Acknowledgments

Novels have been tweeted and blogged, but we could not find a crowdsourced or blogged biography to serve as an example for Lavinia Goodell: The Private Life and Public Trials of Wisconsin’s First Woman Lawyer. So we are very grateful that many organizations and people were willing to support this project.

Our financial and professional supporters include:

The Wisconsin Humanities Council provided a $10,000 major grant to fund the design and development of laviniagoodell.com. The Rock County Historical Society is the director and fiscal agent for the project.

Habush, Habush & Rottier Charitable Foundation, Inc., Madison Wisconsin

Godfrey & Kahn, S.C., Milwaukee and Madison, Wisconsin

Wisconsin Civil Justice Education Foundation, Madison, Wisconsin

The Association for Women Lawyers, Milwaukee, Wisconsin

The Legal Association for Women, Madison, WI

Rudy Kopp, Orfordville, Wisconsin

Diana Rhoads, Madison, Wisconsin

William Tyroler and Barbara Ingram, Milwaukee, Wisconsin

Richard Johnson, Milwaukee, Wisconsin

The Bully Broads (a book group of “strong-minded” women), Milwaukee, WI.

For assisting us with research and development of the website, we gratefully acknowledge:

Sarah Frost Stamps, Beverly Wright, and Steve Bates. Lavinia’s relatives shared family papers and photos, answered our questions, and provided help at every turn. Without them Lavinia’s real image and details of her life would have remained hidden. We thank them for helping us bring her story to life.

Professor Steve Gowler, the preeminent expert on the Goodell family archive at Berea College. Steve met with us, shared his own research, supported our grant proposal, and pointed us toward obscure primary sources that enhanced Lavinia’s story.  

Professor Emerita Jill Norgren, John Jay College of Criminal Justice/Graduate Center, City University of New York. Jill has written extensively on early women lawyers and supported our grant proposal. Her research has helped us understand Lavinia’s experience in its 19th Century context.

Lori Myers-Steele and Sharyn Mitchell, Berea College archivists. Lori and Sharyn guided us through the William Goodell Family Collection and supplied quality images for this site.

Associate Dean Jasmine Alinder, Humanities, College of Letters & Science, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Jasmine helped us flesh out our vision of telling Lavinia’s life story through a website and supported our grant proposal.

Ann Hanlon, Director of Digital Collections and Initiatives, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Ann provided ideas for presenting historical materials in a digital platform and also supported our grant proposal.

Professor Alan Ball, Marquette University, Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Alan helped us procure important primary sources and edited documents and images for the project.

Professor Diana Hoover, University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point and Proprietor of Strong Heart Design. Diana designed the beautiful graphics for this website.

Attorney Susan Tyndall, a shareholder at Habush, Habush & Rottier, S.C. Sue helped brainstorm this project, and like us, thinks Lavinia’s life story is worthy of a miniseries.

Jennifer Motszko, Digital Scholarship Preservation Archivist at University of Wisconsin-Whitewater. Jennifer helped track down Lavinia’s Rock County Circuit Court case files.

Karen Muth Fraley of TEK Consulting LLC. Karen worked magic to bring laviniagoodell.com to life. She also manages its social media sites.

Joyce Hastings, Communications Director for the State Bar of Wisconsin. Joyce, one of Lavinia’s biggest fans, expertly provided just the right support for this project at all the right times.

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