HIS 384 / WGS303 Women in the 20th Century United States: Primary Sources

HathiTrust is a partnership of academic & research institutions, offering a collection of millions of titles digitized from libraries around the world.

Full-text database of thousands of titles published prior to 1930, and many published more recently. Use the advanced search to limiting by title and date published.

Strategies for analyzing online primary materials, with interactive exercises and a guide to traditional and online sources.

(1851-2003) Provides full text access to the New York Times up to three years ago.

(1890 - 1982) A database containing comprehensive indexing of the most popular general-interest periodicals published in the United States.

Search and view newspaper pages from 1880-1922 and find information about American newspapers published between 1690-present.

Primary sources (photos, letters, diaries, artifacts, etc.) that document the history of women in the United States. Descriptions and links to over 600 digital collections.

448 digitized photographs selected from the Records of the National Woman's Party, housed in the Manuscript Division of the Library of Congress. The images span from 1875 to 1938 but largely were created in the years between 1913 and 1922. The images depict the tactics used by the militant wing of the suffrage movement in the United States—including picketing, petitioning, pageants, parades and demonstrations, hunger strikes and imprisonment---as well as individual portraits of organization leaders and members.

1,935 digitized items from the Library of Congress NAWSA collection. The collection includes newspapers, books, pamphlets, memorials, scrapbooks, and proceedings from the meetings of various women's organizations that document the suffrage fight from 1890-1938.

Over 7,000 U.S. and Canadian advertisements covering five product categories - Beauty and Hygiene, Radio, Television, Transportation, and World War II propaganda - dated between 1911 and 1955.

Thousands of television commercials created or collected by the D'Arcy Masius Benton & Bowles (DMB&B) advertising agency, dated 1950s - 1980s.

(1936-1972) a great documentary record of a significant part of 20th century U.S. history and culture

A digital exploration of women's impact on the economic life of the United States between 1800 and the Great Depression. Working conditions, workplace regulations, home life, costs of living, commerce, recreation, health and hygiene, and social issues are among the issues documented in this online research collection from Harvard University.

Core electronic collection of books and journals in Home Economics and related disciplines.

A collaborative database consisting of more than 2,300 letters handwritten or narrated by Florence Nightingale that for the first time are now available to researchers through a single source.

(1941-1945) photographs, documents, manuscripts, paintings, drawings, letters, and oral histories from several California archives; a project of the U California Berkeley Bancroft Library.

Digitized images and documents

Digital Schomburg -- exhibitions, books, articles, photographs, prints, audio and video streams, and selected external links for research in the history and cultures of the peoples of Africa and the African Diaspora.

Full-text database of thousands of titles published prior to 1930, and many published more recently. Use the advanced search to limiting by title and date published.

This ten-volume series (covering decades throughout the twentieth century) provides access to a wealth of primary sources specific to major events. While the series does not focus exclusively on women's history, relevant documents are included: for example, volume ten includes (among other relevant sources) text from the report of the American Association of University Women on How Schools Shortchange Girls, and Hillary Rodham Clinton's 1995 speech on how "Women's Rights are Human Rights."

Digital publishing initiative that provides Internet access to texts, images, and audio files related to southern history, literature, and culture. Includes sixteen thematic collections of books, diaries, posters, artifacts, letters, oral history interviews, and songs.

manifestos, speeches, essays, and other materials documenting various aspects of the Women's Movement in the United States in the 1960s and 1970s.

MAKERS is the largest collection of women's stories ever assembled. MAKERS encompasses broadcast documentaries, web and mobile-first video content, and live events.

Collection of 48 Oral histories (filmed) that provide a complex portrait of Rosie the Riveter, taking the viewer beyond the iconic "We Can Do It" poster girl and deep into the experiences real Rosies from diverse backgrounds, challenging the popular perception of women in American History.

Documents the persistence and diversity of organizing for women in the United States in the latter half of the 20th century. Narrators include labor, peace, and anti-racism activists; artists and writers; lesbian rights advocates; grassroots anti-violence and anti-poverty organizers; and women of color reproductive justice leaders. Interviews average 5-6 hours and cover childhood, personal life, and political work.

Accounts of individuals throughout the world who have made important contributions to the field. Reflecting the voices and perspectives of advocates, communication specialists, lawyers, managers, physicians, researchers, social workers and others, the series addresses the historical period 1965-2005.

A collection of life histories of women who have dedicated their lives to social and political activism. The project documents both the diversity and the persistence of women's activism, as organizers and as cultural workers, in a variety of social movements such as women's health, economic justice, LGBT liberation, peace, education, and environmental sustainability.

The Lesbian Herstory Archives is home to the world's largest collection of materials by and about lesbians and their communities. “Herstories: Audio/Visual Collections” contains digitized copies of some of the 3,000 oral history cassettes in the Archives' Spoken Word Collection and 950 videotapes in the Video Collection.

Collection of life histories of women who identify as lesbian, bisexual, woman-identified-woman, queer, or who prefer not to identify with sexuality categories. The project provides a complex and nuanced collective story of American lesbian history and experience.

Created by Veterans of the Southern Freedom Movement (1951-1968). Veterans "tell it like it was, the way we lived it, the way we saw it, the way we still see it. With a few minor exceptions, everything on this site was written, created, or spoken by Movement activists who were direct participants in the events they chronicle."

From the Urban School of San Francisco--dozens of transcripts and videos from interviews with elders who witnessed key events of the 20th century. Current topics include interviews with survivors of the Holocaust, liberators and witnesses of the Nazi concentration camps, and Japanese Americans interned during World War II.