Digital Resources Celebrating Women’s History

^{Image adapted from “International Women’s Day” by worker via openclipart.org.}

Women’s History Month is coming to a close this week, but the research never stops at the library. Below is a selection of digital resources available through Fordham’s libraries and beyond covering women’s history, from oral histories to protest photographs.

Oral Histories at Fordham

^{Images from GDP and sheikh_tuhin via openclipart.org.}

Heralded as a feminist research method focusing on the lives of everyday people, Fordham is home to a rich assortment of oral history projects. Our Digital Collections platform hosts stories and observations by women in the following collections:

The Thomas More College Oral History Collection features alumnae from the first female undergraduate college at Rose Hill established in 1964 (until the college it became part of FCRH in 1974). Recordings in this collection were made during the 50^th Jubilee reunion celebration in 2018.
The Bronx Italian American History Initiative captures family stories and memories from the 1920s to 1960s. Check out their Instagram page for Women’s History Month highlights.
Oral histories from the Bronx African American History Project (found in both the Digital Collections platform as well as Fordham Research Commons) uplift the voices of Bronx leaders and community members. Their most recent initiative, the Bronx COVID-19 Oral History Project, is documenting the impact of the pandemic on New York City’s hardest-hit borough.

Historical Collections by Subscription

Fordham subscribes to many databases with a broad range of historical content. While many of our historical databases cover the lives of women, we wanted to plug these specific resources for Women’s History Month:

Routledge Historical Resources: The History of Feminism offers thematic collections on the development of feminism over the long nineteenth century (1776–1928). It holds a range of primary and secondary resources in various formats including books, selected chapters, journal articles, and subject introductions. An example is Sojourner Truth: Prophet of Social Justice by Isabelle Kinnard Richman, which includes a biography and primary source documents.

Women and Social Movements in the United States, 1600-2000 (scholar’s edition) is a peer-reviewed journal and a growing digital collection of primary source documents and transcriptions, essays, book reviews, bibliographies, and teaching tools. Some of the documents are open access like this one about garment workers.

ARTstor provides access to loads of historical content connected to feminist movements, from photographs to famous works of art. Check out ARTstor’s blog post for Women’s History Month highlighting specific collections within their platform.

Historical Open Access Collections

Librarians love open access collections because that means more people can enjoy them! The following collections have caught our attention this past month:

Black Women’s Suffrage Digital Collection is a collaborative collection documenting Black women in the Women’s Suffrage Movement from the 1850s to 1960. This resource includes photographs, correspondence, speeches, event programs, publications, oral histories, and other artifacts.
The Catholic News Archive provides free access to Dorothy Day’s writings from The Catholic Worker newspaper. Use the search limiters to read the digitized articles with Dorothy Day as the author.

^{Sample search for Dorothy Day in the The Catholic News Archive.}

The Digital Transgender Archive is a collaboration of more than fifty colleges, universities, organizations, public libraries, and private collections to increase the accessibility of transgender history. This resource includes a DTA Starter’s Guide for anyone who is new to trans history and research.
Catching the Wave: Photographs of the Women’s Movement from the Schlesinger Library at Harvard offers digitized photographs from Bettye Lane and Freda Leinwand covering the women’s liberation movement of the late 1960s and 1970s. Many of the photographs feature activism on the streets of New York City.

^{“ERA Demonstration” by Freda Leinwand showing women holding a banner for the National Conference of Puerto Rican Women via Catching the Wave: Photographs of the Women’s Movement.}

There Is Always More!

We could go on and on talking about resources because there is always more to find through libraries. Those listed above are only a small selection. You can always ask a librarian to help you search for the content that fits your research needs. Be sure to check out the resources listed here (and more!) on the research guide for Women, Gender & Sexuality Studies.

Need help using the resources above or have other questions about library resources? Contact us 24/7 through the Ask a Librarian chat service.