Find Primary Sources - Feminist and Gender Studies - Guides de recherche

Primary Source Databases

British and Irish Women's Letters and Diaries » This link opens in a new window
Includes the experiences of approximately 500 women, as written in over 100,000 pages of diaries and letters.
Defining Gender, 1450-1910 » This link opens in a new window
Primary source material for research in history, literature, sociology and education from a gendered perspective
Feminae : Medieval women and gender index » This link opens in a new window
Feminae indexes nearly 500 journals as well as many essay collections devoted in large part to topics dealing with women, sexuality, or gender in the Medieval period.
Gerritsen Collection » This link opens in a new window
An important source in the study of women's history
North American Immigrant Letters, Diaries and Oral Histories » This link opens in a new window
Provides a unique and personal view of what it meant to immigrate to America and to Canada. Includes more than 100,000 pages of personal narratives including letters, diaries, pamphlets, autobiographies, and oral histories and several thousand pages of oral history interviews from Ellis Island.
Perdita Manuscripts: Women Writers, 1500-1700 » This link opens in a new window
Digital facsimiles of manuscripts written or compiled by women in the British Isles during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.
Women and Social Movements in the United States, 1600-2000 » This link opens in a new window
History of women in social movements in the U.S. between 1600 and 2000, with full-text documents as well as book, film and website reviews and teaching tools.
Manuscript Women's Letters and Diaries from the American Antiquarian Society » This link opens in a new window
Personal writings of women from 18th to 20th centuries.
Twentieth Century Advice Literature: North American Guides On Race, Gender, Sex, And The Family » This link opens in a new window
Twentieth Century Advice Literature: North American Guides on Race, Gender, Sex and the Family offers students and researchers insights into the shifting values and behaviours of Americans over time. This collection brings together the instructional and etiquette literature that defined the standards of conduct for Americans and includes fully searchable handbooks, manuals, textbooks, guides, pamphlets and society publications.

Canadian Focus

Visit the Canadian Women's Archives located in Archives and Special Collections on the Promenade level of Morisset Library.

Chronology of Lesbian and Gay Liberation in Canada (1964-1981)
Directed by Crompton, C. (University of Ottawa) and Schwartz, M. (Toronto Metropolitan University)

LGBTQ+ Projects and Resources

Queer Digital Humanities Projects and Resources (O’Malley, C., Yale University)

LGBTQ+ Archives & Periodicals (O’Malley, C., Yale University)

Primary Source Collections from Other Libraries

Center for Research Libraries

Gallica This link opens in a new window
Digitized collection of the Bibliothèque Nationale de France (Middle ages to the 20th century)

Women Working 1800-1930
Digitized manuscripts from Harvard University