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History of Women in the United States - HIST250 - Primary Sources
Resources in Library Catalog
eBooks on this list are only available to RVCC students, faculty, and staff and require a login with your G# and password.
America's families : a documentary history
Contains a collection of documents on the American family from colonial times to the present including letters, diaries, popular songs, advice manuals, laws and trial records, marriage contracts, and government investigations.
America's working women
Contains primary source materials and sections on black slaves, Lowell, women on the Oregon trail, nursing, white slavery, letters from black migrants, the Lawrence textile strike, the Triangle fire, and child care.
American women activists' writings : an anthology, 1637-2002
A collection of writings by American female activists highlights the contributions of women involved in environmental protection, wildlife conservation, civil rights, abolitionism, and many other causes. Includes works by Abigail Adams, Sojourner Truth, Susan B. Anthony, Margaret Sanger, Amelia Earhart, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and many more.
The Congress of Women
This volume contains more than 180 papers, most of them by Americans, that were presented at the Congress of Women held in Chicago in 1893 at the World's Exposition. The papers reflect the wide interests of articulate women as the 19th century came to an end. It is also available freely online: https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/100879635
Controlling reproduction : an American history
This informative, detailed text contains 39 writings on the history of reproduction in the U.S. The historical path of reproduction control is viewed in the contexts of politics, law, medicine, sexuality, business, and social change.
Root of bitterness : documents of the social history of American women
Presenting a diverse collection of documents, Root of Bitterness reaches from the colonial era through the nineteenth century, focusing on six dominant themes: women's work, the power of gender, the physical body, women's collective efforts, diversity and conflict among women, and women's relation to state authority. This edition contains about twenty selections from the original volume and almost sixty new ones.
Up from the pedestal : selected writings in the history of American feminism
A chronologically organized book of essays dating from 1642 to 1966, by authors such as Anne Bradstreet, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, and Charlotte Perkins.
Women's America : refocusing the past
Featuring a mix of primary source documents, articles, and illustrations, Women's America: Refocusing the Past has long been an invaluable resource. Now in its eighth edition, the book has been extensively revised and updated to cover recent developments in U.S. women's history.
Resources in Library Databases
Off campus, these resources are available only to RVCC students, staff, and faculty and require a login with your G# and password.
- American History Online This link opens in a new windowAn online resource that provides an overview of historical US events of the last 500 years with timelines, videos of newsreels, photographic documentation, biographies, statistics on historic US expeditions and exploration, immigration maps and charts plus links to many primary source documents.
- American Indian History Online This link opens in a new windowAn online resource that provides biographies on war leaders, warriors, soldiers, spiritual and religious leaders, and activists plus timelines, maps, graphs, videos and slideshows with links to many primary sources.
Perform a keyword search, then select Primary Sources from the tabbed results.
To browse, select Primary Sources and then filter by an appropriate time period or topic.
- American Women's History Online This link opens in a new windowThis is a Topic Center included within the American History Online database.
- ArtStor This link opens in a new windowThe Artstor Digital Library provides access to 2.5+ million images of the world’s cultural heritage, all rights-cleared for use in education. Perform an advanced search to narrow by time period or geographical location.
Resources on the Internet
- College Women: Documenting the History of Women in Higher EducationA searchable collection of diaries, letters, scrapbooks, and photographs from colleges belonging to the Seven Sisters, women's colleges in the Northeast United States.
- Digital Public Library of America: WomenBrowse or search images, texts, and other primary sources digitally available from libraries all over the United States.
- Discovering American Women's History OnlineThis resource from Middle Tennessee State University provides access to digital collections of primary sources (photos, letters, diaries, artifacts, etc.) that document the history of women in the United States. These diverse collections range from Ancestral Pueblo pottery to interviews with women engineers from the 1970s.
- Gifts of SpeechA project sponsored by Sweet Briar College dedicated to preserving and creating access to speeches by inspirational, influential and contemporary women from around the world.
- Library of Congress: Women's HistoryDigital collections from the Library of Congress that focus on the history of women in the United States.
- National Archives: WomenThe Archives Library Information Center presents a list of websites relevant to women's history (not all resources will be primary sources).
- Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in AmericaA resource out of Harvard, here you can search or browse through over 1 million pages of digitized material spanning two centuries of women's history.
- Women: Primary Source Collections Online (Sam Houston State University Libraries)This site contains links to many resources; be sure the document you use is a primary source or transcription of one, and not a secondary explanation.
- Women's History SourcebookA list of resources compiled by Fordham University that span women's history from Ancient Egypt to today.
- Women in World HistoryPrimary sources arranged by region are available in this resource from George Mason University.
- Women's Travel DiariesSpanning from 1827 to 1991, these digitized diaries document women's travels around the globe (from Duke University).
- Women Working, 1800-1930From Harvard, an exploration of women's impact on the economic life of the United States between 1800 and the Great Depression.