Harriet Alpert papers

Collection — Box: 1

Identifier: 7715

Scope and content

Five notebooks and files from the starting of Smedley's Bookshop in Ithaca, NY in 1976 and relating to the Bernadette Powell Defense Fund, 1979-80. Powell was tried and convicted in Ithaca for killing her abusive husband. Included are Alpert's files on organizing a fundraising auction for the Defense Fund in 1979.

Scope and content

Includes correspondence with Alison Bishop, an investor in Smedley's, notes about books, lists of things to do for the store, notes from store meetings, and a plastic Smedley's bag. The fall 1977 notebook contains notes about forming a women's counseling collective and assertiveness training.

Dates

1976-1980.

Creator

Alpert, Harriet. (Person)

Biographical / Historical

In 1976, Harriet Alpert (Harriet Bronsnick at the time) quit a job at McBooks in Ithaca, NY, and with Kate Dunn and Camille Tischler, opened Smedley's Bookshop in Ithaca, NY. This was a collectively owned and operated feminist bookstore. By 1980, she had returned to her birth name, Alpert. Alpert edited "We Are Everywhere" an anthology of writings about lesbian motherhood published in 1988.