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Image credits: The Women's Library, London Metropolitan University - see image references at the end
See our collections on display in our free exhibitions "All work and low pay: the story of women and work" and " "Cycling to Suffrage: The Bicycle and Women's Rights, 1890-1914" and related events
Key class numbers and search terms
Key references, latest academic works and acquisitions
Periodicals
Press cuttings and ephemera
Electronic resources
Archives (personal and organisational papers and oral histories)
Museum(objects, textiles, visual materials)
Identifying images
Web archive
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 collections include a wide range of resources concerning women, race and ethnicity, and include books, pamphlets and periodicals from the 19th century to the present day. The Women's Library houses The Sadd Brown Library, which is integrated into the main collection and contains material by and about women of the Commonwealth. The collection provides a colonial and post-colonial perspective and documents women's lives in their socio-political, cultural and economic contexts. The majority of the works relate to Africa, India, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. In more recent years the library has acquired more UK specific printed documents which cover issues such as work, equal opportunities, literature, feminism, law, immigration and religion. The Library also holds relevant press cuttings and ephemera in the printed materials collections; as well as scrapbooks of press cuttings and organisational and personal papers in the archives. The library also provides access to many electronic resources.
Key class numbers and search terms
The printed collections of The Women's Library are arranged in the Dewey Decimal Classification and listed on London Metropolitan University's online catalogue, available in the Reading Room and via the website Key class numbers and search terms for women and race and ethnicity include:
Key reference sources
The Library holds the following guides and bibliographies, useful for identifying further information and material on the subject:
Barrett, Jacqueline K, Malonis, Jane A (ed's). Encyclopedia of women's associations worldwide : a guide to over 3,400 national and multinational nonprofit women's and women-related organizations London ; Detroit : Gale Research, c1993. Reading Room 305.406 ENC
Black women novelists: a selection of novels, short stories (and autobiographies) by black women writers, with an appendix of bibliographies and critical works on black literature. Dumfries : T.C. Farries, 1984. Reading Room 016.823914099287 BLA
British Commonwealth League. [Annual conferences]. [1st-15th], [1925-1939]. London: the League , [1925-1939] Reading Room 305.42060171241 BRI
Brooking, Catherine. Teaching for equality: educational resources on race and gender. London : Runnymede Trust, 1987. Reading Room 016.370941 BRO
Cantor, Aviva. The Jewish woman, 1900-1985: a bibliography Fresh Meadows, N.Y. : Biblio Press, 1987. Reading Room 016.3054089924 CAN
Childs, Peter, Storry, Mike. Encyclopedia of contemporary British culture London : Routledge, 1999. Reading Room Quick Ref 306.09410904 ENC
Gordon, Peter. Dictionary of British women's organisations, 1825-1960 London ; Portland, Or : Woburn Press, 2001. Reading Room Quick Ref 305.06041 GOR
Mirza, Heidi Safia, (ed.) Black British feminism : a reader London : Routledge, 1997. Reading Room 305.4208996041 BLA
Women's organisations in the United Kingdom : a directory, 2001 London : Women's National Commission, 2001. Reading Room Quick Ref 305.4202541 WOM
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 related to sexuality are Pride, Race today and Manushi. For further titles see the list stated below.
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For more guidance on identifying periodicals click here
Press cuttings and ephemera
The press cutting 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 cuttings, up to 1979, on treatment of minorities at 323.1 (reel 6).
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 relating to Southall Black Sisters, the Lesbian and Gay Immigration Group, Joy Gardner Campaign and Anti-Nazi League. A full listing of relevant organisations can be found in the ephemera card index in the Reading Room.
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 museum objects 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. Specifically the following archives, including records of organisations, societies and campaigns relate to the migration of British women around the world in the late nineteenth century.
However there are many more items intertwined in the archives. Searching for specific women's names can produce results, such as Begum. Looking at the archives of individual women who corresponded with women from other ethnic backgrounds also yields results; for example Eleanor Rathbone's correspondence with Indian feminists such as Dr S Muthulakshmi Reddi. Sometimes more specific terms around nationality or the migration of people can be useful such as international, refugee* or Jew*.
1BWE British Women's Emigration Association
1CIL Colonial Intelligence League
1FME Female Middle Class Emigration Society
1SAX South African Colonisation Society
1SOS Society for Overseas Settlement of British Women
Museum
The museum collection comprises of postcards, photographs, posters, banners and badges. Further details of museum objects 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. Specifically the collection contains posters of International organisations, photographs of Arab women's organisations, emigration, West Indians and Asian women, Association of Country Women of the World and Nepal Women's Volunteer Service; Jewish League for Women's Suffrage badges, women's organisations and events.
Sometimes more specific terms around nationality or the migration of people can be useful such as international, immigra* , African or Arab.
A selection of images from our collections can be viewed and purchased at the Mary Evans Picture Library
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.
Web archive
This collection of web sites about 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 race and ethnicity are sites such as Blackwomen.co.uk and Black Women in the Arts.
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, telephone 020 7320 3515, or by asking at the Information Desk in the Reading Room on the day of your visit.
Image references: Frontispiece: signed portrait of Cornelia Sorabji, dated 1928. Sorabji, Cornelia. India calling: the memories of Cornelia Sorabji. London : Nisbet, 1934. Location Vault JB 954.0350924 SOR ; Portion of the centre piece. Vogue. 1937. Location: Vault periodical ; All-India Women's Conference (19th session): 1946 : Akola (Berar) Vault Oversize 305.4206054
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