LibGuides: Women's History: Primary Sources (American): Books

Books

The resources listed here are not the only ones available. Many others are in print or microform and can be found by searching library catalogs, like CMU's library catalog, or Worldcat, a database of library holding thoughout the world (though mainly U. S.), or the HathiTrust, a repository of digitized works. Use some of these terms combined with your topic:

personal narratives
diaries
sources
correspondence
interviews
pamphlets
speeches
early works to 1800
autobiography

For example:

women and diaries
women and "early works"
women and autobiography

Everyday Life & Women in America c.1800-1920
Thousands of fully searchable images of monographs, pamphlets, periodicals and broadsides addressing 19th and early 20th century political, social and gender issues, religion, race, education, employment, marriage, sexuality, home and family life, health, and pastimes. The collection is especially rich in conduct of life and domestic management literature, offering vivid insights into the daily lives of women and men, as well as emphasizing contrasts in regional, urban and rural cultures. Use the filter option in Documents to limit to books.

Gerritsen Collection of Aletta H. Jacobs This link opens in a new window
Books, pamphlets and periodicals reflecting the evolution of a feminist consciousness and the movement for women's rights. The Gerritsen Collection has since become the greatest single source for the study of women's history in the world. With more than 2,000 English language book titles, this is the greatest single source for tracing suffragism and feminism in the English-speaking world. Also included are almost 1,000 German language titles, and almost 800 French.

National American Woman Suffrage Association Collection
A library of nearly 800 books and pamphlets documenting the suffrage campaign that were collected between 1890 and 1938 by members of NAWSA. The bulk of the collection is derived from the library of Carrie Chapman Catt, president of NAWSA from 1900-1904, and again from 1915-1920. Additional materials were donated to the NAWSA Collection from the libraries of other members and officers, including Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, Lucy Stone, Alice Stone Blackwell, Julia Ward Howe, Elizabeth Smith Miller, and Mary A. Livermore.
Feeding America: The Historic American Cookbook Project
Online collection of some of the most important and influential American cookbooks from the late 18th to early 20th century.
Hearth: Home Economics Archive: Research, Tradition and History
Search or browse books and journals in Home Economics and related disciplines, between 1850 and 1950. From Mann Library, Cornell University.
National American Woman Suffrage Association Collection
A library of nearly 800 books and pamphlets documenting the suffrage campaign that were collected between 1890 and 1938 by members of NAWSA and donated to the Rare Books Division of the Library of Congress on November 1, 1938.

Sabin Americana, 1500-1926 This link opens in a new window
Carnegie Mellon users only. Full text works about the North, Central & South America, the Arctic & Antarctica and the West Indies. The database reaches into all aspects of American history and culture. It touches upon the political and religious life in North America and at times South America and the Caribbean. It features American and European views of the colonization of the Americas, the American Revolution, the days of the early Republic and Jacksonian period, the antebellum period, Civil War, era of Reconstruction and post-Reconstruction, the settlement of the West and the onset of the Gilded Age. Through published pamphlets, tracts, memoirs, congressional legislation, correspondence, broadsides, biographies, histories, fiction and poetry, eulogies, sermons and innumerable other genres, Sabin opens a window onto the Americas through which few get to glimpse.
Twentieth Century Advice Literature: North American Guides on Race, Gender, Sex, and the Family This link opens in a new window
Search the full text of handbooks, manuals, textbooks, etiquette guides, self-help books, instructional pamphlets, and how-to books describing American attitudes towards family dynamics, gender roles, sexual relationships, and race relations.

Women Working, 1870-1930
A site in development that will eventually offer access to 2,000 digitized books and pamphlets, manuscripts (10,000 pages) and images (1,000) from the Harvard collections. Those working on this project are interested in your feedback. There is a question/comment link on the site. (Harvard University Library Open Collections Program)

History Librarian

Charlotte Kiger Price

she/her

Contact:

Hunt Library 109E
Pittsburgh, PA

Subjects: Education, History, Language & Linguistics, Religion, Women's Studies