Researching Women's Studies in Special Collections and University Archives

Adele H. Stamp was dean of women at the University of Maryland at College Park from 1922 to 1960. During her tenure the campus expanded dramatically and Dean Stamp was confronted with a number of issues relating to facilities. Among her papers are files on Cole Field House, the Rossborough Inn, dormitories, and the women's field house.

American Women in Radio and Television (AWRT) is the preeminent organization for women in the broadcasting industries. AWRT was founded in 1951 in response to the National Association of Broadcasters' decision to dissolve its women's division.

The Associated Women Students was a governing organization for the university's female students, sponsored social events, coordinated relations with students at other colleges and universities, and served as a disciplinary body when the co-eds violated campus rules and regulations.

The Association for Childhood Education International (ACEI) was founded in 1892 to promote early childhood education in the United States and elsewhere.

The Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW) was established in 1971 to provide governance and leadership in the assurance of standards of excellence and educational soundness in women's intercollegiate athletics.

The commission was established in 1973. The goals were to maintain systematic contact with organizations on campus concerned with women's affairs and to identify unique problems faced by women at the university, including safety, implementation of Title IX in women's athletics, and the needs of campus working women.

Djuna Barnes was an avant-garde American writer and artist. She began her career as a freelance journalist and illustrator, then turned to poetry, plays, short stories, and novels.

Edythe Meserand began her broadcasting career in 1926 at NBC, but had her greatest influence at WOR where she produced the first true radio documentary and began the station's long-running Children's Christmas Fund Drive. She was a founding member of American Women in Radio and Television (AWRT) and served as the organization's first president.

Esther P. Gelman served as a member of the Montgomery County Council from 1974 to 1987. She was also the first female Council President. Gelman advocated the rights of sexual assault and spousal abuse victims and helped improve human services to residents of Montgomery County.

Feminist Studies is an active, independent, scholarly journal serving as an important source of significant writings on issues that are important to all classes and races of women.

Katherine Anne Porter is known mostly for her short stories and novel, Ship of Fools, but also published nonfiction. She was awarded a Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award in 1966 for The Collected Stories of Katherine Anne Porter.

Congresswoman Holt represented Maryland from 1973 to 1987. She was noted for her leadership in writing national legislation for urban homesteading, in fighting to conserve the Chesapeake Bay, and in curtailing government expenditures. Mrs. Holt also played a nationally significant role in the Republican Party, serving as vice chair of the Platform Committee of the Republican National Conventions in 1976 and 1980 and served as chairwoman of the Reagan-Bush campaign in Maryland for the 1984 election.

Martha Brooks was a legendary New York broadcaster whose "Martha Brooks Show" aired over WGY-Radio Schenectady from 1937 to 1971. Originally an actress, she began with pioneering radio station WGY in 1931 and later became a TV pioneer by writing, producing and often starring in live, on-air productions.

The National Women's Studies Association was founded in 1977 as an organization for educators, community organizations, and others in the private and public sectors committed to the formation and implementation of strategies for positive change in women's lives.

Off Our Backs was a non-profit feminist news journal by, for, and about women, published from 1970 until 2008. It was the longest continuously published surviving feminist newspaper in the United States. The paper was run by a collective where all decisions were made by consensus. Although based out of Washington, D.C., the newsjournal covered local, national, and international topics pertaining to women's, feminist, and lesbian issues and culture.

The Overseas Education Fund was established in 1947 by the League of Women Voters to help women organize themselves to solve their problems and overcome barriers to their full participation in the social, political, and economic lives of their societies. They have worked worldwide to empower women by promoting women's leadership abilities, enhancing their abilities to use or changes laws, developing their entrepreneurial skills, and strenthening organizations that work on women's issues.

This campus-wide group is a successor to the Chancellor's Commission on Women's Affairs. Issues addressed in the files include athletics, violence, minority relations, and the treatment of women faculty and undergraduates.

The Prestons were an upper-middle-class family in nineteenth-century Baltimore and Baltimore County, Maryland. William P. Preston, a lawyer who dabbled in state and local politics, his wife Margaret "Madge" Smith Preston, and their daughter May Preston McNeal recorded, through their correspondence, diaries, and other documents, observations on entertainment; domestic life; the Catholic Church; local politics; theater and the arts; court cases; business; travel; fashions; weather and natural disasters; food; slavery; domestic abuse; health; boarding school; and life in Maryland during the Civil War.

The Women's League, formerly the Women's Student Government Association, was formed in 1935 to promote leadership development and to encourage scholarship, self-reliance, and high standards of conduct among female students of the University of Maryland.

The materials in this collection date from 1846 to 1987; the bulk of the items cover the years 1972 through 1982. This pamphlet collection consists of items that would be of use to resarchers interested in women's issues. Much of the documents collected are "working," unpublished papers; also included are reports, brochures and newsletters.