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Women and Books in Special Collections

Guide to resources related to women involved in book selling, printing, collecting, binding, designing, and librarianship in Smith College Special Collections.

Librarians

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Still from "Lesbian Librarian" segment of DykeTV, Episode 25, 1993-11-23. Dyke TV records, Sophia Smith Collection, SSC-MS-00656.

Women in the library field can be researched in multiple collections in Smith College Special Collections. This list is intended to help you start your research, but is not comprehensive. This list features women employed by Smith as librarians as well as those who are unaffiliated with Smith. Individuals affiliated with Smith College may not have their own collection of papers, but their work at Smith College can be researched by using College Archives. For information on researching materials in Smith College Archives, check out our Smith College Archives research resources guide.

Collections are briefly described below. For more extensive information for archival collections, read the "Scope and Contents" and the "Biographical / Historical" notes in the finding aid.

Dyke TV records

SSC-MS-00656

Dyke TV was a weekly television series produced by and for lesbians and distributed from 1993 to 2005 as a way of empowering the lesbian community and increasing visibility and ending isolation of lesbians. It was founded by the Lesbian Avengers, and was part of their education and activist program. This collection includes video tapes, raw footage, and DVD dubs of Dyke TV programs, as well as administrative files and memorabilia. The materials cover a wide range of topics, including but not limited to lesbians in sports, artists, gay pride, childhood and coming of age stories, political issues, gay and lesbian civil rights, incarcerated women, sexuality, lesbian parenting, HIV/AIDS and other health issues, incest survivors, lesbian domestic violence, and women's rights.

Episodes:

Diana Davies papers

SSC-MS-00309

The Diana Davies Papers consist primarily of her photographs of individuals and groups, musicians, artists, political activists in the civil rights, peace and feminist movements; celebrities and politicians; women's events (marches, demonstrations, conferences, etc.); and images of a variety of people and events from Broadway actors to New York City street people. As a photojournalist at the height of the Women's Liberation movement, Davies documented many of the important players and events in the movement in New York City in the 1960s and 1970s.

Friends of the Smith College Libraries Oral History Project

CA-MS-00353

Oral history interviews of former Smith College faculty, staff, and students. Memories range from the early through mid-1900s. The tapes range from personal recollections about being a student, staff, or faculty member at Smith to wider social and political issues of the times. The tapes record various changes in Smith College's landscape- the razing of buildings as well as changes in curriculum, departments, and staff. Gertrude Smith's summary provides a concise overview, highlighting key topics on each tape and noting whether the tape is single or double sided.

Smith College Libraries records 

CA-MS-01088

Smith College Libraries include the Neilson Library, the Young Library, the Hillyer Art Library, the Josten Performing Arts Library, and Smith College's Special Collections. The collection contains records of the workings of library departments, individual staff, the Friends of the Library, and architectural records of the library buildings.

Smith College Special Collections records

CA-MS-00408

Smith College Special Collections (SCSC) is a steward of historical materials of enduring value that fosters inquiry, critical thinking, and knowledge building through an active engagement with the past and a focus on the future. The Smith College Special Collections records document more than a century of archival work and rare book librarianship at Smith College, including the College Archives, the Sophia Smith Collection, and the Mortimer Rare Book Collection.

Mary Etta Gorham

Mary Etta Gorham, Class of 1879, was appointed Smith College's first Librarian and Registrar in 1890. Information about her can be found in her class records and elsewhere in College Archives.

Josephine Adelaide Clark

Josephine Adelaide Clark Papers (CA-MS-00139)

Josephine Clark, Class of 1880,  was a teacher, librarian, and botanist. She served as the college librarian between 1907 and 1919. She saw Neilson Library through its construction. After graduation from Smith College, she held numerous teaching jobs until her focus switched to library work in 1888, when she entered the library school at Columbia College in New York City. Josephine later became the assistant librarian at Gray Herbarium at Harvard University, where her knowledge and love of botany offered her great assistance. In September of 1891, she took the position of Botanical Bibliographer for the Division of Botany within the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Two years later she was appointed as the Assistant Librarian for the whole department, and in 1901 accepted the position of Head Librarian for the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

"While working at the U.S. Department of Agriculture, she first compiled the index currently known as the Gray Herbarium Card Index which was the first available to botanists in a card format and published at regular intervals. The index was first published in catalog format in 1891 and compiled in a card format in 1894. The card format enabled the botanist to order alphabetically, systematic groups or geographical groups. Clark was the main organizer of the index until 1903 when she turned it over to Mary Anna Day at the Gray Herbarium with 27,999 cards" (wikipedia).

Related material: Letter from Josephine A. (Josephine Adelaide) Clark (1856-) to Mrs. Samuel F. Clarke, 1915-11-23

Nina Elizabeth Browne

Nina Elizabeth Browne Papers (CA-MS-00384)

Nine Browne received her A.B. from Smith College in 1882 and her A.M. in 1885. After teaching for a year she went on to the newly established School of Library Economy at Columbia College (now Columbia University) on the recommendation of a former classmate. The school was established in 1887 by Melvil Dewey, then the chief university librarian. Browne later noted that "when the trustees decided to have the library school, no one of them had a notion that women would come. Because women came, that rule forbidding a woman to enter a classroom forced Mr. [Melvil] Dewey to find a place for the newcomers. He found it in this old building hitherto used as a storeroom." (Browne, Nina E., "Reminiscences of the First Library School of Columbia University, 1887-89," New York Libraries vol. 15, no. 6 (February 1937): page 162.). She returned to Massachusetts and became an assistant librarian at Harvard and the Boston Athenaeum while working unofficially for the Smith College Alumna Association. A highly active advocate, she served as the Registrar for the American Library Association, compiling their portrait index and travelling to London for the International Conference of Librarianship. In 1921, Smith College hired Brown as the first Archivist of the College in anticipation of the 50th anniversary of the founding of the college. Although the 50th anniversary project was completed in 1925, Browne continued to build and develop the historical collection until her retirement in 1937.

Eunice Wead

Wead family papers (SSC-MS-00171)

Eunice Wead graduated from Smith College in 1902, and received her Masters degree from the University of Michigan in 1927. She was a librarian at Smith College from 1906 to 1911; Curator of Rare Books from 1917 to 1924; and was Associate Professor of Library Science at the University of Michigan from 1926-1944.

Margaret L. Johnson

Margaret Louise Johnson was appointed college librarian in 1949, a position she held until her retirement in 1968. Johnson and her staff kept Neilson Library open during the 15-month construction of two new wings with no disruption of service amid all of the dust and noise. Information about Margaret L. Johnson can be found in the Libraries records of College Archives.

Mary E. Dunham

Mary E. Dunham was a librarian at Smith College from 1920 to 1942. Dunham had a great interest in rare books and advocated greatly for the Rare Book Collection at Smith College.  On February 14, 1939, Dunham addressed an Alumnae Council session, describing the work of a college library. A press release for this event notes that she spoke of the numerous collections in the Smith College Library and “of the treasures to be found in the Rare Book room." The Rare Book room was created in the 1937 addition to Neilson Library, which she oversaw. Dunham also suggested to the Alumnae Council session that Smith College would be “a most appropriate place for the development of a collection of books on prominent English and American women and their activities. … If the Friends of Smith College Library, which has been under consideration for several years, should eventually be organized, this is a field that would repay a collector’s effort.”

Dorothy King

Dorothy King was the Curator of Rare Books at Smith College from 1946 to 1974. She attended the University of Cincinnati and joined the staff of its library in 1938. King moved to Ann Arbor, Michigan in 1941 to work as a cataloger at the University of Michigan Library while earning her Library School degree. King's love of rare books led her to the position of assistant curator of rare books at Michigan in 1943. While at Michigan, King knew Eunice Wead, a professor in the University of Michigan's library school and curator of rare books, and who formerly taught book history at Smith College form 1945-1947. Perhaps Wead encouraged King to apply to become the curator of rare books at Smith, a position King assumed in 1946.,When King came to Smith, she found that the previous curator, Marion Brown, had left campus to serve in the Canadian military during the war. This essentially stopped the progress on the recently-formed rare book collection. King proceeded to build up these holdings with great speed, taking the Rare Book Room from fewer than 2,000 volumes in 1946 to more than 7,000 volumes in 1974 (The present collection includes approximately 45,000 books and manuscripts.)

Ruth Mortimer

Ruth Mortimer papers (CA-MS-01177)

Smith College Special Collections records (CA-MS-00408)

Librarian, teacher, and curator of rare books at Smith College who was instrumental in obtaining the Sylvia Plath Collection and the Frances Hooper Collection of Virginia Woolf. The rare book collection was named in her honor in 1994. This collection contains the personal and professional papers of Ruth Mortimer, a Smith College Alumnae (class of 1953) and a rare book librarian in the Smith College Library from 1975 to her death in 1994. Of particular note, the collection includes Mortimer's writings, her long correspondence with Mary Ellen Chase and playwright Maggie Edson, and papers relating to her work with the Friends of the Smith College Library. The Rare Book Collection grew exponentially under Mortimer's curatorship: she oversaw the acquisition of Smith's lauded Sylvia Plath (1981) and Virginia Woolf (1986) collections. From 1988 to 1992, Mortimer served as the first female president of the Bibliographical Society of America. The Mortimer Rare Book Room is now the Mortimer Rare Book Collection and is part of Smith College Special Collections.

Documenting Lesbian Lives Oral History Project oral histories

SSC-MS-00661

Documenting Lesbian Lives is a collection of life histories with people who consider themselves to be (presently or at one time) lesbian, queer or bisexual. The project provides a complex and nuanced collective story of American lesbian history and experience. Narrators include grassroots activists and political organizers; educators and academics; musicians, writers, and artists; as well as community and religious leaders. They come from a variety of class, ethnic, racial, social, and geographic backgrounds. Interviews cover childhood and growing up experiences; education and employment; activism and politics; family, identity, relationships and community. "Scope and contents" notes as well as "Biographical/Historical" notes for each interview will provide context.

Office of the President Thomas Corwin Mendenhall Files

CA-MS-00032

Sixth President of Smith College, Professor, history. Contains official records of the Office of the President, incoming and outgoing correspondence, reports and working papers, news clippings and photographs.

Office of College Relations records

CA-MS-01050

The Office of College Relations records contain material related to the ongoing operations of the department, including events files, press releases and clippings, terminated faculty and staff files, inauguration files, photos, AV, scrapbooks, correspondence, general office files, publications from other College departments, and a small portion of Presidents' files.