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| BB8:
Hotel and Restaurant Workers Union Fairmont Copley Plaza Hotel, Copley Square  Until
the mid-1960s, only male waiters could work in local hotels organized
by the Greater Boston Hotel and Restaurant Workers' Union. At that time,
57 women waitresses, who were members of an all-women's union (Local 277)
took their traveling cards to Local 34 of the union and asked for membership.
When they were refused, the women sued. Supported by the Massachusetts
Council Against Discrimination, the waitresses won their battle in June
1966. As members of the current local, Number 26, women now have the right
to equal employment and equal pay in such union hotels as the Fairmont
Copley Plaza, and are represented on the executive board of the union.
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BB9: Boston Public Library 666 Boylston Street  The
"BPL," as it is commonly known, has served as an intellectual
and educational center for Boston women, from reformers to newly-arrived
immigrants, since it opened in 1854. Housed in the elegant McKim building
since 1895, the library was called a "noble treasure house of learning"
by Russian immigrant, Mary Antin (1881-1949). She wrote, to be "in
the midst of all the books that ever were written was a miracle as great
as any on record." Many Boston women have also worked as library
professionals including Louise Imogen Guiney (1861-1920), who later became
a respected poet and writer and filled a role as an ambassador between
the Irish Catholic community and the Boston Brahmins. Women pioneered children's services at the library. Alice M. Jordan (1870-1960) was the first Supervisor of Work with Children, serving from 1900 to 1940. In 1906 she founded the New England Round Table of Children's Librarians to provide a meeting ground for this emerging profession. Since 1960, the round table and the Massachusetts Library Association have sponsored the Jordan-Miller Storytelling Program in recognition of Jordan's commitment to storytelling. Beryl Robinson (1906-1989), an African American, introduced storytelling to children in the BPL branches all over the city in the 1940s and 1950s. Her stories came from many cultures. In 1958-1959, she produced and told stories on public television, extending her audience to children throughout eastern Massachusetts. Several women are included in the library's art collection. The Charlotte Cushman Room on the third floor of the McKim building is named for one of Boston's favorite 19th-century dramatic actresses and art patrons, who was born in the North End (see N7). A bust by Anne Whitney (see B16) of Lucy Stone (see D6), Boston suffragist and founder of the Woman's Journal, is displayed in the Cushman Room. Dioramas created by Louise Stimson (1890-1981) in the 1940s, also on the third floor of the McKim Building, depict miniature scenes of famous artists and their painting. |
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BB10: Exeter Street Theater and Spiritual Temple Corner of Exeter and Newbury Streets (Now Waterstones Booksellers) Though known as the Exeter Street Theater after 1913, this building was built as the First Spiritualist Temple in 1885. Young women played an important role in spiritualist meetings. They sometimes served on stage as mediums through whom it was believed a departed spirit was speaking. Two sisters, Viola and Florence Berlin, ran the Exeter Street Theater for many years, turning it into a popular place to see foreign films. The theater closed in 1984. |
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