EIU Media Relations

Library Programs to Focus on 'Literature of Prescription'

Booth Library on the Eastern Illinois University campus will present “Literature of Prescription: Charlotte Perkins Gilman and ‘The Yellow Wall-Paper’” from Sept. 23 through Nov. 2.

This exhibit and programs will examine a 19th-century writer’s challenge to the medical profession and the relationship between science and society.  Artist and writer Charlotte Perkins Gilman was discouraged by her doctor from pursuing a career in order to preserve her health.  Gilman rejected this idea in a terrifying short story titled “The Yellow Wall-Paper.” The famous tale served as an indictment of the medical profession and the social conventions restricting women’s professional and creative opportunities.

“Literature of Prescription” will include national and local exhibits, lectures and a film screening. Faculty and staff from the EIU departments of English, art, women’s studies and the library will participate, in addition to the EIU Counseling Center.

The program will begin with an opening reception at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 24, in the West Reading Room of the library.  Kim Hunter-Perkins, an instructor at Purdue University, will present the keynote presentation, “Lingering Pigment: The Place of Gilman’s ‘The Yellow Wall-Paper’ in the 20^th and 21^st Centuries.”

The public is invited to attend all programs in this series. For more information on “Literature of Prescription,” visit the program Web page.

The national exhibition was developed and produced by the National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health.

During the fall semester, Booth Library’s regular hours will be from 8 a.m. to 1 a.m. Monday through Thursday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and noon to 1 a.m. Sunday. For more information on the library, visit the website, call 581-6072, or find the library on Facebook or Twitter.

Submitted by Beth Heldebrandt, Booth Library