Inventory of the Ruthe Winegarten papers, 1991-1997

Biographical Note

Ruthe Winegarten was born on August 26, 1929, in Texas. She graduated from the University of Texas at Arlington with her Master’s in Social Work and was ABD (all but dissertation) in history. She forewent the ABD and became a historian.

Winegarten was an advocate for women and minorities, author and historian. She had been a radical from her early teens and was a member of the Texas Communist Party and the Dallas Labor Zionist Party. As an adult she was politically active, a member of the League of Women Voters, the Jewish Welfare Federation and the North Dallas Democratic Women’s Club.

Early on she joined forces with Ann Richards, creating a sketch comedy group called “Political Paranoia.” She later rejoined forces with Ann Richards, who founded the Texas Women’s History Project in 1974, to become the curator and research director of the Texas Women’s History Project.

She fought to get women into the Bob Bullock Texas History Museum and helped get more women and minorities into the Handbook of Texas. Winegarten searched and gathered information about women for bibliographies, data, oral histories, artifacts and pictures, organizing the information she gathered from around the state into timelines and collection files which later became books and exhibits.

Winegarten authored or co-authored 18 books, “rediscovering almost everything ever forgotten about the history of women, African-Americans, Latinos, and Jews in Texas” (Austin Chronicle). Some of her books include Texas Women’s History Bibliography and its follow up, Texas Women: A Celebration of History and Capital Women: Texas Female Legislators, 1923-1999. Other works include a pictorial history of the Jews, and I Am Annie Mae, the oral history and script for a musical about Annie Mae Prosper McDade Hunt.

She was a valued public speaker and won many awards and honors. Her papers can be found at the Center of American History at The University of Texas at Austin.

Ruthe Winegarten died in June of 2004, she was 74.

_Sources:

_{Werden, Frieda. "Ruthe Winegarten, Historian and Author, 1930-2004".Find Articles at BNET | News Articles, Magazine Back Issues & Reference Articles on All Topics. July and August 2004. Accessed August 2008. http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3693/is_200407/ai_n9430195/print?tag=artBody;coll.}

_{Pyle, Emily."Remembering Ruthe Winegarten."The Austin Chronicle. 24 June 2004. Accessed August 2008. http://www.austinchronicle.com/gyrobase/Issue/story?oid-oid%3A217566.}

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Scope and Content Note

The Inventory of the Ruthe Winegarten papers span the years 1991-1997 and consists of a manuscript for Texas Women: A Celebration of History and Capital Women: Texas Female Legislators, 1923-1999 and research notes for the book. It also contains research notes for a book about the Halff family history, that was in the works but never finished. Correspondence, photocopies of clippings, excerpts from book chapters and hand written notes make up the research notes.

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Restrictions

Access Restrictions

This collection is housed at UTSA's Main Campus and must be accessed via the John Peace Library Special Collections reading room. To request access, please use the Collections Request Form.

Use Restrictions

The researcher assumes full responsibility for observing all copyright, property, and libel laws as they apply.

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Related Material

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Administrative Information

Preferred Citation

[Identification of item], Inventory of the Ruthe Winegarten papers, MS 90, University of Texas at San Antonio Libraries Special Collections.

Acquisition Information

Received from Ruthe Winegarten in August 1999 (Acc. 1999-025 and 1999-026).

Processing Information

Processed by Tatina Wulzer, Collections Assistant, March 2009.

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Inventory of the Ruthe Winegarten papers

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