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Guide to Women's and Gender Studies: Reference & Primary Sources

Reference Sources

Collections of reference materials

Gale Virtual Reference Library
A 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.
Access: Off Campus Access is available for: UNC-Chapel Hill students, faculty, and staff; UNC Hospitals employees; UNC-Chapel Hill affiliated AHEC users. North Carolina residents with a borrower's card may access from off campus by visiting NCLive directly. Contact the Davis Library Service Desk for the NCLive password (instructions).
Coverage: 1999 -
Sage Knowledge
Includes social sciences e-books, reference books, and videos produced by Sage and CQ Press.
Access: Off Campus Access is available for: UNC-Chapel Hill students, faculty, and staff; UNC Hospitals employees; UNC-Chapel Hill affiliated AHEC users.

Encyclopedias and Handbooks

Cambridge Guide to Women's Writing in English (print)
Call Number: Davis Reference PR111 .C353 1999
Encyclopedia of Women Social Reformers
Call Number: Davis Reference HQ1236 .R29 2001
Women in the Middle Ages: An Encyclopedia
Call Number: Davis Reference Folio HQ1143 .W643 2004
Notable American Women
Call Number: CT3250 .J35 1607-present

online

print

Primary Resources

Finding Primary Resources
This locally developed guide provides information about identifying primary resources and links to primary resources not thematically limited to women's studies.

The databases below feature primary resources throughout history.

Defining Gender 1450-1910: Five Centuries of Advice Literature Online
Primary source documents relating to gender from British archives; includes archival documents, essays, biographies and an interactive chronology.
Access: Off Campus Access is available for: UNC-Chapel Hill students, faculty, and staff; UNC Hospitals employees; UNC-Chapel Hill affiliated AHEC users.
Coverage: 1450-1910
Perdita Manuscripts I: Women Writers 1500-1700
Complete images of over 230 manuscripts written or compiled by women living in the British Isles from 1500-1700. Contents include account books, advice, meditations, receipts, travel writing, and verse. Perdita manuscripts can be searched by name, genre, and first lines of both poetry and prose.
Access: Off Campus Access is available for: UNC-Chapel Hill students, faculty, and staff; UNC Hospitals employees; UNC-Chapel Hill affiliated AHEC users.
Coverage: 1500-1700
North American Women's Drama
Full-text of 1,500 plays written from colonial times to the present by more than 100 women from the United States and Canada. Many of the works are rare, hard to find, or out of print.
Access: Off Campus Access is available for: UNC-Chapel Hill students, faculty, and staff; UNC Hospitals employees; UNC-Chapel Hill affiliated AHEC users.
Coverage: Colonial to present
North American Women's Letters and Diaries
Index of over 1,000 volumes of published and unpublished Canadian and American women's diaries and correspondence from Colonial times through 1950.
Access: Off Campus Access is available for: UNC-Chapel Hill students, faculty, and staff; UNC Hospitals employees; UNC-Chapel Hill affiliated AHEC users. North Carolina residents with a borrower's card may access from off campus by visiting NCLive directly. Contact the Davis Library Service Desk for the NCLive password (instructions).
Coverage: Colonial to 1950
Phyllis Lyon, Del Martin and the Daughters of Bilitis
Digitized papers of Phyllis Lyon, Del Martin and their organization, the Daughters of Bilitis (the first lesbian rights organization in U.S. history - founded in 1955). Provides extensive information on the founding and growth of the homophile movement, especially the Daughters of Bilitis and The Ladder, including meeting minutes, correspondence, chapter records, membership data, and manuscripts.
Access: Off Campus Access is available for: UNC-Chapel Hill students, faculty, and staff; UNC Hospitals employees; UNC-Chapel Hill affiliated AHEC users.
Coverage: 1955-1984
Underground and Independent Comics, Comix, and Graphic Novels
Scholarly online collection for researchers and students of adult comic books and graphic novels.
Access: Off Campus Access is available for: UNC-Chapel Hill students, faculty, and staff; UNC Hospitals employees; UNC-Chapel Hill affiliated AHEC users.

Women Working, 1800-1930
Provides access to digitized historical, manuscript, and image resources selected from Harvard's library and museum collections.
Women's Worlds in Quajar Iran Digital Archive
Use this a unique online resource to explore the social and cultural lives of women during the Qajar era (1796-1925) through an array of materials from private family holdings and participating institutions. Women’s Worlds in Qajar Iran provides bilingual access to personal papers, manuscripts, photographs, publications, everyday objects, works of art and audio materials.
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Use this a unique online resource to explore the social and cultural lives of women during the Qajar era (1796-1925) through an array of materials from private family holdings and participating institutions. Women’s Worlds in Qajar Iran provides bilingual access to personal papers, manuscripts, photographs, publications, everyday objects, works of art and audio materials.

Bibliographic Database examples

African Women's Bibliographic Database
This open website indexes six types of [English] materials about African women: books and government documents; articles appearing in edited books; periodical and journal articles; theses and dissertations; conference papers; and videocassettes; and has a clickable map.
Access: No restrictions.
Coverage: 1986-

Important Collections in the Area

The Betty H. Carter Women Veterans Historical Project
Documents the female experience in the U.S. Armed Forces through letters, papers, photographs, published materials, uniforms, artifacts, and oral histories. It contains more than 500 individual collections which includes 350 oral histories.
Sallie Bingham Center for Women's History and Culture
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.

Guide to Women's and Gender Studies: Reference & Primary Sources

Reference Sources

Collections of reference materials

Encyclopedias and Handbooks

online

print

Primary Resources

The databases below feature primary resources throughout history.

Bibliographic Database examples

Important Collections in the Area

Find Women's Studies Online