Radcliffe Archives Contain Records Tracing Growth of Women's Rights

Tucked off in a corner of Longfellow Hall is the only existing separate college collection of documents on Women's Rights. The material, contained in Room 103 Longfellow, includes about 300 books, many magazine articles, and a complete file of The Woman's Journal (1870-1917), and the Woman Citizen (1917-1931) on microfilms.

This material, which is open to the students of the University on request, is the nucleus of a still larger collection of books, articles, press clippings, and letters called the Woman's Archives.

The archives, located in Byerly Hall, contains more than 1000 catalogued books by and about women. The collection is constantly growing and by next year Mary E. Howard, Archivist, says she expects to have about 2000 volumes.

The purpose of the collection, according to Miss Howard, is "to show the historical role and social contributions of women in the U. S. from about 1820 on."

Among the interesting items included in the Woman's Archives is a collection of about 120 books on etiquette donated by Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. '38, associate professor of History, designed to show the social development of women.

The Bureau of Vocational Information has sent Radcliffe all of its files on job possibilities for women. The organization, which was set up in 1909, sent out a questionnaire to women about the jobs they held and the training necessary to obtain them. These questionnaires are now part of the Woman's Archives.

The Library has an almost complete file of the material put out by the League of Women Voters. It also has most of the publications of the Association of Collegiate Alumna (1886-1923).