Use the resources below in tandem with the resources provided on the other pages (tabs) of this History guide to research women in American history. You may also want to consult the Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies Research Guide.
The Mansfield Library owns thousands and thousands of books, ebooks, serials (journals, magazines, etc.) and microfilm that contain primary source content, including transcriptions or reproductions of personal papers (such as letters and diaries) to support researching women's history in America. You can find these using OneSearch, and examples are below.
Select the "Archives and Special Collections" tab at the top of the page to find further information on UM and other archival collections.
Archives and Special Collections has many manuscript collections, oral histories, and photography collections created by or related to women in Montana and Missoula, in particular. Writers, professors, politicians, wives, teachers, ranchers, doctors, conservationists, mothers, poets, students, historians, pioneers, smokejumpers, postmasters, activists, and a filmmaker are all represented in the records. There are also collections created by women’s social and civic organizations and materials generated by various University of Montana women’s clubs and departments founded by or directed toward women.
Interview project topics include: women and feminists in Montana; forestry, land use and conservation, and the environment; Montana politics and politicians; smokejumping; homesteading and fur trapping in Montana; and University of Montana history. The majority of our oral history interviews can be found searching OneSearch (use "oral history" as one of your search terms).
Select the other tabs at the top of the page (e.g., Primary Sources, Secondary Sources, U.S. and Canadian History) for further database recommendations.
Full text digitized reproductions of more than 1,500 eighteenth and nineteenth century American newspapers and periodicals archived at the Center for Research Libraries (CRL). Titles include general interest, children's, women's, early scientific, and professional publications that chronicle the development of America across 150 years, published from 1740-1940.
Full text of current newspaper, magazine, and journals of the ethnic and minority press, as well as historical coverage of Native American, African American, and Hispanic American periodicals, from 1959-1989. Specific ethnic groups include African American/Caribbean/African, Arab/Middle Eastern, Asian/Pacific Islander, European/Eastern European, Hispanic, Jewish, and Native. See also the Diversity Collection to search Ethnic NewsWatch, GenderWatch and Alt-PressWatch in one platform.
Full text of scholarly and popular articles and gray literature titles focusing on the evolution of gender roles in society. Covers topics related to gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender studies; family studies; gender studies, and women's studies, from 1970-present. See also the Diversity Collection to search Ethnic NewsWatch, GenderWatch and Alt-PressWatch in one platform.
Full text of several million pages of digitized primary source materials drawn from the National Archives, presidential libraries, and the archival papers of key organizations and individuals, presented in six modules: (1) Black Freedom Struggle in the 20th Century: Federal Government Records, (2) Black Freedom Struggle in the 20th Century: Organizational Records and Personal Papers, Part 1, (3) NAACP Papers: Board of Directors, Annual Conferences, Major Speeches, and National Staff Files, (4) ?NAACP Papers: The NAACP's Major Campaigns--Education, Voting, Housing, Employment, Armed Forces, (5) Southern Life and African American History, 1775-1915, Plantations Records, Part 1, (6) Vietnam War and American Foreign Policy, 1960-1975.
Full text of all 2,800+ academic journals on JSTOR that span more than 60 disciplines across the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences, along with millions of primary sources across four collections: Global Plants, 19th Century British Pamphlets, Struggles for Freedom: Southern Africa, and World Heritage Sites: Africa. Also explore 3+ million images from ARTstor and over 10,000 open access books. Note: The library does not license any collections of fee-based books from JSTOR. New collections added Aug 2023, are identified below. See more... for details.
Journals published by state historical societies often contain transcripts of primary source accounts of individuals lives in, and activities of, that state. Below are some examples.
Be sure to look at resources provided on the "Primary Sources" tab linked above, in addition to the resources below.
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