The Newcomb Archives seeks to collect, preserve, and make available records and manuscript materials that document the lives of women, particularly those that relate to women's education, the history of women at Newcomb College and Tulane University, the American South, culinary history, and the work of women in general.
"Awaken your sleeping beauty" (1952)
Primary Source Databases
The following databases contain digitized archival documents, ephemera, diaries, letters, newspapers, books, and more that document histories of gender, sexuality, and women.
Provides a collection of primary sources for the historical study of sex, sexuality, and gender with material dating back to the sixteenth century. Topics include health and hygiene, the development of sex education, the rise of sexology, changing gender roles, social movements and activism, and erotica.
Fiction, poetry, and essays from three continents and 20 countries written by women from Africa and the African Diaspora. Taken together, these works outline the ongoing development of black feminism.
The purpose of the Digital Transgender Archive (DTA) is to increase the accessibility of transgender history by providing an online hub for digitized historical materials, born-digital materials, and information on archival holdings throughout the world. Based in Boston, Massachusetts at Northeastern University, the DTA is an international collaboration among more than sixty colleges, universities, nonprofit organizations, public libraries, and private collections. By digitally localizing a wide range of trans-related materials, the DTA expands access to trans history for academics and independent researchers alike in order to foster education and dialog concerning trans history.
Digital collections of primary sources (photos, letters, diaries, artifacts, etc.) documenting the history of women in the United States. The diverse collections range from Ancestral Pueblo pottery to photos of ethnic weddings from the late 20th century.
Resource for the study of American social, cultural, and popular history, providing immediate access to rare primary source material from the Sallie Bingham Center for Women’s History, Duke University and The New York Public Library -- addressing 19th and early 20th century political, social and gender issues, religion, race, education, employment, marriage, sexuality, home and family life, health, and pastimes.
The collection is especially rich in conduct of life and domestic management literature, offering vivid insights into the daily lives of women and men, as well as emphasizing contrasts in regional, urban and rural cultures.
Documents the changing representations and lived experiences of gender roles and relations from the nineteenth century to the present. The collection offers sources for the study of women's suffrage, the feminist movement, the men’s movement, employment, education, the body, the family, and government and politics.
The definitive cross-cultural resource for information on women's history (1543-1945). Trace the evolution of feminism within a single country, as well as the impact of that country's feminist movement on other countries and their movements.
A digital collection of alternative press newspapers, magazines and journals produced by feminists, dissident GIs, campus radicals, Native Americans, anti-war activists, Black Power advocates, Latinxs, LGBT activists, the extreme right-wing press and alternative literary magazines during the latter half of the 20th century.
Online resource documenting LGBT political, social and cultural movements throughout the twentieth century and into the present day. The collection illuminates the lives of lesbians, gays, transgender, and bisexual individuals and the community with content from various sources.
Contains the personal writings of women of the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries, displayed as images of the original manuscripts. The collection is drawn entirely from the holdings of the American Antiquarian Society.
Contains scripts and monologues by women playwrights living in North America. Also includes playbills, posters, and other primary historical source material.
A resource for research on LGBTQ+ history, feminism, and social movements. Part I covers the Daughters of Bilitis—the first lesbian rights organization in the U.S.—with rare documents like meeting minutes, letters, and early issues of The Ladder magazine. Part II includes materials on broader activism, including responses to Del Martin’s book Battered Wives, which exposed domestic violence as a widespread issue.
U.S. publications focusing on important topics faced by families in the nineteenth Century and broader social themes like anti-slavery, universalism, and temperance. Sourced from the American Antiquarian Society.
Explores changing attitudes towards human sexuality, gender identities and sexual behaviors throughout the twentieth century through various publications.
From the everyday to the extraordinary, these rare diaries and the supporting correspondence describe the travel experiences, destinations and desires of nineteenth and twentieth century American women.
The project has wide ranging interdisciplinary appeal, offering first hand accounts of major historical events as reported by eye witnesses, detailing key interests and themes in women’s lives, providing snapshots of cities, cultures and customs, and charting the rise of modern tourism and the travel industry. Topics covered include: Emigration and daily life, Missionary Work, World War I, World War II, Boxer War in China, Frontier Life in America, Personal Enlightenment through travel, Education and Finishing School, Sightseeing, Holidays and Tourism, Customs, culture and leisure.
ProQuest's Women's Magazine Archive is an archival research resource comprising the backfiles of leading women's interest consumer magazines. The magazines are all scanned from cover to cover in high-resolution color, including images and advertisements
This resource includes: Archive 1: Better Homes & Gardens (1922-2005); Chatelaine (1928-2005); Good Housekeeping (1885 to 2005); Ladies’ Home Journal (1883-2005); Parents (1926-2005); Redbook (1903-2005). Archive 2: Town and Country (1846 to 2005); Woman’s Day (1937 to 2005); Cosmopolitan (1886 to 2005); Seventeen (1944 to 2005); Essence (1970 to 2005); Women’s International Network News (1975 to 2003). Archive 3: Company (1978 to 2005); Cosmopolitan UK Edition (1972 to 2005); Flare (1979 to 2005); Good Housekeeping UK Edition (1922 to 2005); Prima (1986 to 2005); and She (1955 to 2003).
The Women's Periodicals of the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Century, 1733-1844 collection presents 210 U.S. women’s-related periodicals spanning the Colonial through the Jacksonian Eras. Sourced from the American Antiquarian Society.
Women's Periodicals of the Nineteenth Century, 1845-1865 represents 250 U.S. periodicals published between 1845 and 1865 focusing on female authors and publishers who cemented the foundations of women’s active role in American social and religious movements.
The Women's Periodicals of the Nineteenth Century, 1866-1891 collection contains over 230 periodicals published between 1866 and 1891 that range widely in subject matter from religious and cultural periodicals from the South to domestic and parenting magazines from the North.
The history of women in social movements in the U.S. between 1600 and 2000. Seeks to advance scholarly debates and understanding about U.S. history generally at the same time that it makes the insights of women's history accessible.
The collection currently includes 91 document projects and archives with more than 3,600 documents and 150,000 pages of additional full-text documents, and more than 2,060 primary authors.
Sourced from the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library. This collection documents Patricia Lindh’s and Jeanne Holm’s liaison with women’s groups and their advocacy within the White House on issues of special interest to women. Includes material accumulated by presidential Counselor Anne Armstrong and Office of Women’s Programs Director Karen Keesling.
Topics include liaison activities with over 300 women’s organizations, agency women’s groups and program units, advisory committees on women and women appointees; public policy; and legislation and regulation of women’s civil rights in the government and the economy.
Digitized historical, manuscript, and image collections from Harvard University Libraries. 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 hygiene, etc.
An image database of over 7,000 U.S. and Canadian advertisements covering five product categories - Beauty and Hygiene, Radio, Television, Transportation, and World War II propaganda - dated between 1911 and 1955.
AP captures events from history and brings them to life with photographs, audio sound bites, graphics, and text. Content is accessible through a variety of searches – from keyword and category to color and concept searching.
The collections of the Prints & Photographs Division include photographs, fine and popular prints and drawings, posters, and architectural and engineering drawings. While international in scope, the collections are particularly rich in materials produced in, or documenting the history of, the United States and the lives, interests and achievements of the American people.
