The papers primarily illustrate Dr. Ris's work as a physician and feminist: her interests during the 1960s and 1970s in child and adolescent health care, women's rights, birth control, sex education, the legalization of abortion, and her efforts to promote legislation concerning minors' medical consent and Fetal Alcohol Syndrome, during the 1970s and 1980s, respectively. Neither Dr. Ris's private practice nor her work as a teacher at the UW Medical School nor her private life are represented in this collection.
The papers consist of correspondence, news clippings, statements, typewritten testimony, published articles, and tape-recorded discussions and lectures and are arranged alphabetically by subject.
The collection begins with a resumé file which contains several chronologies of Dr. Ris's career and other activities which serve as a more detailed guide to the rest of the collection. Three files of general, professional correspondence contain incoming and outgoing mail, letters to the editor, reviews of articles and speeches she prepared on medical topics, and letters and papers revealing her interest in a broad range of social causes and issues. Such material, while voluminous, does not provide much detail about Dr. Ris's specific activities. Separate files of papers illustrate in better detail her participation in various movements, organizations, and government bodies. For instance, there are separate files of papers, mainly news clippings, about the 1980 White House Conference on Families and the earlier conference in Wisconsin, the Governor's Conference on Children and Families, both of which Dr. Ris attended. Fetal Alcohol Syndrome and Minors' Medical Consent, both illustrating Dr. Ris's efforts to secure passage of legislation, are two of the most complete files in the collection. Dr. Ris's work at the Wisconsin School for Girls is illustrated in files of her annual reports to the State Health and Social Services Board regarding the provision of medical care to School residents, and a tape-recorded discussion of this topic, as well as statements, correspondence, photographs (PH 3868), and files of news clippings concerning the 1976 closing of the School.
The medical licensing dispute files consist of letters and clippings regarding the refusal of the Wisconsin State Board of Medical Examiners to allow Dr. Ris to take the state licensing exam in 1950. Also of interest are files concerning the trip Dr. Ris made to China in 1975. Following her return to the United States she wrote several articles on life and health care in China which were published in a local newspaper and in other journals. Copies of these articles, as well as tape recordings of lectures she gave on medicine and child care in China are also included here.
Other papers include news clippings and correspondence concerning an award Dr. Ris received from Zero Population Growth in 1972; an article on reproductive rights published in 1976; and information and a recording of the recognition party held in her honor in 1984. Additional pictures received with the collection have been filed with the Visual and Sound Archives' Name File.
