Starting Points
The following resources offer introductions to and overviews of the subject matter. Use them to find out about the broad contours of your field of study, then move on to the resources listed further down on this page for more in-depth research.
Find Books & Articles
For books (both print and electronic) owned by Harvard's libraries, consult HOLLIS, our library catalog. Be sure to select the "library catalog" (not the "everything") option if you are looking only for books. Once you have found titles of interest, try exploring further by following the linked subject headings or the virtual bookshelf feature available with each detailed catalog record.
For articles, book reviews, etc., the following databases provide excellent coverage of the topic:
- GenderWatch (Harvard Login)Comprehensive, interdisciplinary database of articles on all aspects of gender studies; draws on both scholarly and non-academic publications.
- LGBTQ+ Source (Harvard Login)Contains abstracts for magazines, academic journals, news sources, gray literature, and books on all aspects of the LGBTQ+ community.
- Studies on Women and Gender Abstracts (Harvard Login)Comprehensive index of journal articles in women's and gender studies, with a strong focus on the social sciences.
- Women's Studies International (Harvard Login)Citations and abstracts drawn from a variety of essential women's studies databases which range in coverage from classic works & core studies to the latest scholarship in feminist research. 1972-present.
Also of interest:
- LGBT Studies in Video (Harvard Login)Collection of documentaries and other non-fiction film on LGBT topics, both current and historical.
Find Primary Sources
- Archives of Sexuality and Gender: LGBTQ Culture and History since 1940 (Harvard Login)Includes historical primary source material from hundreds of major international activist organizations and local, grassroots groups, as well as interviews with LGBTQ individuals, letters, LGBTQ newspaper archives, policy papers, etc.
- Digital Transgender ArchiveAn international collaboration among more than twenty colleges, universities, nonprofit organizations, and private collections, the Digital Transgender Archive (DTA) makes available digitally a wide range of trans-related materials. The purpose of the DTA is to increase the accessibility of transgender history by providing an online hub for digitized historical materials, born-digital materials, and information on archival holdings throughout the world.
- Gender: Identity and Social Change (Harvard Login)Compiles materials from the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and Australia that document changing attitudes to gender roles and relations, women's rights, etc., from the 19th century.
- The Gerritsen Collection: Women's History Online, 1543-1945 (Harvard Login)Digitized version of one of the most famous and significant collections of books, periodicals, and pamphlets documenting the history of women, initially started in the late 19th century.
- Independent VoicesEclectic selection of alternative publications by various U.S. activist, minority, and counterculture groups from the 1950s onward; includes digitized versions of several feminist and LGBT magazines.
- LGBT Thought and Culture (Harvard Login)Contains books, periodicals, and archival materials documenting LGBT political, social, and cultural movements from the twentieth century to the present. The collection includes letters, speeches, interviews, and ephemera covering the political evolution of gay rights, as well as memoirs, biographies, poetry, letters and works of fiction that illuminate the lives of LGBT individuals and the community.
- ProQuest History Vault: Women's Studies (Harvard Login)Contains files and manuscripts of major U.S. women's rights organizations (e.g., the League of Women Voters) and activists (e.g., Margaret Sanger).
- Queer Pasts (Harvard Login)Contains primary sources on queer history, broadly speaking (i.e., not only "traditional" LGBT history but sources encompassing sexual minority experiences broadly).
- Women and Social Movements in the United States, 1600-2000 (Harvard Login)Contains a wealth of primary and secondary sources on U.S. women's history, arranged in thematic "document projects."
- Women's Studies Archive (Harvard Login)Collection of primary sources focused on women's movements in the 19th and 20th centuries.
Schlesinger Library holds a wealth of archival materials touching on women's and LGBTQ history. For more information, see the research guides on their website.