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History

ESTABLISHMENT OF THE ARIZONA WOMEN’S HALL OF FAME PROGRAM

The Arizona Women’s Commission and the Office of Governor Bruce Babbitt established the Arizona Women’s Hall of Fame in 1979. The Arizona Humanities Council provided funding for the first two years. The Arizona Library, Archives and Public Records and the Arizona Historical Society conducted research on the nominees and, with the Women’s Commission, staged the first induction ceremony in October of 1981.

1981 – 1991

For the following 10 years, the Arizona Department of Library and Archives and the Arizona Historical Society provided oversight for the Arizona Women’s Hall of Fame Steering Committee and the separate Selection Committee. They collaborated on appointments to both the Selection Committee and the Steering Committee. The Department of Library, Archives and Public Records hosted most of the committee meetings, accepted and maintained files on nominations, and planned induction ceremonies. The Arizona Historical Society wrote and published biographies of the women who were inducted into the Arizona Women’s Hall of Fame.

Nominations for the Arizona Women’s Hall of Fame were sought from the public each year. The Department of Library, Archives and Public Records distributed nomination forms and accepted nominations. Department and Historical Society staff researched each nomination to confirm the data included, and supplemented it as much as possible before forwarding it to the Selection Committee.

The Department of Library, Archives and Public Records sent all new nominations, as well as those nominations remaining from previous years, to the Selection Committee members for review. This committee was composed of 7 to 11 members that the Steering Committee recommended to the Department of Library, Archives and Public Records and the Arizona Historical Society. The Selection Committee met at least twice per year, once with the Steering Committee to review general guidelines and procedures, and again, in closed session, to select the women to be inducted into the Arizona Women’s Hall of Fame. The number of inductees each year was determined by the Selection Committee, however, most years (9 out of the first 11) there were six inductees.

The Arizona Women’s Hall of Fame Steering Committee also met at least twice each year that there were inductions but usually more frequently as planning for annual inductions approached. The Steering Committee was charged with fundraising, budget management, planning the awards ceremony, and filling vacancies on the Selection Committee. There were 10 members of this committee appointed by the Director of the Arizona Department of Library, Archives and Public Records and the Director of the Arizona Historical Society. Appointments included a Project Director, one person from the Department of Library, Archives and Public Records, one from the Arizona Historical Society, one from the Sharlot Hall Museum, two from the Arizona Legislature, and four from the general public.

In 1987, the Arizona Women’s Hall of Fame Selection and Steering Committees met and changed the name and focus of this effort to include men. The new abbreviated name, Arizona Hall of Fame, was adopted, but efforts to interest men’s groups in establishing nominations and selections procedures were unsuccessful, and men have not been inducted. The old name, Arizona Women’s Hall of Fame continues to be used despite the official name change.

The Arizona Hall of Fame Selection Committee and the Department of Library, Archives and Public Records’ staff planned and conducted induction ceremonies through the first decade of the Hall of Fame. These ceremonies were conducted as formal luncheons at major hotels and resorts in the Phoenix area. Attendance was from 200 to 300 for most of those years and consisted primarily of friends and family members of the women who were honored each year. Most years between 1981 and 1991, the Arizona Women’s Hall of Fame Selection Committee voted to induct six women. In 1985, only four women were inducted, and in 1991 the inductees numbered five, for an 11 year total of 63 women who have been honored.

1991 CONTROVERSY

In 1991, some members of the Legislature were upset at the induction of Margaret Sanger Slee into the Arizona Women’s Hall of Fame. Although the honor was bestowed for her work in building hospitals in Tucson, Mrs. Slee’s role in promoting birth control and establishing the Planned Parenthood Federation made her unacceptable to many legislators. Support for the Arizona Women’s Hall of Fame disappeared and there were no inductions after 1991.

10 YEAR HIATUS

For almost 10 years, the only Arizona Women’s Hall of Fame activities were presentations to interested groups about the women who were inducted through 1991, and the 900 square foot exhibit maintained in the Arizona Hall of Fame Museum (now known as the Carnegie Center). Dr. Reba Wells Grandrud and others frequently lectured on women in Arizona history throughout the state during this time.

As the 75th anniversary of the 19th Amendment to the Constitution that extended the right to vote to women approached in 1995, the number of questions about the status of the Arizona Women’s Hall of Fame increased sharply. Interest in restarting the Arizona Women’s Hall of Fame peaked with commemoration of the 150th anniversary of the Seneca Falls conference of women in 1998.

RESUMPTION OF THE ARIZONA WOMEN’S HALL OF FAME PROGRAM

In January of 2000, the Director of the Arizona State Library, Archives and Public Records made a formal presentation to the Board of Library, Archives and Public Records, and was given permission to resume the Arizona Women’s Hall of Fame nomination and induction process.

A coalition of state agencies served as the Executive Committee for the Arizona Women’s Hall of Fame. Representatives from the Arizona State Library, Archives and Public Records, the Arizona Historical Society, the Sharlot Hall Museum, the Governor’s Office for Women, and the Arizona Humanities Council reviewed the standards and procedures used from 1981 to 1991, and adopted similar guidelines for 2002. The Executive Committee established other committees to conduct the nomination, selection, and induction functions associated with honoring Arizona women of distinction.

On October 24, 2002, the Arizona Women’s Hall of Fame Executive Committee and the Arizona State Library conducted induction ceremonies for three women – Mary Elizabeth Post, Maria Urquides, and Annie Dodge Wauneka, as the first of the new series of women to be honored in the Arizona Women’s Hall of Fame since 1991. 2002 marked the resurgence of the Arizona Women's Hall of Fame, and we will continue celebrating outstanding women from Arizona's history with an induction every two years.

In 2004, the following women were inducted into the Arizona Women’s Hall of Fame: Veora Johnson, educator and humanitarian; Louise Lincoln Kerr, violinist, composer and patron of the arts; Winona Montgomery, educator and advocate for the elderly; and Clara Lee Tanner, anthropologist and professor.

In 2006, the following women were inducted: Jessie Gray Bevan, community leader, legislator, and boarding house owner; Lucretia Breazeale Hamilton, Arizona’s pre-eminent plant illustrator; Patricia Ann McGee, Yavapai-Prescott tribal leader, advocate of cultural preservation and economic development; Ethel Maynard, first African American female legislator, civil rights advocate, community leader; and Polly Rosenbaum, Arizona’s longest serving legislator, “First Lady of Arizona Legislature,” and historical preservationist.

ROSE WINDOW SYMBOL

  The beautiful and historic rose window in the Carnegie Center was chosen to be part of the symbol for the Arizona Women's Hall of Fame.

Design by Barbara Rogers,
Sharlot Hall Museum, Prescott

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