The collected materials of Mount Vernon’s Patty Ankrum have become part of the Iowa Women’s Archive at the University of Iowa Libraries. Ankrum, who died Feb. 9, participated in the Soviet-American Peace walks in1987 and 1988, The 1987 walk took place in the Soviet Union in June and July, with the American walk the following year.

Ankrum visited the Soviet Union and participated in the 1987 walk, which traveled between Leningrad (now St. Petersburg) and Moscow. About 230 American and 200 Soviet citizens took part in the walk.

The following year (1988), the walk’s route started on the east coast of the US. In Philadelphia, the marchers boarded buses for the Quad Cities, where they joined host families in their homes or camped out. Ankrum joined the walk in Iowa, then traveled to Des Moines, stopping in Durant, Wilton, Moscow, West Liberty, West Branch, Iowa City, Coralville, Amana, Grinnell, Colfax and Mitchellville.

Included in the Ankrum Collection are posters, photographs, newspaper clippings, journals and memorabilia she collected on both walks.

“The Iowa Women’s Archives collects the papers of Iowa women from all walks of life, representing many different experiences and points of view,” said Anna Holland, director of the archives. “Patty Ankrum’s papers and personal recollections of the 1987 International Peace Walk in the USSR and the 1988 Great Peace March for Global Nuclear Disarmament, which crossed the United States, provide a rare insight into the historical moment of the late 1980s.

“We look forward to making this collection available and seeing how students and researchers will use it in the future.”

During the Soviet walk, the Doobie Brothers, Carlos Santana, James Taylor and Bonnie Raitt performed at a July 4 festival in Moscow that was co-produced by Bill Graham. They were among the first pop musicians from the US to perform in the Soviet Union.

The Iowa Women’s Archives holds more than 1,200 manuscript collections that chronicle the lives and work of Iowa women, their families, and their communities. These personal papers and organizational records date from the 19th century to the present. Together with oral histories, they document the activities of Iowa women throughout the state and beyond its borders. The Iowa Women’s Archives is open to the public.