Jeanann Madden with a group of children in Saudi Arabia

Nicole Chinn

My goal with this sub-collection was to highlight and make available some of the personal correspondence sent and received by Jeanann Madden during her time in Saudi Arabia during the Persian Gulf War as a Military Police servicewoman. From 1986 to 1988 Jeanann served as an Active Duty Army member before moving into the Reserves from 1988 to 1991. During her Reserve service, Madden spent time serving in the Persian Gulf War, where she sent, received, and kept records of letters between her and her family and friends. These letters, mainly between Jeanann and her mother or sister, center around the sharing of day-to-day activities, life updates, and other talks that commonly occur between family and friends. Madden also taught 1st and 5th grade before deploying, so the collection also consists of letters from some of her students to Jeanann as well. These bits of correspondence may seem like common letters, but it’s this familiarity that makes Madden’s story one worth telling.

Letter to Jane Dandrea, November 26, 1990

Our collection, Moments of Inscription, focuses on highlighting letters written by women from all walks of life. In making the decision to curate a collection such as this one, we have to acknowledge that archives, in general, are already so gendered and have a tendency to favor telling the stories of men - no matter how insignificant. In “Critical Feminism in the Archives”, Marika Cifor and Stacy Wood describe an article, written by Rodney G.S. Carter, that encapsulates this idea and discusses the “marginalization of certain groups by the powerful and the archival silences produced by their limited access to the archives.” (Cifor and Wood 10). This helped illuminate the unique need to tell Jeanann’s story. The stories of women in the archives are not accessible enough, because no one is telling them, which is why I wanted to make sure that we were telling all kinds of stories by women, not just those deemed “important.”

Letter to Mom, December 09, 1990

When selecting artifacts for my collection, I kept in mind a strategy described by Cifor and Wood that “builds on consciousness-raising” and “the focusing of attention on and the building of knowledge on particular issues of collective significance through the sharing and application of personal and experiential testimony” (Cifor and Wood 10). This idea helped me to focus on attempting to build the story of a person through the experiences described in her letters, especially since much concrete biographical information about Madden isn’t currently available. In an attempt to create this image as fully as possible, the items chosen for this collection consist mainly of letters sent by Jeanann. When they come together, the featured items for this sub-collection are ones that represent Jeanann as I have imagined her through working with this collection - a caring, genuine, positive woman who likes to keep up with those in her life. 

Portrait of Jeanann Madden

Though this is the image that exists in my mind, working with artifacts in the archives can prove to be an experience that ends differently for each person. I encourage others exploring this collection to form their own opinions and attempt to assemble her story in other lights. One of the most exciting aspects of working in the archives, and with the collections curated from them, is the intimacy of the experience. I hope that viewers of this collection will be open to having this experience and are able to form real connections with the material so that Jeanann Madden’s story will live on through them.

Works Cited

Cifor, Marika, Wood, Stacy. “Critical Feminism in the Archives.” Critical Archival Studies, vol. 1, no. 2, 2017.