Library Guides: Gender and Women's Studies: Primary Sources & other collections

Online archives

Archives of Sexuality and Gender: LGBTQ History and Culture since 1940
Includes newsletters, organizational papers, government documents, manuscripts, pamphlets, personal correspondence and more related to LGBTQ communities around the world. Topics include the gay rights, lesbian activism, the HIV/AIDS crisis, and more (Formerly titled Archives of Human Sexuality and Identity) [1940-present].
Defining Gender, 1450-1910
Includes a broad range of digitized documents sourced from 21 libraries. The manuscripts, printed works, and illustrations are grouped thematically and address key gender issues from both masculine and feminine perspectives.
The collection includes ephemera, pamphlets, college records and exam papers, commonplace books, diaries, letters, ledgers, account books, educational practice and pedagogy materials, government papers, personal journals, and receipt books. These are supplemented with a selection of original essays from historians. The thematic areas addressed include: Conduct and Politeness, Domesticity & the Family, Consumption & Leisure, Education & Sensibility, and The Body.
Discovering American Women's History Online
Access to digital collections of primary sources that document the history of women in the United States. [17th century - present]
These diverse collections range from Ancestral Pueblo pottery to interviews with women engineers from the 1970s. Also provides access to photos, letters, diaries, artifacts, and more.
Everyday Life and Women in America
Images (alongside transcriptions) of monographs, pamphlets, periodicals and broadsides addressing 19th and early 20th century political, social and gender issues, religion, race, education, employment, marriage, sexuality, home and family life, health, and pastimes. [1800 - 1920]
Providing access to primary source material from the Sallie Bingham Center for Women's History, Duke University and The New York Public Library. It comprises thousands of fully searchable images (alongside transcriptions) of monographs, pamphlets, periodicals and broadsides addressing 19th and early 20th century political, social and gender issues, religion, race, education, employment, marriage, sexuality, home and family life, health, and pastimes.
Gender: Identity and Social Change
Includes primary sources for the study of gender history, women’s suffrage, the feminist movement and the men’s movement.
Other key areas represented in the material include employment and labor, education, government and legislation, the body, domesticity and the family. The content has been sourced from across the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and Australia.
Gender Jurisprudence and Internationalized Criminal Law Project
A collection of judgments, decisions, orders and other relevant documents from international criminal courts and tribunals that have been coded and made readily searchable for issues relating to sexual and gender-based violence.
This unique collection is a regularly updated, searchable database of jurisprudence and key documents relating to international/ized criminal courts and tribunals. The following courts/tribunals are included: Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia, International Criminal Court, International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, and Special Court for Sierra Leone. Free collections include: International Court of Justice, Nuremberg and Far East Tribunals, and Speical Panels for Serious Crimes in East Timor.
Gerritsen Collection, Women's History Online, 1543-1945
Books, pamphlets, and periodicals from Europe, US, UK, Canada and New Zealand that reflect the revolution of a feminist consciousness and the movement for women's rights. [1543 - 1945]
Indexes over 4700 publications including books, pamphlets, and periodicals in 15 languages from Europe, US, UK, Canada and New Zealand that reflect the revolution of a feminist consciousness and the movement for women's rights.

Her Hat Was in the Ring!: U.S. Women Who Ran for Political Office before 1920
The site identifies women candidates for elective office in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, giving biographical information for each woman, information about her campaign, party affiliation, photographs,and lists of selected resources.
Jewish Women's Archive
Includes photographs, oral histories, and digitized periodicals, as well biographical profiles and other secondary sources.

North American Women's Letters and Diaries
Includes published letters and diaries by more than 1000 women represented are all age groups and life stages, all ethnicities, many geographical regions. Also includes biographies and an extensive annotated bibliography. [Colonial times - 1950]
Include approximately 150,000 pages of published letters and diaries by more than 1000 women. Represented are all age groups and life stages, all ethnicities, many geographical regions. Also includes biographies and an extensive annotated bibliography.

Rise Up! A Digital Archive of Feminist Activism
A digital archive of original publications, documents, flyers, posters, and many other materials representing feminist activism from the 1970s to 1990s.

Sex & Sexuality
Includes research collections from the Kinsey Institute Library & Special Collections and resources sourced from the US, UK and Australia that focus on individual stories and experiences.
The collection makes available papers from ground-breaking sexologists; official records of pressure groups and community organizations; diaries, correspondence and photographs charting the relationships and lived experiences of individuals; as well as erotic fiction, ephemeral materials, objects, videos, public service announcements, legal and government documents, and more.

Southern Women and Their Families in the 19th and 20th Centuries, Holdings of the Southern Historical Collection, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill (HV)
Includes diaries, letters, and personal papers documenting the lives of Southern women and their families. Topics include domestic life, social roles, and the effects of significant historical events on women’s lives in the South.
United States Women's Bureau Documents (HathiTrust)
A collection of full-text US Department of Labor documents
Voices of Feminism Oral History Project
Narrators include labor, peace, and anti-racism activists; artists and writers; lesbian rights advocates; grassroots anti-violence and anti-poverty organizers; and women of color reproductive justice leaders.

Women and Social Movements in the United States, 1600-2000 (WASM)
Collects and analyzes documents, images and other primary resources on the history of women and social movements in the United States. Also includes links to other websites and a dictionary of social movements and organizations.
Contains 110 document projects and archives with almost 4,200 documents, more than 1,000 images, with more than 2,200 primary authors. Collects and analyzes documents and almost images on the history of women and social movements in the United States between 1600 and 2000. Also includes links to other websites and a dictionary of social movements and organizations.

Women and Transnational Networks (NCCO)
Primary sources related to issues at the intersection of class and gender from the late 18th century to the era of suffrage in the early 20th century.
Women at Work during World War II: Rosie the Riveter and the Women's Army Corps (HV)
Highlights the contributions of women to the U.S. war effort during World War II. Records include government documents and personal accounts of women in industrial and military roles.
Women Making History and Culture: 1963-1982 (Pacifica Radio Archives)
Online audio collection devoted to women's history that includes interviews, panel discussions, literary and musical performances, news coverage and other programs broadcast on Pacifica affiliates.

Women Working, 1800 -1930
Digitized historical, manuscript, and image collections related to women's roles in the US economy between the Civil War and the Great Depression. Includes books and pamphlets, photographs and manuscripts.
Provides access to digitized historical, manuscript, and image collections. Explores women's roles in the US economy between the Civil War and the Great Depression. Documents working conditions, conditions in the home, costs of living, recreation, health and hygeine, conduct of life, policies and regulations governing the workplace, and social issues. When completed, the collections will contain more than 2200 books and pamphlets, 1000 photographs and 10,000 pages from manuscript collections.
Women's Studies
This History Vault module focuses on the fight for women’s voting rights through the records of the National Woman’s Party and personal papers of women involved in the voting rights effort. The National Woman’s Party Papers are one of the most valuable collections for understanding the fight for women’s suffrage. Collections from the Schlesinger Library at Radcliffe College collections focus on voting rights, national politics, and reproductive rights. The Margaret Sanger Papers also focus on reproductive rights. The collections in this subject area include documentation on events such as the founding of the National Woman’s Party, the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment, legal cases involving Margaret Sanger and reproductive rights, and the passage in Congress of the Equal Rights Amendment.
Women's Studies Archive
Bringing women's stories to light, the Women's Studies Archive connects archival collections concerning women's history from across the globe and from a wide range of sources.

Other Collections and Libraries

Library collections or archives related to gender and women's studies.

Schlesinger Library (Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, Harvard University)
Emma Goldman: a guide to her life and documentary sources (Internet Archive): this is based on the work of the Emma Goldman Papers, a project formerly associated with UC Berkeley that is no longer active
Sophia Smith Collection (Women's History Archives at Smith College)
Office of the Gender and Women's Studies Librarian (University of Wisconsin-Madison)
Gender and Women's Studies Research Guides from the Library of Congress
Women's and Gender Studies Web Archive at the Library of Congress

Journals & Magazines

Independent Voices
Over 1000 alternative press titles focusing on the 60s, 70s and 80s. Includes publications by feminists, dissident GIs, campus radicals, Native Americans, anti-war activists, Black Power advocates, Latinos, gays, lesbians and more. [1960 - 2000]
LGBT Magazine Archive
This collection will have the archives of 26 magazines devoted to LGBTQ interests including a complete run of The Advocate. Also includes a number of UK-based titles such as Gay News. Provides cover-to-cover coverage. Titles are still being added to this collection.
Women's Magazine Archive
Archive of women's interest magazines including Good Housekeeping, Ladies' Home Journal, Parents, Seventeen and Essence. Topics include family life, fashion, and fitness. Date coverage varies but in some cases goes back to the 19th century. [19th - 21st century (varies)]

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Gender and Women's Studies: Primary Sources & other collections

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