Research Guides: Women's and Gender Studies: Primary Sources

Primary Sources

Primary Collections Databases @ U of M

Archives of Human Sexuality & Gender: LGBTQ History and Culture Since 1940
Archives of Sexuality & Gender: LGBTQ History and Culture Since 1940 covers topics including LGBTQ activism and the HIV/AIDS crisis. It provides researchers with the documents necessary to delve deep into the Gay Rights Movement with resources that may otherwise go undiscovered. Repositories for this collection include: Lesbian Herstory Educational Foundation; Canadian Lesbian and Gay Archives; Women's Energy Bank; GLBT Historical Society; National Library of Medicine; among other archives.
Archives Unbound: Women's Studies
Archives Unbound presents topically-focused digital collections of historical documents that support the research and study needs of scholars and students at the college and university level.
Everyday Life & Women in America : c.1820-1900
This digital collection provides access to rare primary source material on American social, cultural, and popular history 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, emphasizing conduct of life and domestic management literature, the daily lives of women and men, and contrasts in regional, urban and rural cultures.
Women’s Studies Archive: Women’s Issues & Identities
Focusing on the 19th and 20th centuries, Women's Studies Archive provides a history of the social, political, and professional aspects of women's lives and offers a look at the roles, experiences, and achievements of women in society. Through a variety of documents such as diaries, letters, photographs, news clippings, organizational records, and journals, it presents a record of the issues that have affected women, societal contributions, social status, and women's movements.

McWherter Library: Special Collections

The Preservation and Special Collections Department houses archival and lower Mississippi Valley regional history materials.

American Association of University Women: Memphis Branch
The AAUW has been in existence for over 100 years and is a national network of university women who advocate for gender equity.
Conversations with Ethel Taylor Maxwell
Ethel Taylor Maxwell, musician and teacher, was born in 1915 in Memphis.
The Essence of Mertie: Mertie Willigar Buckman
Mertie Willigar Buckman founded the Women's Foundation for a Greater Memphis.
From the pen of a she-rebel : the Civil War diary of Emilie Riley McKinley
A personal narrative from a woman living in Vicksburg, Mississippi during the Civil War.
National Organization for Women, Memphis Chapter records, 1970-1982
This collection contains 4 cartons of records plus audio and video recordings documenting the work of the Memphis Chapter of NOW during the 2nd Wave of U.S. feminism.
Papers of Mary Church Terrell
"Educator, author, lecturer. Correspondence, diaries, printed material, clippings, speeches, and other writings, chiefly 1886-1954, focusing primarily on Mrs. Terrell's career as an advocate of both women's rights and equal treatment for blacks" (Catalog record: Notes).

The Memphis Diary of Ida B. Wells This link opens in a new window
Ida B. Wells-Barnett was a 19th and 20th century civil rights and women's rights activist. She was part owner of the Memphis Free Speech newspaper and co-founded the NAACP.
Meriwether Family Papers, 1751-1953 This link opens in a new window
The Meriwether Family were a prominent family of professionals, political activists, and writers in the Memphis area. Elizabeth Meriwether (1824 - 1917) was a writer, publisher, and an active feminist during the 1st Wave of U.S. feminism.

Primary Source Materials

Documenting the American South This link opens in a new window
A digital publishing initiative from UNC-Chapel Hill Libraries. Under "Collections," look for narratives, images, and more from women southerners in the "North American Slave Narratives" and "First-Person Narratives of the American South" sections.
Gertrude Bell Archive This link opens in a new window
Bell traveled the world extensively in the late 1800s and early 1900s, particularly in the Middle East. See her diaries, photographs, and letters.
Gifts of Speech: Women's Speeches from around the World This link opens in a new window
Maintained by Sweet Briar College, this collection provides full text access to transcribed speeches made by women around the world, from 1848 to the present. Politicians, Nobel Laureates, activists, scholars, and more.
HEARTH: Home Economics Archive This link opens in a new window
From Cornell University, this collection includes bibliographies, essays, and the full-text of many 19th and early 20th C. books on the domestic arts: textiles, design, clothing, home appliances, child care, hygiene, housekeeping, nutrition...
Photographs from the National Women's Party This link opens in a new window
One of the many photographic collections from the Library of Congress' American Memory Project. The National Women's Party dates from 1912. Its main two issues were women's suffrage and the Equal Rights Amendment.
The Public Writings of Margaret Sanger, 1911 - 1960 This link opens in a new window
Speeches, radio broadcasts, and articles (published and drafts) of a U.S. pioneer in sex ed, birth control, and family planning.
Victorian Women Writers Project This link opens in a new window
From Indiana University, this collection provides the full text of essays, pamphlets, poetry, historical fiction, eulogies, short stories, nonfiction and much more from a wide variety of lesser-known Victorian era women writers. Includes timelines and biographical information.

African American Women Writers of the 19th Century
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52 rare published works by 37 African American women writers with supplementary biographical material
Ming Qing Women's Writings
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Visit the Harvard - Yenching Library collection without leaving your home. Pre-modern Chinese women authors: poems, verse novels, letters, prose, songs, and remarks on poetry.
Sisters in the Brotherhoods
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A terrific site of recorded interviews with women who entered traditionally male-only, blue-collar professions in New York City. Listen to these women talking about what it was like "to go first" and integrate these professions. Firefighters, electricians, tile-setters, carpenters, and other trades.
University of Tennessee (Knoxville), Commission for Women
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The Commission for Women is a women's advocacy group. Here is a selection of their archived papers, primarily form the 1980s (newsletters, correspondence, event flyers, annual reports, research, and more).
Women Working, 1800 - 1930
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From Harvard University Library, includes books, diaries, magazines, and photographs documenting women, work, and the economy in the U.S. from 1800 to the Great Depression

Government publications

Hearings, acts, and reports from government agencies. Find more with the Advanced Search interface of the library's online catalog. Enter a keyword and limit Location to McWherter Government Publications Department.

United States National Action Plan on Women, Peace, and Security This link opens in a new window

Historical Women's Magazines

To find more historical U.S. women's periodicals, search the index to the American Periodical Series.

Southern Ladies' Book
"Devoted to polite literature"
Women Working: 1800 - 1930: Magazines

Everyday Life & Women in America: c.1820-1900 This link opens in a new window
Digital collection provides access to rare primary source material on American social, cultural, and popular history from the Sallie Bingham Center for Women's History, Duke University and The New York Public Library.