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ABOUT 75 STORIES, 75 YEARS: DOCUMENTING THE LIVES OF AMERICAN WOMEN AT THE SCHLESINGER LIBRARY

This exhibition site is the digital expression of the brick-and-mortar exhibit 75 Stories, 75 Years, on view at the Schlesinger Library from February through October 2018 and open daily (except Sundays) from 9 AM to 5 PM.

The 75 documents and objects in this anniversary exhibition evoke the depth and breadth of the Library’s holdings. They tell 75 stories—harrowing, heartbreaking, pathbreaking, brave—about women’s lives and about the history of the Schlesinger Library itself.

From its beginnings, in 1943, the plan was for the Woman’s Rights Collection, a gift to Radcliffe by the suffragist and women’s rights activist Maud Wood Park (1871–1955), to grow. Grow it has—slowly for several decades and then, with the burgeoning women’s movement in the 1960s and the foresight of Library staff members who seized the moment, by leaps and bounds.

The materials on display speak to the many types of documents and objects that make up the Library’s collections: manuscripts, books, periodicals, photographs, posters, textiles, memorabilia, scrapbooks, oral histories, audio and video recordings, and digital items. They also tell stories about the wide variety of topics covered in our holdings. Women’s organizations and women’s rights, prominent from the start, are represented, as are gender and sexuality, women’s health and reproductive lives, civil and human rights, social and economic justice, race and ethnicity, family history, girlhood, and culinary history.

ABOUT THE SCHLESINGER LIBRARY AT THE RADCLIFFE INSTITUTE

The Arthur and Elizabeth Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study documents the lives of women of the past and present for the future and furthers the Radcliffe Institute’s commitment to the study of women, gender, and society. The Library has the finest collection of resources for research on the history of women in America; its holdings are especially strong in women’s rights and feminism, health and sexuality, work and family life, culinary history and etiquette, and education and the professions.

ABOUT THE RADCLIFFE INSTITUTE FOR ADVANCED STUDY AT HARVARD UNIVERSITY

The Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study is a unique space within Harvard—a school dedicated to creating and sharing transformative ideas across all disciplines. Each year, the Institute hosts 50 leading scholars, scientists, and artists from around the world in its renowned residential fellowship program. Radcliffe fosters innovative research collaborations and offers hundreds of public lectures, exhibitions, performances, conferences, and other events annually. The Institute is home to the Arthur and Elizabeth Schlesinger Library, the nation’s foremost archive on the history of women, gender, and sexuality. For more information about the people and programs of the Radcliffe Institute, visit www.radcliffe.harvard.edu.