In 2021, Purdue University renamed its Griffin Residence Halls after Winifred and Frieda Parker, whose family led the campaign that compelled Purdue to integrate its student housing in the 1940s, after being denied student housing when admitted in 1946. The Winifred and Frieda Parker Residence Halls are the first buildings on campus to be named for Black alumnae. Purdue desired to recognize the Parker sisters inside the residence halls, and tell the story of their activism. Our team engaged the Parker sister's family and close friends, the Black Cultural Center, and University leadership to shape the overarching theme of the exhibit. At its core, the exhibit highlights the Parker sisters as trailblazers for equity, and encourages Boilermakers and the general public to take action to better their communities.
While a prominent exhibit wall in the Frieda Parker Residence Hall presents the comprehensive story of the Parker family’s campaign for equity in student housing, we aimed to highlight the individual narratives of the Parker sisters within their respective residence halls. Our team developed interpretive panels for both Frieda and Winifred Parker that were installed in each residence hall to encourage engagement from students and visitors.
RLR partnered with Indianapolis-artist Tom Day to illustrate digitially-painted portraits of Winifred and Frieda Parker to use in the exhibit design. The illustrations are inspired by the each sisters’ yearbook portrait from 1950.
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