Primary Sources: American Women: General - Online

"The Activist Women Oral History Project was established in 2006, and forms part of the Archives for Research and Gender. This project is broad in scope, and the subject matter includes domestic violence, women's health and reproductive justice, politics, policy making and the law, child sex trafficking, philanthropy, community activism, art and culture, equality in the workplace, civil rights, and LGBTQ activism.

Early interviews were recorded on audio cassettes, and more recent interviews have been recorded using either a digital audio recorder or a video recorder, or a video recorder in conjunction with an audio recorder. In all instances, audio use copies are available on CD-roms, and some video interviews are available on DVDs.

This digital collection is a work in progess, as many of the interviews have not yet been fully processed. The collection will be updated on a regular basis. If you would like to access any of the interviews, please contact the Women and Gender Collections Archivist."

" includes 2,024 reel-to-reel tapes and 2,024 WAV files preserved as part of the Pacifica Radio Archives’ 2013-2016 “American Women Making History and Culture: 1963-1982” (“American Women”) preservation project. The recordings were selected as an “artificial collection” to document the Women’s movement and second-wave feminism as it was broadcast on the Pacifica network. The collection also includes recordings that, though they weren’t about feminism or women’s rights, are significant because they were produced by women or featured women important to American history and culture at that time."

"The Archives for Research on Women documents the experiences of women and men participating in women-centered activist and advocacy activities in Georgia and the Southeast throughout the 20th and 21st centuries. It also documents the experiences of women at Georgia State University.

Collections include the personal and professional papers of individual activists as well as the records of activist organizations, and the personal and professional papers of GSU administrators and faculty, as well the records of its Women’s Studies Institute, and women-centered committees and organizations."

A collection of writings on a variety of topics, genres, and formats including novels, poetry, diaries, essays, etc.
These items are provided full-text through the Hathi Digital Library.

"The Celebration of Women Writers recognizes the contributions of women writers throughout history. Women have written almost every imaginable type of work: novels, poems, letters, biographies, travel books, religious commentaries, histories, economic and scientific works. Our goal is to promote awareness of the breadth and variety of women's writing."

"The CWLU Herstory Website Project was organized to archive and share the history of the Chicago Women's Liberation Union. Using the Internet to tell the history of women's liberation from the ground up, the Chicago Womens Liberation Union (CWLU) Herstory Project documents the role of the CWLU in the movement for women's liberation and social justice of the late 1960s and 1970s."

"This database simplifies access to digital collections of primary sources (photos, letters, diaries, artifacts, etc.) that document the history of women in the United States. These diverse collections range from Abigail Franks' letters to her son from the 1730s and 1740s (Center for Jewish History) to Katrina Thomas' photographs of ethnic weddings from the late 20th century. "

"The Donna Novak Coles Georgia Women’s Movement Archives is dedicated to documenting the second wave of the women’s movement in Georgia, and in particular, efforts in the state to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment.

Collections include the personal papers and artifacts of individuals active in the 50+ organizations affiliated with the ERA Georgia Coalition; records of the ERA Georgia Coalition member organizations; personal papers and artifacts from other organizations and supporters of the ERA in Georgia; oral history interviews with ERA and women’s movement activists."

Provides access to some "Early Documents" of the Feminist Movement from the book The Feminist Chronicles, 1953-1993
"... Expanding outward from NOW, the largest feminist organization in the world, this provides a breadth, depth, and diversity that should be on every historian's desk, and every bedside table for a nightly dose of, 'I didn't know that!'" -Gloria Steinem, Noted Feminist and Author"

For almost a decade, participants with the First Person Plural pilot project, based in Little Rock, have been recording oral histories of diverse Arkansas women who came of age in the 20th century.

"Compass brings together digital scholarship with cultural and historical materials contributed by Hampshire, Mount Holyoke, and Smith colleges. It provides a single point of discovery and establishes a platform that contributes to the stewardship of our digital collections. Compass supports our institutional missions of teaching and research excellence through improved access to unique materials, and creates a resource to engage both scholars and the general public. "

"... a non-profit project, sponsored by Sweet Briar College, dedicated to preserving and creating access to speeches by inspirational, influential and contemporary, women from around the world. "

A popular books for ladies of the 19th century containing things such as poetry, engraving and articles. The Online Books Page provides links to various volumes available online.

"Independent Voices is an open access digital collection of alternative press newspapers, magazines and journals, drawn from the special collections of participating libraries. These periodicals were produced by feminists, dissident GIs, campus radicals, Native Americans, anti-war activists, Black Power advocates, Hispanics, LGBT activists, the extreme right-wing press and alternative literary magazines during the latter half of the 20th century."

"In Her Own Right is a project of the Philadelphia Area Consortium of Special Collections Libraries (PACSCL).
The Greater Philadelphia region has a strong tradition of women’s initiatives to expand their rights and opportunities with regard to political participation, education, work, property-holding, and cultural activities. The region’s documentary collections reflect that the campaign for women’s suffrage did not happen in a vacuum, but was the result of decades of women of all kinds moving out of the home and into the schools and workplaces of the nation."

The mission of the Jewish Women's Archive (JWA) is to uncover, chronicle, and transmit the rich history of American Jewish women. The site provides access to a variety of research resources including The American Jewess magazine archives and a virtual archive containing biographical information, primary source materials, and more.

Access Library of Congress digital collections that are focused on women's history.

Part of the University of Kentucky Libraries, contains oral history projects on various topics.

"The Lucy Hargrett Draper Collections on Women’s Rights, Advocacy and the Law document state and national efforts to achieve equality for women. They include the Lucy Hargrett Draper U.S. Equal Rights Amendment (1921-1982) Research Collection, the Lucy Hargrett Draper Papers on Feminist Activism in U.S. Politics, the Lucy Hargrett Draper Papers on the Creation of Women's Archives, the Lucy Hargrett Draper Papers on the Second U.S. Women's Movement (1963-1982), the Lucy Hargrett Draper Papers on Institutional Reforms for Women and the U.S. Military, 1970-1984, the Lucy Hargrett Draper Artifact Collection, and the Lucy Hargrett Draper Personal Papers."

"MAKERS features 4,000 videos and the stories of 400 women. Current MAKERS include filmmaker Ava DuVernay; U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg; civil rights activist Tarana Burke; war correspondent Christiane Amanpour; and so many more." as of 1/5/2020

"The Middletown Women's History Collection provides online access to archival materials documenting the experiences of women and women's organizations in Muncie, Indiana from the 1880s through the 1930s. It includes diaries, minutes, correspondence, photographs and other documents selected from the wealth of resources available in Ball State University Libraries Archives and Special Collections. These resources will expand research opportunities in women's studies and local history.



The organization of this online resource is based on the six areas used by Helen and Robert Lynd in their seminal sociological study of Muncie, or "Middletown," in the 1920s and 1930s."

'The Montana Feminist History Project was a collaborative project designed to collect and interpret the history of the second wave of feminism in Montana. These interviews, recorded between 2000 and 2004, describe a broad range of women's and families' lives in Montana, including politics, birth, family aid, family violence, law, and feminism from multiple perspectives. The original interviews are held as Oral History collection OH-378 at Archives & Special Collections, Maureen and Mike Mansfield Library, University of Montana.'

Publications from the National Commission on the Observance of International Women's Year available full text at the HathiTrust Digital Library. Covers a wide variety of topics such as: Rape, ERA, teen pregnancy, legal status, employment, etc.

"...is the largest organization of feminist activists in the United States." Founded in 1966 the goal of NOW is equality for all women. Explore key issues of interest to women from abortion to women in the military.

"Members of the class of 1903 wrote a 'Round Robin' letter to each other for almost fifty years. The letters reproduced here were written between the years of 1919 and 1938. They document suffrage, war, the depression, family life and more."

"The Somos Latinas (We Women) History Project (2012-2016) was created to document the many significant and largely hidden contributions of Latinas in Wisconsin engaged in their communities to positively impact society in K-12 and post-secondary education, civil rights, women's rights, domestic abuse services, immigration reform, political representation, peace and justice, and other areas.

The online collection currently includes 52 interviews from 37 Latinas from across Wisconsin. NOTE: Additions and corrections to the collection are ongoing. You may encounter interviews without transcripts or transcripts that have not been fully edited."

Includes collections such as: Camp Bonnie Brae Films; Dyke TV; Nancy Hamilton: Helen Keller in Her Story; and many others.

Assembled in Washington, D. C., February 22 to 25, 1891

"The TriCollege Libraries Digital Collections include unique and rare archival collections, manuscripts, publications, ephemera, maps, photographs, and audiovisual content, including oral histories, from Bryn Mawr, Haverford, and Swarthmore Colleges. The TriCollege Libraries Digital Collections provides an access point for searching the digitized and born-digital collections of three colleges founded on the Quaker traditions of social conscience and thoughtful citizenship. "

Lists and links for women's history institutions and organizations to help users locate archival and library collections. It also provides links to various resources on women's history available online.

"VOAHA enables you to access the full audio recordings of oral histories that have been deposited in Special Collections of the University Library. You can hear the voice, pitch, and rhythm of the narrations as well as the emotions these convey. You will hear the actual spoken words of oral history narrators, rather than seeing a written version of them in the form of a transcript. The CSULB oral history collections have been assembled from a number of sources and cover topics ranging from women's social history, labor and ethnic studies to Long Beach Area history and the musical developments in Southern California. Some of the interviews in the Asian American, Mexican American and women's history collections were recorded as early as 1972 and include interviews with narrators who were born in the mid to late 19th century. Presently, more than 1000 hours with 350 very diverse narrators are available online."

The Women’s History Consortium partnered with institutions across Washington State
to create this central database of digitized images of primary resources related to Washington women’s history.

"The Wisconsin Women's History digital collection shares a selection of manuscripts and ephemera documenting the lives of women in Wisconsin. Begun in 2015, it focuses initially on women who were active in social movements such as suffrage, temperance, abolition, civil rights, and other efforts to reform society, especially those whose careers are summarized at the Wisconsin Women Making History site. During the presidential election year of 2016, women who ran for public office will be featured. Important records from the Wisconsin Woman Suffrage Association will also be shared this year."

Part of the Special Collections at the University of Miami Libraries this collection "...documents the history, civic and social activities of the Woman’s Club of Coconut Grove - formerly called the Housekeepers’ Club. The digitized materials include scrapbooks, photographs, flyers and architectural plans by W.C. De Garmo."

"This collection contains manifestos, speeches, essays, and other materials documenting various aspects of the Women's Movement in the United States in the 1960s and 1970s. The Women's Liberation Movement refers to a series of campaigns for reforms on issues such as reproductive rights, domestic violence, and equal pay. Feminist print culture, such as the examples provided in the collection, supported and sustained the Women¹s Movement and connect it to other movements for social justice. "

"Over 100 diaries written by British and American women who documented their travels to places around the globe, including India, the West Indies, countries in Europe, Africa, and the Middle East, as well as around the United States. "

"The "Printed Collection: Pamphlets" is an artificial collection of published and unpublished materials by or about women. Although called a pamphlet collection, this is in fact what some might consider to be a subject file or a vertical file, as it also includes reports, articles, directories, etc. Materials are usually received by Special Collections along with donated manuscript collections. Subjects include discrimination in employment; the equal rights amendment, reproductive rights, and religion; sex discrimination, social security and women's history; and various women's organizations, such as the American Association of University Women [AAUW], the National Organization for Women [NOW] and the National Women's Political Caucus [NWPC]."

"As part of her Washington State University History 398 classes, professor Sue Armitage asked her students to conduct oral history interviews with women who had spent their early lives in the Pacific Northwest. Totaling over 230 hours of audio, this collection holds nearly 200 of these interviews, originally recorded between 1979 and 2005. The majority of the women interviewed were born between 1881 and the early 1930s, and the collection provides invaluable first hand documentation regarding the role of women in the northwest during the early and mid 1900s."

"... is a nonprofit all-volunteer educational organization dedicated to celebrating and documenting the contribution of women to the history, social fabric and culture of Worcester and beyond." The site includes an Historical Library section and an Oral History Project.