Manuscript Collections

In the course of the past 150 years, women’s efforts in behalf of social justice (including suffrage, equal rights, fair labor laws, peace, and civil rights for African Americans and gays and lesbians) have been well documented in diaries, speeches, correspondence, and meeting minutes—some passionate and intimate, others written for a public audience. But what happens to those ephemeral pieces left behind in dresser drawers or rolled up at the back of a closet, forgotten once the march was over or the election won? 

The Schlesinger Library holds the papers of Miriam Van Waters, Massachusetts juvenile court and penal reformist.

With generous funding from the Julia Child Foundation, the Schlesinger Library has recently digitized nearly 4,000 images of Julia and Paul Child from the Julia Child Papers.

Out of the blue, in March, came a call from the great-granddaughter of Edna Lamprey Stantial. Stantial was for many years archivist of the National American Woman Suffrage Association. Her name is familiar to those who study that era, but there is no significant collection of her papers anywhere. That made the answer to the question of whether Schlesinger Library would be interested in Stantial's papers easy—yes!