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WGST 790: Graduate Seminar in Women's & Gender Studies: Primary Sources
Using the collections
- Visiting Wilson Special Collections Library at UNC-Chapel Hill: https://library.unc.edu/wilson/prepare-for-your-visit/
- Appointments are strongly encouraged.
- All researchers are encouraged to contact Wilson Library, write to wilsonlibrary@unc.edu, or schedule a virtual consultation to discuss research needs and service options.
- Visiting the Rubenstein Library at Duke University: https://library.duke.edu/rubenstein/about/visit.
- Appointments are not required, but you are encouraged to contact them prior to a visit https://rubenstein.libanswers.com/index
- You must request materials 4 business days in advance of a visit as most are stored offsite from the library.
- You can view some digitized collections here and you can reach out to a librarian through chat or email: https://library.duke.edu/research/ask
Primary Resources
Finding primary resources
- Finding Primary ResourcesThis locally developed guide provides information about identifying primary resources and links to primary resources not thematically limited to women's studies.
- ArchiveGridServes as a single point of entry that provides online access to descriptions of archival collections held by thousands of libraries, museums, historical societies, and archives worldwide. Allows discovery of information about primary source materials - both personal papers and corporate records.
Some primary source databases
- Gale Primary Sources: Archives of Sexuality & GenderPrimary source collection (16th century to 2014) for LGBTQIA+, gender, and sexuality studies, sourced from American, Australian, British, Canadian, and South African Archives. Consists of three series: LGBTQ History and Culture since 1940 (1940-2014); Sex and Sexuality, Sixteenth to Twentieth Century; and International Perspectives on LGBTQ Activism and Culture (20th century).
- Black Studies CenterMajor indexing and full text database for African American studies. It includes the Schomburg Studies on the Black Experience, a series of essays by leading scholars about the Black Experience; HistoryMakers, a streaming audiovisual collection of 100 oral history interviews (of 2-3 hours each and corresponding transcripts) with prominent contemporary African Americans; historical backfiles of The Chicago Defender and Daily Defender; the International Index to Black Periodicals, which covers scholarly and popular Black Studies journals, including full text for many titles; and Black Literature Index, which contains bibliographic citations for fiction, poetry and literary reviews published in black periodicals and newspapers between 1827-1940.
- Gender: Identity and Social ChangePrimary source materials on gender history from the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and Australia from the 19th to the 21st century. Includes feminist pamphlets and ephemera, diaries and correspondence, business and legal records, advice literature and etiquette books, photographs, and ephemera.
- Sex & Sexuality : Research Collections from the Kinsey Institute Library & Special CollectionsPrimary sources (research files, correspondence, newsletters, reports, pamphlets, and ephemera) on sexology and changing attitudes towards human sexuality, gender, and sexual behaviors from the Kinsey Institute (1939-1990s). Covers advances in public health, biology, psychology, sociology and other social sciences disciplines.
- Women's Magazine ArchiveFull-text archive of scanned color cover-to-cover reproductions of Redbook, Better Homes & Gardens, Good Housekeeping, Ladies’ Home Journal, Chatelaine, Redbook, Cosmopolitan, Essence, Seventeen, Town & Country, Women's Day and Women’s International Network News which serve as records of evolving assumptions about gender roles and cultural mores.
- Women & Social Movements in the United States 1600-2000Database of women's activism in American public life from 1600-2000, including published histories, records of women's organizations, books, images, documents, scholarly essays, commentaries, and bibliographies.
- LGBTQ Life in the South: LGBTQ Activism in the North Carolina Triangle AreaMany of the interviews in the SOHP database would be of interest to those studying LGBTQ life in the Triangle. This is a link to interviews in one particular series, but the entire database can be searched for keywords related to LGBTQ subjects.
- Nuevas Raices/New RootsThis is a digital file that contains the oral histories of Latin American migrants in North Carolina and the experiences of North Carolinians that have worked for the integration of new settlers into this southern state.
Reference Sources
- Gale Virtual Reference LibraryA collection of reference books and encyclopedias in electronic format. The titles cover a wide range of subjects, from the arts to medicine, and from multicultural studies to social science. You can search one title at a time, up to 10 titles that you select, or by broad grouping such as biography, education, or history.
Transgender: a Reference Handbook (ebook)This book takes contemporary as well as historic aspects into consideration. Notably, it focuses not only on Western medical ideas of gender affirmation but on cultural diversity surrounding the topic. This book will primarily serve as a reference guide and jumping off point for further research for those seeking information about what it means to be transgender. While a reference book, it contains original work that may be cited in addition to the encyclopedia itself. In particular, the perspectives section of the book includes writings from some of the world's foremost trans writers, activists, artists, and historians.
Women's Studies Collections
- Sallie Bingham CenterThe Sallie Bingham Center for Women's History and Culture in Duke's Rubenstein Library acquires, preserves and makes available to a large population of researchers published and unpublished materials that reflect the public and private lives of women, past and present, including collections about women in science and medicine. For more information, contact Kelly Wooten.
- Feminist Movements, 1880s to the presentThis guide highlights the many manuscript and print collections at the Bingham Center that document feminist theory & activism, primarily in the U.S., including the women's liberation movement of the 1960-70s and the third wave/riot grrrl movements of the 1990s.
- UNC Special CollectionsThe Wilson Special Collections Library is home to the University Library's North Carolina Collection, Rare Book Collection, Southern Folklife Collection, Southern Historical Collection, and University Archives and Records Management Services. The five special collections hold unique and rare books, organizational records, personal and family papers, photographs, moving images, sound recordings, and artifacts that document the history and culture of the University, the state, the region, the nation, and the world.
