Sources for biography

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 for the sftudy of women's biography. The Library holds an extensive collection of individual and collected printed biographies of women from the nineteenth century onwards. Obituaries of women, drawn largely from twentieth century newspapers, give an insight into the lives of less well know women who were active in public life. The Library's personal papers and autograph letter collections are unique resources for the study of women's biography whilst the oral history collection captures women's voices and personal testimonies and the photographic collection records their images.

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 biography include:

Biography	920
Collected biography of women	920.72
Biography, Great Britain	920.041
Bibliographies of biography	016.92072

Please note that all biographies and autobiographies are located at the 920 shelfmark followed by the first three letters of the subject's surname. The class number displayed on the catalogue indicates the field of work the subject worked within.

Key reference, latest academic works and acquisitions

The Library holds the following guides and bibliographies, useful for identifying further information and material on the subject:

A Historical dictionary of British women. Rev ed. London: Europa, 2003. Reading Room Quick Reference 920.720941

Kanner, Barbara Penny. Women in context: two hundred years of British women autobiographers: a reference guide and reader. New York: G.K.Hall, 1997. Reading Room Quick Reference 016.305420941

Matthew, H.C.G. and Harrison, Brian (eds) Oxford dictionary of national biography. 60 vols. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004. Reading Room Quick Reference 920.041

Murphy, Kate. Firsts: the livewire book of British women achievers. [Rev ed] London: The Women's Press, 2001. Reading Room Quick Reference 920.72

Oldfield, Sybil. Collective biography of women in Britain 1550-1900: a selected annotated bibliography. London: Mansell, 1999 Reading Room Quick Reference 016.920720941

Peakman, Julie. (ed) Whore biographies, 1700-1825. Vol.1-6. London : Pickering & Chatto, 2006

See the most recently published items and new aquisitions.

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 a sequence of biographical press cuttings drawn largely from obituaries, which gives information about numerous lesser-known women. The Library's ephemera collection contains information relating to the campaigns of individual women.

Zines and artist books

Our collections currently include over 350 zines and 27 artist books which often portray personal experience.

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. The following groups of archives, including records of organisations, societies, campaigns, personal papers, letters, and oral histories, relate to biographies

Strand 7 Personal papers
Strand 8 Oral history
Strand 9 Autograph letters
Strand 10 Scrapbooks

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 catalogue or in the hard copy catalogues available in the Reading Room on the shelves adjacent to the Information Desk. Specifically the Library holds individual portraits of women in photograph collection boxes 1 to 3, group portraits in boxes 4 and 5 and suffrage portraits in box 10. The postcard collection also includes individual and group portraits in box 1. Alternatively browse catalogue entries objects with 'portrait' in the description

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.

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Web archive Women's Issues provides a list of links to Web 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.web sites. You can search for keywords in the title and full text. Examples of Web sites related to biography include the writer Jeanette Winterson's, politicians Clare Short and Edwina Currie, cartoonist Jacky Fleming, historical figures Edith Cavell, Gertrude Bell and Jane Austen, and blogs such as 'More Stupid than the others' Initiated in 2005 and Women's Issues is maintained by the British Library in collaboration with The Women's Library, London Metropolitan University.

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 on email twlinfodesk@londonmet.ac.uk, by telephone 020 7320 3515/3516 or in person at the Information Desk when in the Reading Room.

Image reference: Fawcett, Millicent Garrett, 1847-1929. Josephine Butler: her work and principles and their meaning for the twentieth century. London : the Association for Moral and Social Hygiene, 1927. This copy was donated to the The Women's Library by Barbara Strachey and contains the inscription "with love and all good wishes for 1928 from M.G.F"

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