Alice Oelwein was born on June 15, 1934 in Pocatello, Idaho. In Wisconsin, Oelwein married Donald G. McDonald on August 21, 1960. While Donald G. McDonald was finishing his service in the Air Force, the McDonalds' moved to Pasadena, California where Donald G. McDonald finished his work in a Jet Propulsion Lab. After Donald finished his military service in the Air Force, the McDonalds moved to Boulder, Colorado, in 1966. As a community member of Boulder, Alice McDonald developed an interest in the unequal treatment of women in schools when her daughter, Heather, was marked down for improper use of gender reference, which at that time Alice viewed as improper. In addition, her daughter's high school classes were not provided literature written by female authors. During the feminist movement of the 1970s and 1980s, McDonald focused in on the unequal treatment of girls and male-orientation in public education. McDonald's collection demonstrates McDonald's interest in equal rights for women.
The University of Colorado Boulder Libraries will celebrate the centennial anniversary of the Archives on June 6, 2018. This is story #48 in our series: 100 Stories for 100 Years from the Archives!