Spotlight on new Women's Studies Collection

September 2009--Raynor Memorial Libraries announce the acquisition of an important cross-cultural collection in the area of women’s history. The Gerritsen Collection consists of more than 4,700 digitized books, periodicals, and pamphlets published between 1543 and 1945 and originating in the U.S., continental Europe, the U.K, Canada, and New Zealand.

The collection, begun in the late 1800s by Dutch physician and feminist Aletta Jacobs and her husband C.V.Gerritsen, reflects the revolution of a feminist consciousness and the movement for women’s rights. By the time successors completed her work, the collection grew to encompass two million pages spanning four centuries and 15 languages. The electronic resource provides primary access to many rare items available only in a few locations.

The digitized collection represents both the anti-feminist and the pro-feminist sides. The ASCII text is fully searchable and records are linked to the corresponding page images, downloadable in PDF. Periodicals account for about a quarter of the collection with complete runs of 19^th century titles, such as The Suffragist (1913-1921) and The Women’s Protest Against Woman Suffrage (1912-1918). The remaining 75% consists of monographs and pamphlets, which are grouped by language: English 2,000 titles, German 929 titles, French 734 titles, and other (12) languages 472 titles. The digital collection has 10 searchable fields, including the ability to research within an individual country. Individual catalog records for Gerritsen items will soon be added to MARQCAT, increasing their discovery.

Jay Kirk, coordinator of collection development, said “In this centennial year of women at Marquette, the Libraries were pleased to be able to purchase the Gerritsen Collection. This resource supports the renewed emphasis on women’s studies that was reflected in the program’s upgrade to a major.” Questions may be addressed to Kirk at 288-5213 or Nia Schudson, collection librarian for women's studies at 288-5997.

Learn more about the collection from ProQuest Chadwyck-Healey, including downloadable examples of titles in specific disciplines, including health and medicine, political science and social reform, education, feminism, and history.

Connect to The Gerritsen Collection