Digital Archive

Digital Feminist Archives, Barnard College

This archive offers a snapshot of feminist history in the 1960s and 1970s, the institutionalization of women’s centers and women’s studies as an academic discipline, and feminist struggles taking place at colleges and universities, in healthcare and social service centers, in political organizations and neighborhood meetings across the country.

Lesbian Herstory Archives

The Lesbian Herstory Archives exists to gather, preserve and provide access to records of Lesbian lives and activities. Doing this also serves to uncover and document our herstory previously denied to us by patriarchal historians in the interests of the culture that they served. The existence of the Archives will thus enable current and future generations to analyze and reevaluate the Lesbian experience.

Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution

The Archives of American Art is the largest collection of primary resources documenting the history of the visual arts in the United States. More than 20 million items of original material are housed in the Archives' research centers in Washington, D.C., and New York City. As a research center within the Smithsonian Institution, the Archives houses materials related to a variety of American visual art and artists. 

Special Collections, Bryn Mawr College

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Special Collections manages Bryn Mawr College’s holdings of rare books, manuscripts, art works, cultural artifacts, rock and mineral collection, and the College’s archives within the framework of the overall College mission. Special Collections promote teaching and learning with the collections through class visits, research project support, internships, public programs, and exhibitions.  

Spelman College Archives

As one of two remaining historically, Black colleges founded to specifically educate women of the African Diaspora, Spelman College has a rich archival legacy going back to its founding. The Spelman College community has had an ongoing and strong interest in documenting the history of the College. This interest has manifested itself in a continuing commitment to the preservation of its administrative records as well as collecting letters, photographs, audio, documents, personal papers, monographs, and other material created by Spelman College graduates, faculty, staff and affiliates. The campus remains an integral part of Atlanta’s educational landscape, and the archives document the crucial history of one of the nation’s foremost educational institutions. The Spelman college archives and special collections serve as a microcosm of activities in Atlanta’s Black communities and facilitate a deeper understanding of the activities and issues affecting Black communities and internationally.

Friedman Feminist Press Collection, Colorado State University

The most extensive collection of books in the Rocky Mountain West published by feminist presses, the FFPC includes books and periodicals published by the Women's Press Collective, Shameless Hussy Press, Diana Press, Daughters, Inc., Naiad Press, and Kitchen Table: Women of Color Press, Spinsters Ink, The Feminist Press, Seal Press, and Firebrand Press.  Providing unique sources in feminist/lesbian literature and second-wave feminism, the collection archives multi-genre works of fiction, poetry, memoirs, and essays by feminist publishers of the 1960s through the 1980s that brought women and women's words out into the world. The feminist press movement not only pushed the edge of mainstream publishing to reflect feminist and lesbian lives in print but also formed an essential arm of the growing women's liberation movement, furthering activism committed to the larger political and social changes that advanced women's lives

The Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Columbia University

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The Rare Book & Manuscript Library is Columbia University’s principal repository for special collections. We collect, preserve, describe, promote, and provide access to the material evidence of diverse individuals and activities in alignment with the University’s research and teaching mission. We build and steward deep collections in select subject areas and connect them to a global audience through reference, teaching, exhibitions, publications, and public programs.  

Sallie Bingham Center for Women’s History & Culture, Duke University

The Sallie Bingham Center for Women's History and Culture acquires, preserves, and makes available to a large population of researchers published and unpublished materials that reflect the public and private lives of women past and present. 

David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Duke Unviersity

The David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library builds distinctive collections of original materials and preserves them for use on campus and around the world. In support of Duke University’s mission of “knowledge in service to society,” we collect a diversity of voices in a wide range of formats, with a focus on our signature areas of strength. Our innovative use of technology, expert description and cataloging, tailored reference and instructional services, and engaging public programming provide a variety of ways to discover our holdings. We invite students, scholars, and the general public to explore the world through our unique collections.

Fales Library And Special Collections, New York University

The Fales Library and Special Collections comprises over 350,000 volumes of books and other printed materials; more than 11,000 linear feet of archives, and over 100,000 individual and unique media elements.

Women Working, 1800-1930 - CURIOSity Digital Collections, Harvard University

The Women Working, 1800-1930 - CURIOSity Digital Collectionsis 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.

June L. Mazer Lesbian Archives

The June L. Mazer Lesbian Archives is a vital force in collecting, preserving, and uplifting lesbian, feminist, and queer women's history. The Mazer provides academics, researchers, creatives, and the community a space to access and explore the past while paving the way for future generations to understand and create their own legacy.  The Archive includes personal papers, organizational papers, photographs, periodicals, subject files, books, audiovisual materials, and ephemera spanning decades creating a living record of community activism, creativity, resilience, and love.

The Women’s Library, London School of Economics and Political Science

The Women’s Library is the oldest and largest library in Britain devoted to the history of women’s campaigning and activism. It was officially inaugurated as the Library of the London Society for Women’s Service in 1926 and it had two aims: to preserve the history of the women’s suffrage movement, and to provide a resource for newly-enfranchised women to take their place in public life. The books and archives deposited in the early decades bear witness to the activities of the London Society and to the interests of its members, both as participants in the campaigns of the women’s movement of their day, and as individuals following their own professional pursuits.

New York Public Library

The New York Public Library (NYPL) is a public library system in New York City. With nearly 53 million items and 92 locations, the New York Public Library is the second-largest public library in the United States behind the Library of Congress and one of the largest public libraries in the world. It is a private, non-governmental, independently managed, nonprofit corporation operating with both private and public financing.

Barnard Center for Research on Women

In 1971, Barnard students, faculty, and staff founded the Barnard Women’s Center, the first of its kind in the country. BCRW’s founding took place in the midst of feminist, Black freedom, anti-war, and Third World Liberation movements, international student mobilizations, and the parallel creation of Black studies, ethnic studies, and women’s studies programs at universities across the country. For more than fifty years, BCRW has built a bridge between students, scholars, activists, artists, neighbors, and our communities beyond New York through public events, publications, multimedia projects, and working groups.

Special Collections and University Archives, Rutgers University Libraries

Rutgers University Special Collections and University Archives collects, preserves, and makes available primary sources of a rare, unique, or specialized nature to support advanced study and research in the humanities and social sciences. The collections focus on the social, cultural, economic, and political life of New Jersey. There are also significant holdings of broadsides and ephemera, genealogical resources, maps, newspapers, photographs, and prints documenting many aspects of American history. Source

Special Collections & Archives, San Jose State University

SJSU Special Collections & Archives acquires, preserves, arranges, describes, and provides access to its rich, diverse holdings of rare and unique books, manuscript collections, institutional records, and other primary sources to support the diverse teaching and research needs of students, faculty, staff, and the larger SJSU community. The Department is the central repository for the history of San José State University and has a large collection of university, faculty, and student publications, administrative records, photographs, and ephemera. Of particular interest are materials of archival value pertaining to California State Politics, Social Activism, Chicano History and Culture, Women’s Studies, LGBTQ Studies, California and U.S. History, and other holdings of local, regional, and national significance.

Schlesinger Library, Harvard University

The Schlesinger Library illuminates the lives of American women past and present through its collections, research support, public programming, and exhibitions. One of the special collections libraries within the Harvard Library—the oldest library system in the United States—the Schlesinger Library is considered the leading center for scholarship on the history of women in the United States, with collections that span civil rights and feminism, health and sexuality, work and family life, education and the professions, and culinary history and etiquette. The Library is committed to expanding its holdings by and about women of all ethnicities, political philosophies, and socioeconomic backgrounds. Open to the public, the Library welcomes all visitors.

Sophia Smith Collection of Women's History, Smith College

Founded in 1942, the Sophia Smith Collection (SSC) is one of the most significant collections of women’s history in the United States that focuses on women working on behalf of other women and gender minorities. The SSC has substantive strengths in women’s reproductive rights and justice, women’s liberation movements, suffrage and civil rights, community activism, iconoclast creators, women’s economic justice, lesbian and queer communities, and women’s environmental justice. It is a collection that reflects the diversity and complexity of women’s lives and identities through the lens of social, political, and cultural change, and gender justice.

The Museum of Modern Art Library

The Museum of Modern Art Library is a comprehensive collection devoted to modern and contemporary art. The noncirculating collection documents painting, sculpture, drawings, prints, photography, architecture, design, performance, video, film, and emerging art forms from 1880 to the present (from 1830 for photography). The Library’s holdings include approximately 400,000 books and exhibition catalogs, over 1,000 periodical titles, and over 90,000 files of ephemera about individual artists and groups. MoMA’s Library Catalog includes records for all material in the Library, including books, periodical titles, exhibition catalogues, pamphlet files, artists’ books, special collections materials, and electronic resources. Primary source collections are held by the Museum Archives, a separate department. The Library is a founding member of the New York Art Resources Consortium (NYARC).

The National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA), 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. The bulk of the collection is derived from the library of Carrie Chapman Catt, president of NAWSA from 1900-1904, and again from 1915-1920. Additional materials were donated to the NAWSA Collection from the libraries of other members and officers, including Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, Lucy Stone, Alice Stone Blackwell, Julia Ward Howe, Elizabeth Smith Miller, and Mary A. Livermore.

Glasgow Women’s Library

Glasgow Women's Library is a public library, registered company and charity based in the Bridgeton area of Glasgow, Scotland. It is the only accredited museum dedicated to women's history and provides information relevant to women's culture and achievements.