Welcome! My name is Richard Shewmaker and I am creating this website as a dedication to an ancestor of mine who was important in academia, specifically in teaching about The Humanities. Dr. Louise Dudley had a PhD in English and taught for over 40 years at Stephens College in Columbia, MO, which is primarily a girls school. This project will include information about her influence at Stephens College, both as a teacher and an administrator, her intellectual genealogy (the influences on her scholarship), her cultural and familial genealogy, as well as biographical information detailing the kind of life she lived, the kinds of relationships she had.
Louise Dudley
wow! I’m a big fan of Dr. Dudley. A champion! I was just telling some friends from college (stephens college) that we don’t make enough of Louise Dudley and Maude Adams.
Your great-aunt’s importance was lost on me as an undergrad, but later when I went to get my masters, her work has become key to how I undertake my work as an arts administrator. I’m about to assist someone teaching a masters class on how arts administrators need to work with artists. I already have Dudley on the schedule of readings.
I will forward your page to my facebook listings.
Hi Shanna! Thank you for commenting on this site. As you can tell, this project is still a work in progress, but I am going to be including a lot of information regarding her family history, the work she did at Stephens, the influence she had, etc. I am doing this as part of my Senior Capstone in English at Truman State University.
I am perfectly fine with you putting a link for this site to your Facebook page. I was thinking, since you graduated from Stephens, I could really use your reminiscence of the legacy of Dr. Dudley (e.g what stories are told about her, campus legends, etc.). Would you be okay with sending me your contact info and possibly setting up an over-the-phone interview? Thanks again.