Introduction: Imagining Ursula Franklin as a Reader

There are many different ways to ‘read’ Ursula Franklin’s collection and to consider her as a reader. This exhibit focuses on the different materials that Franklin inserted in between the pages of her books. These materials include, for example, newspaper clippings, photographs, articles, flyers, and letters. The inserts in Franklin’s books are not random; rather, they are intimately tied to the contents of the books. As a reading practice, Franklin curated her books by inserting these extra materials, thus adding more ideas, connections, and perspectives to the stories already present on the page. As a reader of Franklin’s books, you can engage materially with their different textual layers, and “can lift, flip, and look both at and beneath these layers to access a more multidimensional narrative about the past.”¹

There are also connections between Franklin’s book collection and her archive, which is located at the University of Toronto Archives & Records Management Services (UTARMS), on the St. George campus in downtown Toronto. This exhibit explores some of these connections by referencing the links that exist between Franklin’s books and the materials and documents in her archive. One item in her archive is of particular importance. It is a transcript of a tape recording that Franklin made talking about her book collection, what it meant to her, and referencing specific books. This transcript is referenced throughout the exhibit (UTA. Ursula Franklin fonds. B2015-0005/065(12)).

You can navigate through the exhibit by using the arrows or the numbered tabs at the bottom of the page.

Image source

UTA. Ursula Martius Franklin fonds. B2015-0005/001P(03)

Reference

¹ Grace Wetzel, “Layered Feminist Historiography: Composing Multivocal Stories Through Material Annotation Practices,” Composition Studies 47, no. 2 (2018): 20, Gale.

The Women Founders of the Social Sciences (1994) by Lynn McDonald

From Liberal to Labour with Women's Suffrage: The Story of Catherine Marshall (1993) by Jo Vellacott

Ursula Franklin’s collection contains several books on different pockets of early feminist and women’s histories that predominantly feature stories written by and about white women in European and North American contexts. Two such examples are shown here. Franklin inserted an article on Harriet Martineau, an English social theorist, into the book by McDonald, which also includes information about Martineau. Franklin appreciated the work of Vellacott,¹ a fellow scholar, and added to From Liberal to Labour a computer printout of information on another book by Vellacott, which is also in Franklin’s collection.

It is important to note that there are other feminist stories and perspectives than the ones told in these books. There is no sole or exclusive site of knowledge. Franklin was aware of this and noted that "the faces and voices of feminism are diverse and multi-faceted - and so it should be."² Franklin’s collection is not perfect, complete, nor representative of all people, times, and places, nor is it meant to be. Rather, it offers a window on her reading practices and the works that spoke to her.

Image source

UTM Library. Archives & Special Collections. Ursula Franklin Library Collection. ufl 0066; ufl 0003

References

¹ UTA. Ursula Martius Franklin fonds. B2015-0005/065(12) [page 1]

² UTA. Ursula Martius Franklin fonds. B2015-0005/016(26)

Old and Smart: Women and Aging (1991)

by Betty Nickerson

Old and Smart focuses on the topic of women and aging, which may have been of special interest to Ursula Franklin, as a woman who remained active in her work into her nineties. The inserts in this book include two newspaper articles from 1992 about the author, Betty Nickerson, and release of the book. Also included is a letter, dated February 17, 1993, from Nickerson to Franklin. Nickerson provided Franklin with a copy of the book, asking for Franklin's opinion on it.

Nickerson also recognized Franklin and her work in the letter, calling her "a role model much needed by coming generations." Just as Franklin is following and recognizing Nickerson's work through the book's inserts, Nickerson is doing the same for Franklin. Mutual acknowledgement is arguably an important aspect of recognition for Franklin. The final insert is a flyer promoting a conference for older women, which Nickerson helped to organize and referenced in her letter to Franklin.

Image source

UTM Library. Archives & Special Collections. Ursula Franklin Library Collection. ufl 0007

Machina Ex Dea: Feminist Perspectives on Technology (1983)

edited by Joan Rothschild

Machina Ex Dea is an edited collection of scholarly articles that critically examine the social effects of science and technology on women. Different disciplines and topics are covered, including, for example, engineering, ecology, and the effects of office automation. Ursula Franklin was deeply concerned about these topics and thought carefully about them throughout her career, perhaps most famously in her 1989 CBC Massey Lectures, “The Real World of Technology,” which were later published as a book.¹

Franklin tucked several inserts into Machina Ex Dea, including the front cover of and an article from the magazine New Scientist, as well as two scholarly journal articles on science and technology topics. These inserts demonstrate that Franklin read widely and attentively in various formats and made connections between and across different texts.

Image source

UTM Library. Archives & Special Collections. Ursula Franklin Library Collection. ufl 0071

Reference

¹ Franklin, Ursula M. The Real World of Technology. rev. ed. CBC Massey Lecture Series. Toronto: House of Anansi Press, 2004.

Staying Alive: Women, Ecology, and Development (1989) by Vandana Shiva

Monocultures of the Mind: Perspectives on Biodiversity and Biotechnology (1993) by Vandana Shiva

Dr. Vandana Shiva is a scholar, author, and environmental activist who studied in  both Indian and Canada. Similar to Ursula Franklin, she studied physics before turning to the philosophy of science. Franklin was influenced by Shiva's work and was careful to acknowledge and recognize that influence in both formal and informal ways.

In these two books by Shiva, which focus on women, human ecology, and the links between technology and environmental conservation, Franklin tucked in a few inserts. One, in Staying Alive, is a news article about Shiva, the book, and her work with the women in the Chipko movement, a social movement in India focused on forest conservation. The second insert, in Monocultures of the Mind, is a flyer advertising Shiva’s talks as part of the Bertrand Russell Peace Lectures held at McMaster University in 1994. The following year, Franklin spoke at the same lecture series and wrote a quick note to Shiva saying “your Russell lectures are well remembered and I took them as point of departure for my talks. I hope you will find time to listen to the tapes, that are included, so that you see how much you are present here.”¹

Shiva’s work and thought continued to matter to Franklin as she specifically mentions Shiva and her books in the recording transcript about the collection, which was created in 2014.²

Image source

UTM Library. Archives & Special Collections. Ursula Franklin Library Collection. ufl 0013; ufl 0083

References

¹ UTA. Ursula Martius Franklin fonds. B2015-0005/011(06)

² UTA. Ursula Martius Franklin fonds. B2015-0005/065(12) [page 4]

Everyone's Guide to the Law: A Handbook for Canadians (1997) by Linda Silver Dranoff

Whose Brave New World?: The Information Highway and the New Economy (1996) by Heather Menzies

Unmixed Messages: Strategies for Equitable Science Education (1995) by Kate Landis

Besides the inserts, another important element of Ursula Franklin's library collection is the inscriptions in many of her books. Just as Franklin recognized the work and achievements of others, other women also recognized Franklin. In Everyone’s Guide to the Law, the author inscribed the following note and dedication to Franklin: “March 1997; For Ursula Franklin: I hope you enjoy my attempt to share the law with people of all ages and with all kinds of problems. Please accept this, with my great respect and admiration for your many accomplishments, and warm personal regards, Ursula. -Linda Dranoff.” Franklin tucked into this book a photograph of her and Dranoff, taken on May 3, 2005.

Heather Menzies, author of Whose Brave New World?, also wrote a personalized inscription for Franklin: “To Ursula, mentor and friend since a long time and, I hope, for a long time to come, love Heather.” Franklin mentions Dranoff, Menzies, and their books in the recording transcript about the collection.¹

Finally, the book Unmixed Messages, into which Franklin inserted an obituary about the scientist Dorothy Hodgkin, who appears elsewhere in the collection, contains the following inscription: “Thank you for your guidance and strength. -Susan Simmons and the gang at Apase [the book’s publisher].”

Image source

UTM Library. Archives & Special Collections. Ursula Franklin Library Collection. ufl 0057; ufl 0052; ufl 0070

Reference

¹ UTA. Ursula Martius Franklin fonds. B2015-0005/065(12) [page 4–5]

Women of Science: Righting the Record (1990) edited by G. Kass-Simon & Patricia Farnes, associate editor Deborah Nash

Harriet Brooks: Pioneer Nuclear Scientist (1992) by Marelene F. Rayner-Canham & Geoffrey W. Rayner-Canham

A Position to Command Respect: Women and the Eleventh Britannica (1992) by Gillian Thomas

These three books stayed with Ursula Franklin for a long time as she referenced them in various ways over a period of about twenty-two years.¹ In her copy of Women of Science, Franklin inserted a newspaper clipping into the book. This clipping, from 1993, describes a research project that focused on the contributions of women to the Manhattan Project, which was the development of the atomic bomb during World War Two, and how their contributions went unmentioned in previous Manhattan Project histories. This clipping acts as another layer to the original text that itself is also highlighting women’s stories in scientific achievement that have previously been excluded.

In 1992, Franklin received a written request from Compass, a Jesuit journal based in Toronto, to complete a book review for Harriet Brooks. Franklin kept this request, which she agreed to, and tucked it into the book. Franklin’s review of this book was published in Compass the following year.²

In 1988, Franklin received an honorary degree from the University of Guelph.³ A few years later, in 1992, she was invited to give a talk, titled “Why Women’s Studies: Reflections on the Impact of Women’s Studies on Other Disciplines,” at the same university as part of its Women’s Studies Lecture Series. Franklin grounds her lecture on these three books in her collection. The video below is a short clip from a recording of that lecture, accompanied by Franklin’s handwritten speaking notes. They are an example of how “she could deliver a long address from very sparse notes.”⁴ The complete recording, Franklin’s notes, as well as correspondence with the lecture organizers and other related textual materials are in Franklin’s archive at UTARMS.⁵

Transcript

The following transcript is the same as the audio recording on this slide. The audio recording is accompanied by three different scanned images of Ursula Franklin's handwritten notes that she created in preparation for this lecture at the University of Guelph, which she gave on September 22, 1992. The notes are written in dark green ink on pieces of white blank paper. The notes are sparse and include mentions of the three books discussed in this slide.

Start of transcript. 

[Applause from audience]. Thank you, Joanna, for that lovely introduction and thank you all for coming out. I'm happy to be here at my adopted alma mater, and I'm also happy that I can talk to you about that question of women's studies that I had formulated for Joanna as: Why do we have? Why do we need women's studies? Now, I want, what I would like to do with you today is to actually explore that question in terms of saying: Why do we have? Why do we need women's studies? What has and does women’s studies contribute not only to the details of our knowledge, but also to the outlook that as an academic institution and as a broader community we would want to have? I want to define very quickly women's studies and its aim and purpose, its roots and motivation, but I also would like to base what I have to say on three recent books, two of them Canadian, which I will quote, and which I brought along in case people want afterwards to look at it. It was, I had to review two of those and reviewing books is not always an unmitigated joy and one runs sort of short of phrases of “We are eagerly waiting the author’s next book,” [laugher from audience] which really [says] “we can skip this one.” And some of those things, which one learns, but this was not a case in point. These were three books all coming out of, or stimulated by, women's studies. One called Women of Science about women who have [done] science but have somehow been lost in the record. One about a totally forgotten Canadian woman nuclear physicist, Harriet Brooks, who graduated from McGill in the 1890s, did graduate work in McGill with Rutherford, whom Rutherford considered the most important woman physicist next to Madame Curie. And I have to admit, before I saw not this book but the first paper of the authors, I had never heard of Harriet Brooks. And the third one comes out of Halifax, Saint Mary's University, a book by an eminent woman historian, Gillian Thomas, on a really nice subject: the women who wrote in the eleventh edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica, published in 1910. And at that point it was the first time that the Encyclopedia Britannica, for its eleventh and very well-known edition, the last edition before World War One, took women as authors, not just as transcribers, editors, but authors of particular contribution with their own name. And Gillian Thomas traced back not only these women in who they were, where they came from, but also how they interacted and what their social framework constituted. All these books came out within a year and all of them were informed and stimulated by the growing discipline of women's studies.

End of transcript.

Image source

UTM Library. Archives & Special Collections. Ursula Franklin Library Collection. ufl 0014; ufl 0051; ufl 0015

References

¹ Ursula M. Franklin, “From Ursula’s Bookshelf,” in The Ursula Franklin Reader: Pacifism as a Map (Toronto: Between the Lines, 2006), 367.; UTA. Ursula Franklin fonds B2015-0005/065(12) [page 1]

² Franklin, Ursula M. “Bookshelf Gleanings [Review of Harriet Brooks: Pioneer Nuclear Scientist].” Compass 10, no. 6 (January/February 1993): 58–59.

³ UTA. Ursula Martius Franklin fonds. B1996-0004/005(01)

⁴ Karen Suurtamm, “Preserving Her Voice: The Ursula Franklin Archive,” Canadian Journal of Physics 96, no. 4 (2018): xiv, https://cdnsciencepub.com/doi/10.1139/cjp-2017-0276 [emphasis in original].

⁵ UTA. Ursula Martius Franklin fonds. B1996-0004/056S; B2015-0005/019(05)

Faces of Feminism: Portraits of Women Across Canada (1992)

by Pamela Harris; with words by the women portrayed

Faces of Feminism is a collection of portraits by the photographer Pamela Harris that focuses on women’s lives in Canada. Each portrait is accompanied by personal essays written by the women in the photographs. Ursula Franklin is herself featured in this book, and a typewritten draft of her essay, along with photographs and correspondence from Harris are included in Franklin’s archive at UTARMS.¹

Franklin deeply appreciated Faces of Feminism and said, “I hope that’s a book to be treasured.”² Franklin inserted five newspaper obituaries of Canadian women into the book, along with an article about the book and a note from the publisher that includes a handwritten message from Harris that says: “Ursula – I am so glad you are part of this. Thank you for your support. Pam.”

Franklin’s practice of inserting extra materials into this book demonstrates her intentional use of it to recognize women’s lives, work, and achievements. The overlapping of stories between the book and the news articles, and Franklin’s connective reading across these texts, are demonstrated by the expansive collage layout of the inserts surrounding the book.

Image source

UTM Library. Archives & Special Collections. Ursula Franklin Library Collection. ufl 0037

References

¹ UTA. Ursula Martius Franklin fonds. B2015-0005/001P(05); B2015-0005/016(26)

² UTA. Ursula Martius Franklin fonds. B2015-0005/065(12) [page 2]

Ephemera: From the Desk of Ursula Franklin

The Ursula Franklin Library Collection includes a box of ephemera, which are collectible items, typically handwritten or printed paper materials, that were originally meant to be thrown away after their initial use. These items can include letters, posters, and ticket stubs, for example.

Franklin’s collection of ephemera contains a variety of materials such as newsletters, pamphlets, magazine and newspaper articles, memos, handwritten notes, and Franklin’s honourary membership certificate from the Institute for Women’s Studies and Gender Studies at New College, University of Toronto, which was awarded to her in 2000. These materials were produced and gathered during, approximately, 1988 to 2007. Some of the items are similar to the inserts in Franklin’s books and reflect the contents of her library, such as the book Dorothy Hodgkin: A Life (2000) by Georgina Ferry.

The layout of these materials represents an imagining of Franklin’s desk and office space as an intricate and interwoven network of recognition that reflects her various intellectual and reading practices.

Image source

UTM Library. Archives & Special Collections. Ursula Franklin Library Collection. ufl 0139; ufl 0153

Coda: Continued Unfoldings

Journal entries: June 23 & 24, 1964

As mentioned at the start of this exhibit, one can look at Ursula Franklin's book collection and reading habits from many different angles and perspectives. Another way to consider Franklin as a reader is her journal entries, which are kept in her archive at UTARMS. Some of these entries include Franklin's personal reflections on her reading, including her habit of reading Bible passages and reading with her two children, Martin and Monica. As these journal entries suggest, there is much more to unfold in Ursula Franklin's life and work as a reader.

The following text is a transcription of the journal entries shown in the image:

Tuesday, June 23, 1964: “Got up [around seven am]. Half an hour reading – John 1-4; Read one passage with Martin; Must try to let him do things with less interference from me. Will try to keep on. Have books ready, be better prepared.”

Wednesday, June 24, 1964: “Up again and read, John 4 and on. Not quite as good as yesterday. I was somewhat restless. I am trying hard not to be impatient with the children and not to interfere too much – but it is hard and it always hits Martin. I wish I had more patience and kindness.”

Image source

UTA. Ursula Martius Franklin fonds. B1996-0004/007(07) 

Credits & Acknowledgements

This exhibition is organized and curated by Ayla Morland. For their assistance, expertise, patience, and generosity, I would like to sincerely thank Claire Battershill, Magnus Berg, Amelia Clarkson, Ellen Forget, Isha Khalid, Tys Klumpenhouwer and the UTARMS Reading Room Staff, Karen Suurtamm, and Christopher Young.