Finding Aid for the Barbara Macdonald papers, 1912-2002
LSC.2159
Finding aid prepared by Processed by Stacy Wood; updated by Sabrina Ponce, 2017; machine-readable finding aid created by Caroline
Cubé.
UCLA Library Special Collections
Room A1713, Charles E. Young Research Library
Box 951575
Los Angeles, CA, 90095-1575
(310) 825-4988
spec-coll@library.ucla.edu
Online finding aid last updated 24 August 2017.
Title: Barbara Macdonald papers
Identifier/Call Number: LSC.2159
Contributing Institution:
UCLA Library Special Collections
Language of Material:
English
Physical Description:
1.8 linear feet
(4 document boxes, 1 shoe box)
Date (inclusive): 1912-2002
Abstract: Barbara Macdonald (1913-2000) was a social worker, lesbian feminist activist and ageism activist. Her work was the inspiration
for the First West Coast Conference of Old Lesbians in 1987. Out of the conference came the creation of Old Lesbians Organizing
for Change, a national organization seeking to end the ageism experienced by old women. This collection contains Macdonald's
published and unpublished talks, drafts, notes, ephemera, promotional material and publisher's correspondence. The collection
also includes materials by and about author and activist Cynthia Rich, Macdonald's partner and coauthor of their book
Look Me in the Eye.
Language of Materials: Materials are in English, with a small amount in Japanese (noted below).
Physical Location: Stored off-site at SRLF. All requests to access special collections material must be made in advance using the request button
located on this page.
Creator:
MacDonald, Barbara, 1913-2000
Conditions Governing Access
COLLECTION STORED OFF-SITE AT SRLF: Open for research. All requests to access special collections material must be made in
advance using the request button located on this page.
Conditions Governing Reproduction and Use
Property rights to the physical object belong to the UCLA Library Special Collections. Literary rights, including copyright,
are retained by the creators and their heirs. It is the responsibility of the researcher to determine who holds the copyright
and pursue the copyright owner or his or her heir for permission to publish where The UC Regents do not hold the copyright.
Preferred Citation
[Identification of item], Barbara Macdonald papers (Collection 2159). UCLA Library Special Collections, Charles E. Young Research
Library, University of California, Los Angeles.
Acquisition Information
Gift of Cynthia Rich, 2013. Gift of Barbara Macdonald.
Processing History
Processed by Stacy Wood, 2013. Description enhanced and further physical processing completed by Sabrina Ponce in 2017.
Sponsor
The
June L. Mazer Lesbian Archive at UCLA is an outreach and collection-building partnership between the
June L. Mazer Lesbian Archives , the
UCLA Center for the Study of Women (CSW) , and
UCLA Library . These collections expand the pool of primary source materials available to researchers and to the community at large. This
partnership was initiated by CSW and is funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) to inventory, organize,
preserve, and digitize more than eighty Mazer collections pertaining to lesbian and feminist activism and writings.
UCLA Catalog Record ID
Biography
Barbara Anne (Charles) Macdonald, social worker, lesbian feminist activist, and author, was born on September 11, 1913, to
Emily Lister (Baker) Charles and Fred Henly Charles in Pomona, California. She grew up around La Habra, California. At the
age of fifteen, she left home permanently and began supporting herself as a domestic worker in Long Beach, California. In
1930 Macdonald married Elmo Davis; the marriage lasted five years. She attended Long Beach Junior College (1931-1932), Santa
Ana Junior College (1932-1937) where she was almost expelled for being a lesbian, and the University of California, Berkeley
(1938-1940). She paid for her education by working as a stunt parachute jumper about which she was the subject of numerous
articles in The Santa Ana Register, which called her "intrepid and daring." Macdonald married John Macdonald in 1941; the
marriage was very brief.
After leaving the University of California, Berkeley, Macdonald worked at WPA Vallejo (Calif.) Housing Authority. From 1950
to 1953 she attended the University of Washington where she received a B.A. and a M.S.W. Upon graduation she moved to Wenatchee,
Washington, and worked as a supervisor for Child Welfare Services. In 1957 she moved to Morgantown, West Virginia, and commuted
to the University of Pennsylvania where she worked on a 3rd year certificate in psychiatric social work. Subsequently she
worked as a clinical social worker in pediatrics at the University of Maryland and taught at the medical school. She lived
in Baltimore from 1964 to 1967 and worked as a school social worker in Baltimore public schools. During this time, she took
up sailing and bought the sailboat "Mighty Mouse." In 1967 she moved to Connecticut where she worked as a consultant for the
Bureau of Pupil Personnel and Special Education for the state of Connecticut. Macdonald and her companion Ethel Weeden, also
a social worker, took a year's leave to travel the country in a Volkswagen bus. They followed that with a trip via freighter
to Asia. Macdonald retired in 1974 as a social worker.
That same year, while living in Connecticut, she took a feminist writing workshop at Goddard-Cambridge Graduate School in
Cambridge, Mass. The workshop was taught by Cynthia Rich, who later became Macdonald's domestic partner of 26 years. Over
the next twenty-five years, Macdonald's work appeared frequently in lesbian and feminist publications such as
Equal Times, Lesbian Ethics, Ms., New Directions, New Women's Times, Sinister Wisdom, and Sojourner. She received national recognition for her writings. In 1980, she covered the UN Mid-Decade Conference on Women in Copenhagen
for
Equal Times. In 1983, along with Rich, Macdonald co-authored
Look Me in the Eye: Old Women, Aging and Ageism. The book, which appeared in two expanded editions (1991, 2001), combined her personal experiences of ageism with ground-breaking
lesbian feminist theory, and was named by
Ms. as one of 35 classics of the second wave of feminism. It also was widely anthologized for women's studies courses and was
translated into Japanese in 1995. Macdonald was a frequent speaker at lesbian and feminist organizations, universities, and
organizations of social workers nationally and internationally, including the UN Conference on Women at Huairou, China, in
1995. She was the keynote speaker at the National Lesbian Conference in Atlanta in 1991 and gave a plenary address at the
National Women's Studies Conference in 1985. Her work was the inspiration for the First West Coast Conference of Old Lesbians
in 1987. She served on its planning committee and gave the keynote address. Out of the conference came the creation of Old
Lesbians Organizing for Change, a national organization seeking to end the ageism experienced by old women. Macdonald died
June 15, 2000, of Alzheimer's disease.
Scope and Content
The collection contains Macdonald's published and unpublished talks, drafts, notes, ephemera, promotional material and publisher's
correspondence. The collection also includes materials by and about author and activist Cynthia Rich, Macdonald's partner
and coauthor of their book
Look Me in the Eye.
Organization and Arrangement
Materials arranged into the following series:
- Series 1: Barbara Macdonald
- Series 2: Cynthia Rich
- Series 3: Barbara Macdonald and Cynthia Rich
Physical Characteristics and Technical Requirements
COLLECTION CONTAINS AUDIOVISUAL MATERIALS: Audiovisual materials in this collection will require assessment and possible digitization
for safe access. All requests to access special collections material must be made in advance using the request button located
on this page.
Related Material
Subjects and Indexing Terms
June L. Mazer Lesbian Archive at UCLA.
June L. Mazer Lesbian Archives.
MacDonald, Barbara, 1913-2000 -- Archives.
Rich, Cynthia -- Archives.
Ageism--United States.
Lesbian feminism.
Women authors, American--Archives.
Series 1: Barbara Macdonald
circa 1957-2000
Scope and Content
Series includes correspondence, published articles, personal journals, and assorted materials documenting the work and life
of Barbara Macdonald.
Organization and Arrangement
Materials arranged by type, therein chronologically.
Box 1, Folder 1
Correspondence: CERES and SAGE
1982-1983
Scope and Content
Correspondence with various people and publications about responses to questionnaires issued by San Francisco State University's
Center for Research and Education in Sexuality (CERES) and Senior Action in a Gay Environment (SAGE), an organization committed
to providing support and a social network to elderly members of the LGBTQ+ community.
Box 1, Folder 2
Correspondence: Researchers and publishers
1982-1996
Box 1, Folder 3
Correspondence:
Silent Pioneers
1983 May - 1984 April
Box 1, Folder 4
Correspondence:
Acting Our Age
1986-1987
Scope and Contents note
Correspondence with Michal Aviad about the Older Women's Film Project,
Acting Our Age, and an article from the
San Francisco Examiner about the film.
Box 1, Folder 5
Correspondence: Sherry Thomas
1989 March - 1990 May
Scope and Contents note
Correspondence with Sherry Thomas of Spinsters/Aunt Lute Publishers before publication of the New Expanded Edition (1991)
of
Look Me in the Eye.
Box 1, Folder 6
Correspondence: Sarah Hoagland
1989 December - 1995 November
Scope and Contents note
Correspondence as well as "From Liberation to Care...Have I missed Something? Care, Ageism and Feminist Ethics" by Sarah Lucia
Hoagland.
Box 1, Folder 7
Correspondence: Publishers
1989-1996
Box 1, Folder 8
Published articles by Barbara Macdonald
1980-1991
Scope and Contents note
Includes articles published in
off our backs,
Sojourner: The Women's Forum,
New Women's Times Feminist Review, and
Equal Times, as well as a paper delivered as a talk to the Lesbian and Gay Freedom Democratic Caucus in Santa Cruz.
Box 1, Folders 9-10
Published articles:
Ms. Magazine
1990 July - 1996 May
Scope and Contents note
Clippings, the May/June 1991 issue, letters to the editor and other correspondence regarding
Ms. Magazine.
Box 1, Folder 11
Published articles: Beijing and Tokyo
1995
Language of Materials: One article is in Japanese.
Scope and Contents note
Contains an issue of the Old Lesbians Organizing for Change (OLOC) Reporter with the article "Report from Beijing" by Barbara
Macdonald in December of 1995, clippings from a Japanese journal and "Old Women's Human Rights: A Report at Beijing" for
Sojourner in January of 1996.
Box 1, Folder 12
Personal materials: Journals
1957-1981
Box 1, Folder 13
Personal materials: Household expenses
1979 July - 1989 September
Box 1, Folder 14
Unpublished talks: Barbara Macdonald
circa 1983-1989
Scope and Contents note
- "Social Work: Feminism in the Slow Lane?" - From the Top of the Hill - given at the Sixth Annual Lesbian Physicians Conference
- Talk for Look Me in the Eye
Box 2, Folder 1
Assorted notes
circa 1983-2000
Scope and Content
Drafts of correspondence, a speech, and other notes on articles about feminism and ageism.
Box 2, Folder 2
Questionnaire: Radical feminism
1987
Scope and Content
Includes a photocopy of a poem by Barbara Macdonald writing as Barbara Charles.
Box 2, Folder 3
Writer's Workshop materials
undated
Scope and Content
Work written for the Writer's Workshop taught by - and during which Macdonald met - Cynthia Rich.
Series 2: Cynthia Rich
1986-2002
Scope and Content
Series includes literary work, correspondence, and material documenting the career and life of Cynthia Rich.
Organization and Arrangement
Materials arranged in chronological order
Box 2, Folder 4
Therapy materials and notes
1986
Box 2, Folder 5
Employment
1990-1994
Scope and Contents note
Resumes, letters, performance reviews.
Box 2, Folder 6
Desert Years programs
1990-1991
Scope and Contents note
Flyers, program from Second Annual Lambda Literary Awards, correspondence, and reviews of
Desert Years by Cynthia Rich.
Box 2, Folder 8
Correspondence: Alice Matzkin
2000 October - 2002 January
Scope and Contents note
Correspondence between Alice Matzkin and Cynthia Rich as well as a
Ms. Magazine spread of Matzkins paintings.
Series 3: Barbara Macdonald and Cynthia Rich
circa 1912-2002
Scope and Content
Series includes reviews of
Look Me in the Eye, resumes, correspondence, books, photographs, audiocassettes and other materials documenting the work and relationship of
Barbara Macdonald and Cynthia Rich.
Organization and Arrangement
Materials arranged by type and in chronological order, with the exception of materials about
Look Me in the Eye (placed at the beginning) and photos and audiocassettes (placed at the end).
Physical Characteristics and Technical Requirements
COLLECTION CONTAINS AUDIOVISUAL MATERIALS: Audiovisual materials in this collection will require assessment and possible digitization
for safe access. All requests to access special collections material must be made in advance using the request button located
on this page.
Box 2, Folder 9
Look Me in the Eye: Publicity
1983-1993
Scope and Content
Includes a photograph of members of Old Lesbians Organizing for Change taken during the "March on Washington 1993."
Box 2, Folder 10
Look Me in the Eye: Reviews and clippings
1983-2003
Scope and Contents note
Reviews of and clippings about Look Me in the Eye.
Box 2, Folder 11
Look Me in the Eye: Japanese translation
circa 1994
Scope and Contents note
Includes a copy of the book, book reviews, and a magazine, all in Japanese.
Box 2, Folder 12
Unpublished talks: Barbara Macdonald and Cynthia Rich
circa 1974 - 2002
Scope and Contents note
Talk from Justice for Janitors demonstration in San Diego in 2001 - Older Wiser Lesbians (OWL) talk in 2001 -The Crone Show
- program notes - "Activism" - talk for Cal State Long Beach in 2002 - "Organizing for Social Change" - talk for Cal State
Long Beach in 2002 - Clipping about Demonstration at Las Colinas Women's Detention Facility in 2001 as well as photocopies
of photographs - From a Hut in the Forest - Maine talk - Health and Economic Needs of Old Women: Major Issues 1988 - Ageism
in ourselves and in our Services -For Goddard Workshop in 1974 - Penn State - Introducing Angela Bowen in 1992
Box 3, Folder 1
CVs and resumes
circa 1975-2001
Box 3, Folders 2-3
Correspondence: Assorted correspondents
1981-2002
Box 3, Folders 4-5
Books by Cynthia Rich and Barbara Macdonald
1984-1991
Box 3, Folder 6
Assorted materials
1987-1995
Scope and Content
Assorted publications by Macdonald, Rich, Gloria Steinem, and Margaret Cruikshank. Also included are an awards program, a
speech, and correspondence among other materials.
Box 3, Folder 7
Newspaper clippings
1988-1990
Language of Materials: One clipping is in Japanese.
Scope and Content
Assorted clippings collected by, but not written by, Barbara Macdonald and Cynthia Rich.
Box 3, Folder 8
Assorted fliers and clippings
circa 1991-2002
Language of Materials: One clipping is in Japanese.
Box 3, Folder 9
Events: Fliers
circa 1992-1995
Scope and Contents note
Flyer for talks and events.
Box 3, Folder 10
Sympathy cards
2000
Scope and Contents note
Letters, cards and note to Cynthia Rich upon the passing of her partner Barbara Macdonald.
Box 3, Folder 11
Obituaries and memorials
2000 June - 2001 January
Scope and Contents note
Obituaries and memorials for Barbara Macdonald, including her death certificate.
Box 3, Folder 12, Box 4, Folder 1
Photos and narrative
1912-1973
Scope and Content
Notes interfiled with photographs written by Cynthia Rich. Includes a resume and a typewritten copy of
Barbara's Story and
Mindfall, compiled by Rich using Macdonald's autobiographical writing.
Box 4, Folders 2-3
Photos
1981-1990
Scope and Content
Includes an issue of
The San Diego Union with articles about the campsite that appears to be the subject of some of the photographs.
Box 4, Folder 4
Slides (photographs)
1987
Box 5
Audiocassettes
1979-1992
Scope and Content
Contains 14 audiocassettes recording interviews with Barbara Macdonald and Cynthia Rich, writers' workshops, conference speeches,
and book readings among other programs.
Physical Characteristics and Technical Requirements
COLLECTION CONTAINS AUDIOVISUAL MATERIALS: Audiovisual materials in this collection will require assessment and possible digitization
for safe access. All requests to access special collections material must be made in advance using the request button located
on this page.