Title: Women's lives
Description: This collection covers four primary categories of records, all relating to the lives and activities of important women of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Women's Lives includes the papers of Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, a member of the American Communist Party and advocate for labor rights in the United States; as well as the papers of Mary E. Gawthorpe, a British suffragist who spoke out in regards to social and labor politics. The lives of women missionaries who traveled the globe between the years 1840 and 1980 are also documented. Finally, the collection contains records of American pioneer women, their migration on the Oregon Trail, and their lives in the Pacific Northwest. Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, who helped found the American Civil Liberties Union, frequently orated in public forums, led and participated in strikes, and advocated for women's and immigrants' rights. This collection contains a variety of records of Flynn's political activism, such as news articles, correspondence, campaign paraphernalia, and compositions by Flynn herself, including speeches, diaries, and poetry. Materials span the period from 1896 to 1964, the year of Flynn's death. Mary E. Gawthorpe participated in multiple political movements advocating for women's suffrage and labor education in both her native Great Britain and the United States. Related materials include documents written by or concerning Gawthorpe, including diaries, correspondence, subject files, and educational documents such as sketchbooks and teaching notes. Also included are photographs, graphics, and Gawthorpe's autobiography, Up Hill to Holloway (1962). Materials related to the women's missionary movement include journals, letters, and manuscripts written by female missionaries about their experiences and the people and customs of the countries in which they resided. They provide accounts of living in East and South Asia, South America, the African Congo, and the United States. Finally, diaries, memoirs, photographs, and letters document the lives of a selection of American pioneer women who traveled the Oregon Trail or settled or lived in the Pacific Northwest. These materials provide insight into the farm, family, and social life of nineteenth-century women in rural America. This collection uniquely highlights the activities and lives of a selection of specific women with regards to their political activism, missionary work, or American pioneer activities.
Subjects: Women, Social conditions, History