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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.

Overview

Women have a strong history in the making, selling, and collecting of books. This guide serves to highlight collections and books that represent the collective and individual histories of women's activities in feminist bookstores, print shops, presses, libraries, binderies, and art classes here at Smith.

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Detail of the 1989 Spring Catalog for the Amazon Bookstore. Drawing for Amazon Bookstore, 1990 file, Alison Bechdel papers, Sophia Smith Collection, SSC-MS-SSC-MS-00633. Box 43.

Phrases to search under "Subject Terms" in the catalog (quotation marks included):

"Women in the book industries and trade"

"Women printers"

"Women collectors"

"Women owners"

"Women booksellers"

"Women book designers"

"Women binding designers"

"Women bookjacket designers"

"Women binders"

 

Topics represented in Smith College Special Collections but not included in this research guide are: Women in Publishing, Women Writers, Art Printing. If you are interested in these topics, please email specialcollections@smith.edu.

 

Further Reading

 

  1. Feminist Revolution in Literacy: Women's Bookstores in the United States / by Junko R. Onosaka. New York: Routledge, 2006. (Smith College Neilson Stacks. Z473 .O64 2006)

  2. Women in the Printing Trades: A Sociological Study. edited by James Ramsay MacDonald. London: P. S. King & Son, 1904. Nineteenth Century Collections Online (Smith E-Resource).
     
  3. Female Printmakers, Printsellers and Print Publishers in the Eighteenth Century : The Imprint of Women, c. 1700-1830 / Edited by Cristina S. Martinez, Cynthia E. Roman. Cambridge University Press. (Amherst College Frost Library, NE865 .F46 2024)
     
  4. The Feminist Bookstore Movement: Lesbian Antiracism and Feminist Accountability / by Kristen Hogan. Durham : Duke University Press, 2016. (Mount Holyoke, Amherst College Frost Library, and UMass Amherst Du Bois General Collection HQ75.6.U5 H64 2016)
     
  5. Women making history : the revolutionary feminist postcard art of Helaine Victoria Press by Julia M. Allen and Jocelyn H. Cohen. (Hampshire College, N72.F45 .A4546 2023)
     
  6. Natural Enemies of Books / Edited by Maryam Fanni, Matilda Flodmark, Sara Kaaman. Occasional Papers, 2020. (Amherst College Frost Library, Z243.A2 N38 2020)
     
  7. Making Impressions : Women in Printing and Publishing / Editors, Cathleen A. Baker, Rebecca M. Chung. The Legacy Press, 2020.  (Smith College Neilson Stacks, Z243.A2 M35 2020)
     
  8.  ’Grossly Material Things’ : Women and Book Production in Early Modern England by Helen Smith. Oxford University Press, 2012. (Smith College Annex Stacks, Z325 .S655 2012)