Our aim is to provide students and scholars with a wide range of periodicals, unique in their scope and contents and very different in forms, outlooks, politics and styles. Taken together, they open up a wealth of new research opportunities and will enable women s issues to be seen from a broader, international perspective. The origins and development of the suffrage movement, both in the United States and in Europe, are strongly represented here. The periodicals are important sources for constructing not only the political, but also the commercial, cultural and religious lives of the women they sought to reach. Woman s Missionary Advocate and Christian Lady s Magazine addressed religious issues.
Literary critics can analyze women s writings, since many of the periodicals include fiction.
The Freewoman , for example, featured Rebecca West as a contributor. For historians of advertising and business, this Web site offers the unique ability to search information on products, examine the evolution of companies and compare the development of business in the United States and in Europe. The staffs experimented, trying out numerous promotional techniques, varying editorial content and format. Publishers used various ploys to court advertisers, offering better placement within the magazine, cleaner copy design, research into ad effectiveness and product markets, and editorial support of ads. In that respect, graphic design students will get materials enabling them to study the evolution of designs.