Gerritsen Collection facts for kids

The Gerritsen Collection is a special group of books, magazines, and papers about women's history. It has over 4,700 items in fifteen different languages. This collection helps us learn about women's lives and their fight for equal rights. It was first bought by a library in Chicago in 1903. Later, in 1954, it moved to the University of Kansas. Today, many libraries around the world can access it online.

History of the Collection

How the Collection Started

In 1903, a woman named Aletta Jacobs sold her collection of books. She was one of the first women doctors in the Netherlands. Aletta Jacobs was also very active in the movement for women's right to vote. She decided to sell her books and papers to the John Crerar Library in Chicago. At that time, she was stopping her medical work. She wanted to spend all her time helping women get the right to vote.

The collection is named after her husband, Carel Victor Gerritsen. This is interesting because Aletta and Carel had agreed she would keep her own last name. Aletta had gathered about 2,000 books and materials. Most of these were in Dutch, French, and German. Some early English works about women were also included. The items covered history from the 1500s to the 1900s. Most of the materials were from the 1800s.

The Collection's Journey

For more than thirty years, the materials were not used much. They stayed in boxes and were not available for people to study. In 1934, the National Archives and Records Administration was created in the United States. This led to more efforts to save important historical records. The Crerar Library started adding English books to the collection. This made the collection twice as big.

In 1954, the Crerar Library sold the collection. It was bought by the University of Kansas in Lawrence. The collection is kept in the Kenneth Spencer Research Library. People there continued to add more items until 1975. In the 1970s, some publishers reprinted parts of the collection. These were feminist works written in English.

Making the Collection Available Online

In 1974, people started making microfilm copies of the collection. This helped to save the records. It also made it possible to share them with other libraries. It took over three years to finish this microfilming project.

In the 2000s, a company called ProQuest made the Gerritsen Collection digital. This means it can now be viewed on computers. The collection was digitized in two main parts. One part has almost 4,000 books. It is called the Monograph Language Series. The other part has about 700 magazines and pamphlets. This is known as the Periodical Series. Libraries can subscribe to access these digital materials.

What's in the Collection

Early Writings and Women's Rights

The Gerritsen Collection has some very old books. One early book is Dialogo della institution delle donne (Dialogue of Women's Institutions). It was written by Lodovico Dolce in 1547. There are also translations from the 1500s and 1700s. These are about arguments by Agrippa von Nettesheim. He wrote about "the nobility and excellence of the female sex."

A large part of the collection is about the 1800s. It covers the women's right to vote movement. It also includes materials on women's rights in general. There are many items about the pioneers of the German women's movement. You can find scholarly articles that look at women's social, economic, and political rights. Topics like family life and laws affecting women are also covered. There are also popular articles about women’s rights.

Important Activists and Global Views

The collection includes works by and about many important activists. Some of these are Helen Blackburn (UK) and Emily Davies (UK). Others include Charlotte Perkins Gilman (US) and Ellen Key (Sweden). There are also writings by Mary Wollstonecraft (UK) and many more.

Magazines in the collection date back to 1832. Besides German and English titles, they cover many countries. These include Australia, Canada, France, and New Zealand. They focus on both the movement for women's right to vote and the anti-suffrage movement.

Women's Legal Status and Education

Some books from the 1600s focus on women's legal status. They look at specific legal problems. Others examine laws from different historical times or countries. A big part of the legal documents looks at laws affecting women in many countries. These include France, Germany, Great Britain, and the United States. About 20% of these legal books were written by women.

Other parts of the collection focus on women's education and jobs. These include historical studies and research papers. They have materials both by and about women. Most of these documents are about women in Germany, Great Britain, and the United States. Many works on employment focus on job training. They also include guides for finding jobs and joining unions. They show women working in many different types of jobs.

Social Roles and Personal Stories

The collection also has works from the 1700s. These look at how people understood marriage and relationships. There are books about women's roles in religion. A large section includes autobiographies and biographies about women. Most of these are in Dutch, English, French, and German. However, the entire collection has works in fifteen different languages.