Last week I followed in the Pi Beta Phi Founders’ footsteps. This week I am knee-deep in the founding of the P.E.O. Sisterhood. P.E.O.s who attended the Convention of International Chapter in Charlotte, North Carolina, several weeks ago learned that a pictorial history will be published for the Sesquicentennial in 2019. I have the honor of serving, along with three P.E.O. sisters, on the committee that is tasked with writing the book.
On my drive to Des Moines to meet with the book committee in the Executive Office, I passed through Mount Pleasant, Iowa, the birthplace of P.E.O.
The steps up to the Memory Rooms at Iowa Wesleyan, on the second floor where P.E.O. was founded in 1869.
The Memory Rooms at Old Main Hall are a favorite stop and love looking at the displays. I was able to make a quick visit to the Memory Rooms where this lovely dress is now on display.
The exit signs have the names of places that were important in the history of P.E.O. – Fairfield, Bloomfield, Ottumwa, and Oskaloosa, to name a few – and I try to envision what it must have been like in the 1870s to travel to these towns.
For decades, the supply department of P.E.O. was housed in the basement and the Executive Offices on the second floor of the P.E.O. Memorial Library at Iowa Wesleyan University. Since the early 1960s, it has been in a lovely building on Grand Avenue in Des Moines, Iowa. This is the sign one sees when entering the building from the parking lot.
The book will debut in January of 2019. Pre-orders will be taken starting early next year.
