Durham Woman's Club

10/14/2026

10/14/2026

It's WHRC Wednesday! October 14th is National Dessert Day, and we are in the midst of National Cookbook Month - so naturally, our thoughts turned to the WHRC cookbook collection. For your enjoyment today are two dessert recipes from the 1930 "Ames Woman's Club Cook Book" (Iowa), part of the club's decades-spanning efforts to raise funds for a permanent clubhouse: Paradise Pudding, submitted by Alice Iverson, and Lemon Pie, submitted by Belle Iverson.

Sisters Alice, Belle and Nellie Iverson, daughters of immigrants from Norway and Bohemia, were long-time members of the Ames Woman's Club. While at first glance there's not much to discover about their lives, archival research can give us hints at their story. The Ames Tribune tells us that in 1931 Alice and Nellie co-hosted a meeting of the club's "evening division," for example; the census suggests that all three women made their living as teachers and dressmakers at various points, so it makes sense that these working women attended the club's evening meetings. Unexpected resources, like a community cookbook, are another great source of detail. Alice and Belle both contributed several recipes to the 1930 cookbook; a survey of the dessert sections hints that Alice focused on puddings, while Belle's specialty was pies. We're still looking through the book to see if Nellie contributed to other sections, or if she left the cooking to her sisters.

See how cleverly we transitioned from National Cookbook Month to National Archives Month? If you're doing archival research for your family or club, be sure to use a wide variety of sources, and think outside the box; you never know what colorful details you might be able to discover in the records.

And to round out our coverage of October's month-long events, it's worth mentioning that, sadly, Alice Iverson died in 1955 after a year-long battle with breast cancer. Schedule your mammograms, ladies.

GFWC Iowa

10/14/2026

You're invited to the 2026 GFWC Holiday Open House at GFWC Headquarters in Washington, DC!🎄✨ Join GFWC International President Wendy Carriker and fellow club members, partners, and staff for a candy-coated celebration of the holiday season. 🍪

📅 Wednesday, December 9 | 10:30 AM–12:30 PM & 1:30–3:30 PM ET | 1734 N Street NW, Washington, DC

Space is limited — register now on the member portal under the Events tab!

10/11/2026

Meet Bowerbird Flowers and Apothecary, a woman & Hispanic-owned UHill shop filled with flowers, gifts, and apothecary goodies. They also offer in-demand floral services for weddings & events, supporting local flower farms along the way 💐

10/09/2026

October is CyberSecurity Month. Let's look at tips for being safe online.
1. Enable Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) Everywhere: Passkeys, authenticator apps, and hardware security keys protect accounts from 99.9% of takeovers.
2. Use a Password Manager: Generating 20+ character unique passwords for each account prevents reuse and minimizes breach exposure.

10/09/2026

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Breast cancer is the most common cancer in NC women. It is also the #2 cause of cancer death (second to lung cancer). The risk rises with age, so if you haven’t had a mammogram recently, make an appointment!
👊🏾💗🎀👊🏾 #

10/08/2026

Shirley and Becky helped student select 10 books each at Little River Elementary. The books came from Book Harvest! Books in the hands of kids is what it takes! Little River Montessori PTO Book Harvest

10/07/2026

We volunteered at Welcome Baby. Sandy joined us and is interested in the club. Thanks Mary Jo, Lorraine, Muriel, Teresa, Lynn and Sandy. We accomplished a lot!

10/07/2026

In light of the recent coverage of the sexual assault case against Cornell University, the school’s “Survey of sexual assault and related misconduct” in 2025 shows that 35% of undergraduate women at the Ithaca, New York, school reported experiencing nonconsensual sexual contact involving force or incapacitation since entering Cornell. Incidents like this one have been happening across college life (in all colleges) for women far too long.
Do you know whose fault it is and was? Not the victim’s. IT IS ALWAYS THE PERPETRATORS’ FAULT. The common victim blaming that we are seeing even today has been used all too often. ALL rapes are caused by the ra**st alone. Stand with women who have been assaulted. Tell them through action that they are not alone.
#35%is35%toomany
**stsfault

10/07/2026

gfw