Forty Years: Moving Foward Gallery Exhibit
This past semester, I had the opportunity to continue my internship as the Oral History Intern at Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast. This year marks Planned Parenthood’s fortieth year in Louisiana. T o celebrate this occasion, I spent this semester working with the Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast team, as well as staff from the Newcomb Archives and Vorhoff Library and T en Nineteen Gallery, to create a public gallery exhibit to showcase the organization’s history.
In the spring semester, I was sent in search of archival material to help contextualize interviews I had conducted with founding members of Planned Parenthood. I discovered that the Newcomb Archives maintains a collection known as the Planned Parenthood Files, which contains organizational materials from the 1980s through the early 2000s. Last semester, we were able to utilize some of these files in a small exhibit at the Baton Rouge Spring Event at Chelsea’s Live. Since that display received very positive feedback, my supervisor, Dr. PetricenSams-Abiodun suggested that we expand the exhibit and create a public gallery for members of the Greater New Orleans community to celebrate and reflect on Planned Parenthood’s journey. One of Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast’s board members, Elizabeth Monaghan, graciously allowed us to use her gallery, T en Nineteen, to house our exhibit.
As the Oral History Intern and the lead intern on this project, I was tasked with establishing a timeline and working with the Newcomb Archives staff and service learners to identify and scan materials to be used in the exhibit. With the help of Bernadette Floresca, the Head of Archives Management and Strategies, Shawna Rose, the Processing Archivist, and several service learning students, we were able to search through the files for documents that help tell the story of Planned Parenthood. The Newcomb Archives staff and service learners did the majority of work of identifying and scanning these materials and uploading them into digital folders. For the timeline, we established four different phases based on distinct eras in the history of Planned Parenthood in Louisiana. We then used these phases to guide our research in different topics including sex education, legislation, advocacy, patient care, and development. Once we established events for the timeline, we used the materials we had scanned from the Newcomb Archives to add visual appeal. Throughout this process, we also worked on creating a digital exhibit to allow individuals who did not have the opportunity to visit the gallery in person to still learn and engage with this information. Bernadette and Shawna were instrumental in putting this together, and I am so happy with how it all turned out!
On November 7th, we hosted the grand opening of the gallery and were proud to showcase our exhibit: Forty Years: Moving Forward. We had a great turnout and it was the perfect time to spend the evening in community reflecting on Planned Parenthood’s past, present, and future at the end of the election season. I even had the opportunity to speak about my experience working on this project, which was very nerve-wracking yet rewarding. I cannot emphasize enough how this was a collaborative effort among so many amazing interns, staff members, and service learners, and how much everyone’s effort paid off in the end.
I have enjoyed learning more about the history of reproductive rights in the state and Planned Parenthood’s role in that journey through this experience. I look forward to continuing my internship in the spring!
