A writing desk for every home. Buffalo, N.Y.: G.H. Dunston Lith. Copyright 1888. Prints and Photographs Division. LC-USZC4-3863 (color film copy transparency)
Those who would write women's history must listen to women's voices, voices that were often silenced by custom, limited education,
loss of records, or lack of interested listeners. Women's words exist in many places, for example, in
the books and articles they wrote
published diaries and journals
travel accounts
autobiographies
collections of letters
testimony before Congress
legal depositions
manuscript collections
letters to editors
the vast literary output of women
Because writing could be done privately, at home, for centuries it was one of the few socially acceptable ways for women to
express themselves in forms that would survive.
Through their writings women tell how they felt as children, where they worked, whom they cared for, how they loved, what
they served for breakfast—of birth, death, and everything in between. They talk about war, economics, science, and religion.
The words of women can be found in every reading room in the Library.
