Collins Memorial Library: Gender & Queer Studies: Primary Sources

Primary Sources in Gender & Queer Studies

Primary sources in Gender & Queer Studies will vary depending on the course and research assignment given.

In art courses the original art studied is a primary source.
In literature and film courses the films, novels, poems, and other original texts are primary sources.
In history courses, historical documents such as photographs or newspaper stories are examples of primary sources.
In social science courses data, such as demographic statistics, are primary sources.

Subject Collections

Gender Issues and Sexuality by Adrienne Wilmoth Lerner (Editor)
Call Number: Click on the title above for online access.
Publication Date: 2006
A focus on leading social issues of the 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries. This title contains approximately 175 full or excerpted documents---speeches, legislation, magazine and newspaper articles, essays, memoirs, letters, interviews, novels, songs, and works of art---as well as overview information that places each document in context.
Family in Society by K. Lee Lerner (Editor)
Call Number: Click on the title above for online access.
Publication Date: 2006
This volume of primary source documents focuses on the role of the family in society. It contains approximately 175 full and excerpted documents--speeches, legislation, magazine and newspaper articles, essays, memoirs, letters, interviews, novels, songs, and works of art--as well as overview information that places each document in context.
Defining Documents in American History - LGBTQ+ (1923-2017) by Michael Shally-Jensen (Editor)
Call Number: KF4754.5 .L495 2018 v.1-2 Reference
ISBN: 9781682178942
Publication Date: 2018
Provides important analyses of over 80 documents significant to LGBTQ rights. The material is organized under three historical groupings,and each document is supported by critical essay. Includes a glossary, chronology, suggestions for further reading and web resources.
The Stonewall Riots: a documentary history by Marc Stein (Editor)
Call Number: HQ76.8.U5 S753 2019 Reserves
ISBN: 9781479816859
Publication Date: 2019
On the occasion of its fiftieth anniversary, the most important moment in LGBTQ history--depicted by the people who influenced, recorded, and reacted to it.
Feminist Manifestos: a global documentary reader by Penny A. Weiss (Editor)
Call Number: HQ1150 .F457 2018 Print Books
ISBN: 9781479837304
Publication Date: 2018
An unprecedented collection of 150 documents from feminist organizations and gatherings in over 50 countries over the course of three centuries. An introduction to each individual document contextualizes and enhances our understanding of it.

Magazines

Popular publications can provide insight for your research through news reporting, reviews, opinion pieces, illustrations, and advertising. Print issues are located downstairs in the periodical collection, organized alphabetically by title.

The Advocate
Print Current 12 months
Online 1994-2006
Ms.
Print 1972-2013
Out
Online 1999-2006
The Gay and Lesbian Review
Available online from 1994

News Databases

Alt-PressWatch
A full text database comprised of articles from alternative and independent press newspapers, magazines and journals.
Ethnic NewsWatch
Focus is on ethnic area studies, and related arts, business, education, environment, history, journalism, political science and sociology news. Some Spanish language sources are available.
Nexis Uni (formerly LexisNexis Academic)
Access to news, business, governmental and legal sources.
Nation Archive
Long regarded as one of the country's definitive journalistic voices of writing on politics, culture, books and the arts The Nation continues to stand as an independent voice in American journalism. This database contains full text for the complete archive of The Nation beginning with its first issue in 1865 through June 2020.
New York Times (nytimes.com)
Full and unlimited access to all of the content on The New York Times web site. Users must register and log in. Once you’ve registered for an account, which you must do from within the campus network (i.e. on-campus), you may “log in” to that account from anywhere, anytime.
New York Times Historical Newspaper This link opens in a new window
Includes full page images of the New York Daily Times (1851-1857) and the New York Times (1857-2017).

Collins Library News Resources
Need more? Check out Collins Library's research guide for finding news!

Data & Statistics

Social Explorer
A research tool designed to provide access to historical census data and demographic information. It creates maps and reports to help users visually analyze and understand demography and social change throughout history.
Sage Data This link opens in a new window
Simplifies data analysis by providing an all-in-one resource for researchers and students to access statistics relevant to their areas of study.

Gender Data Portal
The World Bank's Gender Data Portal makes the latest gender statistics accessible through compelling narratives and data visualizations to improve the understanding of gender data and facilitate analyses that inform policy choices.
LGBT Data
This site serves as a no-cost, open-access clearinghouse for the collection of sexual orientation & gender identity data and measures.

Digital Collections

Archives of Sexuality & Gender
Primary source material that explores the many facets of LGBTQ history. Users will find page images of a mixture of activist groups’ organizational papers, flyers and pamphlets, NGO and Governmental reports, periodicals, newsletters, personal papers, legal documents and more.
LGBT Thought and Culture
An online resource hosting books, periodicals, and archival materials documenting LGBT political, social and cultural movements throughout the twentieth century and into the present day. The collection illuminates the lives of lesbians, gays, transgender, and bisexual individuals and the community.

Selected Feature Films

Collins Library includes a growing collection of LGBTQ cinema on DVD. You can also request DVDs from SUMMIT and other libraries via ILL.

Call Me By Your Name by Luca Guadagnino
Call Number: PS3601.C525 C35 2018 DVD Collection
ISBN: 9786317165465
Publication Date: 2017
In 1980s Italy, romance blossoms between a seventeen-year-old student and the older man hired as his father's research assistant. This coming-of-age romantic drama is based on the acclaimed novel by André Aciman.
Moonlight by Barry Jenkins
Call Number: PS3613.C38625 M66 2017 DVD Collection
ISBN: 6316715501
Publication Date: 2017
A timeless story of human connection and self-discovery, Moonlight chronicles the life of a young black man from childhood to adulthood as he struggles to find his place in the world while growing up in a rough neighborhood of Miami.
Tangerine by Sean Baker
Call Number: PS3602 .A54 T3 2015 DVD Collection
ISBN: 9786316214973
Publication Date: 2015
Shot on an iPhone, this film follows a transgender sex worker and her best friend searching for the man who broke her heart.

ARTstor

Visual materials, including images, are examples of primary sources. There are many image collections in ARTstor that are pertinent to Gender Studies, including the Women's Studies featured group which "documents the history and depiction of women across world cultures, including images of women in a variety of domestic and professional roles, women's rights movements, and representations of famous female figures from history, art, and literature."

Learn more about ARTstor collections relevant to Women's Studies.

Selected Primary Sources Online

The ACT UP Oral History Project
A collection of interviews with surviving members of the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power, New York. Includes transcripts and streaming video clips of each interview.

American Prison Newspapers, 1800-2020: Voices from the Inside
Brings together hundreds of newspapers published within prisons by incarcerated people over the past 200 years. When complete, the collection will contain newspapers from prisons in every state, representing penal institutions of all kinds, including women-only institutions.

Bay Area Reporter Archives
The Bay Area Reporter is the oldest continuously published lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer weekly newspaper in the United States and is the highest circulation publication serving the LGBTQ communities of the San Francisco Bay Area.
Digital Transgender Archive
An online hub for digital and archival collections throughout the world. Includes magazine, posters, flyers, and other material.
The Emma Goldman Papers (UC Berkeley)
Since 1980, the Emma Goldman Papers Project at UCB has collected, organized, and edited tens of thousands of documents from around the world by and about Emma Goldman (1869-1940), a leading figure in American anarchism, feminism, and radicalism.
Gay Rights Movement & the City of Seattle during the 1970s
Narrative history with accompanying documents from the Seattle Municipal Archives
GLBT Historical Society
Based in San Francisco, the GLBT Historical Society is both a museum and an archive. Selected material from their collections has been digitized and made available online.
HistSex
A freely-available, peer-reviewed, and open-source resource by sex educators, historians, and librarians active in sexuality fields.
Independent Voices
An open access digital collection of alternative press newspapers, magazines and journals, drawn from the special collections of participating libraries. Search by title or visit the “Series” tab to choose LGBT.
Lesbian Herstory Archives Digital Resources
The LHA gathers, preserves and provides access to records of Lesbian lives and activities.
LGBT materials in the New York Public Library
Primarily photographs illustrating LGBT history in NYC.
LGBTQ+ Studies Research Guide (Library of Congress)
An introduction into the excellent collection of LGBTQ+ resources available at the Library of Congress.
LGBTQ Activism in Seattle History Project
Documents the history of GLBT activism in Seattle and Western Washington.
LGBTQ History Digital Collaboratory: Oral History Hub
Connects scholars, activists, and archives across Canada and the U.S. to produce a collaborative, digital history hub for gay, lesbian, queer, and trans* oral histories.
LGBT Religious Archives Network
Oral History collection provides interviews with a diverse group of early LGBT religious leaders. Transcripts, photographs, and other materials included.
Office of the Gender and Women’s Studies Librarian (GWSL)
One of the premier resources for support of gender, women’s studies, and LGBT studies scholarship and librarianship.
ONE National Gay & Lesbian Archives
Collection includes audio recordings, photographs, and more. A small subset of this material has been digitized and is available online.
Stonewall 50
Resources from the New York Public Library honoring the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots.
Stonewall and Its Impact on the Gay Liberation Movement
This set from DPLA uses primary sources to explore the events preceding and surrounding the Stonewall Inn riots as well as the aftermath of the riots in the gay liberation movement of the 1970s and 1980s.

Student Activism
Serves as a scholarly bridge from the extensive history of student protest in the United States to the study of today's vibrant, continually unfolding actions. The collection captures the voices of students across the great range of protest, political actions, and equal-rights advocacy from the 20th and early 21st century United States.

Transgender Archives (UVic)
Aims to preserve original documents recording the history of pioneering activists, community leaders, and researchers who have contributed to the betterment of trans, non-binary, and Two-Spirit people. Part of the University of Victoria Libraries.
Women’s Liberation Movement Print Culture
This collection contains manifestos, speeches, essays, and other materials documenting various aspects of the Women's Movement in the United States in the 1960s and 1970s.

Puget Sound Archives & Special Collections, Gender Studies

The Archives & Special Collections collects, preserves, and makes available primary source material documenting life at the University as well as collections representing regional, national and international issues.

The Abby Williams Hill papers, 1880s-1930s, include diaries, letters, photographs, and papers documenting the life and work of a female painter and social activist in the early 20th century.

Wollstonecraft, Mary, A vindication of the rights of woman: with strictures on political and moral subjects, 1796.

In addition, the Archives & Special Collections holds records documenting life on campus from 1888 to the present. A small portion of photographs, historical documents, and digitized material are available online. You can also browse archival and manuscript collections as well as rare books on Primo (limit the location to Archives & Special Collections).

Archives & Special Collections Hours

The Archives & Special Collections is located on the second floor of the Collins Memorial Library.

Set up an appointment: We are open to researchers by appointment Monday through Friday from 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM. To make an appointment, email archives@pugetsound.edu or book online.

We look forward to assisting you!