Radcliffe Receives Two NEH Grants
The Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study has received two grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities. The Schlesinger Library received a $232,344 grant for "The Second Wave: Documenting the Post-World War II Women's Movement in the United States." During this two-year project, Schlesinger staff will arrange, describe, and make accessible eight collections that chart the influence of the women's movement on contemporary America. The project will enable scholars to document the growth of the movement in the 1960s. It will establish why, how, and from what quarters of American society the movement gained momentum through the 1970s, and chart its response to internal challenges and outside opposition during the 1980s and '90s. The collections —including the records of the National Organization for Women, the Boston Women's Health Book Collective, and the papers of artist and activist Judy Chicago—provide a wealth of documentation for the study of the second-wave women's movement and valuable primary sources for the study of the sociology of organizations, the politics of health care, legal and legislative history, sexuality, and popular culture.
The NEH also awarded $169,038 to the Radcliffe Institute to support the completion of the print edition of Volume Five of the biographical reference work, Notable American Women, which is housed at the Schlesinger Library. The grant supplements a previous NEH award of $154,475 for the project. Volume Five, which will be published by the Harvard University Press in the fall of 2004, will include essays on approximately 500 women from over 50 fields who died between January 1, 1976, and January 1, 2000.
Subjects are chosen according to these criteria:
- the subject's influence on her times or field;
- innovative or pioneering work or ability; and
- relevance of her career for the history of women.
Of special concern is representing the diversity of American women's contributions across race, class, and region with a biographical dictionary that is truly inclusive. Susan Ware is editor of the volume and Stacy Braukman is the assistant editor.
Last modified on Thursday, April 18, 2002.