By Lynn Parliman, Head of Serials & Electronic Resources

One of Fordham Libraries’ small but content-rich databases that should not be overlooked by researchers is Accessible Archives. The database contains diverse primary source materials from books and periodicals reflecting broad views across American history and culture.  

As we celebrated Women’s History Month this past March and Preservation Week this final week of April, three of the collections in this database are perfect for studying and preserving women’s history during the 19^th century:

Godey’s Lady’s Book, 1830-1898

Comprised of articles on fashion, entertainment, health and hygiene, recipes, and remedies, morality, gems and jewelry, handcrafts, marriage, education, suffrage, “hearth and home,” dating and marriage, African American and immigrant women, the role of women in foreign countries, brief biographies of leading personalities, literature, and more. Includes the full color plates as they originally appeared.

The Woman’s Tribune, 1883-1909

Consists of articles and news on women’s suffrage and political rights, suffrage leaders, rural women of the Midwest and West, political and international issues, local, regional, & national politics, labor laws, Women’s Leagues, Woman’s Political Party, national political parties, anti-suffrage, marriage and divorce, property laws, reproductive rights, African Americans, tradeswomen, international suffrage movement, crime, national women’s suffrage organizations, law enforcement, Spanish-American War, Native American women, health and medical practice, education, National Federation of Women’s Clubs, women’s patriotic organizations, and others.

Women’s Suffrage Collection

Includes the publications: The Lily, 1849-1851; National Citizen and Ballot Box, 1878-1881; The Revolution, 1868-1872; The New Citizen, 1909-1912; The Western Woman Voter, 1911-1913; The Remonstrance, 1890-1913; The National Standard: A Women’s Suffrage and Temperance Journal, 1870-1872; and the compilations: The 19th Amendment Victory: A Newspaper History, 1762-1922; and The 19th Amendment Victory: Books, 1812-1923.

These collections are encyclopedic in scope and allow full Boolean, string and truncated searches from the Accessible Archive’s homepage. The access link can be found on the Databases A-Z list, A alpha tab and Databases by Subject tab, History box.

For exploring a much broader time frame in women’s history, Fordham Libraries provide access to Women and Social Movements in the United States (1600-2000). This is a perfect database to browse since it includes over 100 document projects and archives built around primary sources addressing a particular question or theme concerning some aspect of women and social movements in the United States. It also includes book, film, and website reviews, notes from the archives, and teaching tools. Access to the library’s subscription includes the online version of Notable American Women and the database on Commissions on the Status of Women.

Alexander Street, the database’s publisher, provides semantic indexing and database searching for the resources on the site, greatly improving its scholarly utility. A Dictionary of Social Movements and a Chronology of U.S. Women’s History, both especially prepared for the website, provide users unique subject access to both document projects and full-text sources on the site.

The access link can be found on the Databases A-Z list, W alpha tab and Databases by Subject tab, Gender Studies box. If you need help finding additional resources, our Reference Librarians are available 24/7 via the Ask a Librarian chat service.