Research Guides: Women, Gender, and Sexuality Research Guide: Primary Sources

Primary Sources

LGBTQ+ Rights
Publications and documents relating to the history of the gay rights movement in America, including an interactive timeline, subject-coded court cases, scholarly articles, books, pamphlets, reports, and more.
Detailed Guide to this resource.
Queer Pasts
Primary source document collections and curatorial essays. The digital exhibits on this platform are designed for students, teachers, and scholars of queer history.
LGBT Thought and Culture
Books, periodicals, and archival materials documenting LGBT political, social and cultural movements, through the 20th century up to the present.
LGBT Magazine Archive (1950-2015)
Archival runs of 26 of the most influential serial publications covering LGBT interests. 1954-2015
Includes The Advocate and Gay Times. Chronicles more than six decades of the history and culture of the LGBT community.
Independent Voices
Collection of open access alternative press newspapers, magazines and journals. Publications produced by feminists, dissident GIs, campus radicals, Native Americans, anti-war activists, Black Power advocates, Hispanics, LGBT activists, the extreme right-wing press, and alternative literary magazines during the latter half of the 20th century.

LGBTQ+ Studies Web Archive
Collection of online content covering LGBTQ+ history, scholarship, and culture in the United States and around the world. Includes primary sources, first-hand accounts, coverage of significant events, and essential artifacts of cultural memory.
LGBTQ+ Politics and Political Candidates Web Archive
Digital content related to LBGTQ+ political candidates, political issues, and topics at various levels of government, with a focus on lesser-known local and state politics.

LGBTQ+ Life
Indexing to LGBTQ+ periodicals, journals, and books; includes abstracts and partial full text.

The Empty Closet
One of the oldest continuously published LGBT newspapers in the United States. Full text of issues from 1971 - 2020.
Postcards of female and male impersonators and cross-dressing
Postcard collection of cabaret and stage performances by male and female impersonators in Europe and the United States, 1900-1930. From Cornell University.

Gerritsen Women's History Collection
Books, periodicals, and pamphlets on women's history and the evolution of feminism. Covers four centuries and 15 languages, with publications from the U.S., U.K., Canada, New Zealand, and continental Europe.
Two collections in this database:
The Periodical Series: This segment represents about 25 percent of the material in the database. It comprises 265 titles, including The Suffragist (1913-21) and The Women's Protest Against Woman Suffrage (1912-18).
Monograph Language Series: These 4,471 monographs and pamphlets make up about 75 percent of the collection. Included are 2,336 titles tracing suffragism in the English-speaking world. The collection will soon include 929 German titles that document the history of organized movements in Germany and Switzerland, and 734 French titles that cover women's issues from Gallic times through World War II.
British and Irish Womens Letters and Diaries
Collection of diaries and letters of 500+ women's experiences, spanning more than 300 years.
Women and Social Movements, International
Conference proceedings, organization reports, publications, and websites of women's non-governmental organizations. Also includes letters, diaries, and memoirs of women active internationally since the mid-nineteenth century, as well as photographs and videos of major events and activists in the history of women’s international social movements.
Detailed Guide to this resource.
Women and Social Movements: Development and the Global South, 1919 - 2019
Chronicles feminist activism in relation to development in the Global South - cultural, economic, social, and technological change associated with modernity, “progress,” and economic advancement. These changes have led to incredibly unequal outcomes for women in comparison to men, and for those living in the “developing world” (here noted as the Global South) in comparison to the industrialized, wealthy, and powerful, North.

South Asia Women & Gender (SAOA)
Primary and secondary sources, including magazines, pamphlets, and books, by, for, and about women, and important issues related to their lives and roles in society, including on women's education, health, and religion.
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This collection is part of South Asia Open Archives (SAOA)

North American Women's Drama
Full text of plays written by over 100 women from the United States and Canada, spanning Colonial times to the present.
Women and Social Movements in the United States, 1600-2000
Primary sources documenting women's movements and women activists in the US, with a focus on the 19th and 20th centuries. Topics include women and antislavery, women's suffrage, the Feminist movement, Equal Rights movement, and women's role in Civil Rights .
North American Immigrant Letters, Diaries and Oral Histories
Provides the immigrant experience in the United States and Canada between 1800 and 1950. Collection of personal narratives, letters, diaries, pamphlets, autobiographies, oral histories, Ellis Island Oral History interviews, and political cartoons.

National Women's History Museum Online Exhbits
Online museum dedicated to uncovering, interpreting, and celebrating women’s diverse contributions to society. Exhibits include primary sources.
Women's Liberation Movement Print Culture
Collection documenting the Women's Movement in the United States in the 1960s and 1970s, with a focus on the radical origins of this movement. Includes manifestos, speeches, essays, and other materials such as radical theoretical writings, to humorous plays, to the minutes of an actual grassroots group.
Chicago Women's Liberation Union: Herstory Project
Documents from the most significant socialist feminist women’s unions of the “second wave” feminist movement. CWLU was formed in 1969 and played a leading role in the women’s liberation movement in Chicago during the 1970s.

Ms.
American liberal feminist magazine, the first of its kind in the U.S.
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2nd Floor: 1973-2010
No online availability.
Advocate
American LGBT+ magazine focusing on news, politics, opinion, and arts and entertainment.
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2nd Floor: 1994-2009 +current year
Online: 1985-Present
Esquire
American entertainment magazine, traditionally marketed for a male audience.
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2nd Floor: 1979-2004
Online: 1933-Present
https://col-kzoo.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/permalink/01COL_KZOO/1018btr/alma991004835993004768

Women's Magazine Archive
Complete archives of consumer magazines published for a female audience, including Good Housekeeping and Ladies Home Journal. These magazines cover family life, home economics, health, careers, fashion, and culture, and provide canonical records of evolving assumptions about gender roles and cultural mores. Publications are in high-resolution color.
Women's Wear Daily Archive
Archive of Women's Wear Daily magazine, from its launch in 1910 up to six months ago, reproduced in high-resolution images. Documents the history of the fashion industry, as well as major designers, brands, retailers, and advertisers.
Detailed Guide to this resource.
LGBT Magazine Archive (1950-2015)
Archival runs of 26 of the most influential serial publications covering LGBT interests. 1954-2015
Includes The Advocate and Gay Times. Chronicles more than six decades of the history and culture of the LGBT community.

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