Photo courtesy of Chick History
Story by Erin Morris / Contributing Writer
On Tuesday afternoon in the Middle Tennessee State University Paul W. Martin Sr. Honors Building, the founder and CEO of Chick History, Rebecca Price, spent the evening discussing her nonprofit organization and the idea that women in history are overlooked and unrecognized in society.
Price has an extensive background in the historical community, along with more than 15 years of experience dedicated to nonprofit programming. She has worked for the Institute of Museums and Library Services, the National Museum of Women in the Arts and the American Association for State and Local History. Currently, she holds a position on the board of the Tennessee Association of Museums and is a member of the Women’s Heritage Trails Committee for the National Collaborative for Women’s Historic Sites.
In 2010, Price created a part-time blog, which led to the establishment of Chick History, a nonprofit organization that focuses on rebuilding stories and preserving women’s history by collecting narratives from the community.
According to Price, the core message of Chick History is that every story has not been told, at least not fairly. Price stated that Chick History is dedicated to the voices of unheard women through the decades, and its goal is to preserve and tell the whole story, while inspiring the next generation.
“Countless stories have been pushed aside, painted over or edited out,” Price said. “Women’s history surrounds us, and we might not even know that it exists until we start asking the right questions. Chick History accomplishes and exceeds its goal with the community outreach project dedicated to collecting narratives and preserving women’s history. It’s time we did something about it.”
The lecture traced the history of women in controversial photos that clearly depicted the significance of their presence. However, Price brought to light the issue with these historic photos: the women in the pictures were overlooked if not edited out.
“I’m shocked that women are still not being recognized in history, but I am very grateful and thankful for the hard work and time Price has dedicated to Chick History,” said Dorothea Maynard, an MTSU graduate student studying liberal arts.
Price displayed examples of well-known pictures and explained to the audience how the importance of a woman was overlooked or even unknown. For example, the famous picture known as, “Obama Situation Room,” was one of Price’s main topics of the night. This particular photo showed former President Barack Obama, Vice President Joe Biden and members of the national security team. In the original photo, however, the scene included former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Audrey Tomason, the director for counterterrorism. Price showed both versions of the photo to explain and support her claim about women being edited out of history.
To address this subject head on, Price stated that Chick History will host March to the 19th, a statewide outreach project dedicated to rebuilding women’s history and celebrating the 19th Amendment, which first allowed women to vote in America. Above all, the true intention of the project is to aspire to the values of historical accuracy and inclusion, stewardship and diversity, according to Price. The project will allow supporters to donate money to its cause and to take part in empowering historical professionals.
“March to the 19th is not just about women’s history, it’s about women’s equality,” Price said.
At the end of the lecture, Price encouraged that everyone challenge history by asking how one can tell women’s history fairly.
“For centuries, women have been edited out of history, and this organization is determined to piece together the missing parts with the goal of rebuilding one story at a time,” Price said.
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