Related Library of Congress Resources
The African-American Experience in Ohio: Selections from the Ohio Historical Society
This selection of manuscript and printed text and images drawn from the collections of the Ohio Historical Society illuminates the history of the African-American community living in Ohio during the period from 1850 to 1920. The struggle of American women to obtain voting rights and other legal rights, regardless of their race or sex, is well documented in this online collection. For material related specifically to African-American women's struggle for the right to vote, browse the Subject Index and select the headings "Afro-American Women" and "Afro-Americans--Suffrage."
African American Perspectives: Pamphlets from the Daniel A. P. Murray Collection, 1818-1907
The Daniel A. P. Murray Pamphlet Collection presents a panoramic and eclectic review of African-American history and culture, spanning the early 19th through the early 20th centuries. Select the keyword search full-text option, then search the collection on phrases such as "woman suffrage" and "voting rights" and combine terms such as "education" with "female," "lady," or "women" to retrieve relevant material. Browse the author index to find works by Anna Cooper, Ida Wells-Barnett, Frances Ellen Harper, and Mary Church Terrell.
American Women: A Gateway to Library of Congress Resources for the Study of Women's History and Culture in the United States
This site contains an expanded and fully searchable version of the print publication American Women: A Library of Congress Guide for the Study of Women's History and Culture in the United States (Washington, D.C.: Library of Congress, 2001). The guide, redesigned for online use, added illustrations and links to digitized material located throughout the Library of Congress Web site.
An American Ballroom Companion: Dance Instruction Manuals, ca. 1490-1920
An American Ballroom Companion presents a collection of more than 200 social-dance manuals at the Library of Congress. The items displayed online range from 1490 to 1929. Besides dance instruction manuals, this online presentation includes a significant number of other types of material such as anti-dance manuals, histories of dance, and treatises on etiquette. Browse the Subject Index and select headings such as "Antidance literature," "Dance--Moral and ethical aspects," "Dance--Religious aspects--Christianity and Etiquette," "Dance--Religious aspects--Christianity--Sermons," and "Etiquette."
An American Time Capsule: Three Centuries of Broadsides and Other Printed Ephemera
The Printed Ephemera collection at the Library of Congress is a rich repository of Americana. The collection comprises 28,000 primary-source items dating from the 17th century to the present and encompassing key events and eras in American history. These documents capture the everyday activities of ordinary people who participated in the building of the nation and experienced its growth from the American Revolution through the Industrial Revolution up to the present day. For material related to women’s rights, select the keyword search full-text option, then search the collection on terms such as "suffrage" and "women" and combine terms such as "patriotism," "anti-slavery," and "school" with terms such as "women," "female," or "girl."
By Popular Demand: "Votes for Women" Suffrage Pictures, 1850-1920
This selection of 38 portraits of individuals involved in the voting rights movement includes frequently requested photographs from the holdings of the Prints and Photographs Division and the Manuscript Division. Also featured are photographs of suffrage parades, picketing suffragists, and an anti-suffrage display, as well as cartoons commenting on the movement. This online illustrated reference aid is a pictorial partner for the text documents in Votes for Women: Selections from the National American Woman Suffrage Collection, 1848-1920.
Inside an American Factory: Films of the Westinghouse Works, 1904
The Westinghouse Works Collection contains 21 actuality films showing various views of Westinghouse companies. Intended to showcase the company's operations, the film includes both exterior and interior shots of the factories as well as scenes of male and female workers performing their duties at the plants. To download and view the films of women factory workers punching time clocks and engaging in other daily activities, browse the Subject Index and choose the heading "Women electric industry workers--Pennsylvania--East Pittsburgh."
The Nineteenth Century in Print: Books
The books in this collection bear 19th-century American imprints, dating mainly from between 1850 and 1880. They have been digitized by the University of Michigan as part of the Making of America project, a major collaborative endeavor to preserve and provide access to historical texts. Currently, approximately 1,500 books are included. Relevant material is retrieved by a full-text keyword search of the descriptive records of the collection by combining terms such as "ladies" and "women" with other keywords.
The Nineteenth Century in Print: Periodicals
This collection presents 23 popular periodicals digitized by the Making of America project of Cornell University and the Preservation Reformatting Division of the Library of Congress. A full-text keyword search of the descriptive records of the collection must be limited by combining the term "women" with other subject terms. The periodical titles may also be searched individually.
Photographs from the "Chicago Daily News"
This collection comprises over 55,000 images of urban life captured on glass plate negatives by photographers employed by one of Chicago's leading newspapers of the period between 1902 and 1933, the Chicago Daily News. The photographs illustrate the enormous variety of topics and events covered by the newspaper. Most photographs were taken in Chicago, Illinois, or in towns, parks, and athletic fields of the surrounding area. For material related to women’s rights, select the keyword search full-text option, then search the collection using terms such as "suffrage" and "votes for women."
Sunday School Books: Shaping the Values of Youth in Nineteenth-Century America
This collection presents 163 Sunday school books published between 1815 and 1865, drawn from the collections of Michigan State University Libraries and the Clarke Historical Library at Central Michigan University Libraries. The books document the culture of religious instruction of youth in America during the antebellum era. Browse the Subject Index and choose headings such as "Advice books and moral tales," "Children--Conduct of life," "Children--Conduct of life--Fiction," Children--Conduct of life--Juvenile fiction," Children--Conduct of life--Juvenile literature," "Children--Religious life," "Domestic education," "Etiquette for children and teenagers," "Girls--Conduct of life," "Moral tales," "Mothers," "Women in the Bible," "Women--Conduct of life," and "Young women."
Votes for Women: Selections from the National American Woman Suffrage Association Collection, 1848-1921
The NAWSA Collection consists of 167 books, pamphlets and other artifacts documenting the suffrage campaign. The collection includes works from the libraries of other members and officers of the organization including: Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, Lucy Stone, Alice Stone Blackwell, Julia Ward Howe, Elizabeth Smith Miller, Mary A. Livermore.
Women Come to the Front: Journalists, Photographers, and Broadcasters During World War II
This online exhibition spotlights eight women who successfully reported and photographed events on the front lines during World War II--Therese Bonney, Esther Bubley, May Craig, Janet Flanner, Toni Frissell, Dorothea Lange, Clare Boothe Luce, and Marvin Breckinridge Patterson. Their stories, primarily drawn from private papers and photographs in the collections of the Library of Congress, open a window on a generation of women who changed American society forever by securing a place for themselves in the workplace, in the newsroom, and on the battlefield.
Women of Protest: Photographs from the Records of the National Woman's Party
This collection presents 448 photographs from the records of the National Woman’s Party (NWP). The NWP, founded by women including Alice Paul (1885-1977) and Lucy Burns (1866-1966), went beyond lobbying techniques using more open public demonstrations to bring popular attention to the suffrage for women in the United States. The party’s picketing, tableaus, parades, rallies, and demonstrations were successful in spurring public discussion and winning publicity for the right of women to vote. This online collection of photographs depicts the broad range of tactics and activities of this organization as well as individual portraits of party leaders and members.
Words and Deeds in American History
In honor of its centennial, the Manuscript Division's staff selected for online display approximately 90 representative documents that span the 15th to the mid-20th centuries. Many of the manuscripts are from the papers of prominent Americans whose lives reflect the nation’s evolution. Of particular interest to students of the women’s rights movement is the draft of Elizabeth Cady Stanton's The Woman's Bible, circa 1895.
Related External Web Sites
Not for Ourselves Alone (external link)
The film Not for Ourselves Alone by Ken Burns and Paul Barnes, the story of Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony, forms the basis of this educational Web site from PBS Online. Students are invited to "experience the work of Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony—at home or in the classroom. Track key events in the suffrage movement, delve into historic documents and essays, and take a look at where women are today."
Oral History Online (external link)
The Suffragists Oral History Project, under the auspices of the Bancroft Library's Regional Oral History Office, collected interviews with 12 leaders and participants in the woman's suffrage movement. Tape-recorded and transcribed oral histories preserve the memories of these remarkable women, and document their formative experiences, activities to win women’s right to vote, and their careers as leaders of movements for welfare and labor reform, world peace, and the passage of the Equal Rights Amendment.
The Schlesinger Library (external link)
The Web site of the Schlesinger Library of the Radcliffe Institute provides access to information about its collection of "letters and diaries, photographs, books and periodicals, ephemera, oral histories, and audiovisual materials that document the history of women, families, and organizations, primarily in the 19th and 20th centuries." The Schlesinger Library’s rich resources are open to the public and used by thousands of researchers each year.
The Gerrit Smith Broadsides (external link)
The Gerrit Smith Papers at Syracuse University, the personal collection of Gerrit Smith, contain a significant volume of his collected works, publications by others on important themes of the day, and a large body of correspondence. Among the correspondents are Susan B. Anthony, Frederick Douglass, William Henry Seward, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Harriet Beecher Stowe, and Sojourner Truth.
The Gerrit Smith Virtual Museum (external link)
A biography, bibliography, and portrait gallery on the life of Gerrit Smith. Includes information about Gerrit Smith’s descendants including Elizabeth Smith Miller.
Women and Social Movements in the United States, 1600-2000 (external link)
This dynamic Web site is an ongoing project of the Center for the Historical Study of Women and Gender at the State University of New York at Binghamton. The site is organized around various aspects of women’s history and contains hundreds of "educational and document projects" and primary source documents for use in high school and college history classrooms. The site also includes a major collection of links to related Web sites and a search engine that allows users to search the full text of all primary documents mounted on the site.