Return to Genesis Guide to Sources | Archives, Libraries and Museums
(G) indicates past or present Genesis partners.
Archif Menywod Cymru/Women's Archive of Wales (UK)
Archif Menywod Cymru / Women's Archive of Wales exists to promote the study, and to rescue and preserve the sources, of women's history in Wales. It collects a broad range of archival, photographic and other material sources which illustrate the history and heritage of women in Wales, and their experience in a range of spheres including the domestic, political, religious, economic, cultural and social. The collections are deposited in existing record offices in Wales, and in the National Library of Wales.
Chawton House Library and Study Centre
Chawton House Library based in Hampshire is an independent research library and study centre which focuses on women's writing in Egnlish form 1600 to 1830. Accommodated in the Elizabethan manor house once owned by Jane Austen's brother in the village of Chawton, the Library's main aim is to promote and facilitate study in the field of early women's writing. The library is freely accessible to members of the public and runs a programme of events and activities. The library comprises over 9,000 volumes. The bulk of the collection is devoted to early English women's literature from the period 1600-1830. Some of the rarer novels in the collection are available eletronically through the Novels Online project.
Co-operative Women's Guild Archive
The National Co-operative Archive, based in Manchester, holds the Co-operative Women's Guild Archive. The collection documents the campaigning organisation throughout its existence and illustrates its involvement in camaigns such as women's suffrage, divorce reform, poor law reform, and health care. The archive includes pamphlets from the Guild's campaigns and journals. A collections handlist is available on the website.
The Feminist Archive (South)
The Feminist Archive (South) houses national and international material of the second wave of feminism (roughly 1960-2000).This material includes periodicals, books, pamphlets, diaries, calendars, conference papers, personal letters, photographs, stickers, postcards, drawings, posters, banners, badges, vinyl records, mini-discs, audio cassettes, video cassettes, a 16mm film, clothing, and various other ephemera. In 2007 the collection was transferred to the University of Bristol Special Collections and access is by appointment only.
The Feminist Library
The Feminist Library is based in London, and managed by volunteers. In 1975, the Women's Research and Resources Centre (WRRC) was set up as a place for women researchers to meet, to hold seminars, and to collect materials that women were writing. In 1983 the name was changed to the Feminist Library.
Florence Nightingale Museum
The Florence Nightingale Museum in London aims to grow as the international centre for preserving Florence Nightingale's heritage and interpreting the relevance of her life and work for the benefit of present and future generations.
GirlGuiding UK
The national records are held at the Commonwealth Headquarters. Records held include committee minutes since 1910, annual and conference reports 1916 - 2006, unpublished research reports and financial records. Subject files date from 1910 and cover such topics as key figures in guiding, historical events and training centres. Access to the Archive is by appointment only and enquiries should be addressed to the Archivist at the Association's Headquarters in London.
Girton College, University of Cambridge (G)
Girton College Library houses the College Archive. The Archive is the intended repository for the long-term preservation of records which reflect or illustrate the history of the College, and its internal administration. These comprise records created by the Governing Body, academic and administrative departments, members and former members of staff, and former students as well as records derived from other functions associated with the College.
Glasgow Women's Library (G)
Established in 1991, Glasgow Women's Library provides reference and lending services. The library has around 1300 members. It collects published and archival resources on all aspects of women's lives with a strong Scottish emphasis. The library incorporates the Lesbian Archive and Information Centre.
Homerton College, University of Cambridge (G)
Founded in 1871 to provide access to higher education for women, Newnham is the oldest college within Cambridge University which has both an all-female body and fellowship.
Leeds University Library, Special Collections, Feminist Archive North (FAN)(G)
The Feminist Archive North (FAN) holds a wide variety of material relating to the Women's Liberation Movement (WLM) from 1969 to the present. Topics covered by FAN include the women's peace movement, women's studies, women and development, and violence against women. FAN was created in the 1980s, when material from the Feminist Archive South, the sister archive founded earlier in the South-West, was relocated to the North of England. FAN was first housed in the University of Bradford and then in Leeds Metropolitan University, during which time the collection grew. In 2001 FAN was moved to the University of Leeds.
Lucy Cavendish College, University of Cambridge (G)
Founded in 1965 for the specific advancement of women's education, the archive holds records tracing the origins of the college, its struggle for recognition by the university, and subsequent development. It also holds special collections of personal papers of women who have been prominent in their chosen field; amongst these are Anna Bidder, Lucy Cavendish and Joyce Grenfell.
New Hall, University of Cambridge (G)
Founded in 1954, one of the three women's colleges of the University of Cambridge with papers recording its history and development.
Newnham College, University of Cambridge (G)
Founded in 1871 to provide access to higher education for women, Newnham is the oldest college within Cambridge University which has both an all-female body and fellowship.
Royal Free Hospital Archives Centre (G)
The Royal Free Archive Centre is based in London. The Royal Free Hospital School of Medicine was the first in Britain to train women to become doctors, and took its first male students in 1948. The majority of the school records held at the archives relate to women. The archive centre also holds records for the Royal Free, New End and Hampstead General Hospital Schools of Nursing, and material relating to the Nurses Leagues of the Royal Free and Hampstead General.
Royal Holloway, University of London (G)
The Royal Holloway archive houses some of the earliest records relating to the history of higher education for women. The collections chronicle the foundation and development of Bedford and Royal Holloway Colleges, founded as pioneering women's colleges in the nineteenth century. They give insight into the lives of staff and students before, during and after their time at college.
The Sybil Campbell Library
The Sybil Campbell Library provides resources for the study of the expansion of the role of women. The library was founed in 1928 through the enthusiasm of Sybil Campbell, Caroline Spurgeon and other members of the British Federation of University Women (now the British Federation of Women Graduates). The library received donations of books from notable literary figures and scholars of the 1920s and 1930s, such as Virginia and Leonard Woolf.
Women in Jazz, Swansea
Women in Jazz Swansea, formerly the Women's Jazz Archive, is based in Swansea, and was established in 1986 by pianist and historian Jen Wilson. The jazz collection includes audio visual records, visual materials, and printed materials, as well as museum objects.
The Women's Library, London Metropolitan University
The Women's Library is a cultural centre housing the most extensive collection of women's history in the UK. The library holds 60,000 books and pamphlets, 2,500 periodical titles, 460 archives and 5,000 museum objects covering issues from health, sexuality and popular culture to history and human rights.