The collection contains newsletters, bibliographies, advertisements, mailings, posters, and other printed materials collected by Kirsten Grimstad and Susan Rennie for the creation of the feminist catalogs The New Woman's Survival Catalog and The New Woman's Survival Sourcebook, which they co-edited in 1973 and 1975, respectively. Also included are audio recordings of interviews Grimstad and Rennie conducted with feminist artists, collectives, and publishers during a cross-country trip they undertook in 1973 to gather information for The New Woman's Survival Catalog. Materials document women's efforts to inject feminist theory into art, healthcare, child development, higher education, criminal justice, and publishing. Materials also document the development of the women's liberation movement and efforts to increase awareness of rape and self-defense strategies.

The collection contains an album created by an unknown person of black and white photographs with handwritten captions depicting the Philippines during the Philippine Revolution, the Spanish-American War, and the Philippine-American War. Images include scenes depicting military executions; war-damaged buildings; the bodies of Filipino men killed in battles; a Filipino independence day parade; United States soldiers, including troop encampments and an image of Colonel John M. Stotsenburg; and United States soldiers' graves in Paco Cemetery. Also included are portraits of Emilio Aguinaldo, an unidentified Filipino woman holding a basket of flowers, a group of Filipino boys playing soldier, and a group of Filipino men identified as "insurgent leaders"; photographs of indigenous Filipino people including Moro Sultans on the island of Mindanao, Aeta men in a piragua, a Tinguian "petty king" and his guards; images of women working in the fields at a tea plantation and in a cigar factory; and street scenes and images of buildings, bridges, and canals in the Philippines. Also included are a small number of scenic photographs of Nagasaki, Japan, and color tinted images of Japanese women in Yokohama, Japan.

The papers of NOW officer Kathy Rand contain memos, correspondence, press releases, printed material, and other materials documenting Rand's involvement with the National Organization for Women through the Chicago Chapter and as the Midwest Regional Director. While materials document national and Chicago-area actions undertaken by NOW, including NOW's efforts to publicize those actions through press releases and establishing media contacts, the majority of materials document Rand's work as Midwest Regional Director, through which Rand also served on NOW's national board. Much of the material relates to an incident in which Rand denied the chapter application of a group of women in St. Paul, Minnesota. Rand's reasoning was that there was already an area chapter and NOW's bylaws prohibited the establishment of new chapters in locales where a chapter already existed. The leader of the St. Paul Chapter convenors, Esther Kaw, challenged Rand's interpretation of the bylaws and accused Rand of abusing her power and stated her belief that Rand's motivation was a desire to silence the voices of minority women and to keep them from organizing around issues of particular interest to them, such as poverty. Kaw voiced her opinions in a series of letters to NOW leaders and while the national board stated their support of Rand, other NOW members rallied around Kaw and added their support for a NOW platform that addressed more radical issues. The disagreement over NOW's direction came to a head at NOW's 1975 national convention where a group aligned with Kaw's viewpoint claimed a majority of leadership positions running as a unified slate of candidates who identified themselves the Majority Caucus. In the aftermath of the election, Rand aligned herself with WomanSurge, a group of NOW members who supported a more moderate approach to feminist advocacy. Rand's files include a copy of Kaw's grievance against her, files on NOW's national board's response to Kaw's complaint, and files documenting the conflict between the Majority Caucus and WomanSurge. Kathy S. Rand, daughter of William Robert and Rose Lasser Rand, was born in Miami Beach, Florida, and raised in Chicago, Illinois. She received a BA in English with a minor in education from Michigan State University in 1965. After briefly working as a teacher, Rand pursued a master's degree in English at San Francisco State University before returning to Chicago to work for the educational publishing company Lyons & Carnahan, then the trade publishing company Cahners Publishing Co., before becoming managing editor of the trade publication Appliance Manufacturer Magazine. She transitioned to public relations work with Public Communications, Inc., and began pursuing a MBA at Northwestern University, which she completed after taking a position at Quaker Oats that offered full tuition reimbursement. She left Quaker Oats to work for the public relations firm Golan Harris, then for Lesnick Public Relations, and Manning, Salvage and Lee before retiring in 2002. In 1970, she participated in the Women's Strike for Equality in Chicago and joined the Chicago chapter of the National Organization for Women (NOW). After heading the Chicago chapter's public relations committee, she was elected NOW's Midwest Regional Director in 1972, a position she held until 1974. Rand was also a member and first chairperson of Women Employed and joined the Veteran Feminists of America in 2002.

The women in theater collection of the Schlesinger Library contains advertisements for plays and vaudeville acts written by women or featuring women performers. Items in the collection include a June 1908 broadside for "A Night in Chinatown" at Barber Park in Bellow Falls, Vermont, featuring Dot Karroll; an advertisement for DuBose and Dorothy Heyward’s play Porgy at the Blackstone Theatre in Chicago, Illinois, opening November 5, 1928; an autographed 1941 handbill for Kee & Tuck’s vaudeville act “Barrels of Fun & Novelties from Korea”; and an undated postcard featuring a black and white photograph of "Miss Susie Chew, popular singer."

The papers of Kathleen Emilie Kanet include correspondence, notes, workshop materials, printed materials, and other materials documenting Kanet's work in the peace and social justice movements through organizations including the Christian Initiative Center of International Learning (later called Network for Peace through Dialogue), Intercommunity Center for Justice and Peace, and the Incarcerated Mothers Program. Also included are writing by Kanet, her resumes, and her high school and college yearbooks. Kathleen Emilie Kanet is a sister of the Religious of the Sacred Heart of Mary who has worked as a teacher and administrator in an elementary school and as caseworker and supervisor in a preventative service program for preservation of families. She received a BA from Marymount College in 1960 and an MA in education from Virginia Commonwealth University in 1971. In 1962, she joined the Religious of the Sacred Heart of Mary. She was a teacher at St. John's School in McLean, Virginia (1963-1969), principal of St. Edward's School in Richmond, Virginia (1969-1973), Director of Education for the Religious of the Sacred Heart of Mary (1973-1976), and School Education Program Director for the Intercommunity Center for Justice and Peace NYC (1976-1978). From 1990 to 1993, she was a caseworker at the Incarcerated Mothers Program (IMP) in East Harlem, where she worked with families when the mother was incarcerated and the family needed support to keep the children out of foster care. Kanet co-founded several national and international organizations which promote peace and has been involved in multiple educational activities around the issues of peace and justice, including Christian Initiatives Center of International Learning (later called Network for Peace through Dialogue), Consortium on Peace Research, Education and Development (COPRED), and Justice/Peace Education Council.

The collection consists of Radcliffe Written History Project questionnaires completed by 11 members of the Radcliffe College Class of 1960. The Written History Project questionnaire was adapted from questions asked by the Radcliffe College Club of San Francisco in their Radcliffe College Alumnae Oral History Project. Questions were intended to record alumnae memories of the Radcliffe College undergraduate experience and how it influenced their life choices. Questionnaires are divided into seven sections: applying to Radcliffe, arriving at Radcliffe, academics, life as a Radcliffe student, Radcliffe and connection to the future, retrospect, and identity and connection to Radcliffe since college. Responses were received from Lois A. Cooper, Susan J. Diamond, Susan S. Fainstein, Carol Deitch Schein Gill, Barbara Weinberger Glueck, Mary Hill Harris, Suzanne Hodes, Barbara Blanchard Hohenberg, Judith Cabot Marriner, Joan Peters O'Connor, and Julie S. Vargas.

The collection consists of Radcliffe Written History Project questionnaires completed by 30 members of the Radcliffe College Class of 1970. The Written History Project questionnaire was adapted from questions asked by the Radcliffe College Club of San Francisco in their Radcliffe College Alumnae Oral History Project. Questions were intended to record alumnae memories of the Radcliffe College undergraduate experience and how it influenced their life choices. Questionnaires are divided into seven sections: applying to Radcliffe, arriving at Radcliffe, academics, life as a Radcliffe student, Radcliffe and connection to the future, retrospect, and identity and connection to Radcliffe since college. Responses were received from Carol P. Burleson, Leslie L. Davidson, Barbara McKay Diamond, Kathleen Moreno Dorkin, Ruth T. Emerson, Lucy D. Friedman, Karen Jean Hedlund, Charlotte R. Hitchcock, Marie T. Kelly, Maryanne King, Patricia Koslowe, Rosemary E. Linsider (background form only), Julia C. Livingston, Betty Low, Pamela J. Matz, Marlyn McGrath, Margaret S. McKenna, Elizabeth McKinsey, Ellen Messer, Jane Myers, Lenna Peters Ojure, Joan Sarnat, Nikki Schumann, Marilyn S. Smith, Karen Lee Sobol, Jan Levine Thal, Carol J. Wagner, Meira (Maxine) Warshauer, Linnea Holmer Wren, and Joaquina Hill Zacharias.

The collection consists of Radcliffe Written History Project questionnaires completed by 34 members of the Radcliffe College Class of 1972. The Written History Project questionnaire was adapted from questions asked by the Radcliffe College Club of San Francisco in their Radcliffe College Alumnae Oral History Project. Questions were intended to record alumnae memories of the Radcliffe College undergraduate experience and how it influenced their life choices. Questionnaires are divided into seven sections: applying to Radcliffe, arriving at Radcliffe, academics, life as a Radcliffe student, Radcliffe and connection to the future, retrospect, and identity and connection to Radcliffe since college. Responses were received from Janis L. Abkowitz, Elizabeth Bailey, Bonnie Ellen Blustein, Lisa Bob, Rika Burnham, Vickie Charlton, Carol Ann Fiedler, Elizabeth Fishel, Susan Hall Forster, Janice Hinkle Gregory, Renie Yoshida Grohl, Janette H. Harris, Judith A. Hough-Goldstein, Wendy Lynn Gray, Carol Kellermann, Linda Susan Klinbanow, Beatrice Kovasznay, Suzanne Kulik, Linda R.W. Macari, Laura L. Maltby, Gloria Melnitsky, Mercy E. Menitove, Janet R. Potash, Ellen K. Rothman, Judith Seligson, Marilyn Showalter, Antonia Shusta, Margo Taft Stever, Kathryn Harris Tijerina, Rachel V. Tompkins, Leslie W. Tuttle, Sharon Ruth Weinstein, Martha Wolff, and Wendy Zerin.

The collection consists of Radcliffe Written History Project questionnaires completed by 61 members of the Radcliffe College Class of 1976. The Written History Project questionnaire was adapted from questions asked by the Radcliffe College Club of San Francisco in their Radcliffe College Alumnae Oral History Project. Questions were intended to record alumnae memories of the Radcliffe College undergraduate experience and how it influenced their life choices. Questionnaires are divided into eight sections: applying to Radcliffe, living experiences, academics, learning experiences, social and extracurricular life, gender at Harvard-Radcliffe, retrospective/connections to Radcliffe, and reflections on the changing roles of women. Responses were received from Jill Abramson, Kimberley S. Adams, Cheryl Gelzer Alexis, Pinney L. Allen, Catalina Arboleda, Mary C. Bennett, Teresita Alvarez-Bjelland, Kathryn O'Brien Bordonaro, Jane Borthwick, Joan L. Bragar, Robin Chase, Shirley Chiang, Katherine Richardson Christensen, Diana Clark, Sheila Cox, Rebecca Frost Cuevas, Jane Marie Doyle, Diana S. Finch, Sarah Forsman, Katherine E. Garrett, Diana M. Gilligan, Martha Gilmore, Jan Marie Goplerud, Judith Graham, Debra Greenberg, Maria Suarez Hamm, Amy Handelsman, Christine Smith Hill, Nancy D. Israel, Caroline A. Jones, Pamela K. Kenney, Dana Robinson Krumholz, Laetitia La Follette, Maud Lavin, Claudia Hagadus Long, Phyllis M. Lugger, Barbara L. Lyons, Kayalyn Anne Marafioti, Sharon Meager, Nancy Hadley-Miller, Jenny Netzer, Deborah Niedermeyer, Jean O'Neill, Margaret J. Oxtoby, Barbara L. Pearce, Milbry Polk, Virginia Popper, Annelle B. Primm, Rosemary Reiss, Cindy Rosenwald, Susan Ruel, Nancy Abrams Segal, Karen J. Simonson, Nancy Sinsabaugh, Kathleen B. Sullivan, Isabel Swift, M. Patricia Thayer, Joanne Tuller, Natalie Wexler, Anne Whitehouse, and Wendy Wolfenson. Also included is a videorecording and chat transcript from an informational meeting about the project with members of the Class of 1976 and Schlesinger Library curators.

The Louise H. Wills La Leche League collection includes correspondence, memos, mailings, drafts of newsletters, leadership lists, and other materials documenting the administration of the La Leche League Eastern US Division and the administration and creation of La Leche League publications, particularly those published by the Eastern US Division. Louise H. Wills received a BS in education from Central Connecticut State University in 1961. She worked as a teacher in Waterbury, Connecticut, at Prospect Community School from 1961 to 1965 and at Waterbury Arc from 1980 to 1993. Following the birth of her first child in 1966, she joined La Leche League and became a leader in 1970. Her La Leche League activities include cofounding the Waterbury Group and serving as Assistant Area Coordinator of Leaders, Group Treasurer, and Area Database Administrator. She was active in the La Leche League Alliance for Breastfeeding Education, serving as the Publications Department Administrator and Associate Public Departments Administrator and Special Projects Editor.

The papers of Iva Parrott Sawyer contain correspondence, financial and legal records, yearbooks, photographs, and other materials documenting Sawyer's life. Correspondence consists mostly of letters Sawyer exchanged with her mother, Harriet McDougal Parrott, and her sister, Eva Parrott Yoder, both of whom lived in Magnolia, Missouri. Sawyer's letters contain descriptions of student life and classes at Baker University and the University of Missouri, including descriptions of living in the University of Missouri's home economics practice house; classes she took while enrolled in the dietician training program at the Pennsylvania Hospital and her work in the hospital kitchen; and descriptions of her daily life, mostly written while she lived in East Bridgewater, Massachusetts. Parrott and Yoder's letters contain news of family and friends and document life on farms, including growing crops and raising livestock. As Parrott aged, Yoder became her main caretaker, and her letters include descriptions of Parrott's health and the efforts of members of Yoder's family to care for her. Parrott inherited farms and land from several family members and her letters reflect her concerns over managing the properties and indecision over what to do with the properties as she planned her estate. All three women's letters document the impact the Depression had on their lives including the economic toll on their families as well as their neighbors and frequent commentary on the weather and insect invasions and how they impacted their gardens and crops. Sawyer and Yoder's letters to each other document their marriages; raising children, including descriptions of childhood illnesses such as mumps and measles and their approval or disapproval of their children's decisions; their participation in church activities; and issues related to aging, including bouts with arthritis, feeling tired, and frustration over not being able to accomplish tasks they used to be able to. Both women's letters also document the loss of a child with the death of Sawyer's young son after a household poisoning accident and Yoder's son in World War II, and the deaths of their husbands following illnesses. Both women also write about household expenses, including taxes, and about growing or purchasing vegetables and fruit, which they canned for later use. Iva Parrott Sawyer, daughter of Frank P. and Harriet McDougal Parrott was born July 7, 1900, in Magnolia, Missouri. Her sister Alice Parrott was born in 1894 and died of influenza in 1920. Her sister Eva Parrott Yoder (1893-1973) lived on a farm in Magnolia, Missouri with her husband, Clarence Yoder and their six children. Sawyer studied home economics at Baker University for three years before transferring to the University of Missouri, receiving a BS in education in 1925. After teaching for two years in El Dorado Springs, Missouri, she trained as a dietitian at Pennsylvania Hospital in Philadelphia, where she worked until 1930. In 1930, she married Howard Gay Sawyer (1900-1955) and eventually settled in East Bridgewater, Massachusetts. They had six children: Joan (born 1932), Janet (1934-2018), John (1935-1936), Jean (born 1937), Howard (1940-2021), and Judith (1945-2012). In 1961, she established a doll repair business, "Polly's Dollies," which she ran from her home until 1981. Sawyer died May 19, 1993, in East Bridgewater, Massachusetts.

The Women Marathoners in the Age of Rebellion, 1959-1972 oral history project contains audio recordings and transcripts of ten interviews conducted by Jaime Schultz with women who ran marathons between 1959 and 1972. Interviewees discuss their families, educational backgrounds; their introduction to running; their participation in distance running events, including marathons; acceptance and resistance to their participation in distance races; commentary on other women marathoners; and their experiences with and opinions of the Amateur Athletic Union, which governed women's participation in marathons. Jaime Schultz is a professor of Kinesiology at Pennsylvania State University with an affiliate faculty appointment in Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. She received a BA in English and Spanish from Luther College (1996) and an MA in Physiology of Sport (1999) and a PhD in Cultural Studies of Sport (2005) from the University of Iowa. She is the author of numerous articles and books focusing on women in sports including Qualifying Times: Points of Change in U.S. Women's Sport (2014) and Women's Sports: What Everyone Needs to Know (2018).

The records of Artemis Productions include correspondence, financial documents, notes, printed materials, audio recordings of concerts, and other materials documenting women's music and Artemis-produced women's music concerts. Materials document Artemis's commitment to providing childcare at concerts; their efforts to hire local women to run all aspects of concerts and the need to work with men since men generally owned the sound equipment needed to produce concerts; their efforts to provide free and discounted concert tickets with the goal of making women's music more accessible to a wider audience; their use of local feminist businesses, including New Words Bookstore, to sell tickets; and their efforts to respond to community feedback, including criticism over scheduling the 2nd Boston Women's Music Festival during Passover. Many acts identified as lesbian separatists and specified women-only audiences. Materials document challenges to that policy by men on the grounds of discrimination and discussions among the women's music community concerning whether male children should be allowed at concerts. A small amount of material also addresses the debate in the women's music community over whether to include transgender women in the community. Artemis Productions was founded in 1974 by Linda Barufaldi, Emily Culpepper, Andrea Gillespie, Jean MacRae, and Betsy York with the goal of bringing women's music to the Boston area. They were later joined by Diane Sabin. They incorporated as a nonprofit organization in 1975 and produced their first concert, the 1st Boston Women's Music Festival, in October 1975. They went on to produce concerts by Casse Culver, Meg Christian, Holly Near, Sweet Honey in the Rock, Willie Tyson, Cris Williamson, and other women's music acts. Concerts, many of which were held in partnership with the Harvard-Radcliffe Women's Center, were produced using all-women crews, all of whom were paid for their contributions. Artemis produced their last concert in 1979 and formally dissolved in 1986.

The additional papers of Vicki Gabriner contain diaries, correspondence, writings, photographs, and memorabilia that document Gabriner's life from childhood until her death. Significant topics in the papers include radical left political activism; lesbian identity, community, and rights; Jewish identity and activism; and peace and socialist activism. A civil rights, peace, feminist and lesbian activist, Vicki Levins Gabriner was born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1942 to public school teachers Edna and Joseph Levins. She met Robert "Bob" Gabriner while in college at Cornell University (BA, 1963); after graduation they first worked in New York City organizing rent strikes, and worked several summers in Fayette County, Tennessee, teaching in Freedom Schools and working on voter registration and integration. Vicki Gabriner received a graduate degree in education from the University of Wisconsin (MA, 1966); after divorcing her husband, she moved back to New York City in 1968 to work as a teacher. She then joined Students for a Democratic Society (and subsequently the Weathermen) in 1969 and lived in several cities during the year she worked and lived with others in that group. Gabriner traveled to Cuba in the first months of 1970 with the Second Venceremos Brigade. The Brigade was a solidarity coalition between Students for a Democratic Society and Cuban government officials.
In 1970 Gabriner moved to Atlanta, Georgia, where a number of friends from the Venceremos Brigade lived. She came out as a lesbian, and wrote Sleeping Beauty: A Lesbian Fairy Tale, in 1971. Sleeping Beauty was originally published and distributed by the Sojourner Truth Press, a publishing collective founded by Gabriner and several other women. In 1972 Gabriner helped to found the Atlanta Lesbian Feminist Alliance, and played on that organization's softball team in 1974. While living in Atlanta she co-founded Georgians for the ERA; was project director for the Northwest Georgia Girl Scout Council's Education for Parenthood human sexuality training program; and created her own business, ATTHIS, which offered workshops in lesbian sexuality.
In 1973 Gabriner was arrested on the charge of presenting falsified information to a United States Passport Office in Boston in 1970. She was tried and convicted in 1977; but was exonerated upon appeal in 1978. In 1979 Gabriner moved to Boston, Massachusetts, where she wrote for Sojourner and Gay Community News. She also served as manager at Insight Meditation Society in Barre, Massachusetts (1988-1990); instructor in women's gynecologic and breast examinations at Tufts and Harvard medical schools; project coordinator for a women's oral history project at the Jewish Women's Archives (1998-1999); civil rights investigator for Delany, Siegel, Zorr and Associates (1990-1999); and executive director of the Sojourner Feminist Institute (1999-2002). In 2009, Gabriner received her PhD in women's history from Union Institute and University, documenting her mother's involvement in Parent Teacher Association activism.
Raised in a secular tradition of Jewish social and political activism, Gabriner began to deepen her relationship with a number of Jewish organizations in the 1990s. She was active in the Boston Workman's Circle, particularly their Yiddish Chorus A Besere Velt. She was bat mitzvahed in 1995. Gabriner began a relationship with Jewish feminist Rochelle Ruthchild in 1992. They had a civil union ceremony in 2002 and were legally married in June 2004. Vicki Gabriner died of leukemia on November 22, 2018.

The papers of Sophia Morris Kent include scrapbooks containing photographs and ephemera from Kent's time as a student at Radcliffe College, letters Kent wrote to her parents while she was attending Radcliffe, and a photograph of a group celebrating the 1945 launch of the SS Radcliffe Victory. Kent's scrapbooks and letters document the classes she took at Radcliffe; Radcliffe student life including dorm life, exam periods, and chaperone rules; the friendships she formed with classmates; her involvement with student activities, particularly related to Idler Club and other theatrical productions; her interactions with Harvard students; Harvard and Radcliffe social events she attended; social outings in the Boston-area, including attending theatrical productions and gatherings at private homes and riding in automobiles; and descriptions of clothing, including commentary on outfits worn on specific occasions and noting compliments she received on garments. Sophia Morris Kent, daughter of Sophia Austin and Thomas Gardner Morris, was born March 13, 1897, in Oak Park, Illinois. She graduated from Radcliffe College in 1918 and worked in occupational therapy at a Chicago hospital from 1918 to 1919. In 1920 she married William Kent, Jr. (1895-1964), a real estate and investment executive. They had 4 children: Sophia Kent McNeil (1921-1973), Elizabeth Kent Soloski (1922-2001), William III (1928-1994), and Eleanor Kent Schermerhorn (1931-2014; Radcliffe class of 1953). The Kents lived in San Francisco, California, where Sophia wrote several short stories, plays, and radio scripts, which she performed in local stage and radio productions. She was a founder of the Garden Hospital Auxiliary, and a member of the boards of many civic organizations in California, including the Edgewood Orphanage and the Katharine Branson School. She was also a member of the Women's Committee of the San Francisco of Art, the Associate Council of Mills College, the Junior League, and the San Francisco Girl Scout Council. An active Radcliffe College alumna, she was Radcliffe's representative at the launching of the SS Radcliffe Victory in 1945, president of the Radcliffe Club of San Francisco, a member of the National Committee for a Program for Radcliffe, and a Radcliffe trustee. Sophia Morris Kent died of a heart attack August 3, 1976, and is buried in Mount Tamalpais Cemetery in San Rafael, California.

The papers of Margaret Venator include journals, correspondence, calendars, and other materials documenting Venator's life from her teenage years through old age. Journals consist of bound volumes and materials removed from three ring binders compiled by Venator, both of which contain journal entries as well as correspondence, photographs, and other ephemera. Topics represented in the collection include family relationships, including between siblings, mothers and children, and grandparents and grandchildren; dating; marriage; widowhood; religion and spiritualism; national and world events, including the civil rights movement; and popular culture, including books, television, and movies. Margaret Norman Venator, daughter of Richard Leonard and Mary Ellen Car Norman, was born in Norwich, Connecticut. After receiving a BA from Bryn Mawr College in 1962, she worked as a mail reader for the Ladies Home Journal in New York City before relocating to Boston, Massachusetts, where she worked as a church secretary at St. Stephen's Episcopal Church. On November 27, 1965, she married David Venator, the minister at Pilgrim Church in Dorchester, Massachusetts. They had three children, Ben, Nancy, and Sam. David Venator died of an embolism on July 19, 1999. Following David's death, Margaret moved to his family home in Dunbarton, New Hampshire. On August 7, 2016, she married George Stevens, a retired geologist. He died on July 2, 2024.