HIST 4260 / 5260 - U.S. Women's History

"A privately owned collection amassed over twenty years. It is comprised of more than 1,200 books, objects, correspondence, periodicals, lobbying materials, postcards, and more." --- Ann Lewis Women's Suffrage Collection

"Dickinson had a particularly close relationship with Susan B. Anthony and shared the latter's interest in women's rights and temperance. She also advocated for the rights of African Americans and corresponded with escaped slave and abolitionist orator Frederick Douglass as well as with other notable figures of her time. Although Dickinson did not retain copies of most of her correspondence, she obtained many of the letters she wrote while on national lecture tours to Mary Dickinson, her mother, and Susan Dickinson, her journalist sister. This correspondence described her travel itineraries, her impressions, and her joys and misgivings." age campaign that were collected between 1890 and 1938 by members of NAWSA and donated to the Rare Books Division of the Library of Congress on November 1, 1938. ... Currently, the online collection offers 1,935 digitized items." --- Library of Congress.

(Books, Manuscripts, Magazines, and Newspapers)
The Archives of Sexuality and Gender program provides a robust and significant collection of primary sources for the historical study of sex, sexuality, and gender. With material dating back to the sixteenth century, researchers and scholars can examine how sexual norms have changed over time, health and hygiene, the development of sex education, the rise of sexology, changing gender roles, social movements and activism, erotica, and many other interesting topical areas. This growing archival program offers rich research opportunities across a wide span of human history.

Archives in this library include:

      LGBTQ History and Culture Since 1940, Part II

      Sex and Sexuality, Sixteenth to Twentieth Century

      International Perspectives on LGBTQ Activism and Culture

"The papers of suffragist, political strategist, and pacifist Carrie Lane Chapman Catt (1859-1947) span the years 1848-1950, with the bulk of the material dating from 1890 to 1920. Although Catt served as president of the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA) from 1900 to 1904, during which time she helped found the International Woman Suffrage Association, she is perhaps best remembered for her second stint as NAWSA president, which began in 1915." --- Library of Congress.

Digitized Collections, A-Z. This list presents some of the Schlesinger Library's collections that have been partially or completely digitized. This list does not include all of the digitized collections and materials available, but is a good place to get started.

Digitized historic photographs, advertisements, texts & more from Duke's unique library collections. More than 1,000 digital collections and over 130,000 digital items.

"The papers of suffragist, reformer, and feminist theorist Elizabeth Cady Stanton (1815-1902) cover the years 1814 to 1946, with most of the material concentrated between 1840 and 1902. Consisting of approximately 1,000 items (4,164 images), reproduced on five reels of recently digitized microfilm, the collection contains correspondence, speeches, articles, drafts of books, scrapbooks, and printed matter relating to Stanton and the woman's rights movement. Documented are her efforts on behalf of women's legal status and women's suffrage, the abolition of slavery, rights for African Americans following the Civil War, temperance, and other nineteenth-century social reform movements. Highlights of the collection include an official report and contemporary newspaper clippings relating to the historic 1848 convention in Seneca Falls, New York; drafts of Stanton's memoirs Eighty Years and More: Reminiscences, 1815-1897; and a draft of her controversial The Woman's Bible, which nearly splintered the suffrage movement when published in 1895." --- Library of Congress

"Independent Voices is an open access digital collection of alternative press newspapers, magazines and journals, drawn from the special collections of participating libraries. These periodicals were produced by feminists, dissident GIs, campus radicals, Native Americans, anti-war activists, Black Power advocates, Hispanics, LGBT activists, the extreme right-wing press and alternative literary magazines during the latter half of the 20th century." --- JSTOR

"Over 75 magazines, newsletters, and newspapers created by activists and collectives that helped propel the second wave of feminism from the late sixties and early seventies through the end of the 20th century. Groups represented by these publications include the Redstockings, New York Radical Women, Chicago Women’s Liberation Union, the Third World Women’s Alliance, and many others. Abortion, rape, unequal pay, women in the service, child care, women’s self-help, pornography, gender roles, and many other major issues covered in the feminist press." - JSTOR

"The LGBT collection contains 25 publications that chronicle the birth of the Gay and Lesbian movements in the United States. The gay liberation movement of the 1970s saw political action explode through the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, the Human Rights Campaign, the election of openly gay and lesbian representatives, and the first march on Washington for gay rights in 1979. Frustrated with the male leadership of most gay liberation groups and influenced by the feminist movement of the 1970s, lesbians formed their own collectives, music festivals, newspapers, bookstores, and publishing houses and called for lesbian rights in mainstream feminist groups like the National Organization for Women (NOW)." --- JSTOR

"The papers of educator, lecturer, suffragist, and civil rights activist Mary Church Terrell (1863-1954) consist of approximately 13,000 documents, comprising 25,323 images, all of which were digitized from 34 reels of previously produced microfilm. Spanning the years 1851 to 1962, with the bulk of the material concentrated in the period 1886-1954, the collection contains diaries, correspondence, printed matter, clippings, and speeches and writings, primarily focusing on Terrell's career as an advocate of women's rights and equal treatment of African Americans." --- Library of Congress

"The National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA) Collection is a library of nearly 800 books and pamphlets documenting the suffrage campaign that were collected between 1890 and 1938 by members of NAWSA and donated to the Rare Books Division of the Library of Congress on November 1, 1938. ... Currently, the online collection offers 1,935 digitized items." --- Library of Congress

"The records of the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA) span the years from 1839 to 1961 but are most numerous for the period 1890 to 1930. The collection consists of approximately 26,700 items (52,078 images), most of which were digitized from 73 microfilm reels. These records reflect NAWSA's multifaceted history, including the activities of precursor organizations involved in the abolition and women's rights movements, state and federal campaigns for women's suffrage, the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, and international women's suffrage organizing." --- Library of Congress

"The papers of reformer and suffragist Susan B. Anthony (1820-1906) span the period 1846-1934 with the bulk of the material dating from 1846 to 1906. A volume of correspondence, 1846-1905, consists primarily of Anthony's letters to Rachel Foster Avery concerning the details of Anthony's extensive lecture circuit, her finances, the activities of the National Woman Suffrage Association, and her work on the multivolume History of Woman Suffrage which she coedited with Stanton and others. The file also includes several letters from Anthony to the Reverend Anna Howard Shaw and letters from Wendell Phillips. Although most letters concern suffrage, a few deal with personal and family matters." --- Library of Congress

"During World War II, the Iowa State Teachers' College provided housing, facilities, and training for units of the U.S. Navy and the Army Air Corps. After the 1942 Fall term, the women housed in Bartlett Hall moved to the newly-completed Lawther Hall to make room for approximately 1,000 WAVES (Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service). The WAVES remained on campus until May 1945.

The IOWAVE booklet contains mainly photos, but also includes an essay The Navy at Cedar Falls 1942-45. The January 1943 issue of the Alumnus publication highlights the WAVES, as well as The Hobo Day (cut day) and Dance with "jiving".

The IOWAVE magazine focused on the activities of the WAVES who were being trained at the Naval Training School temporarily located on campus, and the IOWAVE newspaper included many articles regarding the day-to-day life of the WAVES trainees, as well as articles chronicling the ongoing progress of the war effort.

The WAVES photos displayed in this collection show the trainees engaged in a variety of activities, including marching on campus, getting a haircut, eating in the "mess hall", and shopping." --- UNI ScholarWorks

"This collection includes 448 digitized photographs selected from approximately 2,650 print photographs in the Records of the National Woman's Party, a collection of more than 438,000 items, housed in the Manuscript Division of the Library of Congress. The images span from 1875 to 1938 but largely were created in the years between 1913 and 1922. The images depict the tactics used by the militant wing of the suffrage movement in the United States—including picketing, petitioning, pageants, parades and demonstrations, hunger strikes and imprisonment---as well as individual portraits of organization leaders and members. The photographs document the National Woman's Party's push for ratification of the 19th Amendment as well as its later efforts for passage of the Equal Rights Amendment." --- Library of Congress

A vast index to hundreds of women's history primary source archives. LibGuide from the University Libraries of the University of Washington. (Note some resources listed are only available to the U of W community).

"The collection is an exploration of women's impact on the economic life of the United States between 1800 and the Great Depression. Working conditions, workplace regulations, home life, costs of living, commerce, recreation, health and hygiene, and social issues are among the issues documented. ... a unique digital collection comprising over 650,000 individual pages from more than 3,100 books and trade catalogs, 900 archives and manuscript items, and 1,400 photographs." --- Harvard Library

"The Women's and Gender Studies Web Archive collects and preserves online content on topics of importance to the interdisciplinary field of Women's and Gender Studies. Collection priorities include primary sources, first hand accounts, and records of social, cultural, and political movements for gender equality. This archive provides enduring access to resources which illuminate underrepresented perspectives and identities, many of which are not typically found in traditional print resources or in institutions of cultural memory. Sites which document topics relevant to the history, current field, and future directions of Women's and Gender Studies as an academic discipline are likewise collected.

The Women's and Gender Studies Web Archive supplements the physical collections of the Library with content that is otherwise difficult to obtain through traditional acquisition methods. Sites are selected by the Women's and Gender Studies Collection Specialist and Recommending Officer, in consultation with experts in the field." --- Library of Congress

"Archival runs of leading women’s consumer magazines of the twentieth century. User can find everything from canonical records of evolving assumptions about gender roles to fascinating glimpses into the homes, politics, careers and goals of women."

Magazines featured:

Better Homes and Gardens (1922-2005)
Chatelaine (1928-2005)
Cosmopolitan (1886-2005)
Essence (1970-present)
Good Housekeeping (1885-2005)
Home Journal (1846-1901)
Ladies’ Home Journal (1885-2005)
Parents’ Magazine (1926-2005)
Redbook (1905-2005)
Seventeen (1944-2005)
Town & Country (1901-2005)
Woman’s Day (1937-2005)
Women’s International Network News (1975-2003)

There are thousands of publicly available digital archives that could contain useful primary source material for your project. Focused searches using powerful Google commands can locate digital collections based on the descriptions of archives.