The Tully-Crenshaw Feminist Oral History Project was initiated and funded in 1990 by Mary Jean Tully in honor of her mother, Maude Gresham Crenshaw, in conjunction with the Schlesinger Library. Its goal was to document the founding and development of the National Organization for Women (NOW) and NOW Legal Defense & Education Fund, as well as the role of Betty Friedan in NOW, and Friedan's legacy in the women's movement. Each interview highlights the issues, policies, decisions, events, and participants in NOW’s history from its founding in 1966 to the International Women’s Year Conference in Houston, Texas, in 1977, and beyond to NOW's role in the lives of future generations of women.
In her own interview, when asked her reasons for creating this project, Tully responded: "It starts with the fact that I was always bothered, when we were doing the women's movement, by the fact that almost nothing was being written down...Most of the really important stuff was going on on the telephone...Three or four years ago, I was reading a biography of Mary Shelley, and I was so dazzled by the fact that the author could say, 'On Saturday, March 14th, Mary spent the morning at home, because the weather was very nice. In the afternoon, she was invited to a party...this is what she wore, and this is what they served, and so on.' I found it absolutely dazzling, and I thought to myself, once more, 'Nobody has this kind of information about Betty Friedan.'" (#6.12, page 168).
From the guide to the Records, (inclusive), (bulk)., 1961-2001, 1990-1993, (Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute)
