The Beatrice B. Ettinger papers contain correspondence, leaflets, posters, minutes and reports that show women's position in society in the 1970s and 1980s. Continuing Education is the focus of these papers since Ettinger accumulated many of the materials between 1970 and 1992 when she was President of the Council for Continuing Education for Women. This organization established a Center that was based first at Valencia Community College and later at the University of Central Florida. Ettinger also collected documents concerning other organizations in which she was interested that fostered women's intellectual and political growth, such as, the Central Florida Women's Resource Center Inc. and the League of Women Voters. Additional materials provide some personal information about Mrs. Ettinger.
The Eleanor Merritt Collection holds printed materials, lectures, records, news clippings, audio-visual materials, and correspondence related to Eleanor Merritt's life-long career as an artist, teacher, and advocate for community arts organizations. Materials focus on Merritt's life in Long Island, New York and Sarasota, Florida. Her formative years are captured in essays while a college student, planning notebooks as an art history teacher, and printed materials documenting her early artistic career. Her involvement with the arts community primarily pertains to her work with the Women's Caucus of Art (WCA), Women of Color (WOCA), the Petticoat Painters, Community Art in Public Paces (CAPP), Florida Artists Group, Pierian Spring Academy, and as a docent and board member of The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art. There are a significant number of art history lecture outlines and source materials on African American, Feminist, and minority artists.
The Marilyn Crotty papers, 1972-2018 (bulk 1976-1978), chiefly consist of news clippings, correspondence, reports, organizational records, and publications collected by Marilyn Crotty during her involvement with the Florida Governor's Commission on the Status of Women (COSOW). This collection documents the commission's organizational history and its efforts toward the betterment of women in the Central Florida area. The collection offers a glimpse into second-wave feminist activism in Florida and strategies in the 1970s to promote the feminist movement and gain support. Marilyn Ettinger Crotty is a Florida educator, activist, and civic leader whose career included work in public service, local government, and higher education. She served on the East Central Florida Regional Planning Council, the Florida Environmental Efficiency Study Commission, and the Florida Governor's Commission on the Status of Women (COSOW). In 1982, she established Valencia Community College's Center for Community Leadership, a state-funded institute that provided training programs for local government employees and elected officials. In 1990, the University of Central Florida hired her to direct the John Scott Dailey Institute of Government, a position she held until her retirement in 2018.
