Barnard Center for Research on Women Historical Periodicals Collection

The Birdie Goldsmith Ast Resource Collection of the Barnard College Women’s Center (renamed the Barnard Center for Research on Women (BCRW)) was founded in 1973 with the research materials of Myra Josephs (Barnard ’28) and named after named after Ms. Joseph’s mother, an active suffragist and founding member of the League of Women Voters. A 1982 brochure described the collection’s purpose as “to provide space for some of the important new research about women sparked by the women’s movement.” By this time, the collection contained over 6,000 print items and had become known as one of the most important resources in the Northeast for materials on contemporary women’s issues. The collection contains hardbound and paperbound books; directories, bibliographies, and handbooks; newsletter, newspaper, and journal subscriptions; and ephemeral materials which includes article reprints, unpublished papers, unbound manuscripts, conference proceedings, reports, pamphlets, fact sheets, newspaper and magazine clippings, government documents, etc. Historically, the materials were catalogued and organized into 10 categories according to women’s issues: Arts and Culture, Education, Employment, General, Health, Legal Status, Other Countries, Sex Roles and Sex Differences, Violence and Sexual Exploitation, and Women’s Movement. The Collection has always been open to the public and has been used by students, scholars, journalists, researchers, and activists.

Mirroring the purpose and activities of the Barnard College Women’s Center and feminist in orientation, the Resource Collection focuses on emerging issues and changing interpretations in the women’s movement. The Resource Collection preferenced noncommercial materials that have limited circulation and are usually quickly out-of-print, which often contain and describe emerging issues before they have a recognizable label of identification (i.e. “battered women”). As a result, the Collection contains the back issues of women’s movement periodicals from the 1970’s, which are now no longer in print. Additionally, the Resource Collection includes what may be described as the “initial outpouring” of commentary on emerging women’s issues within the newspapers, newsletters, and journals of feminist presses and organized interest groups, and the special issues of magazines and journals traditionally not collected by libraries.