons SLIS Archives Administration program.

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Meghan Doran

She/Her/Hers

Meghan Doran is the Assistant Director for Service Learning in the Office of Engagement at Simmons University.

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Lauren Loftis

She/Her/Hers

Lauren Loftis is an Archivist and the Digital Initiatives Librarian at Simmons University.

The West End Museum

Meet

Our Partners

Boston City Archives

ABOUT OUR FUNDING

This project was made possible through funding from the Humanities Research for the Public Good initiative, a highly competitive grant offered by the Council of Independent Colleges. The HRPG program enables undergraduate students to conduct research in university collections, from which they develop public programs in partnership with the local community.

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Unless otherwise noted, all materials in this exhibit are from the Eva Whiting White papers, Simmons University Archives Manuscript Collection 022.  The images and text on this web site are made available for study purposes only. They may not be reproduced in any form without prior written permission from the Simmons University Archives.  For more information, please contact the University Archives at archives@simmons.edu.

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