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Women's History Month event to feature acclaimed Author/Editor originally from Hillsboro

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Wilmington College’s observance of Women’s History Month will conclude with a presentation by acclaimed literary scholar Beverly Wilson Palmer March 30, at 7 p.m. in the T. Canby Jones Meetinghouse at WC’s Meriam R. Hare Quaker Heritage Center.
Palmer is a graduate of Hillsboro High School who serves as a research associate with the History Department at Pomona College (Calif.). She also has a direct connection to Wilmington College, as her grandfather, Beverly Oden Skinner, was its president from 1928 to 1931. Palmer will speak on the life and legacy of Florence Kelley.
She is the co-editor of "The Selected Letters of Florence Kelley" (University of Illinois, 2009). Kelley (1859-1932) was an activist, mother and Quaker that fought tirelessly for the rights of consumers, women and children, and African-Americans. She founded the anti-sweatshop National Consumers’ League in 1899 and campaigned for better working conditions, including minimum wage, eight-hour workday and child labor laws.
Her efforts are credited for the passage of the first federal health legislation for women and children, as well as the Pure Food and Drug Act (1908).
Also, she was a founding member of the NAACP. Kelley was a friend and associate of Jane Addams, W.E.B. DuBois and Friedrich Engels.
The University of Illinois Press called Kelley’s voice, as reflected in her letters, as “vivid and often combative, [providing] an intimate view into the personal life of a dedicated reformer who balanced her career with her responsibilities as a single mother of three children.”
Palmer is a graduate of the College of William and Mary (Phi Beta Kappa) and the University of California at Berkeley. She is the editor of "The Selected Letters of Lucretia Coffin Mott," "The Thaddeus Stevens Papers," and other titles.
She is a former National Endowment for the Humanities Fellow and has been the recipient of several NEH research grants.
In April, Palmer will lead a book discussion of The Selected Letters of Florence Kelley at the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington D.C. and will participate on a panel, “What New Insights About Women in Public Life Can We Find in Recent Scholarly Editions of Women’s Letters and Papers?” at the Organization of American Historians, also in Washington.[[In-content Ad]]

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