Female intimacy and gender expression photo archive, 1890s to 1980s, documenting nearly a century of women embracing, kissing, dancing, sharing domestic space, traveling, socializing, and presenting themselves in ways that crossed conventional expectations of femininity. The photographs span generations in which same sex sexual activity was criminalized in much of.....
Keller, Helen. Inscribed Color Photograph, mid-twentieth century. This presentation photograph documents Helen Keller in later life, dressed in academic regalia, accompanied by a handwritten manifesto-like inscription articulating her philosophy of collective disability rights. As the first deaf-blind person to earn a Bachelor of Arts degree and an international lecturer on.....
[Fashion] Women’s fashion design sketches dated 1951 document the rapid transformation of female dress following the end of wartime rationing and the international adoption of Christian Dior’s “New Look” silhouette. These drawings show designers experimenting with narrow waists, structured bustlines, wide skirts, and dramatic outerwear styles that defined postwar femininity.....
Lee, Harper. Autograph Letter Signed, 20 February 1995. Written late in life by the author of To Kill a Mockingbird, this 1995 letter reflects Lee’s continued private literary relationships decades after the publication of her landmark novel. The correspondence reveals a tone of modesty and reciprocity rather than public celebrity.....
Women’s civilian shooting sports photo archive, 1919 to 1955, recording female participation in trap, skeet, rifle marksmanship, and gun club competition within a sport publicly coded as masculine. The photographs place women on firing lines, prize lines, club grounds, and rural shooting fields, showing female marksmanship as leisure, competition, and.....
[Women's Sports] Women’s wrestling photograph archive documenting amateur competitions, gymnasium training, and professional wrestling performers between the 1940s and the 1970s. The images record women participating in a sport historically dominated by men, illustrating the gradual emergence of female wrestling as both an amateur athletic activity and a professional entertainment.....
Josephine Baker performance archive from 1927 to 1975, documenting the theatrical construction and international circulation of her public identity across the Folies Bergère, Havana, Broadway, and her final autobiographical revue at Bobino. The five pieces follow Baker from the racialized spectacle of interwar Paris through postwar productions in which she.....
IBPOEW travel photographs of Cleveland, Ohio African American Elks members and women auxiliaries en route to Denver and Detroit, circa 1910s, documenting Black fraternal community and the public demonstrations of lodge life well before the Civil Rights Act. The Improved Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks of the World was.....
Elliott, Ellen known as “Captain Jack,” female prospector, gunfighter, and frontier entrepreneur whose life became part of Colorado mining folklore, early twentieth century real photo postcards documenting a woman who gained notoriety in the American West through silver mining, armed self defense, and public storytelling about frontier life. Elliott emigrated.....
[Japanese-American] [Women's Education] Postwar Hawaiʻi identified Japanese-American university school girl's photo album. Oʻahu Territory of Hawaiʻi, 1946–1950, spanning the years right after World War II. Approximately 260 silver gelatin photographs documenting the daily life, friendships, education, and civic participation of a Japanese American young woman living on Oʻahu in the.....
Lagerlöf, Selma. Autograph letter signed, 1904, documenting authorial control over translation and publication during a formative period in the career of the first woman awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. Written in German, the letter records Lagerlöf’s response to the unauthorized publication of portions of her work Osynliga Länkar and.....
Keller, Helen. Typed letter advocating support for the American Foundation for the Blind written by the American author and activist whose life and public work transformed public understanding of disability and education for the blind and deaf. Helen Keller became internationally known after overcoming the combined disabilities of blindness and.....
Women’s participation in boxing long preceded formal recognition of the sport for female athletes, developing through informal exhibitions, training clubs, and novelty bouts that challenged prevailing gender norms. Although women were largely excluded from organized boxing competitions during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, scattered photographic evidence demonstrates that women.....
Keller, Helen. Program for first public lecture in New York City, 1913, documenting a pivotal moment in the public emergence of Helen Keller as a speaker and advocate for disability education and communication. Issued after two decades of instruction under Anne Sullivan, the program marks Keller’s transition from private study.....
Country clubs, leisure, and yacht clubs photograph archive, c. 1950s, documenting the affluent recreational culture that accompanied Clearwater and Pinellas County’s transformation into a residential and tourist destination. Golf courses, yacht clubs, clubhouses, formal dinners, tournaments, and waterfront gatherings formed a social geography for prosperous residents and seasonal visitors with.....
Janet Guthrie press photograph archive, 1976 to 1978, documenting her entry into the male dominated institutions and public culture of American championship auto racing. Guthrie became the first woman to compete in a NASCAR Winston Cup superspeedway race in 1976 and the first to qualify for both the Daytona 500.....
Bertha Walters criminal court file from Williamsport, Pennsylvania, 1886, documenting a Lycoming County prosecution that joined charges of lewdness, common scold, assault and battery against a woman accused of sexual misconduct, neighborhood disturbance, and disorderly public behavior. The indictment uses the severe vocabulary of nineteenth century public morals law, calling.....
[Women's History][Military] Women’s military service photo archive documenting the incorporation of women into military organizations in the United States Russia and Europe from the ear;y 40s through the end of World War II, with especially strong evidence of uniformed training, rank identity, weapons instruction, and military parades in the 1940s.....
Tuckerman, H. P. Poetry and prayer journal, 1820–1830, documents early nineteenth-century manuscript album culture within Anglo-American Protestant communities, with particular attention to women’s devotional writing, moral instruction, and shared literary practices. The volume supports research into gendered authorship, religious education, and the circulation of poetic and didactic texts in the.....
Jameson, Anna Brownell, Characteristics of Women, Moral, Poetical, and Historical is a major work of nineteenth-century women’s literary criticism, using Shakespeare’s heroines as the basis for sustained analysis of female character, moral agency, psychology, and dramatic representation. First published in London in 1832, the work helped establish Jameson’s reputation as.....
[Korean-American] [Women’s Employment] [Fashion] Photo Album of a Korean-American dressmaker, students, and Korean pageant shows, 1960s. Provenance unknown but most photos seem to be on the East Coast with a few in Korea. Collection of approximately 45 black and white and color Polaroid prints housed in a black faux-leather spiral.....
Ascham, Roger, The English Works of Roger Ascham, Preceptor to Queen Elizabeth, 1761, preserves the writings of the Tudor humanist whose instruction of Princess Elizabeth in Greek and Latin became part of the history of women’s education, learned monarchy, and Renaissance pedagogy. Ascham served as Elizabeth’s tutor from 1548 to.....
Early 20th century child welfare publications from 1914 to 1937, from the formative decades when federal and state governments were extending their authority into matters once largely managed within the household. The six items show how that intervention worked in practice, documenting the prescribed diets of infants, how states removed.....
Archive of illustrated and photographic postcards documenting the popular image of the American cowgirl in late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Western visual culture. Working in Cultural / Representational Mode, the material traces how women participating in rodeo, equestrian performance, and frontier-themed entertainment were presented to mass audiences during a period.....
Archive of postcards documenting the popular image of the American cowgirl in Western Americana and early twentieth-century mass visual culture. Working in Cultural / Representational Mode, the material illustrates how women participating in rodeo performance, equestrian spectacle, and frontier-themed entertainment were presented to national audiences during a period when women’s.....
