This document discusses women's history in Western New York and strategies for researching and promoting it. It outlines reasons to study women's history, such as honoring struggles and accomplishments. It provides examples of notable local women and suggestions for locating information on others through archives, libraries, historical societies and more. The document emphasizes that women's histories can be found in unusual sources and conveyed through diverse genres like diaries, oral histories and memoirs. It concludes with recommendations for sharing women's stories through exhibits, publications, awards and other activities.

1. Women’s Histor y
in Wester n New
Yor k
Heidi Bamford
DHP Regional Archivist
March 16, 2010

2. Why Women’s History?
 To honor and
remember past
struggles and
accomplishments
 To preserve the
memories of the past
as guides into the
future….

3. Role Models and Agents of
Change…
Lois Gibbs Kit Kline
Mary Talbert Jennie Louise Blanchard Bethune

4. Ordinary and
Everyday….
Rosie the Riveter National Park (CA

5. The Writing of
History…
 …is an ongoing and selective process
 …is socially and culturally time-dependent
 The past “selects” certain documentation
 Survival of some records, not others
 Personal interests also “select” topics
 Women’s history became a topic of
interest in the 1980s
Uncrowned Queens
Madeline Davis LGBT Archives of WNY

6. Finding Voices and
Images of the Past
 Historical records are
found in many places
 Museums
 Libraries
 Historical societies
 Businesses Butler Library, BSC
 Professional
associations
 Community
organizations
 Your home!
AKAG

7. Starting at the Top: The
Short List
 Encyclopedia Britannica – 300 Women Who Changed the World
 Library of Congress: 7 collections
 PBS (Not For Ourselves Alone)
 American Women's History Research: A Guide
 Women's Studies Section, Association of College & Resear
 Harvard Online Collections

8. Local Women in History with
National Recognition
 Zonta International
 National Women's Hall o
Lucille Ball Marian deForest
 Prologue: Belva
Lockwood
 NHPRC
Belva Lockwood

9. Anna Katherine Green
While some women AKG bio
and their
accomplishments
are well
documented. ……
Lucille Clifton
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html
fury
for mama
remember this.
she is standing by
the furnace
.
the coals
glisten like rubies.
her hand is
crying.…
http://web.library.emory.edu/blog/lucille-clifton-papers-fully-processed-and-available-research

10. And others are known
for who they were….
 National First Ladies' Library
 Genesee Valley History

11. Documentation about
other women is harder to
locate….
Edith Flanigen:
http://www.invent.org/images/images_hof/induction/docs/04in
Women in Transportation
Maria M. Love
http://www.marialovefund.org/history/
Maria Love & the Fitch Creche

12. Local Reformers Gone
South!
 Harriet Bedell: Grew up
in Buffalo, NY and
became a missionary,
first in Oklahoma, then
Alaska and finally,
Florida.
 Her work is well
documented, but records
of her family in Buffalo, or
the Training School she
attended in NYC are not in
any known repository.
 Florida Memory site

13. State and Regional Sources for
information on women in history…
 New York State Archives
 "Word on Women“
 New York Digital Collections
 New York Heritage

14. Women in Need of
Reform?
 Some historical records present a
close parallel with women and poverty,
immorality, and delinquency and
disability in the 19th century….
 http://www.archives.nysed.gov/a/research/res_topics_legal_correctio
 http://www.correctionhistory.org/html/chronicl/nysarchivesbrowse/n
 http://www.museumofdisability.org/newyork_map_1900_1950.asp
 http://www.letchworthparkhistory.com/wplworks.html
 http://www.poor housestory.com/history.htm

15. Or, something else?
 Women's rights(?) in early New York
 The 1913 Department Store Worker's Strike in Buffalo, NY
 A Study of Women
Delinquents in New York
State (1920)
 http://quod.lib.umich.edu
/m/moa/

16. Local collections preserve important
information about notable women
who made an impact here and
elsewhere…
Cornelia Bentley Sage
although some
materials may
Alice Moore Hubbard as
not be
readily
accessible as
others…..

17. Examples of Local Regional
Guides and Organizations:
 WNY Legacy
 WNY Archivists
 RKN Civic Infrastructu
Infrastruct
BECHS, Crystal Beach
Photo Collection
Jewish Buffalo Archives
Project

18. St. Bonaventure University Archives
Genesee County Department of History
Buffalo & Erie County Historical Society
Prendergast Library

19. More than Facts and
Figures
 Beyond the chronologies, occupational
achievements, or factual listings,
women’s history could be phrased as:
 Uncommon lives
 What became of them?
 Crisis!
 A case study (company, neighborhood,
organization, ethnic/cultural group)
 Political or philanthropic behavior
 Professional/personal shifts

20. Shedding Labels….
 The "Communist Threat“ (Internet Archive)
(Hotel Touraine)
 Lois Gibbs – from mother in crisis to
environmental advocate
 http://www.chej.org/about_lois.htm
 Margaret Goff Clark – from Freedom Crossing to
Saving Manatees
 http://www.lib.usm.edu/~degrum/html/research/findaids/cl

21. Letters and Oral
Histories
 What are we being
told?
 Information the
writer/speaker
conveys to the
reader/listener
Women & Social Movements in the US site
 Information we can
deduce from our
Uncrowned Queens Oral History
Project current perspective
and knowledge
Women's Letters & Diaries
World Cat BECHS World Cat list
Camp Family Papers

22. Diaries & Journals
 Why are they written?
 As personal reflections of a time,
event, place
 For the writer to put herself into an
historical context
 http://ublib.buffalo.edu/archives/ead/ms31/ms31.frame.html
and
 Finding Aid for HZM Rodgers
 Buffalo BPW
 BECHS Diary Collection
 MOA Cornell site
Elizabeth Olmsted Smith
 Women's Diaries in Canada

23. Memoirs
 These are
Memoirs in LitMus
intentionally created
Club Records – image with a purpose or
from Uncrowned
Queens site
audience in mind
 Usually after-the-fact
 Best understood in
the context of
M. St. John in corroborative and
WNYLegacy ancillary materials

24. Ways to Promote
Women’s History:
 Adopt-a-School
 In-house or sponsored displays,
exhibits
 Lectures, discussions, workshops
 Publications, feature articles, websites
 Contests (essay, poster)
 Community/service awards,
recognitions


25. Links to More
Resources
 Society of American Archivists Women’s
Roundtable:
 http://www.archivists.org/saagroups/womenscoll/index.asp
 Center for the Historical Study of Women
and Gender:
 http://chswg.binghamton.edu/
 Project Flight’s Western New York Directory
of Women’s Organizations :
 http://www.projectflight.org/Directoryofwomenorganizations.htm