Mary Ann Weston (1940- ) Papers

The Mary Ann Weston Papers fill four boxes and span the years 1974 to 2004. The papers mainly document the later years of Weston’s career at Northwestern (1980s through 1990s), with the bulk of the materials comprising records of Weston’s work on Medill and University committees, and her teaching files. A few presentations and a grant proposal are also included. Throughout, whether in terms of curriculum development or committee work, the papers reflect Weston’s concern to include and address the issues of women and minorities, and to ensure that journalism students learned how to incorporate these issues into their reporting.

Biographical information is limited to Weston’s page on the Medill School of Journalism web site.

Committee files, spanning the years 1995 to 2001, typically include the charge to the committee, communication among committee members, meeting agendas, draft reports, and comments from non-committee members.

Papers and presentations include two papers presented or submitted to the American Journalism Historians Association and a speech Weston delivered at a Northwestern event, "Rock against Bigotry" (held at the Northwestern landmark known as "the Rock" in 1996). Also included is the proposal, drafts, supporting paperwork (such as examples from earlier years), and correspondence relating to the proposal to the Alumnae of Northwestern in 1998.

Teaching files begin with files on courses taught outside the regular Medill curriculum--a course for high school journalism teachers, National High Institute summer courses--and a file on the development of the "History and Society" curriculum. These folders typically contain opening remarks, syllabi, handouts (including a few examples of coursepacks), exams, lecture notes, curriculum plans, and assignments. Since a number of courses involved guest lecturers and lab instructors, or were team-taught to some extent, material relating to or created by other faculty may be included. Materials in the folders are in rough chronological order.