Gender and Sexuality Studies
University of Calgary Archives and Special Collections
The University of Calgary is home to several archival collections, including the Canadian Architectural Archives, Glenbow Library and Archives, EMI Music Canada Archive, as well as our own institutional records.
You can read browes these archives at the Archives and Special Collections website.
To search the archives and their finding aids, you can also use our AtoM database.
Some of our archival materials have been digitized, and you can browse and search these on our Digital Collections website.
For tips on how to use University of Calgary Digital Collections, check out our many How To videos.
Image attribution: "Women swimming at the Cave and Basin swimming pool, Banff, Alberta.", [ca. 1915-1920], (CU1234585) by Unknown. Courtesy of Libraries and Cultural Resources Digital Collections, University of Calgary.
Databases with Archival Materials
The libraries subscribe to several databases that contain archival material relevant to Gender and Sexuality Studies. Please note that several of these databases are curated digital collections and bring materials from many collections and repositories together, so make sure to take note of the original repository and/or archival collection.
- Adam Matthew DatabasesUCalgary Libraries and Cultural Resources subscribes to several Primary Source databases created by Adam Matthew Publishing Company. Many contain archival materials, organized according to subject. Follow this link to browse these databases.
- Archives of sexuality & gender. LGBTQ history and culture since 1940 This link opens in a new windowThe archive illuminates the experiences not just of the LGBTQ community as a whole, but of individuals of different races, ethnicities, ages, religions, political orientations, and geographical locations that constitute this community. Historical records of political and social organizations founded by LGBTQ individuals are featured, as well as publications by and for lesbians and gays, and extensive coverage of governmental responses to the AIDS crisis. The archive also contains personal correspondence and interviews with numerous LGBTQ individuals, among others. The archive includes gay and lesbian newspapers from more than 35 countries, reports, policy statements, and other documents related to gay rights and health, including the worldwide impact of AIDS, materials tracing LGBTQ activism in Britain from 1950 through 1980, and more. In addition, the archive encompasses extensive material related to feminism, women's rights, and women's concerns. Documents span from 1940 to 2014, with the bulk from 1950 to 1990.
- British and Irish Women's Letters and Diaries This link opens in a new windowThis collection includes the immediate experiences of approximately 500 women, as revealed in over 100,000 pages of diaries and letters. Particular care has been taken to index this material so that it can be searched more thoroughly than ever before. The collection now includes primary materials spanning more than 300 years. Each source has been carefully chosen using leading bibliographies. The collection also includes biographies and an extensive annotated bibliography of the sources in the database.
- Coverage is of materials written between 1500 and 1900.
- Includes fulltext of documents.
- LGBT magazine archive This link opens in a new windowA searchable archive of major periodicals devoted to LGBT+ interests, dating from the 1950s through to recent years. The LGBT Magazine Archive will offer the backfiles of many of the leading, established, long-running periodicals of this type. Magazines of this type have been a crucial source of identification for many LGBT people; they chronicle the evolution of myriad aspects of LGBT history and culture, including law/politics/society, the arts, health, and, lifestyle. Whilst this material will be indispensable for dedicated LGBT studies and broader gender/sexuality research, it will, additionally, cater to interests in many related disciplines, including 20th-century history and culture, sociology, psychology, health, and literature/arts.
- Manuscript Women's Letters and Diaries This link opens in a new windowThis collection will bring together 105,000 pages of the personal writings of women of the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries, displayed as high-quality images of the original manuscripts, Semantically Indexed and online for the first time. The collection is drawn entirely from the extensive holdings of the American Antiquarian Society.
- ProQuest history vault. Struggle for women's rights, organizational records, 1880-1990 This link opens in a new windowThis module is comprised of records of three important women's rights organizations: the National Woman's Party, the League of Women Voters, and the Women's Action Alliance. Originally a committee of the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA), the National Woman's Party (NWP) was founded in 1913 when Alice Paul and her colleagues broke away from NAWSA in dissent over strategy and tactics. The Women's Action Alliance, established in 1971 as a grass-roots organization, concerned itself with issues such as employment and employment discrimination, childcare, health care, and education. The League of Women Voters collection documents almost every facet of women's involvement in U.S. politics from 1920 to 1974.
- ProQuest history vault. Women at work during World War II: Rosie the Riveter and the Women's Army Corps This link opens in a new windowWomen at Work during World War II consists of two major sets of records documenting the experience of American women during World War II: Records of the Women's Bureau of the U.S. Department of Labor, and Correspondence of the Director of the Women's Army Corps. Records of the Women's Bureau consist of two major series. The first series documents the role of the Women's Bureau as an investigative agency, as a clearinghouse for proposed changes in working conditions, and as a source of public information and education. Items in this first series include reports of the bureau director to the secretary of labor, records of bureau-sponsored conferences, and speeches and articles by women officials of the bureau. The second series of Women's Bureau records consists of a detailed study on the treatment of women by unions in several midwestern industrial centers, complete with extensive background interviews and other research materials; community studies conducted nationwide on the influx of women to industrial centers during the war; and subject files and correspondence on women's work in war industries, including issues like equal pay and child care. The Correspondence of the Director of the Women's Army Corps dates from 1942–1946 and documents the women who joined and served in the Women's Army Corps (WAC, known as the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps [WAAC] from May 1942 until July 1943) during World War II. Every topic of importance to the WAC is covered in the correspondence, with an emphasis on issues such as recruiting, public support for the WAC, personnel matters like discipline and conduct, and race.
- Women's magazine archive This link opens in a new windowA searchable archive of leading women's interest magazines, dating from the 19th century through to the 21st. Subject coverage includes consumer culture, economics/marketing, family life, fashion, gender studies, health and fitness, home/interior design, popular culture, and social history. This database provides access to the complete archives of several 19th and 20th-century women's magazines. In combination, the publications cover topics such as family life, home economics, health, careers, fashion, culture, and many more; this material serves multiple research areas, from gender studies, social history, and the arts, through to education, politics and marketing/media history. The magazines are all scanned from cover to cover in high-resolution color and include non-article items, such as advertisements. Detailed article-level indexing, with document feature flags, enables searching and navigation.
- Women's studies archive This link opens in a new windowWomen’s Studies Archive connects archival collections concerning women’s history from across the globe and from a wide range of sources. Focusing on the evolution of feminism throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the archive provides materials on women’s political activism, such as suffrage, birth control, pacifism, civil rights, and socialism, and on women’s voices, from female-authored literature to women’s periodicals. Women's Studies Archive includes two modules: Issues and Identities and Voice and Vision. Issues and Identities traces the path of women’s issues from past to present—pulling primary sources from manuscripts, newspapers, periodicals, and more. It captures the foundation of women’s movements, struggles and triumphs, and provides researchers with valuable insights, focusing on the social, political, and professional achievements of women throughout the nineteenth and twentieth century. Issues and Identities spans multiple geographic regions, providing a variety of perspectives on women's experiences and cultural impact. Within the archive can be found fascinating historical records from Europe, North and South America, Africa, India, East Asia, and the Pacific Rim with content in English, French, German, and Dutch. In Voice and Vision, particular attention has been paid to the mediums through which women have created a voice for themselves, with female-authored literature, journals and magazines that were produced by women, not just for women. The archive covers multiple areas that are of key importance to the study of women’s history from a diverse and global perspective, from the abolition of slavery, alcohol and temperance movements, pacifism, and political activism, to domestic service, education, health and hygiene, divorce, and social reform. Coverage spans multiple geographic regions, providing a variety of perspectives on women’s experiences and impact on society across the world. This module includes primary sources concerning women from diverse ethnic backgrounds, including European, African-American, Indian, and Irish women, as well as religious minorities such as Jewish, Muslim and Quaker communities.
Other Archival Collections for GSXS
- Women's Archives at the University of OttawaThe Women’s Archives contains more than 170 archival fonds and collections related to the history of women in Canada, with particular emphasis on the feminist movement since the 1960s. Not all is digitized, but this link will give you guidance on navigating their collections.
- American Women's History OnlineThis database provides access to digital collections of primary sources (photos, letters, diaries, artifacts, etc.) that document the history of women in the United States.
- Library of Congress Women's History Collections OnlineDigital collections relating to women's history held by the Library of Congress, including historical papers, archives, and web archives.
- The ArquivesSince 1973, the The ArQuives (formerly the Canadian Lesbian and Gay Archives) has been acquiring and preserving material documenting LGBTQ2+ history. Their mandate is to acquire, preserve, organize, and provide public access to information and materials, in any medium, by and about LGBTQ2+ people, primarily produced in or concerning Canada.This site allows you to search their archives, newspaper index, vertical files, library catalogue and artifacts, including digital photos of many items.
- Archives of the GLBT Historical SocietyBased in San Francisco (California), the GLBT Historical Society has digitized a selection of its collections and made them freely accessible online. Some examples of online exhibitions as well.
- Archives of Lesbian Oral HistoryThe Archives of Lesbian Oral Testimony collects and makes available the oral histories of people who presently or at one time identified as same-sex and same-gender attracted women.
- Lesbian Herstory ArchivesThe Lesbian Herstory Archives is dedicated to collecting and preserving history pertaining to the lesbian community. This website contains select digitized materials from the LHA collection and was developed by graduate students at Pratt Institute School of Information.
- ACT UP Oral History ProjectAn archive of 187 interviews with members of ACT UP, the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power, New York.
- Tretter Collection in Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender StudiesThe Tretter Collection includes books, periodicals, grey literature, personal and organizational records, zines and pamphlets, artifacts and ephemera, and audiovisual materials.The collection is national and international in scope (featuring materials in approximately 58 languages), but is especially strong in materials documenting the history of LGBTQ people, organizations, and communities in the Upper Midwest, especially the Twin Cities area. You can search for digital materials by browsing their collections, as well as selecting "digital collections" from the dropdown when you search for Tretter materials.
- Digital Transgender ArchivesAccess to digitized trans collections from archives and libraries from across the globe. Notably, collections from the Transgender Archives of the University of Victoria, the CLGA, the Jean-Nickolaus Tretter Collection of the University of Minnesota and so many more.
- Two-Spirit Archives at the University of WinnipegDocuments the Indigenous Two-Spirit movement in Manitoba and throughout North America. It is believed to be the most comprehensive collection of material on Two-Spirit people in Canada. Some of the material has been digitized (scroll down to Two-Spirit Archives digital collection)
- Women Working, 1800-1930Focus on the impact of women on the economy in the United States. Topics include hygiene, working conditions, commerce, recreation, working regulations, etc.
Citing Archival Materials
Regardless of the citation style you are using, citations for archival materials should generally include the following:
- Archival repository (ie. University of Calgary Archives and Special Collections)
- Fonds/collection title
- Author/creator of the item
- Format of the item (manuscript, photograph, etc.)
- Box and file that the item is located in
- Date of creation for the item
For information on citing materials consult the following:
- Last Updated: Dec 18, 2024 2:30 PM
- URL: https://libguides.ucalgary.ca/guides/gsxs
- Print Page Print Page