Guides: Subject Guide ~ Women's and Gender Studies: Primary Sources

Digital Collections

Bloomsbury Medieval Studies This link opens in a new window
Includes the Encyclopedia of the Global Middle Ages, 220 scholarly eBooks, incunabula and illuminated manuscripts, images, medieval maps, and research and learning tools for instructors and students.

Defining Gender
Explore gender, leisure and consumer culture through original primary source material from British archives.
Digital Transgender Archive
An online hub of trans-related historical materials collected from anywhere in the world with a focus on items created before 2000.
Discovering American Women's History Online
A database that can be used to identify primary sources that have been digitized. Covers 400+ collections with items from the 17th to the 21st centuries.
The Dovie Horvitz Collection
Over 1,300 images and scanned texts representing objects and printed matter that reflect the lives of women from the mid 1800s through the mid 1900s.
Everyday Life & Women in America c.1800-1920
Features texts of rare books, periodicals, pamphlets and broadsides. These documents cover a variety of themes including popular culture, social history, family life, education, race, class, and employment. There is also an emphasis on advice literature, and on both women and men’s issues.
Gender: Identity and Social Change
Primary sources for the study of gender history, women’s suffrage, the feminist movement and the men’s movement.

Independent Voices This link opens in a new window
Collection of alternative press newspapers, magazines and journals -- 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. Coverage: 1950s-present.
LGBT Magazine Archive This link opens in a new window
Archival runs of 26 of the most influential, longest-running serial publications covering LGBT interests. Chronicles more than six decades of the history and culture of the LGBT community. Coverage: 1954-2015
LGBTQ History and Culture Since 1940 (Archives of Sexuality and Gender) This link opens in a new window
Includes primary source documents from various repositories including Lesbian Herstory Educational Foundation, Canadian Lesbian and Gay Archives, Women's Energy Bank, GLBT Historical Society, and the National Library of Medicine. Library owns Parts I & II.

Library of Congress Digital Collections
The Library of Congress makes more than 2 million items from its collection available online, including images, manuscripts, books, notated music, audio and video recordings, and more.
Perdita Manuscripts, 1500-1700
Over 230 of the entries from the Perdita Project, a collection of "lost" works by early modern women authors; “lost” because their writing exists only in manuscript form.
Popular Culture in Britain and America, 1950-1975
Thousands of color images of manuscript and rare printed material as well as photographs, ephemera and memorabilia from this exciting period in our recent history.
Sex & Sexuality
Unpublished papers of prominent sexologists, sex researchers, societies, advocacy groups and campaigners working across America and beyond during the twentieth century.
Trade Catalogues and the American Home
The wide range of industries and documents covered within this collection allow researchers to explore gender, class, changing social attitudes towards consumerism, and the rise of the American Dream.

Vogue Archive This link opens in a new window
The full contents of Vogue magazine (U.S. edition) in full color page image. Coverage: 1892-present.
Witchcraft in Europe and America This link opens in a new window
Includes classic texts, eyewitness accounts and court records of the trials of witches, anti-persecution writings, works by penologists, legal and church documents, exposés of persecutions, and philosophical writings and transcripts of trials and exorcisms. Coverage: 1500 to 1930.

Women Working, 1800-1930
A digital exploration of women's impact on the economic life of the U.S. from 1800-1930. Working conditions, workplace regulations, home life, costs of living, commerce, recreation, health and hygiene, and social issues are among the issues documented in this online research collection from the Harvard University Library Open Collections Program.

Women Writers Online This link opens in a new window
Full text of more than 375 works by women in English or in English translation published before 1850. Coverage: 1526-1850.
Women's Issues and Identities (Women's Studies Archive) This link opens in a new window
Provides the opportunity to witness history from the female perspective. Highlights include records of Planned Parenthood Federation of America and grassroots feminist organizations, and the Herstory collection (journals, newspapers, and newsletters of women's liberation and women's civic, religious, professional, and peace organizations from all over the world). Coverage: 19th and 20th centuries.
Women's Magazine Archive This link opens in a new window
Full backfiles of leading women’s interest consumer magazines. Titles are scanned from cover to cover in high-resolution color and feature detailed article-level indexing. Coverage: 1846-2005.
Better Homes & Gardens, 1922-2005
Chatelaine, 1928-2005
Cosmopolitan, 1886-2005
Essence, 1970-2005
Good Housekeeping, 1885-2005
Ladies’ Home Journal, 1883-2005
Parents, 1926-2005
Redbook, 1903-2005
Seventeen, 1944-2005
Town and Country, 1846-2005
Woman’s Day, 1937-2005
Women’s International Network News, 1975-2003

Microfilm Collections

Herstory: Women's History Collection
Print Location: Microfilm HQ1101 .H47
Guide: Ref HQ1101 .H47
From the Women's History Research Center in Berkeley, California. The collection includes newsletters, journals, and newspapers published by and about the women's liberation movement, civic, professional, religious and peace groups. Most of the material included was published between 1956 and 1974.
90 reels.

History of Women Collection
Print Location: Microfilm HQ1121 .H6292
Guide: Ref Q1121 .H6292
Collection of pre-1920 literature about the role of women throughout history. From the Sophia Smith Collection at Smith College, the Schlesinger Library at Radcliffe College and other sources. Titles are cataloged individually in ALEX.
995 reels.

Papers of Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony
Print Location: Microfilm HQ1413 .S67 A2 1991
Guide: Ref HQ 1413 .S67 A2 1991
45 reels.

Woman's Suffrage. National Leaders
Print Location: Microfilm HQ1426 .W675 1990
Guide: Ref HQ1426 .W675 1990
Part A of Series 1, Women's Studies Manuscript Collections from the Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe College.
18 reels.

Women's Journals of the Nineteenth Century
Print Location: Microfilm HQ1101 .W65
Includes The Women's Penny Paper and Women's Herald, 1888-1893.
4 reels.

Special Collections - Hamilton College

Woodhull and Claflin Collection
"Woodhull & Claflin's Weekly" which began publication in 1870, was one of the first newspapers founded by women in the United States, by suffragette activists and sisters, Victoria (Claflin) Woodhull (1838-1927) and Tennessee Claflin (1844-1923).
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About "Woodhull & Claflins Weekly"
Communal Societies Collection
A substantial gathering of primary and secondary source materials relating to American Communal Societies: groups of people who have intentionally separated themselves from society in general and live according to a shared set of principles, whether religious or secular, in common ownership of property.
Womyn's History Month Posters
Posters created by students of The Womyn's Center have been produced over the years in celebration of Womyn's History Month.

Please contact Christian Goodwillie for more information or to schedule a research visit.

Christian Goodwillie, Director and Curator of Special Collections and Archives
E-mail: cgoodwil@hamilton.edu
Telephone: (315) 859-4447
Hours: Monday-Friday - 8:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m.