Photo by Lisa Abitbol

With Pride

Warmest congratulations on your piece “Support Across the Rainbow” (spring 2021), and to Wellesley for hiring AJ Guerrero to coordinate its LGBTQ+ program! I feel it is a fitting bookend to the piece I wrote for the summer 1984 issue, “Purple Balloons on Market Street,” in which I wrote of my experience as the mother of a lesbian daughter. To illustrate how far Wellesley has come in the last 37 years, the editor of Wellesley at the time felt she should get the approval of [President Keohane], knowing that the piece would stir up controversy and might offend donors. Fortunately, [President Keohane] authorized the printing of the article, though it was indeed controversial, as reflected in a year’s worth of letters to the editor, about equally split between pro and con.

Constance Shepard Jolly ’55, Oakland, Calif.

Spotted by the Shore

I’m writing with a small correction to the spring 2021 issue. On page 38, there is a full page photo labeled “A sunny spring day draws students to the shores of Lake Waban” that is identified as 1968. I can confirm that those exposed thighs belong to me! I’m chatting with Carol DeGraff Morton, both of us are class of 1982, so this couldn’t have been taken before the fall of 1978.

Carol and I both lived in Stone our first year, and our lifelong friendship began there. We have managed to share plenty of major life events and activities, but we spend most of our time sitting around gabbing, as captured in this photo.

Credit to Paula Mahon (also class of 1982) for letting me know that we had made it into the magazine, even if the date was a bit off.

Jane Weeks ’82, Salem, Mass.

Support University Presses

Thank you for the excellent cover story “Latinx Photographers in Focus” (summer 2021), made the more impactful by the interviewer’s relationship to the subject. I wish, however, the publisher, University of Washington Press, had been acknowledged. University presses are one of the few remaining truly independent publishers, and it’s important to highlight and support their work whenever possible!

[To learn more about Latinx Photography in the United States by Elizabeth Ferrer ’80, published by the University of Washington Press, click here.]

Barbara Gleeson Johns ’64, Art historian and author, Chair, Advisory Board, University of Washington Press, Seattle