Arthur and Elizabeth Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America

Arthur and Elizabeth Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America
Name	Arthur and Elizabeth Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America
Location	Radcliffe Quadrangle, Cambridge, Massachusetts
Established	1943
Type	Research library, Special collections
Parent institution	Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, Harvard University

Arthur and Elizabeth Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America is a specialized research library and archive located at the Radcliffe Quadrangle in Cambridge, Massachusetts, devoted to documenting the lives and activities of women in the United States. The Library supports scholarship across fields by making primary sources available for study in contexts that include the histories of suffrage, civil rights, labor, politics, science, and the arts. It serves researchers from institutions such as Harvard University, Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, Smith College, Wellesley College, and the Schlesinger community of scholars.

History and founding

Founded amid wartime and mid‑twentieth‑century institutional change, the Library grew out of initiatives associated with Radcliffe College, Martha Ballard, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Abigail Adams, Eleanor Roosevelt, Margaret Sanger, Susan B. Anthony, Lucy Stone, and contemporaneous preservation movements. Early curatorial efforts were influenced by collectors and activists including Maud Wood Park, Carrie Chapman Catt, Alice Stone Blackwell, Ida B. Wells, and administrators linked to Radcliffe College and Harvard University. The Library’s formal establishment consolidated manuscript collections, rare books, organizational records, and personal papers connected to figures such as Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lucretia Mott, Sojourner Truth, Mary McLeod Bethune, and Frances Perkins. Over decades the Library expanded through partnerships with foundations, trusts, and donors tied to Theodore Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, and corporate benefactors, positioning it alongside repositories like the Library of Congress, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, and Bryn Mawr Special Collections.

Collections and holdings

The Library maintains manuscripts, organizational records, oral histories, photographs, posters, pamphlets, rare books, and digital collections documenting activists, intellectuals, artists, and policymakers such as Betty Friedan, Gloria Steinem, Shirley Chisholm, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Sandra Day O'Connor, Alice Paul, Celia Cruz, Toni Morrison, Angela Davis, Audre Lorde, bell hooks, Annie Jump Cannon, Rachel Carson, Jane Addams, Hull House, Ladies’ Garment Workers' Union, National Organization for Women, League of Women Voters, Suffrage movement, and Civil Rights Movement. Holdings include papers from political figures like Patricia Schroeder, Hillary Clinton, Geraldine Ferraro, and organizational archives from Planned Parenthood Federation of America, NOW Legal Defense and Education Fund, National Women’s Political Caucus, and cultural collections connected to Maya Angelou, Zora Neale Hurston, Edith Wharton, Georgia O'Keeffe, and Marian Anderson. The Library’s rare-book stacks feature early works by Margaret Fuller, manifestos by Emma Goldman, and scientific notebooks tied to Maria Mitchell and Dorothy Hodgkin.

Research services and programs

Research services provide access to primary sources for scholars associated with programs at Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, fellowships including the Schlesinger Library Fellowship, and graduate students from Harvard University Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, Columbia University, Yale University, Princeton University, and regional colleges. The Library supports digitization projects in collaboration with partners such as the Digital Public Library of America, oral history initiatives aligned with the Smithsonian Institution, and curriculum development for educators at Boston University and Northeastern University. Reference staff work with researchers on provenance, cataloging linked-data projects, conservation with institutions like the American Alliance of Museums, and grant-funded projects from the National Endowment for the Humanities and Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

Exhibitions and public outreach

Permanent and rotating exhibitions interpret collections associated with figures such as Susan B. Anthony, Lucy Stone, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Ida Tarbell, and community movements including Women’s Trade Union League and Women Strike for Peace. Traveling exhibits circulate to venues like the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Peabody Essex Museum, Schlesinger Gallery, and university museums at Smith College, Wellesley College, and Amherst College. Public programming includes lectures by scholars such as Jill Lepore, Nancy F. Cott, Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, Stephanie Coontz, and panels featuring journalists and activists from The New York Times, The Washington Post, NPR, and nonprofit partners like Planned Parenthood and National Women’s History Museum. Workshops, symposia, and teacher institutes connect K–12 educators and community historians with collections and pedagogical resources.

Administration and affiliations

Administratively housed within the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University, the Library collaborates with academic departments including the History Department, Harvard University, Department of African and African American Studies, Harvard University, Committee on Degrees in Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, and external partners such as the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, New York Public Library, American Antiquarian Society, Smithsonian Institution, and the National Archives and Records Administration. Directors and curators have included scholars connected to Radcliffe College alumni networks, grant programs from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and advisory relationships with trustees drawn from organizations like the Rockefeller Foundation and Ford Foundation.

Notable acquisitions and collections highlights

Highlights include the papers of activists Betty Friedan, Gloria Steinem, Shirley Chisholm, and jurists Ruth Bader Ginsburg; organizational records from National Organization for Women, Planned Parenthood Federation of America, League of Women Voters; archives of cultural figures Maya Angelou, Zora Neale Hurston, Toni Morrison; and special collections documenting scientific and medical women such as Rachel Carson and Marie Curie correspondence. Other significant acquisitions encompass the records of labor leaders in the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union, campaign materials from presidential and congressional women candidates including Geraldine Ferraro, and unique manuscript collections tied to writers like Virginia Woolf (papers relating to American reception), Edith Wharton, and photographers affiliated with Group f/64. Recent purchases and gifts have enriched holdings on intersectional movements involving Black Lives Matter, Chicano Movement, American Indian Movement, and LGBTQ+ activists including Bayard Rustin archives and materials from ACT UP.

Category:Harvard University libraries Category:Archives in the United States Category:Women's history institutions