September 2007

News from the Archives provides readers with news concerning U.S. Women's History from archives and repositories with collections and projects of interest. If you are affiliated with an archive or repository and would like to submit an announcement that you feel would be of interest to our readers, please contact Tanya Zanish-Belcher at tzanish iastate.edu .

Calumet Regional Archives, Indiana University Northwest (Gary, Indiana)
The Calumet Regional Archives has a number of collections relating to the history of women in northwestern Indiana, including the Gary League of Women Voters Records, the Women s Citizens Committee Records, the Gary YWCA Records, Calumet Women United Against Rape Collection, Gary Women's Club Records (NW IN Women's Club) , Kappa Delta Phi Records, the Merrillville Women's Club Records , the Merrillville Business and Professional Women's Club Records, and the Gary Women's Press Club Records.

History of Science Society Annual Meeting:
The History of Science Society will offer a session and panel discussion related to the 25th anniversary of historian Margaret Rossiter's work Women Scientists in America: Struggles and Strategies to 1940 , at its annual meeting in the Washington-Metro area of Arlington, Virginia. The meeting dates are November 1 - 4, 2007. The sessions include: The Silver Anniversary of Women Scientists in America, I (1982-2007): Reception, Impact, Ramifications for the Future, and a panel presentation, Recalling the Prehistory and Early Days of Women Scientists in America I : Who Helped, Who Hindered, Who Stood By, and Where Are We Today? There is also a panel focusing on Women s Places in Science, with papers on Florence Rena Sabin, Sr. Miriam Michael Stimson, Lisa Meitner, and the nutritional sciences.

National Archives Pathfinder for Women s History
Carol Faulkner has compiled a list of bibliographic resources at the National Archives, relating to women s history. The Pathfinder includes seven categories: Bibliographies, Reference Works/Biographical Sources, Journals, Collections of Primary Material, Monographs and Anthologies, Archival Research, and Guides to Archives.

Special Collections and University Archives, Rutgers University
(New Brunswick, New Jersey)
This indexed, online guide describes over 270 manuscript collections and approximately 30 bodies of Rutgers University records and related collections which pertain to New Jersey and American women and their status, concerns and activities from the late eighteenth century through the twentieth century. This wealth of source material is held by the Rutgers University Libraries in Special Collections and University Archives , a library unit which collects, preserves and makes available primary sources of a rare, unique or specialized nature to support advanced study and research.

These manuscripts are in the form of diaries, travel journals, literary works, correspondence, minutes and subject files (among many other document types) that are present in the repository in their original form or, less frequently, as reproductions or transcripts. Included are papers of individuals (such as Millicent Fenwick, Mary Norton and Mary Roebling), as well as records of local organizations (such as the Woman's Club of Woodbury), state organizations (such as the League of Women Voters of New Jersey and the New Jersey Division of the American Association of University Women) and national organizations (such as the Women's Caucus for Art, the National Women's Education Fund and Sisters in Crime). Not listed in the guide are commercially-distributed microfilms of additional collections of relevant papers and records , copies of which are available either at the Douglass Library or elsewhere in the Rutgers University Libraries system.

From the diaries of homemakers on farms to the organizational records of second wave feminist organizations, the manuscripts represented in the present guide reflect the expanding roles and concerns of women throughout American history. Occupations featured in the personal papers described encompass authors (including authors of children's books), art critics, athletes, bankers, businesswomen, charitable workers, clerks, college students, compulsory sterilization advocates, congresswomen, consumer advocates, corrections officials, dieticians, homemakers, human rights advocates, midwives, missionaries, nurses, peace activists, poets, professors, public officials, Red Cross workers, scholars, seamstresses, social workers, students, teachers and translators. The organizational records included pertain to art education, child welfare, church and missionary work, community improvement, consumerism (including the monitoring of workplace conditions), education, feminism and feminist theory, higher education, home economics, journal publishing, lesbian and gay rights, library workers, migrant workers, mystery writers, nutrition, organized labor, patriotism, political activity, reading, religion, scholarship about women, social activity, social welfare, suffrage, temperance, voter education, women artists and their artwork, women's history and women's rights. Among additional topics represented in the papers and records are African Americans, aging, the environmental movement, the Equal Rights Amendment, farming, gardening, girls, household workers, Jewish women, Latin America, the legal status of women, leisure travel, music, personal and family finances, protective legislation, relationships and wartime experiences. (Description from the Rutgers University website)

Special Collections, University of Oregon (Eugene, Oregon)
Feminist Voices & Visions from the Pacific Northwest
This virtual exhibit highlights the papers of Oregon activist and author Abigail Scott Duniway, and records of Calyx Press, the first West Coast literary journal with women editors publishing women's works. Calyx Press publishes a variety of poetry, prose, art, and book reviews.