Carolyn Whitehorn Papers

Collection

Identifier: WHIT

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

Carolyn Whitehorn's correspondence includes letters exchanged with friends, fellow artists, and business contacts, often discussing her art work, her businesss "Feminist Forge", and her participation in various events and festivals. Correspondence also notably includes pamplets related to health care for fat patients and materials received from the National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance. Carolyn's presentation papers address the subjects of creating bronze sculptures, being a lesbian artist, and how craftwomen influence culture. The Events and Festivals papers include materials from the National Women's Music Festival, her personal art showcase, and a variety of other events hosted for the craftswomen, feminist, and lesbian communities.

The collection includes materials from Ruth Barrett of the Goddess Movement, the Lesbian Visual Artists (LVA) organization, the Michigan Womyn's Music Festival Crafts Show in 1997, "Heart's Desire: A Novel of Suspense by Cheryl Nassar", the University of Cincinnati "Survey of Lesbian Identity Development", "Voices of Campfest: The Collected Interviews by Bonnie Morris", and "The Feather Path: A Healing Journey of Vision" by Abby Willowroot and Atoya. Additionally, it contains promotional flyers for the Craftswimmin Mutual Aid Society, newsletters for DINAH and the June L. Mazer Lesbian Collection Summer 1998, along with miscellaneous photographs, Carolyn's personal calendars from 1990 and 1996-1997, and an art print.

Dates

Creation: 1988-2003

Conditions Governing Access

There are no restrictions on the collection. The collection is open for research.

Conditions Governing Use

Property rights to the physical objects belong to the June L. Mazer Lesbian Archives. All other rights, including copyright, are retained by the creators and their heirs. It is the responsibility of the researcher to determine who holds the copyright and pursue the copyright owner or heir for permission to publish where the June L. Mazer Lesbian Archives do not hold the copyright.

Biographical / Historical

Carolyn Whitehorn was born in Santa Ana in 1936 and raised in Burbank, CA where she attended John Burroughs High School. She attended UCLA for college to study pre-med and met Carl Dietz, who she married in 1957 and had six children with. For his military career, their family moved to Germany, Arizona, and eventually Laguna Beach where Whitehorn then spent fourteen years. During this period, she reignited her childhood love of carving and began crafting jewelry and sculptures that then evolved into her livelihood of working as a custom jeweler. After a domestic violence incident between Carl and her son, Carolyn kicked out her husband and became the sole breadwinner of their family, supporting herself and her children through her craft.

Whitehorn became a feminist activist in the 1970s after there was a series of assaults on girls in her community. She proceeded to serve on a police advisory committee and founded a chapter of the National Organization for Women. In 1978, after fourteen years in Laguna Beach, she sold her home and business and relocated to Willits in Northern California where she bought twenty acres of land and lived off grid in a camper. At this point in her life, she shifted from crafting jewelry back to sculpture and opened a storefront in town. In 2000, Whitehorn married Isis Coble and remained married until Coble passed in 2012.

Throughout her life, Whitehorn participated in many feminist events and women’s music over the course of multiple decades,selling her art until she retired from traveling and had a career in web design and hosting. Her businesses included Sayansidi Jewelry, The Feminist Forge, The Forge, CWhitehorn Sculptor, Goddess Hosting, and Whitehorn Web Design. Whitehorn was also notably involved in the Goddess Movement, which is reflected in the personal correspondence and materials included in this collection. Carolyn Whitehorn passed on October 17, 2023.

Sources:

Willits Weekly, Issue from Thursday, October 23, 2023.

"Forging Feminist Culture: Carolyn Whitehorn On Sculpting, Homesteading, And Identity" by Gillian Kendall, Curve Magazine

"Forging Feminist Culture: Carolyn Whitehorn On Sculpting, Homesteading, And Identity (Part 2)" by Gillian Kendall, Curve Magazine

Extent

0.96 Linear Feet (2 boxes; B1 is 1/2 file box, B2 is 35mm slide file box containing sculpture and button)

Language of Materials

English

Additional Description

Abstract

Carolyn Whitehorn was an artist known for crafting and selling jewelry with feminist and lesbian motifs, as well as an activist in lesbian and feminist rights movements during the 20th and 21st centuries. This collection includes a range of her personal correspondence, calendars, materials from events and organizations she was involved in, and a sculpture she created.

Immediate Source of Acquisition

Unknown

Separated Materials

Whitehorn's collection notably included copies of Lesbian Connection Magazine spanning from 1985-2018 and a variety of other lesbian and feminist periodicals, which are now located in the Mazer Archive's periodicals colelction.