Bailey was born and raised in Worcester, Massachusetts. She married sociologist and Yale University economist William Bacon Bailey. They had one daughter, Dorothy Bailey, born in 1909. The collection includes scrapbooks, personal correspondence, diaries, photographs, clippings, drawings, and other materials documenting her girlhood and early married life.

Photographer and photojournalist, Beals was born in Ontario, Canada and worked as a teacher in western Massachusetts. She began her photography career photographing students, friends, and family groups. In 1900, she began travelling as an itinerant photographer with her husband, Alfred Tennyson Beals, and in 1902 she joined the Buffalo Inquirer and Courier as a staff photographer. Her daughter, Nanette, was born in 1911. For most of her life, Beals lived in or near Greenwich Village, and photographed her community there. The collection contains her own papers as well as those of her family members. Included are diaries, correspondence, autograph and photograph albums, essays and other writings, and materials related to her photography work, among others.

Jacqueline ("Mimi") Lipscomb Bernstein grew up in San Antonio, Texas. She married Lester Bernstein in 1946; they had four children. The family lived in New York, Rome, and London, while Lester Bernstein worked as a journalist. The collection contains Jacqueline Mimi Bernstein's diary and typed transcript, recording births and early development of the children, and other family concerns, and letters by her.

Under the auspices of the Schlesinger Library, the Black Women Oral History Project interviewed 72 African-American women between 1976 and 1981. The project sought a cross section of women who had made significant contributions to American society in the first half of the twentieth century. Some of the interviewees were mothers discussion their experiences raising children, including Clara Dickson, the mother of a large, working class family, and Alfreda Duster, social worker and mother widowed at the age of forty with five children to raise, and winner of Mother of the Year in 1950 and 1970. More information, including digitized audio, transcripts, and biographies, are available in the Black Women Oral History Project research guide.

Ann Brewer trained as a geologist at Bryn Mawr College and graduated in 1923, but gave up her hopes for a career upon marrying George Emerson Brewer, Jr., that same year. They had four children: Effie, Ann, Michael, and George Fraser. Brewer, who was active in social work, and worked with children and adults who had Down Syndrome like her son, George Fraser. She served on a number of boards for social work institutions, including Camphill Village, a community of people with developmental disabilities in Copake, New York. The collection includes correspondence among Ann Fraser Brewer and her parents, husband, and children, documenting George and Ann Brewer's college years, courtship, and family life.

Muriel Violet d'Arcy married businessman John d'Arcy shortly after her arrival in the United States from England. The couple lived for short periods of time in the greater Boston area before buying a house in Lynnfield Center in 1904. The couple had three children. The collection consists of five diaries chronicling the years 1902, 1904, 1906, 1908, and 1909. They record details of d'Arcy's daily life and health, including accounts of her pregnancies and the births of her children.

Anna E. Dougherty was married to James E. Dougherty and lived on Sweet Home Farm in Lotus, Indiana. They had six children: Edwin, Thomas, Helen, Edith, Sidney, and Laurence. This collection consists of one diary detailing her household chores, social events, farm chores, as well as births, deaths, illnesses, anniversaries, birthdays, etc. She also describes the birth and rearing of her son Laurence, and lists presents given at Christmas.

Johann Dreier and his wife Dorothea were married in 1797, and were a relatively wealthy merchant family from Bremen in northern Germany. This collection documents five generations of their family, some branches of which emigrated to the United States in the mid-19th century. The collection contains correspondence, including correspondence between single members of the family, as well as the private papers of single family members. The collection offers insight into the life of a wealthy north German family of merchants and pastors, including the relationships among parents and their children. Of particular relevance to this guide is the correspondence of women of the third and fourth generation with their mothers or daughters, where pregnancy, birth, or the loss of children and their education play an important role. Please note that the correspondence is in the German cursive writing of the 19th century.

A published poet, Missouri native, and member of the Christian Science Church, Dunaway traveled widely in the United States in the 1930s, in Europe, 1949-1951, and published several travel articles in the Boonville Daily News. She married Maurice Don Carlos Dunaway and they had three children. The collection consists of correspondence with family members who travelled abroad, especially her son Don Carlos Dunaway, who worked in Latin America, Spain and Kuwait for Standard Oil of New Jersey and then Aminoil, and his wife, Mary Burnham, and journals that discuss her home and social life, children and grandchildren, the education of children, travels in the United States and abroad, religion, and national and international affairs.

Constance Vivenne Soelle Geerhart graduated from Cornell University in 1952 and married Donald William Geerhart that same year. They moved to the Washington area, and Geerhart earned her master's degree in education at George Washington University in 1955. She taught English at a local high school until 1958, and the Geerharts had three children, Charles, William, and Constance. After raising her children, Geerhart returned to the workforce in the late 1980s as an editorial researcher at Briefings Publishing group. The collection contains correspondence of Constance Geerhart with her children, as well as letters from Geerhart to her mother, day planners that detail her schedule including school appointments, doctor appointments, plays, movies, and dinners, family photographs, and a marital history that Geerhart wrote for her attorney when she was divorcing her husband.

This collection consists of an autograph album used to write a letter from Bob Gibson to his wife, Doll, on the occasion of the birth of their second son Charles on July 19, 1943. He entitles it "On Becoming a Father Again." At the back of the album is a letter from Doll, written in reply, entitled "On Becoming a Mother Again," and dated August 17, 1943.

After working towards her master's degree in chemistry, Hunkins-Hallinan was denied the opportunity to teach chemistry and physics because she was a woman. She became inspired to join the National Woman's Party, and became a prominent figure in the picket lines in front of the White House which eventually led to her arrest and imprisonment. After moving to London in 1920, she worked as a freelance journalist and writer. She married Charles Hallinan in 1930 and they have four children. The collection includes personal and professional correspondence, diaries, genealogical material, audiotapes, and writings of the Hunkins-Hallinan and her family, among other materials.

Educator, wife, and mother Florence Julie Lillibridge met her husband Don at the University of South Dakota. In 1942, Don graduated a year early to join the Marin Corps, and Florence Joined the WAVES and took a job teaching in Vermillion while waiting to be called to active duty. She married Don in Quantico later that year, and they went on to have four children together. While Don was serving in the Marine Corps, Florence returned to South Dakota to live with her parents and teach in the English Department at the University of South Dakota. When he returned the family moved to France for a year, then New York, and finally California where Florence remained an educator. The collection includes correspondence with her husband and family, diaries, notes, and other writings, photographs, and clippings.

Elizabeth "Bette" Bostwick Nowak, was born in Rochester, New York. After graduating from Irondequoit High School, she attended Miss McCarthy's School of Stenographers, then worked as a secretary for the University of Rochester, Bausch & Lomb, and Eastman Kodak. In 1948, she married Joseph Nowak; they had four children, Nancy, James, Paul, and Caroline. Nowak died of cancer in Rochester, New York, in 2013. The collection contains one diary from 1959 documenting Nowak's daily activities, events in her children's lives, and local gossip, as well as a biography and a reminiscence of her written by her grandson for her memorial service, clippings about her, and a transcript of a conversation that her grandson had with her and her husband in 1997.

Caroline Drayton Phillips was the oldest of four children, and married William Phillips in 1910. They had six children together, five of whom survived infancy. She played a significant role in her husband's career as a diplomat, attending and serving as hostess for many diplomatic functions. The Phillips family lived outside the United States for many years and travelled extensively. William Phillips served under President Franklin D. Roosevelt as Undersecretary of State. When the family was not living abroad, they lived at "Highover," their estate in North Beverly, Massachusetts. This collection consists of sixty-four diaries of Caroline, a lifelong diarist, that document a wide range of subjects and events including life as a young woman, family life, marriage, and the Phillips children, and traveling, as well as William Phillips' diplomatic work.

Letita Ham Smith Pierce received a country school education and married in 1836. She had six children. Her husband took no responsibility for the family and in 1863 the couple separated. Pierce raised her children with the help of her parents. Late in life, she helped to raise her grandson Hazlett, who she felt was ill-treated by his father. The collection includes letters from Letita to her son Charles and other family correspondence and autobiographical and historical notes. Of particular interest is her letter, never mailed, to her sons Charles and Willard detailing the circumstances of her separation from their father.

Dorothy Prosky was a businesswoman and social worker. She married David Prosky in 1932 and they had two children together: Jill Jonatha and Paul Joseph. The Proskys ran the Bristol Motor Company, a foreign car business which sold Volkswagens. The collection includes correspondence with family and friends, diaries, notes, poems, and schoolwork, printed material, and photographs.

Poet, author, feminist, and teacher, Adrienne Rich has published numerous books of poetry and prose, including Of Woman Born: Motherhood as Experience and Institution. She has received numerous awards, and taught writing and women's studies at a number of colleges. This collection largely focuses on her poetry and her involvement in the women's movement. The materials relating to her feminism cover the topic of motherhood.

Solomon was a graduate of Hunter College, where she received her bachelor's degree in Zoology, and of Radcliffe Graduate School, where she received he master's degree in biology. While attending Radcliffe, she boarded with John and Catherine Galbraith, who became lifelong friends. She married Bernard Solomon in 1957, and they adopted a baby boy in 1962. Many documents in this collection pertain to her education and her relationship with her mother, as well correspondence, journals and diaries, class notes, and other materials. Of particular note is a letter from Solomon to her adopted son about being his mother.

Abolitionist and suffragist Lucy Stone was born in 1818. Early in life, she became aware of the limited freedom, financial and otherwise, experienced by married women; this led her to resolve to earn her own living and never to marry, thereby maintaining her independence and control of the money she earned. After graduating from Oberlin College in 1847, she gave speeches and lectures on suffrage and abolition throughout the United States, and participated in the planning of several women's rights conventions. After a lengthy courtship, she married Henry Blackwell in 1855, having discussed the idea of marriage as an equal partnership and agreeing to take measures to protect Stone's financial and personal independence. She kept her own last name, and they had one daughter, Alice. While this collection focuses heavily on her work as a suffragist and abolitionist, the letters also provide information about her views on and experience of motherhood and marriage.

This collection documents the lives of members of the Wallace Family, beginning with Emma Cushing Cutler (1877-1973) and her husband George Marcus Cromwell (1872-1936). They had two daughters, Sylvia and Marguerite. Emma worked as a housemother at a number of institutions after George's death in 1936. Sylvia died before her first birthday, but her sister, Marguerite graduated from Radcliffe College in 1927. She married Alva Dayle Wallace in 1933 and they had three children: Sylvia, Zara, and George. Marguerite was a cataloger for a number of libraries. This bulk of this collection reflects the personal and professiona lives of Marguerite and Alva, the bulk consisting of correspondence to and from various family members, including their three children and Marguerite's parents. For many summers, Marguerite was left at home with the children while Dayle worked as a college professor. Their letters offer a poignant look at family life under difficult circumstances.

Wallace was a homemaker and teacher. While completing her M.A. at Columbia University in 1954, she married David H. Wallace. Until the birth of their first child, Evelyn Wallace worked at the personnel office at Columbia University. Over the years they had three children and she stayed at home until 1973, when she began teaching English at St. John's Literary Institute in Frederick, Maryland. The collection includes diaries, notebooks, correspondence, and household account books detailing her daily activities. Her diaries were transcribed and annotated by her husband.

Winifred Hanns Whiting lived in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and belonged to several mothers' clubs. The collection includes the constitutions, membership lists, correspondence, papers delivered, and histories of four mothers' clubs in Cambridge.

This collection consists of 56 oral histories conducted by Fran Leeper Buss with low-income and minority women of all ages from various geographic areas and racial/ethnic groups. Also included are field notes, photographs, and other supplemental material. A minister with United Campus Christian Ministry and a doctoral candidate in history at the University of Arizona, Buss has been a community organizer since the late 1960s, when she herself was struggling to survive as an ill, divorced mother of three, dependent on welfare for support. The interviews focus on the experience of being poor and female, employment, and family life, with particular attention paid to the issue of domestic violence. There is related material in the Papers of Fran Leeper Buss.