Bertha Yerex Whitman

Bertha Yerex Whitman (1892–1984) was an American architect who was the first woman to graduate in architecture from the University of Michigan. She had a long career as an architect in Illinois, especially around Evanston and Glencoe.

Early life and education

Bertha Louise Yerex was born in Newaygo, Michigan, in 1892, the middle of three daughters of Charles Napier Yerex and Emma Retta (Giles) Yerex. Her father was the town's train station master and telegrapher. She received a teaching certificate from Eastern Michigan University in 1911 and went on to teach at the local elementary school for two years. Prompted by an aunt who taught her to design quilts, as well as by her own mathematical inclinations, she took a correspondence course in mechanical drafting. This led her to decide on a career in architecture.

She entered the University of Michigan College of Architecture and Design in 1914. She later recalled that the dean had initially told her she would not be welcome in the program, but she enrolled anyway. While at the university, she was a cofounder of the T-Square Society, a student club for women engineers and architects. When America entered World War I and most of her male classmates enlisted in the army, she took a leave from the college to support the war effort and so that she would be able to graduate with her classmates. During her two-year hiatus from school, she worked in Detroit, Michigan, as the Dodge Brothers Company's first woman draughtsperson. After the war, she returned to her studies and in 1920 became the college's first women architecture graduate.

Bertha

Bertha is a female Germanic name, from Old High German berhta meaning "bright one".

The name occurs as a theonym, surviving as Berchta, a figure in Alpine folklore connected to the Wild Hunt, probably an epithet of *Frijjō in origin.

Bertha appears as a Frankish given name from as early as the 6th century. The monothematic Bertha as a given name may however not originate with the theonym but rather as a short form of dithematic given names including the "bright" element. This is notably the case with the mother of Charlemagne, Bertrada (properly berht-rada "bright counsel") called "Bertha Broadfoot". Carolingian uses of the name Bertha, as in the case of Bertha, daughter of Charlemagne and Bertha, daughter of Lothair II, are in this tradition.

In modern times, the name is associated with machines that are abnormally large, and many large machines are nicknamed Bertha. This is largely because of the World-War I howitzer known as Big Bertha.

Women named Bertha include:

Bertha (TV series)

Bertha is a British stop motion-animated children's television series about a factory machine of that name, comprising 13 episodes that aired from 1985 to 1986. Other major characters in the series were Mr Willmake (factory owner), Mr Sprott (Bertha's chief designer) and Tracy (Mr Sprott's young assistant). All the characters were designed by Ivor Wood, and the series was produced by his company, Woodland Animations. It was broadcast on BBC Television.

A series of six storybooks based on Bertha was published by André Deutsch at the same time as the series was broadcast. They were adapted by Eric Charles and illustrated by Steve Augarde, who was also responsible for the artwork and music in the children's series Bump.

Plot

The series is set in an industrial estate occupied by the Spottiswood & Company factory, a small manufacturing plant producing a wide range of goods ranging from cuckoo clocks to windmill money boxes. Each episode focuses on a machine called Bertha that can produce any item requested of her. In each episode the factory experiences a crisis affecting its daily production schedule, which Bertha invariably solves with the help of her factory worker friends.

Bertha (drag boat)

Bertha is a steam powered boat built in 1844 to remove silt from the Port of Bridgwater in Somerset, England. It is the oldest operational steam vessel in Britain, and possibly in the world. It is part of the National Historic Fleet.

The boat was built, of riveted iron, in Bristol by Lunnel, G & Co copying a design, by John McLean, developed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel to deal with silt in the Floating Harbour. It is a Bed leveler or plough dredger, with a large metal blade, which could be lowered at the stern of the boat, below the water similar to a bulldozer on land.

Bertha is 50 feet (15 m) long and 15.5 feet (4.7 m) wide, with a tonnage of 60 tons. The power is from a coal fired single cylinder steam engine providing steam at 40 pounds per square inch (280 kPa). A large flywheel and drive shaft drove a single-reduction spur wheel drive. It moved by being pulled along chains anchored on the quay.

Bertha worked in Bridgwater Docks, after the connection of the Bridgwater and Taunton Canal to the River Parrett, from 1844 until 1969. The vessel was initially owned by the Great Western Railway and then British Railways. She was then taken to the Exeter Maritime Museum. In 1997 it moved to the World of Boats at Eyemouth where it is being restored.

Whitman

Whitman could refer to:

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Whitman, Massachusetts

Whitman is a town in Plymouth County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 14,489 at the 2010 census. It is notable as being the place where the chocolate chip cookie was invented.

History

Whitman was first settled by Europeans in 1670 and was officially incorporated in 1875. Prior to becoming Whitman, it was formally the southern parish of the town of Abington. The new name, Whitman, was taken from Augustus Whitman, whose family who grew up in South Abington, and was adopted in 1886. Though before adopting the name Whitman, the small town was known as Little Comfort.

Whitman has a rich history that is deeply rooted in the shoemaking industry. Regal Shoe and Bostonian Shoe are perhaps the most notable. At one time there were over 20 shoe factories and related factories making metal shanks in town. There are a few abandoned factories left, and some have been turned into condominiums.

In the late 1930s, Ruth Graves Wakefield invented chocolate chip cookies in Whitman at the Toll House Inn on Bedford Street. The Toll House burned completely on New Year's Eve 1984, in a fire that originated in the kitchen. The inn was not rebuilt. The site is marked with a historical marker, and that land is now home to a Wendy's restaurant and Walgreens pharmacy, with the Toll House sign still in existence. The former Whitman Savings Bank was also the first in the country to offer savings bank life insurance (SBLI). Whitman is the home of the famous Peaceful Meadows Ice Cream, as well as the former home of Saftler's Inc., one of the oldest and largest independently owned fabric stores in the country, which closed in June 2011. In 1964 The Venus Cafe was founded by former professional wrestler Peter Drosos, who fought under the name Pete "The Golden Greek".

Whitman (surname)

The surname Whitman may refer to: