Materials related to Ms. magazine are found throughout Smith College Special Collections, which comprises the Mortimer Rare Book Collection, the Smith College Archives and the Sophia Smith Collection of Women’s History.
Read the “Scope and Contents” and the "Biographical/Historical" notes in the finding aids for more information on each individual collection.
SSC-MS-00362
These records document the administration, editorial choices, research, publication, and response to Ms. Magazine, as well as events and special projects created by the staff of the magazine. Particularly well documented are the editorial choices made by the magazine's staff and the changes in the magazine as it was transferred to Fairfax Publishing in the late 1980s.
The bulk of the collection is office files, editorial (including numerous manuscripts), publicity, promotion, circulation, and advertising. The editorial files were sampled. Also included are by Ms. staff, so it is not a complete documentation of the editorial work of the magazine. The collection also includes files on special projects (e.g. Stories for Children); files for Women's Action Alliance and Ms. Foundation for Women; individual editors' correspondence and other professional papers, including those of Gloria Steinem, Pat Carbine, and Letty Pogrebin. There are also research files, printed materials, audiovisual materials, photographs, and artwork.
SSC-MS-00537
The SSC Periodicals Collection includes over 1,500 titles of current and historical, U.S. and international women's magazines, newsletters, and other serials dating from the 18th century to the present. Periodicals of the suffrage and birth control movements, and the mid-twentieth century women's liberation movement are well represented. Copies of Ms. Magazine can be found under Ms., bulk: 1972-2011, 2016, 2017
Editions of Ms. can also be requested through interlibrary loan from other institutions. To find institutions near you, search WorldCat.
SSC-MS-00535
The Voices of Feminism Oral History Project documents the persistence and diversity of organizing for women in the United States in the latter half of the 20th century. Narrators include labor, peace, and anti-racism activists; artists and writers; lesbian rights advocates; grassroots anti-violence and anti-poverty organizers; and women of color reproductive justice leaders. Interviews average 5-6 hours and cover childhood, personal life, and political work.
SSC-MS-00638
This collection consists of early records of the Ms. Foundation for Education and Communication, including financial information, correspondence, Board of Directors files, and documents pertaining to a legal case brought by Elizabeth Forsling Harris against Gloria Steinem, Patricia Carbine and Ms. Magazine Corp. for fraud.
SSC-MS-00237
Journalist; feminist; political activist; co-founder, Ms. magazine; co-founder, Women's Action Alliance; co-founder, Ms Foundation for Women; and co-founder, National Women's Political Caucus. In addition to providing a complete picture of the life of an important feminist leader, the Gloria Steinem Papers document women at the grassroots level of the feminist movement. Material in the collection includes correspondence, writings, speeches, subject files, memorabilia, and photographs. Her importance as a founder, editor, and key fund-raiser for Ms. magazine make this collection central to the study of late 20th century journalism. For more information about Gloria Steinem, visit Gloria Steinem Special Collections Resources
SSC-MS-00715
The materials in this collection document Thom's personal and professional life. They include correspondence; manuscript drafts; research and interviews for her biography of Bella Abzug and Ms. magazine projects; published works by Thom and others; and photographs.
SSC-MS-00294
The collection consists largely of Pogrebin's professional papers reflecting her career as a writer and journalist, as well as her social activism in the women's liberation and feminist movements. The collection is organized primarily by writing and other projects and includes correspondence; research, organization, and subject files; drafts, published writings, and speeches interspersed throughout. There is a small amount of biographical material and memorabilia.
SSC-MS-00769
The collection contains papers relating to Michele Kort's book projects, childhood history, "Ms. Magazine" and other publications, photographs, audio interview recordings, correspondence, research, articles, and manuscript drafts, including considerable material related to Laura Nyro.
SSC-MS-00818
The collection documents the personal and professional life of Pat Carbine. Includes biographical materials; personal correspondence; files from service on a variety of organization boards; speech texts, correspondence and arrangements about speaking engagements; a small amount about writings; miscellaneous personal files; and desk diaries kept by Pat (1969, 1971, 1972) and her assistant Margaret Hicks (1972). Records related to Carbine's work at Ms. are not included.
Documentary on the Sophia Smith Collection, women's history archive at Smith College. Produced, written and directed by Joyce Follet and Terry Kay Rockefeller, 2001. This brief film highlights Smith College’s pioneering contributions to the movement that is revolutionizing the writing and teaching of history. It chronicles the 1942 founding of the nation’s oldest women’s manuscripts collection by historian Mary Ritter Beard and archivist Margaret Storrs Grierson and features cameo appearances by:
Gloria Steinem Rebecca Walker, Third Wave feminist Amy Richards, Third Wave feminist Jan Peterson, Grassroots activist Frances Fox Piven, Political scientist/Activist Daniel Horowitz, Historian Linda Gordon, Historian Linda Kerber, Historian
This exhibit marks the opening for research of eight collections of 20th century women activists: the papers of Constance Baker Motley, Dorothy Kenyon, Mary Kaufman, Frances Fox Piven, Jessie Lloyd O'Connor, and Gloria Steinem and the records of the Women's Action Alliance and the National Congress of Neighborhood Women. These new resources highlight women's part in the multiple struggles for social change that span the century including labor, socialism, civil liberties, peace, racial justice, urban reform, welfare rights, and women's rights. They illuminate connections between reform movements, as well as the interplay of race, ethnicity, class, and gender within them.