LibGuides: Women's Studies: Primary Sources

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My location: danettep@duke.edu
Call me: 919.660.5886
Lilly Library
Room 108
East Campus
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My areas:
Cinematic Arts; Gender, Sexuality & Feminist Studies; Theater Studies

919.660-.5886

Subjects: Arts & Visual Studies, Film Studies, Social Sciences, Streaming Video, Theater Studies, Women's & Sexuality Studies

Collections of Primary Materials at Duke and Online

Sallie Bingham Center for Women’s History and Culture
Located within Duke’s Rubenstein Rare Books and Manuscript Library, the Sallie Bingham Center is a broad-based women’s history archives and library. Notable collection strengths include Southern women, girl culture, domestic culture, women authors and publishers, lay and ordained church women, women artists, the history of feminist theory and activism, women's sexuality and gender expression, and women of color.

Rubenstein Rare Books and Manuscript Library
Duke's Rubenstein Rare Books and Manuscript Library holdings total more than twelve million manuscripts and close to a quarter million printed items. These collections support research in a variety of disciplines and programs, including African-American studies, anthropology, classics, economics, history, literature, political science, religion, sociology, and women's studies.

Women’s Collections on Microfilm
Located in Perkins Library, microfilmed materials include personal papers, organizational archives, periodicals and topical collections.

North Carolina Exploring Cultural Heritage Online (NC ECHO)
A gateway to special collections in North Carolina's libraries, archives, and museums. Browse or search by subject to find collections related to women.

Online searching for primary sources

Subject headings in the online catalog can be subdivided into narrower topics by the assignment of standard subheadings. For example, "History" is a subheading that may be used with the name of any country (United States--History) or group (Women --United States --History). You can browse an alphabetical listing by selecting "Subject begins with..." in the "search type" drop-down menu, and then entering a subject heading point in the search box. For help finding books in the stacks, use the guide to Book Locations.

To find primary materials, try one of these subheadings following your subject:
-- Correspondence
-- Letters
-- Diaries
-- Memoirs
-- Personal Narratives
-- Sources

For example:
Abortion -- Correspondence
United States -- History -- Civil War -- Personal Narratives

Databases of Primary Resources

Evans Digital Edition
A definitive resource for research on 17th and 18th century American history and life including such varied topics as agriculture, foreign affairs, diplomacy, literature, music, religion, science, philosophy, the Revolutionary War, temperance, and witchcraft.

Godey's Lady's Book
Provides the full text from a complete run of Godey's Lady's Book, a 19th century magazine designed to entertain, inform, and educate the women of America. It is an important resource for American life and culture in the 1800s as well as women's studies. Be sure to choose "Godey's Lady's Book" in the Source drop down menu.

Black Women Writers This link opens in a new window
Black Women Writers presents 100,000 pages of literature and essays on feminist issues, written by authors from Africa and the African diaspora
British And Irish Women's Letters And Diaries (Pre-January 2009 Purchase) This link opens in a new window
Search for primary sources (diaries and letters) from women who lived in the British Isles or Ireland
Defining Gender This link opens in a new window
Search for primary source documents related to gender studies from British and European libraries and archives
Everyday Life and Women in America c.1800-1920 This link opens in a new window
Searches primary documents detailing the social & cultural forces that shaped the lives of women and men in America from 1800 to 1920
International Women's Movement: The Pan Pacific Southeast Asia Women’s Association of the USA, 1950-1985 This link opens in a new window
Search for primary source materials from the Pan Pacific Southeast Asia Women’s Association of the USA, 1950-1985
North American Women's Letters and Diaries This link opens in a new window
Search for primary sources from North American women from colonial times to the 1950
The Sixties: Primary Documents and Personal Narratives 1960-1974 This link opens in a new window
Search for primary sources texts, footage and documentaries that explore events from the sixties and early seventies.
Southern Women and their Families in the 19th and 20th Centuries, Holdings of the Southern Historical Collection, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill This link opens in a new window
Brings together collections of diaries, correspondence and papers of families grouped for their principal association with North Carolina, spanning the years 1780-1979.
Women in The National Archives This link opens in a new window
Search through original documents covering the campaign for women's suffrage in Britain, 1903-1928 and the granting of women's suffrage in colonial territories, 1930-1962
Women's Issues and Their Advocacy Within the White House, 1974-1977 This link opens in a new window
Search primary source documents related to 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
Women and Social Movements: Development and the Global South, 1919 - 2019 This link opens in a new window
This database examines efforts to foster gender equity through expanded economic and social participation of women on a global scale. Covering a century, the database highlights and evaluates activism through individual efforts, organizational initiatives, and socio-cultural projects led by or for women in the Global South
Women and Social Movements, International - 1840 to Present This link opens in a new window
Search for primary sources focusing on women's international activism since the mid-nineteenth century
Women and Social Movements in Modern Empires Since 1820 This link opens in a new window
Search for primary source materials exploring prominent themes in world history since 1820, as told through women's voices.
Women and Social Movements in the United States, 1600-2000 This link opens in a new window
Search for documents related to the history of women in social movements in the U.S. between 1600 and 2000
Women's Magazine Archive This link opens in a new window
Search the full-text of popular women's interest magazines dating from the 19th to 21st century
Women's Suffrage This link opens in a new window
This collection covers the struggle for voting rights beginning in 1849 and includes newspapers that overlapped between the temperance and women's rights movements, as well as an anti-suffrage paper.

Women's Studies

Your Librarian

Collections of Primary Materials at Duke and Online

Online searching for primary sources

Databases of Primary Resources

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