LibGuides: Gender & Women's Studies Research Guide: Primary Sources

Primary Sources

Primary sources are firsthand accounts of historical events or time periods and are often used in Gender & Women’s Studies. There are numerous online resources for primary sources related to gender and women’s studies, which may contain photographs, letters, speeches, oral histories, newspapers, and more from many different time periods.

Visit our Primary Sources Research Guide for more information about using and citing primary sources, as well as our Newspapers Research Guide for more information about accessing current and historical newspapers.

Multidisciplinary Archives

The archives below are large, general collections that cover a variety of topics. Because Gender & Women's Studies is a multidisciplinary field, you'll likely find relevant primary sources in these collections.

Library of Congress Digital Collections
LOC's digital collection consists of over 9 million items that document U.S. history and culture. The collections provides free access to manuscripts, prints, photographs, posters, maps, sound recordings, motion pictures, books, pamphlets, and sheet music.
Digital Public Library of America
Central repository for millions of digitized archival, library, and museum collections across the United States. Resource has a faceted browsing system for easy exploration of material.
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See DPLA's guide for scholarly research searching here: https://dp.la/guides/the-scholarly-research-guide-to-dpla
Calisphere
Calisphere provides free access to unique and historically important artifacts for research, teaching, and curious exploration. Discover over two million photographs, documents, letters, artwork, diaries, oral histories, films, advertisements, musical recordings, and more.
Internet Archive
Internet Archive is a non-profit library of millions of free books, movies, software, music, websites, and more. You can also search for archived websites through their Wayback Machine.

Gender & Women's Studies Archives

Women and Social Movements in the United States This link opens in a new window
Contains resources on the history of women in social movements in the U.S. between 1600 and 2000. Includes videos, articles, primary sources, and archives. Tutorial.

Digital Public Library of America - Women's Studies Primary Source Sets
Contains a variety of primary source material on numerous topics relating to women's history, with emphasis on the 19th century to the present.
Women's Liberation Movement Print Culture
Manifestos, speeches, essays, and other materials documenting various aspects of the Women's Movement in the United States in the 1960s and 1970s.
Sofia Smith Collection of Women's History
Primary sources with strengths in 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
Schlesinger Library
Includes more than 4,400 manuscript collections, 150,000 volumes of books and periodicals, and films, photos, and audiovisual material on the history of feminisms, women’s health, and women’s activism.
Margaret Sanger Papers Project
Archive dedicated to preserving the papers of the noted birth control pioneer Margaret Sanger.
Black Women's Suffrage
Photographs, correspondence, speeches, event programs, publications, oral histories, and other artifacts documenting the roles and experiences of Black Women in the Women’s Suffrage Movement between the 1850s and 1960.
Voices of Feminism Oral History Project
Documents the persistence and diversity of organizing for women in the United States in the latter half of the 20th century. Narrators include labor, peace, and anti-racism activists; artists and writers; lesbian rights advocates; grassroots anti-violence and anti-poverty organizers; and women of color reproductive justice leaders.
Women Working, 1800-1930
An exploration of women's impact on the economic life of the United States between 1800 and the Great Depression.
Jewish Women's Archive
Explores the struggles and successes of American Jewish women through photographs, art works, oral histories, pamphlets, newspapers, and more.

LGBTQIA+ Archives

Lesbian Herstory Archives
The Lesbian Herstory Archives is home to the world’s largest collection of materials by and about Lesbians and their communities.
Digital Transgender Archive
Based in Boston, Massachusetts at Northeastern University, the Digital Transgender Archive is an international collaboration among more than sixty colleges, universities, nonprofit organizations, public libraries, and private collections aims 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.
Mazer Lesbian Archives
The June L. Mazer Lesbian Archives is one of the largest archives in the world dedicated to collecting, protecting, and preserving lesbian and feminist history and culture.
GLBT Historical Society Museum & Archives
The GLBT Historical Society collects, preserves, exhibits and makes accessible to the public materials and knowledge to support and promote understanding of LGBTQ history, culture and arts in all their diversity. Their archives showcases digital collections, primary source sets, research guides, and exhibitions.
USC ONE Archives
ONE Archives at the USC Libraries is the largest repository of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer (LGBTQ) materials in the world. Founded in 1952, ONE Archives houses millions of archival items including periodicals, books, films, videos, audio recordings, photographs, artworks, organizational records, and personal papers.

Women's Writings

North American Women's Letters and Diaries This link opens in a new window
Includes letters and diaries documenting the immediate experiences of 1,325 women. The collection also includes biographies and an extensive annotated bibliography of the sources in the database. Tutorial.
British and Irish Women's Letters and Diaries This link opens in a new window
Primary source database covering the personal and historical experience of British and Irish women over 4 centuries through diaries and letters. Includes biographies and an extensive annotated bibliography. Tutorial.

Newspapers

Below are a few suggested news resources related to women and gender. Contemporary newspaper articles about an event can be a great primary source for opinions, coverage, and reactions to social movements and historical events. For a more comprehensive list of news resources, visit our Newspapers Research Guide.

Independent Voices This link opens in a new window
Digital 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. Tutorial.
Ethnic NewsWatch This link opens in a new window
An interdisciplinary, bilingual (English and Spanish) database of newspapers, magazines and journals from ethnic, minority and native presses. Tutorial.
American Prison Newspapers, 1800s-present: Voices from the Inside This link opens in a new window
Hundreds of prison periodicals from across the US, representing penal institutions of all kinds, with special attention paid to women-only institutions. Tutorial.

Gender & Women's Studies Research Guide

Primary Sources Video Tutorial

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