Library Guides: HST 498: U.S. Gender and Sexuality History: Primary Sources

Collections Strategist, Scholarly Communication Librarian, and Associate Professor

Brian Young

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Contact:

bwyoung@olemiss.edu

662-915-5877

Subjects: Computer Science, Engineering, Geology, Math Education, Neuroscience, Writing

Primary Sources

UM Digital Archival Collections
Digitized material from the UM Libraries Archives & Special Collections available online.
Gender Studies Collections
Collections in the University Archives & Special Collections relating to women and gender relations in Mississippi and the South.
eGrove
eGrove provides free online access to the intellectual output of researchers at the University of Mississippi, and digital versions of items from the University archives.

Black Freedom Struggle in the 20th Century
The Black Freedom Struggle in the 20th Century includes primary source material from federal agencies, letters, papers, photographs, scrapbooks, financial records, and diaries relating to the Civil Rights movement in the latter half of the twentieth century.
Everyday Life & Women in America, c.1800-1920
Everyday Life & Women in America c.1800-1920 showcases unique primary source material for the study of American social, cultural, and popular history in the 19th and early 20th centuries.
Fannie Lou Hamer: Papers of a Civil Rights Activist, Political Activist and Woman
Contains more than three thousand pieces of correspondence plus financial records, programs, photographs, newspaper articles, invitations, and other printed items.
LGBT Magazine Archive
Archival runs of 26 of the most influential, longest-running serial publications covering LGBT interests. Includes the pre-eminent US and UK titles – The Advocate and Gay Times, respectively. Chronicles more than six decades of the history and culture of the LGBT community. In addition to LGBT/gender/sexuality studies, this material also serves related disciplines such as sociology, political science, psychology, health, and the arts.

Some publications may contain explicit content.
LGBT Thought and Culture
LGBT Thought and Culture is an online resource hosting books, periodicals, and archival materials documenting LGBT political, social and cultural movements throughout the twentieth century and into the present day.
Struggle for Women's Rights: Organizational Records, 1880-1990
As the movement for women’s suffrage in America was accelerating, the National Woman’s Party (NWP) brought to the campaign a new militancy and daring. Originally a committee of the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA), the NWP was founded in 1913 when Alice Paul and her colleagues broke away from NAWSA in dissent over strategy and tactics.
Women's Wear Daily Archive
An archive of Women's Wear Daily, from its launch in 1910 to recent issues,* reproduced in high-resolution images. Pages, articles, advertisements, and covers have been included, with searchable text and indexing. The Women's Wear Daily Archive preserves one of the fashion industry's most influential reads. Key moments in the history of the industry, as well as major designers, brands, retailers and advertisers are all covered in this publication of record. * 6-month embargo on new issues.
Women and Social Movements in the United States, 1600-2000
Women and Social Movements in the United States,1600-2000 is a resource for students and scholars of U.S. history and U.S. women's history. Organized around the history of women in social movements in the U.S. between 1600 and 2000, this collection seeks to advance scholarly debates and understanding about U.S. women’s history generally and at the same time make those insights accessible to teachers and students at universities, colleges, and high schools. The collection currently includes 124 document projects and archives with more than 5,100 documents and 175,000 pages of additional full-text documents, written by 2,800 primary authors. It also includes book, film, and website reviews, notes from the archives, and teaching tools.
Women at Work during World War II: Rosie the Riveter and the Women's Army Corps
This database contains two major sets of records documenting the experience of American women during World War II: Records of the Women’s Bureau of the U.S. Department of Labor, and Correspondence of the Director of the Women’s Army Corps. Primary sources document a wide range of issues pertinent to women during this time of turbulent change, including studies on the treatment of women by unions in several midwestern industrial centers, and the influx of women to industrial centers during the war. Topics covered in records and correspondence include women’s work in war industries, pivotal issues like equal pay, childcare and race, and extensive documentation on the women who joined and served in the Women’s Army Corps as WACs.
Women Working, 1800-1930
Digital exploration of women's impact on the economic life of the United States between 1800 and the Great Depression. Includes items on working conditions, workplace regulations, home life, costs of living, commerce, recreation, health and hygiene, and social issues.

Access World News
Access World News is a comprehensive resource that includes a variety of news publications worldwide. These sources include major national and international newspapers, as well as local and regional titles as well as newswires, blogs, web-only content, videos, journals, magazines, transcripts and more.
Los Angeles Times
This historical newspaper provides genealogists, researchers and scholars with online, easily-searchable first-hand accounts and unparalleled coverage of the politics, society and events of the time and covers 1881-2016.
Newspapers.com Worldwide Library Edition
Newspapers.com Library Edition is an extensive database that provides online access to 4,000+ historical newspapers. Dating from the early 1700s into the 2000s, Newspapers.com Library Edition contains full runs and portions of runs of well-known, regional and state titles to small local newspapers in the United States and other countries.
New York Times, 1851-2020
The New York Times (NYT) is an internationally recognized daily newspaper founded in 1851 and distributed throughout the United States. This historical database offers downloadable PDF's from each issue published between 1851 and 2020.
Wall Street Journal
Online version of the Wall Street Journal available through ProQuest.
Washington Post, 1877-2008
The Washington Post is a major American daily newspaper founded in 1877. It is the largest newspaper published in Washington, D.C., and has a particular emphasis on national politics.

Research Tips for Finding More Primary Sources

Primary sources can be trickier to find than secondary sources. Keyword searches are less effective, for instance, and knowing where to look may not always be obvious. Fortunately, the library provides access to a number of digital primary source collections but here are a few extra strategies you can use to find more primary sources:

Mine the footnotes and bibliography of secondary sources for primary sources cited by the author. Having the citation of a specific primary source document or collection can make finding it much easier.
Language changes and evolves over time, so be sure to incorporate into you search queries the specific words that would have been used during the time-period you are investigating.
Use Google's Site/Domain level search feature to find reliable primary source documents and collections on the open web.
- e.g., "site:edu women world war II" -or- "site:archives.gov women world war II"
While great primary sources in their own right, newspapers and magazines are another great source to use for identifying additional primary sources as well as data. Use the Journal AZ page to search all of UM Libraries' newspaper and magazine holdings (digital and print): https://ep4my7lr7s.search.serialssolutions.com/ejp/?libHash=EP4MY7LR7S#/?language=en-US&titleType=JOURNALS