Ann Arbour Olyniec Papers

Collection

Identifier: AAO

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

This collection contains letters written to and from Ann Arbour Olyniec while she was a college student at The University of Texas at Austin, Saint Mary’s College, and The University of Notre Dame from 1970 to 1974. Olyniec was a member of the first cohort of female undergraduate students to begin studies at Notre Dame starting in 1972. Also included are papers and tests written by Olyniec while she was a student at Notre Dame; letters written home by Olyniec from summer jobs at US National Parks in Fire Island and the Virgin Islands; letters of correspondence with Notre Dame faculty and administrators including past presidents Rev. Theodore Hesburgh and Rev. Edward Malloy, as well as Thomas Schlereth, Professor of American Studies; and a small collection of photographs and newspaper clippings.

Dates

1970 - 1999
Majority of material found within 1970 - 1974

Creator

Olyniec, Ann Arbour, 1952- (Person)

Conditions Governing Access

Collection is open for research.

Conditions Governing Use

Copyright for original material in this collection has been transferred to the University of Notre Dame du Lac. Transmission or reproduction of materials protected by U.S. Copyright Law (Title 17, U.S.C.) beyond that allowed by fair use requires the written permission of the copyright owners. Works not in the public domain cannot be commercially exploited without permission of the copyright owners. Responsibility for any use rests exclusively with the user.

Biographical / Historical

Ann Frances Arbour was born on January 6, 1952 in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. She graduated from Saint Joseph’s Academy high school in Baton Rouge in 1970. That year, she began her college studies at the University of Texas at Austin. Arbour transferred to Saint Mary’s College in South Bend, Indiana for the Spring 1972 semester.

Beginning in the early 1970s, there were proposals to merge the all-female Saint Mary’s College with the nearby all-male University of Notre Dame. An agreement was never reached, but nonetheless, the University of Notre Dame opened its enrollment to female undergraduate students for the Fall 1972 semester. Although women had quietly been studying at Notre Dame since 1917, when two Holy Cross sisters became the first women to graduate with master’s degrees, this 1972 decision was widely understood to be the first time that Notre Dame formally opened its doors to female undergraduate students.

Ann Arbour transferred from Saint Mary’s College to the University of Notre Dame starting in the Fall 1972 semester, becoming a part of this cohort of female undergraduate students to begin their studies at the university that year. Arbour graduated cum laude from the University of Notre Dame in 1974 with a bachelor’s degree in American Studies. After graduating from Notre Dame, she married Peter Michael Olyniec. She went on to pursue a master’s degree in library science at Louisiana State University.