Women's Archives at Radcliffe Provide Fund of Historical Material on Suffrage

Yearly changes in correct savoir faire from 1811 to the era of Emily Post, and rare, extensive information about the woman suffrage fight in America can be studied by Harvard and 'Cliffe under-graduates in the Radcliffe Women's Archives. which provides a rich source for theais material in many fields.

Concerned primarily with the activities of American women, the research library is located in Byeriy Hall. The College founded it in 1944 to "promote further knowledge of the part women have played in the making of history."

Materials available in the Women's Archives are listed in the Union Catalogue at Widener and catalogued in the Radcliffe Library. 'Cliffe students may borrow books for a two week period. but Harvard men and other researchers must use the collection in the research room adjoining the Archives. Manuscripts may not be borrowed.

Three subsidiary collections included in the framework of the Library, are the Women's Rights Collection, all publications of alumnae. and the Archives of the College.

Forceful female agitation and pressure were involved in securing passage of the 19th Amendment. A complete record of this struggle for woman suffrage in America, including banners, letters, magazines, books, and personal diaries comprises the valuable Woman's Rights Collection housed in Long fellow Hall, given to the College by Maude Wood Park '98, first national president of the League of Women Voters.

This group of materials includes one of the two existing complete files of the Women's Journal and the Women's Citizen, pro-suffrage papers. The Library of Congress owns the other file.

'Cliffe graduates' literary contributions range from romatic novels to philosophical essays, folk songs, and cook books. Gertrude Stein '98, Rachael Field 'Is, and Helen Keller '04 are perhaps the most well known among the authoresses whose work make up the varied collection.

Speeches, catalogs, letters, student government activities, and other data or Radcliffe history are contained in the College Archives also kept in Byerly.

Material is particularly extensive concerning women in medicine, education, and the trade union movement, according to Mrs. Richard Borden '60, director of the Archives. The collection of etiquette books which covers more than 150 years was donated by Professor Arthur M. Schlesinger.

Other "tressure" of the collection are the scrapbooks and papers of Julia Ward Howe and the personal letters of Arthur Gilman, 'Cliffe's founder, in which he wrote of his ideas of founding an "institution for the higher education of women offering the same course that Harvard offers men" and listed his original choice of faculty members.

Familiarity with the contents of the Library discloses a surprising overlapping of individual women and trends in the various fields Mrs. Borden observed. "as they used to say at Vassar. 'everything correlates'".