“Path of Secretarial Initiative”: The Labor of Three Secretaries in the Marc Nerlove Papers

Although the Economists’ Papers Archive (EPA) in the Rubenstein Library is primarily consulted by economic scholars worldwide, it can also be utilized by archivists or curators to tell lesser-known or historically marginalized stories to the general public. The EPA mainly consists of the papers of academic economists--university professors who's on-campus files were typically maintained by administrative professionals in their department (this is a basic form of records management, which as a field is related to archival science). After the creator/holder of these papers donates them to the EPA, they are then prepared for long-term preservation by an archivist or fellow. A secretary who was good at records management was not just crucial to the professor, but the future archivist and researcher, as well.

Despite being essential workers and sometimes documented in these papers, these people—almost always women—have historically gone unnamed and unrecognized for multiple reasons. This exhibit, prepared by the EPA's Project Archivist, is an effort to not duplicate this erasure. It features items from the early 1970s related to three of Marc Nerlove’s secretaries at the University of Chicago and Northwestern University: Elizabeth “Betty” Ann Percell (1936-2005), Gloria Feigenbaum (1922-2006), and Stina Leander Hirsch (1919-2008).

Unless otherwise noted, all materials in this case are from the Marc L. Nerlove papers, David M. Rubenstein Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Duke University.