T-shirt that I inherited from Rebecca Mattis, ’91, was hot-ish pink, with a high polyester count, & worn to my weekend printing classes as an art studio shirt.  If the color ever failed to attract anyone’s attention, the words never did:

The Original Shirt at 104 years

The  older women in my class looooved it the first time they saw it, the younger women didn’t get it, & the dudes who habitually overtook the print stations and the energy in the class shrunk into the corners, soaked their printing papers, unnerved and silent– for once.  I wore that T-shirt every single weekend after that.  I still have it,  ink-stained and ready, in case anyone around me needs a little reminder.

It occurred to me last year that it was time to reissue this shirt, in honor of our Alma Mater’s 125 years, and in doing so remind us that the fight for women’s rights are far from over and it’s important to fund those rights.  Any institution whose mission is the empowerment of women is a direct threat to existing states of power and is therefore subject to financial, social, and other pressures.  I do know that unless we financially support Bryn Mawr it may not exist for its 250th year, so when you buy a shirt I will donate between $1.50-$3.00 per shirt to your class year (or to the McBrides).  As my mother would say to me in Yiddish, ” mein kint, every nickel counts.”

Shirts will be available fore pre-order before the end of March & start shipping in April, early May— in time for reunion.  Oh and you must PRE-order. I am not printing up loads of them and trying to sell them off on Ebay for the next five years.  Shirts will come in all four lantern colors plus purple for the McBrides, all will have white printing on them, or so that’s the plan as of now (but I am always open to new ideas unless they sandbag this whole project).  Cost?  About $18-$20 each with shipping.  I am just finishing up the design for the screen itself, which I have updated with a slightly different font.  The reason pricing is estimated is because I haven’t started production yet, so final numbers are hard to tell but I promise they won’t be more than stated.

Stay tuned for our Twitter updates and payment options, a Facebook something or other, some kind of PayPal functionality I haven’t quite figured out just yet & watch as I  attempt to mangle manage this site entirely through my iPhone.

Risa Goodman (Rice)

McBride, 2005