(WBBM NEWSRADIO) -- A Loyola University professor has been named to the committee of scholars helping shape the Smithsonian American Women’s History Museum in Washington DC.
Leaders of the museum have not finalized where along the mall it will be built, but they are constructing the museum’s organizational and philosophical pillars.
Loyola history professor Michelle Nickerson said she and others on the committee aim to create a space that shows women’s experiences. They will not be designing the exhibits, she said.
“Our job is to look at it before it goes out there to make sure it’s correct and to make sure that it is doing that work of representing American women,” she tells WBBM Newsradio.
She points to a network of women in Seattle who bartered and helped feed people during the Great Depression as an example of history many Americans may not know about. These “meat strikes” helped reduce prices, she said.
While Nickerson is the only committee member from a Midwestern university, she said the museum’s leaders want to ensure all areas of women’s history are represented.
The committee will hold its first in-person meeting in Washington in two weeks during Women’s History Month.
Members of the Advisory Council include athlete Billie Jean King, designer Tory Burch, actress Lynda Carter and former U.S. Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker.
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