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New Collections and Online Resources

New Acquisitions

Here are a few of the many exciting new collections we've received within the past year:

Alliance Against Women's Oppression (AAWO), International women's rights organization.

Records 5.75 linear ft., 1980-1989. Formed out of the Third World Women’s Alliance (see below) in late 1979, the AAWO focused its organizing activities primarily on the struggle for women’s rights and equality and against the racialized, gendered, classed sexism of the developed North. In order to take up the struggle of women’s oppression nationally and internationally, AAWO created coalitions and joined their efforts with other social justice organizations locally and globally.

The Coalition of Indian-Controlled School Boards Oral History Project, Educational reformers.

Records: 1.25 linear ft., 1967-2009. 60 interviews conducted by oral historian Jerry Reynolds document a unique, otherwise unknowable history. From before its official incorporation in 1971 to its demise in 1981, the Coalition made unrivaled contributions to Indian parental and community control of Indian education. The collection includes transcripts and audio recordings of the interviews, along with supporting documentation.

Rhonda Copelon , Lawyer, professor, international women's rights advocate.

Papers: 15 linear ft., 1971-2006. Copelon worked as an attorney with the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) for a dozen years, particularly regarding cases involving reproductive rights. She was a founding board member of the National Economic and Social Initiative, an Advisory Board member of Human Rights Watch, Women's Rights Watch, and Legal Advisor to and founder of Women's Caucus for Gender Justice. She was on the faculty of the CUNY Law School at Queens College beginning in 1983 and co-founded the International Women's Human Rights Clinic there in 1992. She filed countless amicus briefs in cases heard by the International Criminal Tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda and published widely on the need to treat rape during armed conflicts as a war crime.

Flier from TWWA Records, 1980

Third World Women's Alliance (TWWA), International women of color grassroots network

Records: 3.5 linear ft., 1971-1980. The TWWA was one of several organizations formed by women of color in the late 1960s and early 1970s as responses to the essentialist theories of the early feminist movement. TWWA broadened the scope of women's activism to address issues such as sterilization abuse, infant mortality, welfare rights, and low-wage work. The orientation of TWWA towards the "third world" brought the struggles, condition, and status of women in Latin America, Asia, Africa, and the Middle East to the forefront.

Felice Yeskel, Peace, gay rights, and social justice activist and educator.

Papers: 4 linear ft., 1953-2010. Yeskel was the first director of the Stonewall Center for GLBTQ students at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. She was also part of the Diversity Works Project which ran workshops in area high schools aimed at fighting homophobia, sexism, racism, and classism. In 1995, Yeskel and Chuck Collins formed United for a Fair Economy and in 2004 she joined fellow activist Jenny Ladd in founding Class Action, a non-profit organization to raise consciousness about class and classism.

Note: although these collections are open to research, they have not been fully processed and therefore may be difficult to use. Also, access to some materials may not be immediate. For collections housed in remote storage we require 48 hours advance notice of your visit. For more information see Access to Collections

 

Newly processed collections, now open for research

Satterthwaite, Adaline Pendleton

Physician; Birth control advocate. The papers include extensive correspondence, diaries, medical records and reports, photographs, writings, and subject files pertaining to Satterthwaite's career as a physican, birth control pioneer, and internationally renowned expert in family planning. The collection is rich in materials documenting Satterthwaite's work in family planning in Puerto Rico, Bangladesh, Pakistan, and China.

Harriet Curtis

1840s New England mill worker (see also news article about Curtis papers)

Flyer "American Foot Binding - Stamp Out High Heels,"
Rochester Women Against Violence Against Women, n.d.

Homosexuality/LBGT

Subject collection documenting attitudes towards gay people from 1932-1995, with emphasis on political struggles

Charlotte Seitlin

Editor, correspondence with themes of gay and lesbian lifestyles in the 1900s

National Women's Health Network

Non-profit women's health advocacy organization

Witchcraft

Subject collection of printed materials about the history of witches and witchcraft in the United States

New Online Resources

The following Subject Guides have recently been added to our website:

  Violence Against Women

  Environmental, Anti-Nuclear and Animal Rights Activists

View all Subject Guides

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