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Image credit: The Women's Library, London Metropolitan University - see image references at the end
Key class numbers and search terms
Key references, latest academic works and acquisitions
Periodicals
Press cuttings and ephemera
Zines and artist books
Electronic resources
Archives
Museum
Idenfitying images
Web Archive
London Metropolitan research institutes and centres
Further information
The Women's Library, founded in 1926 as the Library of the London Society for Women's Service, exists to document and explore women's lives in Britain in the past, now and in the future. Printed material, ephemera, archives, oral histories and museum objects together form The Women's Library collections. The collections cover a range of topics including women's rights, suffrage, sexuality, health, education, employment, reproductive rights, the family and the home and are the most extensive resource for women's history in the UK.
The Library has extensive material on women in the domestic sphere. This includes household manuals, cookery books and works on home economics, as well as guides to setting up and managing a home in both book and periodical form. The early household manuals in the collection demonstrate women's expertise as nutritionists, healers, accountants and managers. Women's role in the family and advice on motherhood is well documented in the collections, as is women's experience in domestic service. The Library also holds material on home crafts, such as knitting and embroidery, whilst the banners collection is a manifestation of women's skills with textiles.
Key class numbers and search terms
The printed collections of The Women's Library are arranged in the Dewey Decimal Classification and listed on the online catalogue, available in the Reading Room and via the website. Key class numbers and search terms for women, family and the home include:
See also Sources on sociology and social research
Key reference sources
The Library holds the following guides and bibliographies, useful for identifying further information and material on the subject:
Aldous, Joan. International bibliography of research in marriage and the family 1900-1964. Oxford: OUP, 1967 OS Reading Room 016.3068
Attar, Dena. A bibliography of household books published in Britain 1800-1914. London: Prospect, 1987 Reading Room 016.640941
Maclean, Virginia. A short title catalogue of household and cookery books published in the English tongue 1701-1800 London: Prospect, 1981 OS Reading Room 016.64
'Marriage and the family' in Kramer, Barbara Women in English social history 1800-1914: a guide to research in three volumes. New York: Garland, 1990. p91-331 Reading Room 016.305420942
White, Cynthia L. Women's magazines 1693-1968. London: Joseph, 1970 Reading Room 052
The Women's Library's most recently published and newly available acquisitions
Periodicals
The Library holds a wide range of periodicals on women, including academic titles, popular magazines and campaigning newsletters. Some relevant periodical titles on family and the home are Woman's weekly, Home and family: journal of the Mother's Union, Family circle, Journal of marriage and the family and New home economics. Further periodical titles on the subject can be identified through the online catalogue.
Press cuttings and ephemera
The presscuttings collections cover the whole of the 20th century and are particularly valuable for identifying contemporary comment where retrospective online newspaper coverage is unavailable. The Library holds microfilmed cuttings, up to 1979, on family and home. In addition to the general press cuttings we also hold scrapbooks of press cuttings on domestic science in the Modern Press Cuttings Series and Domestic press cuttings at reference 10/40.
The Library's ephemera collection contains information relating to women's organisations, including leaflets, flyers, minutes of meetings, agendas and all kinds of campaign literature. It includes ephemera for home workers and associations for housewives and married women plus material on the Wages for Housework campaigns.
Zines and artist books
The Library's collections currently include more than 350 zines and 27 artist books some of which explore the family and home.
Electronic resources
Electronic resources (online journals and databases) are currently only available to London Metropolitan University staff and students, and can be accessed via the online catalogue with their institutional identification and password. London Metropolitan Academic Liaison Librarians have provided a list of relevant e-resources.
Archives
A brief guide to the archives is available on The Women's Library's website. Further details of archives available for research can be found in the archive and museum catalogue, or in the hard copy catalogues available in the Reading Room on the shelves adjacent to the Information Desk. See our other Source Notes for related topics such as motherhood. The following archives, including records of organisations, societies, campaigns, personal papers, letters, and oral histories, relate to women and the family and home.
5CMW Records of the Council of Married Women
5FWI Records of the National Federation of Women's Institutes
5HWA Records of Hackney Women's Aid
5MIA Records of Mothers in Action
5MWA Married Women's Association
5OPF Records of the National Council for One Parent Families
5WAM Records of the Working Association of Mothers
6IHE Records of the Institute of Home Economics
7EAW Papers of Elizabeth Wilson and Angela [Weir] Mason
7HEF Papers of Helen Franks
7LHN Papers of Lady Helen Alice Wyllington Nutting
7MEH Papers of Mary Eliza Haweis and family
7MEP Papers of Margaret Pillow
7NLA Papers of Nina Last
7RTH Diaries of Rebecca Thackray
8LWR Records of Lincolnshire Women's Research Group
10/55 Scrapbooks of press cuttings including relating to divorce
Museum
The museum collection comprises postcards, photographs, posters, banners and badges. Further details of museum objects available for research can be found in the archive and museum collections catalogue or in the hard copy catalogues available in the Reading Room on the shelves adjacent to the Enquiry Desk. Specifically the Library holds posters for the wages for housework campaigns. Useful search terms include family, wife, home, housewife and housework.
Identifying images
Images can be found throughout The Women's Library's collections. Many digital images are available on Flickr, Vads, the archives catalogue (click on the number in the left hand side) and Mary Evans Picture Library. Use Mary Evans Picture Library's fast service for a non-watermarked high resolution images suitable for publication. If you require an image which has not been digitised you are welcome to use our reprographic service. Normal copyright conditions will apply.
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Web Archive
Women's Issues is maintained by the British Library in collaboration with the Women's Library, London Metropolitan University. The collection was established in 2005 and has regularly collected web sites since then. It includes sites of women's organisations and campaigns, research reports, government publications and statistics pertaining to women, personal sites of women, such as blogs, and women focused e-zines. Specifically relevant to Home and Family are sites such as Gingerbread, Mothers Union and the National Family and Parenting Institute (NFPI).
London Metropolitan research institutes and centres
The Child and Woman Abuse Studies Unit (CWASU) and The Human Rights and Social Justice Research Institute (HRSJ)is based in London Metropolitan University's Faculty of Applied Social Sciences (FASS).
Further information
The staff of The Women's Library can help you find material relating to your subject area; please don't hesitate to ask. You can contact the Information Desk staff prior to your visit via email twlinfodesk@londonmet.ac.uk by telephone 020 7320 3515 or in person at the Information Desk when in the Reading Room.
Image credits: Domestic help: at home and abroad. No. 711 (new series) ; Maskell, Joseph. The Wedding Ring: Its History, Literature, and the Superstitions Respecting It. London : William Freeman, 1868 PC/06/043 UDC BOX 292 ; Muller, F. Henrietta. The Future of single women. London : Ballantyne, Hanson & Co., [188?]) PC/06/045 UDC BOX 301
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