Research Guides: *Women's, Gender, & Sexuality Studies: Find Archives & Primary Sources

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Subjects: Anthropology, Heller School for Social Policy and Management, Latin American, Caribbean and Latinx Studies, Sociology, Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies

Featured Primary Source Databases

Go to A-Z Databases to access our full list of our primary source databases.

Archives of Sexuality and Gender
Digitized primary sources for the historical study of sex, sexuality, and gender. Find a wide range of materials, such as: oral histories from the African Women's Life History Project; declassified FBI files detailing surveillance of gays and lesbians in the U.S. from 1950 to 1982; and erotica from the "Private Case" of the British Museum Library.
Our access includes: LGBTQ History and Culture Since 1940, Parts I and II; Sex and Sexuality, Sixteenth to Twentieth Century; International Perspectives on LGBTQ Activism and Culture; and Community and Identity in North America.
British and Irish Women's Letters and Diaries
Searchable and indexed pages of women's letters and diaries from England, Scotland, Ireland, and Wales. Complements North American Women's Letters and Diaries, Colonial-1950.
Disability in the Modern World: History of a Social Movement
An online collection with a comprehensive and international set of resources to enrich study in a wide range of disciplines from media studies to philosophy.
Database available through at least May 31, 2028, as part of ProQuest's Evidence-Based Acquisition Program.
HistoryMakers Digital Archive
An African American video oral history archive. Provides access to oral history interviews with historically significant African Americans.
Independent Voices
Collection of alternative press publications produced by feminists, dissident GIs, campus radicals, Native Americans, anti-war activists, Black Power advocates, Hispanics, LGBT activists, the extreme right-wing press and alternative literary magazines during the latter half of the 20th century.
LGBT Magazine Archive
Archival runs of some of the most influential, longest-running serial publications covering LGBT interests. Includes the pre-eminent US and UK titles – The Advocate and Gay Times, respectively. Chronicles more than six decades of the history and culture of the LGBT community. In addition to LGBT/gender/sexuality studies, this material also serves related disciplines such as sociology, political science, psychology, health, and the arts. Note: Some publications may contain explicit content.
Database available through at least May 31, 2028, as part of ProQuest's Evidence-Based Acquisition Program.
LGBTQ+ Rights (HeinOnline)
Explores the gay rights movement in America, including civil rights and law passage in the 20th and 21st centuries, as well as the inequalities that still exist today. Find legal and policy research on topics such as marriage and family, employment, military service, and health care.
North American Women's Letters and Diaries
Includes the correspondence and diaries of women, covering colonial times to 1950.
Queer Pasts
A collection of primary source exhibits for students and scholars of queer history and culture, curated by academic editors Marc Stein and Lisa Arellano. The database uses “queer” in its broadest and most inclusive sense, embracing LGBT topics as well as other sexual and gender formations that are queer. Particular focus is given to perspectives from people of color, trans people and people with disabilities.
Database available through at least May 31, 2028, as part of ProQuest's Evidence-Based Acquisition Program.
Women and Social Movements, International-- 1840 to Present
Focuses on women’s activism across the world, from 1840 to the present. Includes primary sources on topics related to peace, human trafficking, poverty, child labor, literacy, global inequality, and more.
Database available through at least May 31, 2028, as part of ProQuest's Evidence-Based Acquisition Program.
Women and Social Movements, Modern Empires since 1820
Explores prominent themes related to conquest, colonization, settlement, resistance, and post-coloniality, as told through women’s voices. This archival database includes documents related to the Habsburg, Ottoman, British, French, Italian, Dutch, Russian, Japanese, and United States empires, and to settler societies in the United States and South Africa.
Database available through at least May 31, 2028, as part of ProQuest's Evidence-Based Acquisition Program.
Women and Social Movements in the United States (1600-2000)
A collection of document projects--comprised of essays with supporting documents, images, and web links--focused on the history of women in social movements in the U.S. between 1600 and 2000
Women's Studies Archive
Provides a history of the social, political, and professional aspects of women's lives and offers a look at the roles, experiences, and achievements of women in society. Includes documents such as diaries, letters, photographs, news clippings, organizational records, and journals, covering the nineteeth and twentieth centuries.

Queer Archives & Digital Collections

There are many queer community archives, as well as archives at major institutions such as universities, that have posted digitized primary source materials in freely-accessible online exhibits or searchable databases. Here are a few.

ACT UP Oral History Project
Collection of interviews with surviving members of AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT UP), New York. Includes videos, bios, and interview transcripts.
Archivo Comunitario LGBTQ+ de Puerto Rico | LGBTQ+ Community Archive of Puerto Rico
Queer/cuir community archive of Puerto Rico. Initial digitized collections include the magazine Caribbean HEAT (1991-92, in bilingual Spanish/English editions), Pa'fuera! (1974-75, publicación oficial de la Comunidad de Orgullo Gay de Puerto Rico), and assorted articles and oral histories.
Digital Transgender Archive
The Digital Transgender Archive (DTA) seeks to increase the accessibility of transgender history by providing an online hub for digitized historical materials, born-digital materials, and information on archival holdings throughout the world. Includes holdings from the ONE Archives, University of Victoria's Transgender Archives, Country Queer Oral History Project, etc.
GLBT Historical Society (San Francisco)
Digital collections include archival material, oral histories, audio collections, obituaries, and more.
The History Project (Boston, MA)
The History Project's mission is to document and preserve the history of New England's LGBTQ community, and to share that info with the public.
Lesbian Herstory Archives (Brooklyn)
World's largest collection about lesbians and their communities. Site includes digitized photos, oral histories, audio recordings, newsletters, and video. Recent digitization efforts include Audre Lorde's speeches, panel presentations, and readings.
LGBTQIA+ Periodical and Ephemera Collection | Princeton University Library
Magazines and other primary source materials from the LGBTQIA+ community. Materials that have been digitized so far date from the 1950s to 2000 and focus on the physique/muscle and drag/trans+ cultures.
LGBT Religious Archives Network
Includes oral histories, profiles, and digitized collections of LGBT religious history.
NYC Trans Oral History Project
The New York City Trans Oral History Project is a community archive devoted to the collection, preservation and sharing of trans histories, organized in collaboration with the New York Public Library.
ONE Archives at the USC Libraries
The largest repository of LGBTQ materials in the world. Founded in 1952, ONE Archives houses millions of archival items including periodicals, books, films, videos, audio recordings, photographs, artworks, organizational records, and personal papers. ONE Archives has been a part of the University of Southern California Libraries since 2010.
Queer Zine Archive Project (QZAP)
QZAP was first launched in November 2003 in an effort to preserve queer zines and make them available to other queers, researchers, historians, punks, and anyone else who has an interest DIY publishing and underground queer communities.

Selected Resources at the Brandeis Archives

Professor Shulamit Reinharz, founding Director of the Women's Studies Research Center and the Hadassah-Brandeis Institute.

Aviva Cantor papers: Finding aid
An early Jewish feminist, Aviva Cantor was the founding editor of Lilith magazine and a founding member of the Jewish Liberation Project.The collection consists primarily of articles and scholarly papers written in the years 1970 to 1990.
Brandeis National Committee (formerly Brandeis University National Women's Committee): Finding Aid
Subjects include bylaws; the history of the organization; national conferences; regional chapters, fundraising; committee membership; study group courses; and the papers of individual members.
Carl Van Vechten photographs: Finding aid
The Carl Van Vechten photograph collection contains images of many notable women, including Josephine Baker, Billie Holiday, Emma Goldman, Mary McLeod Bethune, Zora Neale Hurston, Frida Kahlo, Gertrude Stein and many more.
Dime Novel collection: Finding Aid
The Dime Novel collection at Brandeis documents the publication of sensational popular literature in the United States from the mid-nineteenth to the early twentieth century. Brandeis holds more than a thousand titles. Finding Aid includes a link for a partial list.
E.M. Broner collection: Finding aid
The collection concerns the writings, rituals and correspondence of E.M. Broner, including manuscripts, publications, reviews, correspondence, descriptions of rituals, and more.
Fannie Hurst collection: Finding aid
The Fannie Hurst Collection, 1889-1968, includes typescripts, articles, photographs, correspondence, and other materials related to Hurst's professional and private life.
Franklin Delano and Eleanor Roosevelt collection: Finding aid
One of the most significant components of this collection is the correspondence of Eleanor Roosevelt with Henry S. Hooker, a lifelong friend who was a New York political figure, and couple of close acquaintances, Louise Lazell and Robert S. Benjamin.
Janet Z. Giele Papers: Finding Aid
Professor Emerita at the Heller School of Social Policy and Management and in the Department of Sociology, her research has focused in large part on women’s changing roles, aging and life course, and family policy.
Ma'yan records: Finding aid
This collection consists of eleven linear feet of material documenting Ma'yan, a Jewish feminist organization based in New York City. The records include reports, strategic plans, meeting agendas, class and workshop material, program and exhibit files, photographs and more.
Marcia Freedman papers: Finding Aid
A collection of journals, speeches, lecture notes, correspondence, manuscripts, typescripts and research files created by Marcia Freedman, an American-Israeli activist and feminist.
Marcia Freedman papers: Spotlight
Read a Spotlight about the Marcia Freedman papers consisting of approximately 2.75 linear feet of materials pertaining to Freedman’s life and work as an American-Israeli activist and feminist.
Office of the Associate Vice President and Affirmative Action Officer: Finding aid
Files in this collection were created from 1974 through 2001. Materials include memos, correspondence, reports, meeting minutes, and newsletters. Most of the reports concern the compliance of individual departments and the University as a whole with affirmative action regulations. Other subjects include hiring procedures; the establishment of the Affirmative Action Advisory Committee; and other equal opportunity issues including disabilities, maternity leave, and sexual harassment. This collection also holds an incomplete run of the newsletter "'aaction' profile." Most of these files were created and maintained by Louis Ennis and Herb Hentz.
Rose Jacobs Collection: Finding aid
The Rose Jacobs collection is dominated by a manuscript and supporting documents regarding the history of Hadassah.
Ruth A. Brandwein papers: Finding aid
The Ruth A. Brandwein papers contains published and unpublished papers, reports, research notes, correspondence, and committee information broadly related to welfare policy, women and families, and domestic violence in the United States from the 1960s to 2010
Sandra Butler papers: Finding Aid
The Sandra Butler papers consist of journals, correspondence, photographs, workshop posters and audiovisual materials relating to Sandra Butler's activities as an author and activist in the feminist movement, advocate for Israeli-Palestinian peace, and issues related to breast cancer.
Sophie Tucker scrapbooks: Finding Aid
This collection consists of a number of scrapbooks created by Sophie Tucker, which incorporate memorabilia, newspaper clippings, greeting cards, and other personal mementos.
Sophie Tucker scrapbooks: Spotlight
Special Collections holds a number of scrapbooks created by Sophie Tucker, incorporating memorabilia, newspaper clippings, greeting cards, and other personal mementos. Please contact the department for access.
Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Program: Finding aid
These materials focus almost entirely on the work and history of the program.
Women's Studies Research Center at Brandeis University records: Finding Aid
An innovative, interdisciplinary research facility of scholars, students and faculty who study gender issues and women's lives. Founded by Shulamit Reinharz, the WSRC is the home of: The Scholars Program, The Student-Scholar Partnership Program, The Arts Program, and The Hadassah-Brandeis Institute.