Catt Collection of Suffrage Photographs

Suffragist, feminist, and political activist, Carrie Chapman Catt (1859-1947) served as president of the National American Woman Suffrage Association. She founded the International Woman Suffrage Alliance in 1902 and the League of Women Voters in 1920. During World War II, Catt supported Allied Forces and worked against Nazi persecution of the Jews.

Six photograph albums from the Carrie Chapman Catt Papers have been digitized and made available online through through Triptych Tri-College Digital Library, a digital initiative of Bryn Mawr, Swarthmore, and Haverford Colleges. The albums are housed with the rest of the Catt Papers in Special Collections at Bryn Mawr College Library. The albums were most likely assembled by Catt's assistant Alda Wilson. The 815 photographs included in the albums cover the period from c. 1840 through 1940 and document the international suffrage movement. Photographic subjects include parades and other events as well as individuals involved in the American and international suffrage movements.

(Images are from the Catt Collection, Bryn Mawr College Library.)

Traveling Exhibit: Women & Spirit

Women & Spirit: Catholic Sisters in America is a traveling exhibit (2009-2012) sponsored by the Leadership Conference of Women Religious. The exhibit documents the sisters’ contributions to America’s educational, healthcare and social justice institutions. Explore this site for exhibit photos, a downloadable brochure, education materials, and a tour schedule.

Six Sisters of Mary of the Presentation (pictured) took part in a great European migration, arriving from France to North Dakota in 1902, to offer aid to immigrants. (Photo courtesy of Sisters of Mary of the Presentation.)

New Commercial Digital Collection: Feminism in Cuba, 1898-1958

Feminism in Cuba, 1898-1958 includes more than 14,000 pages from the personal collection of Dr. K. Lynn Stoner. The documents in this collection, 95% of which are in Spanish, fall into three categories:

• Works by feminists (memoirs of feminist congresses, collections of essays by feminists, journals published by feminist organizations, and published speeches and radio broadcasts)
• Works by men on the status of women
• Literary works by feminist writers that illustrate or discuss the condition of women.

Stoner used many of the sources in the collection for her book, From the House to the Streets: The Cuban Women's Movement for Legal Reform, 1898-1940 (Duke University Press, 1991).
WorldCat Record (with Google Preview)

50 Great Voices (from Brazil, Egypt, Great Britain, India, Turkey, U.S., ...)

50 Great Voices, a new series from National Public Radio,  profiles "singers who've made their mark internationally and across recorded history." Each of the profiles features audio recordings of songs and interview clips. Women are well-represented in the singers profiled so far:

• Fairuz: Lebanon's Voice Of Hope
• The Many Voices Of Lauryn Hill
• Sandy Denny: Mercurial Queen Of British Folk Rock
• Janis Joplin: The Queen of Rock
• Lydia Mendoza: The First Lady Of Tejano
• Radmilla Cody: Two Cultures, One Voice
• Esma Redzepova: 'Queen Of The Gypsies'
• Sezen Aksu: The Voice Of Istanbul
  
• Ella Fitzgerald: America's First Lady Of Song
• Umm Kulthum: 'The Lady' Of Cairo
  
• Elis Regina: The Feeling Between The Notes
• Asha Bhosle: Voice of Bollywood and More
• Maria Callas: Voice of Perfect Imperfection
• Mahalia Jackson: Voice of the Civil Rights Movement

Book Series: Women Writing Africa

Women Writing Africa: The Northern Region, ed. by Fatima Sadiqi, Amira Nowaira, Azza El Kholy & Moha Ennaji. Feminist Press at the City University of New York, 2009. See WorldCat Record.

This fourth volume in the Women Writing Africa series includes more than 100 texts (letters, poems, essays, speeches, fiction, and folktales, all translated into English) from Algeria, Egypt, Mauritania, Morocco, Sudan, and Tunisia. See the online review from the Association for Women's Rights in Development.

The other three volumes in the series offer equally impressive collections of documents from other regions:

Women Writing Africa: The Eastern Region, ed. by Amandina Lihamba, et al. Feminist Press at the City University of New York, 2007. WorldCat Record
Includes texts from Kenya, Malawi, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia. 

Women Writing Africa: West Africa and the Sahel, ed. by Esi Sutherland-Addy and Aminata Diaw. Feminist Press at the City University of New York, 2005. WorldCat Record
Includes texts from Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d'Ivoire, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea-Conakry, Liberia, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, and Sierra Leone.

Women Writing Africa: The Southern Region, ed. by M.J. Daymond et al. Feminist Press at the City University of New York, 2003. WorldCat Record
Includes texts from Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland, and Zimbabwe.

Museum Exhibition: American Woman

New York City's Metropolitan Museum of Art currently has an exhibition that traces the particularly influential archetypes of moneyed women's dressing in the United States during the first half of the 20th century. American Woman: Fashioning a National Identity journeys from 1890 to 1940 through highly idealized feminine images of "the Heiress," "the Gibson Girl," "the Bohemian," "the Patriot and the Suffragist," "the Flapper," and "the Screen Siren." It may be of particular interest to 20th-century U.S. fashion historians. Most of the clothes were originally designed in the United States and France.

This Special Exhibition will run through August 15, 2010.