Women's History and Culture

Women's materials represent a substantial proportion of the Rare Book, Manuscript and Special Collections Library's over 11 million manuscript items and 200,000 volumes of rare books. Collecting in this area is under the auspices of the Sallie Bingham Center for Women’s History and Culture.

Collections range from plantation diaries to women's suffrage documents, from a Phillis Wheatley letter to Anne Tyler manuscripts, from the records of local Women's Christian Temperance Union to the papers of contemporary feminist activists. Notable strengths include:

• Women in the American South from the 18th century to the present;
• Women's political activities: especially women's organizational activities in the South from the 19th century to the present, and local and national feminist activism from the 1960s to the present;
• Women's sexuality, gender identity, and expression;
• Women and religion: especially in Protestant churches and specifically in Methodist churches;
• Women artists including an extensive collection of artist's books by women;
• Girl culture including extensive collections of zines by girls (and women);
• Literary women including the records of publishers as well as the published works and papers of writers such as Anne Tyler, Josephine Humphreys, Carson McCullers, Eudora Welty, Susan Ketchin, Mab Segrest, Peggy Payne, Blanche McCrary Boyd, Kathy Acker and numerous others;
• Women's work in industry: especially textile mills in the South, and in the organizational records of the CIO, the Alliance for Guidance of Rural Youth, and the Southeast Women's Employment Coalition
• Women's domestic and social life: especially in the rural and urban South, includes a wide range of prescriptive literature, personal diaries and letters, and family papers.
• Women's education, primarily in the 19th and early 20th century South;

• Women’s Liberation Movement
• African-American Women
• Civil War Women

The depth and breadth of manuscripts materials that relate to women and gender are reflected in the Women's History Subject Guides. More specific subject areas such as the Women's Rights, Civil War women, sexuality, and women and education are highlighted in these guides.

Current collecting focuses on Southern women, girl culture, domestic culture, women authors and publishers, lay and ordained church women, women artists, the history of feminist theory and activism, women's sexuality and gender expression, and women of color.

For more specific assistance with the collections described here, direct e-mail to cwhc@duke.edu or contact the staff of the Sallie Bingham Center for Women's History and Culture:

Laura Micham, Director
(919) 660-5828
laura.m@duke.edu

Kelly Wooten, Research Services and Collection Development Librarian
(919) 660-5967
kelly.wooten@duke.edu

For general information about finding materials in the library's collections and how you can use them, requesting permission to reproduce, or other information as well as reference questions about the holdings in this area:

If you are getting in touch via e-mail, please be sure to include your return e-mail address in the body of the message, since it sometimes gets stripped from the header in transit. Also, if you expect a response, make sure to include a phone or fax number or postal address where we can reach you, since sometimes it is difficult or impossible to respond via e-mail. Thank you!