| Description | The Women's Library Archives Strand 9 consists of Autograph Letters. There are thirty-one subject headings, some of which cover several volumes. These are not true archives (i.e. records created by individuals or organisations and held in their original order), but are artificial collections of letters removed from archives and arranged by theme.
The original deposit was in 1930 by Philippa Fawcett of letters received by her mother Millicent Fawcett and many of these were 'Autograph' letters by famous correspondents such as William Gladstone and Queen Victoria. This collection was then added to with letters from a variety of correspondents, again many of them 'famous' such as Florence Nightingale, the Pankhursts, Vita Sackville West, Annie Besant, Thomas Hardy, Keir Hardie and John Stuart Mill. These would now be managed as personal archives and it is impossible to recreate their original provenance.
The 30 collections are grouped by subjects, individuals or families, some of which cover several volumes. Subjects (all women centred) include: suffrage; the general women's movement, the 'Militants', education, medicine, the Church, literature, employment, temperance, scholarship, industry, travel and the arts. Individuals include Dr Elizabeth Garrett Anderson, WT Stead, Louisa Hubbard, Harriet McIlquham, Millicent Fawcett, Hannah More, Keir Hardie, the Webbs, Ramsay Macdonald, Alix von Cotta, and Lady Constance Lytton. The Becker, Billinghurst, Strachey, Tabor and Taylor families also have collections. Please see individual collection descriptions for more detail. The full list of volumes is below:
9/01 - 21 volumes - Women's Suffrage (also includes postage stamps)
9/02 - 5 volumes - General Women's Movement
9/03 - 2 volumes - Emancipation of Women: British Commonwealth; and United States of America
9/04 - 2 volumes - Education of Women
9/05 - 1 volume - Women in Medicine
9/06 - 4 volumes - Women and the Church
9/07 - 3 volumes - Literary Ladies
9/08 - 7 volumes - General and Personal
9/09 - 3 volumes - Suffrage and Women in Industry
9/10 - 2 volumes - Dr Elizabeth Garrett Anderson
9/11 - 1 volume - WT Stead - letters from prison
9/12 - 2 volumes - To Miss Louisa Hubbard
9/13 - 1 volume - Mrs Harriet McIlquham
9/14 - 1 volume - Mrs Fawcett to Mrs Badley
9/15 - 1 volume - Women's Institute
9/16 - 1 volume - Hannah More
9/17 - 1 volume - Women Travellers
9/18 - 1 volume - Women in the Arts
9/19 - 1 volume - Keir Hardie, the Webbs and Ramsay Macdonald
9/20 - 4 volume - The Militants
9/21 - 1 volume - Lady Constance Lytton
9/22 - 1 volume - Scholars and Learned Ladies
9/23 - 3 volumes - Alix von Cotta Letters 1870-1930
9/24 - 1 volume - Temperance Work 1897-1921
9/25 - 1 volume - Biographical Notes by Mrs Billington Greig
9/26 - 4 volumes - Taylor Collection
9/27 - 11 volumes - Strachey Letters
9/28 - 2 volumes - Becker Collection
9/29 - 1 volume - Billinghurst Letters
9/30 - 4 volumes - Tabor Letters
9/31 - 2 volumes - Additional Letters (single letters by various correspondents deposited with The Women's Library post 1983) |