Mudd Library, Oberlin College. Ohio, US. Warner, Burns, Toan and Lunde.

Robert Venturi with Giant Three-Way Plug (Cube Tap) by Claes Oldenburg, 1970, Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin, Ohio, 1973

E Sixth Avenue, Oberlin, Louisiana.

“sedate me with anything”

📸: @prairiedeath

Birth control access can be limited in places with Catholic health systems : Shots - Health News : NPR

Last week, students returning to campus at Oberlin College in Ohio got a shock: A local news outlet reported that the campus' student health services would severely limit who could get contraception prescriptions. They would only be given to treat health problems — not for the purpose of preventing pregnancy — and emergency contraception would only be available to victims of sexual assault.

It turned out the college had outsourced its student health services to a Catholic health agency – and like other Catholic health institutions, it follows religious directives that prohibit contraception to prevent pregnancy. They also prohibit gender-affirming care.

"I would characterize the student's reaction as outrage," says Remsen Welsh, a fourth-year Oberlin student and co-director of the student-run Sexual Information Center on campus. "A lot of people in my circles were sending [the news story] around like, what is happening?"

Although the college quickly came up with a new plan to offer reproductive health services to students on campus, the incident at Oberlin shows the wide reach of Catholic health care in the U.S., and how the rules these institutions follow can limit access to contraception.

Officially* considered to be the first Black woman to earn a B.A., Mary Jane Patterson was born enslaved in Raleigh, North Carolina sometime in 1840, though there are few subsequent details of exactly how she and her family eventually found their way to the free state of Ohio. Enrolling at Oberlin in 1857, she disdained the then-standard 2-year program for women and instead enrolled in a full 4-year program of classical studies --the "gentlemen's course." She formally attained her Bachelor's (with high honors) in 1862.

Patterson then became a teacher; first at a local school in Ohio and then moving to Philadelphia to teach at the Institute for Colored Youth. Five years later she again moved, this time to Washington, D.C., to join the faculty at the then-new Preparatory High School for Colored Youth --the first-ever public high school for Black students (and the first public high school in D.C.; today known as Paul Laurence Dunbar High School, on M Street). In 1871 Patterson was elevated to principal, but briefly stepped down to the role assistant principal for one year under Richard T. Greener (himself the first-ever Black Harvard graduate and certainly a subject of a future lesson in this series). A year later after Greener's departure, she re-assumed the principalship and stayed in that role until 1884.

Patterson made good use of her prestigious position and advocated for civil rights and women's rights --significantly she founded the Colored Women's League of Washington, D.C. She died at the relatively young age of 54, in 1894. Her home at 1532 15th St., N.W. remains, part of D.C.'s African American Heritage Trail (PDF brochure).

( * - While Patterson's fellow Oberlin alum Lucy Stanton Day Sessions is considered to be the first Black woman to graduate from a college in the U.S., Sessions' studies were in a Literary Course program that, while equivalent to a Bachelor's, could not at the time be considered a degree.)

Oomfs i’m proud to announce the opening of a new Drill100000 Consulate in Oberlin Ohio🥳🥳🥳 I hope you will all join me in posting and reposting and loving the whole world in Oberlin Ohio😊

Dean Robert Longsworth, Oberlin College, 1975. 

In honor of Black History Month, we're highlighting some of the remarkable Black residents of Chillicothe.

This is Mary Jane Patterson. She was a teacher here in Chillicothe.

Mary Jane was born in 1840 to enslaved parents in Raleigh, North Carolina. Her father was granted his freedom in 1852 and he moved his family north to Ohio, settling in Oberlin. In 1857, Mary Jane began a preparatory program to enroll in Oberlin College. In 1862, she graduated with the highest honors.

What makes her accomplishment even more interesting is that she refused the two year program Oberlin had for women, and instead insisted on taking the four year program of study created for men, which included Latin, Greek and mathematics. She was the first Black woman in the US to graduate from a four year bachelor's degree program.

After her graduation, Mary Jane returned to Chillicothe, where she taught school. Late in 1864, she moved to work at schools in Virginia and Philadelphia, and then on to Washington D.C.  where she taught at the Preparatory High School for Colored Youth. She became its principal in 1871, but was demoted to assistant principal when Richard Greener, the first Black Harvard graduate, applied for the job. He left after only a year and she reassumed the position.

  She was known as "... a woman with a strong, forceful personality, and showed tremendous power for good in establishing high intellectual standards in the public schools. Thoroughness was one of Miss Patterson’s most striking characteristics as a teacher. She was a quick, alert, vivacious and indefatigable worker."

Mary Jane never married. She resigned as principal in 1884 -- once again because a man was thought better suited for the position -- but continued to teach. She died in 1894 at the age of 54.

The third Guest Artist Recital of The U.S. Army Band 2024 American Trombone Workshop featured Jeff Gittleson & Alex Felker playing Angel's Tango by Steven Verhelst, SSG Kyle Price & SSG Michael Burner playing Red Spain by Nicola Ferro, Matthew Ethier & pianist Topher Ruggiero playing Thoughts of Love by Arthur Pryor, and John Gruber & pianist Topher Ruggiero playing Romance by William Grant Still. #ArmyMusic #OberlinCollege #Oberlin #BassTrombone #Trombone #ATW #ATW2024 #Music

I found a really cool thesis abstract written by someone for their 2023 Bachelor's Thesis. It's called "Changelings– Turn and Face the Strange: Folklore, Identity, and Imperialism in 19th Century Ireland" by a Natalie Ivy but it's Oberlin community only and I can't find any contact information for this person to ask them if they could send me a copy (a lot of scholars are happy to send their papers to you if you contact them since they don't actually get paid by publications who charge you money to view them). Oh well.

Mudd Library, Oberlin College. Warner, Burns, Toan & Lunde.

W Cedar Street, Oberlin, Kansas.

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