Name of repository
Arthur and Elizabeth Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America
Address
Radcliffe Institute
Harvard University
10 Garden Street
Cambridge, MA 02138
Contact
Diana Carey
Telephone
617-495-8540
Fax
617-496-8340
Email
slref@radcliffe.edu
Description of the Schlesinger Library
The Schlesinger Library’s holdings document American women's lives
and women's issues currently and retrospectively. Especially well represented
are suffrage and women's rights, social reform, family history, health
and sexuality, work and professions, culinary history, and gender issues.
The library, which includes the Radcliffe Archives, holds over 2,200 manuscript
collections, and more than 75,000 published materials such as books, periodicals,
videotapes, and audiotapes.
http://www.radcliffe.edu/schles
Description of Image Holdings
The Schlesinger Library’s photographs total more than 70,000 images
and represent the work of both professional and amateur photographers.
Most are acquired with manuscript collections; some arrive as separate
photograph collections. They document the spectrum of activities and experiences
that have made up women’s lives in the 19th and 20th centuries.
Especially well represented are women’s rights and suffrage, social
reform, family history, and women in the professions, government service,
and the labor movement. They document the lives of both famous and little-known
women. There are formal and informal portraits of individuals and family
groups, pictures of women at work, or demonstrating for suffrage or other
causes, images documenting women’s organizations, political and
cultural events, and material culture.
What’s in VIA?
In VIA there are over 20,000 records describing over 36,000 images from
Schlesinger Library manuscript and photograph collections, representing
close to 50% of the library's estimated total photograph holdings.
How we use VIA
Each Schlesinger Library “work” record in VIA represents an
original image. The majority of Schlesinger Library VIA records are cataloged
fully on an item, or “work,” level; however, within a collection,
some sets of photographs documenting the same people, events, subjects
and locations may be cataloged together as a VIA “group” record.
A “group” record is used to cluster similar or related images
that can be described together concisely and to greater purpose than separately.
For example, many portraits of the same woman can be collectively described
in a single “group” record; photographs that lack individual
distinction but share certain elements in common with other images in
a folder, or photographs whose significance is really evident only when
viewed alongside other related photographs, may be cataloged together
in “group” records. Each photograph in a “group”
record always has its own “work” record.
Photograph cataloging is based on the subject matter of the image itself,
which is often different from subjects that appear in the accompanying
manuscript collection. Materials and techniques headings are less specific
than those applied by other repositories, which reflects the Schlesinger
Library’s interest in the historical content of an image rather
than the physical characteristics of the photograph itself.
Permissions
The digital copy of any Schlesinger Library image found in VIA is for
personal use only, and may not be sold, loaned, copied or published without
the express permission of the Schlesinger Library on the History of Women
in America, Radcliffe Institute, Harvard University.
Reproduction
For any use of this image in any medium, please contact the Schlesinger
Library.
Copyright
The President and Fellows of Harvard College make no representation that
they are the owner of the copyright; any researcher wishing to make such
use of the image must therefore assume all responsibility for clearing
reproduction rights and for any infringement of Title 17 of the United
States Code.