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Guide to the Vivian Hall Papers
MS-R008  
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Collection Details
 
Table of contents What's This?
  • Descriptive Summary
  • Administrative Information
  • Biography
  • Scope and Content

  • Descriptive Summary

    Title: Vivian Hall Papers
    Collection number: MS-R008
    Creator: Hall, Vivian
    Extent: Number of containers: 18 document boxes, 1 record carton

    Linear feet: 8.5
    Repository: University of California, Irvine. Library. Special Collections and Archives.
    Irvine, California 92623-9557
    Abstract: Vivian Hall, a resident of Irvine, California from 1968 until her death in 2008, was an educator, feminist, political and community activist, and grass roots organizer. The collection principally documents Hall's political and feminist activities during the 1970s, notably her years as First Vice Chair of the National Women's Political Caucus, appointment as a delegate to the National Conference for International Women's Year, and 1976 Congressional campaign. Hall also developed two of the first women's studies courses in the country for high school students, helped found two Orange County feminist groups, Women For: Orange County, and Women's Network Alert, and was a leading member in a coalition of Orange County women that brought about investigations into Senator William Campbell's sponsorship of an annual Conference on Women.
    Language: English.

    Administrative Information

    Access

    Collection is open for research.

    Publication Rights

    Property rights reside with the University of California. Literary righrts are retained by the creators of the records and their heirs. For permissions to reproduce or to publish, please contact the Head of Special Collections and University Archives.

    Preferred Citation

    Vivian Hall Papers. MS-R008. Special Collections and Archives, The UCI Libraires, Irvine, California.

    Acquisition Information

    Gift of Vivian Hall, 1995.

    Processing History

    Processing completed by Elizabeth Wertin in 1996.

    Biography

    Vivian Hall (1922-2008) was an educator, feminist, political and community activist, and grass roots organizer.
    Vivian Halpern grew up in Westchester County, a suburb of New York City. She attended Vassar College, graduating in 1944 with a major in English and a minor in Child Studies. In October of that same year, she eloped with Thomas Hall six weeks after meeting him. For several years after college, Vivian Hall worked in the field of early childhood education as a nursery school teacher and director, both in Colorado and California, and as education director for the Anti-Defamation League in Denver, Colorado. During this period, she earned a Master of Arts degree at the University of Colorado (1947), majoring in English (American Literature) and minoring in Philosophy. She also studied at the University of California, Los Angeles, the University of California, Irvine, and Denver University.
    Holder of both an elementary and secondary credential from the State of California, Hall taught a range of grades from first through college. She participated in the state program for the gifted and was a master teacher for students from California State University at Long Beach. From 1968 through 1983, Hall taught a variety of subjects at Westminster High School in the Huntington Beach High School District. In addition to English and history she also taught mass media and was the first to teach Latin American history in the Huntington Beach district, where she wrote the course of study. She also initiated courses in Women in Literature and Women in History, which were among the first in the nation to be taught at the high school level.
    Over the years Hall was involved in numerous professional and educational organizations, various library friends' groups, the Democratic Party, and numerous women's groups. The 1970s proved to be a very active decade for Hall in the arena of national politics and women's issues. After helping found the Orange County chapter of the National Women's Political Caucus in 1974, she was elected the First Vice Chair for the national caucus in 1976. Also in 1976, Hall ran (unsuccessfully) for Congress, and in November 1977, was an elected delegate to the national conference in Houston celebrating International Women's Year. In the 1980s Hall helped found two more Orange County women's groups: Women For: Orange County, and Women's Network Alert.
    Vivian Hall and her husband Tom were married for over fifty years. They had two children, Lorna Beth and Douglas. Hall lived in Irvine, California from 1968 until her death in 2008.

    CHRONOLOGY

    1922 Born December 19th
    1944 Graduated Vassar, degree in English, minor in child studies. Married Thomas C. Hall, October 28
    1948 Completed Masters in English, University of Colorado, Boulder
    1951 Birth of daughter, Lorna Beth, March 7
    1958 Birth of son, Douglas, September 8
    1964 -1968 Teacher, Malaga Cove Intermediate School, Palos Verdes Peninsula, Calif.
    1968 -1983 Teacher, Westminster High School, Orange County, Calif.
    1974 Founding member & first Chair, Orange County, Calif. Chapter of the National Women s Political Caucus (NWPC)
    1975 -1977 National First Vice-Chair, NWPC
    1976 -1980 Member, Democratic State Central Committee
    1976 Democratic Nominee for Congress, 40th Congressional District, Calif.
    1977 -1980 Member, National Advisory Board, NWPC
    1977 Executive Board Member, California Coordinating Committee for International Women s Year (IWY) Delegate and Chair of Orange County Delegation, National Women s Conference, IWY (November)
    1978 Elected Member, National Advisory Platform Committee, Democratic Party
    1979 -1980 Coordinator of Women s Activities, Calif. Democratic Party
    1979 Panel Member, National Convention, National Women s Studies Association, University of Kansas
    1980 Elected Delegate, Democratic National Convention Member, California Platform Committee, Democratic Party Delegate, White House Conference on Families (July)
    1981 Founding member, Women s Network Alert Founded CARE, Westminster High School
    1983 Founding member and first president, Women For: Orange County
    1983 -1988 Consultant/Lecturer, Huntington Beach Unified High School District
    1990 Founded Jane Austen Reading Group, Orange County
    1992 Founding member, W.A.G.E. (We Advocate Gender Equity)
    2008 Died October 1.

    Scope and Content

    The collection principally documents Hall's political and feminist activities during the 1970s, notably her years as First Vice Chair of the National Women's Political Caucus (Series I), appointment as a delegate to the National Conference for International Women's Year (Series II), and 1976 Congressional campaign (Series III). More recent activities in the 1980s can be found in the Subject File (Series V), Hall's participation in Women For: Orange County, and Women's Network Alert, and the coalition of Orange County women that caused investigations into Senator William Campbell's sponsorship of an annual Conference on Women (Series IV). Coverage of Hall's teaching career is almost exclusively from Westminster High School (Series VI) and includes the women's studies courses she developed. Some biographical materials and family documents can be found in the Personal Series (Series VII), but the collection is generally weak in this area, especially for the years prior to 1970.