This collection consists of items relating to Civil Partnership ceremonies in 2006: photographs, invitations, audio-visual recordings, celebration menus, registration forms, council registrar booklets. It also includes the participants' answers to a questionnaire about their civil partnership. The documented ceremonies and celebrations include those held in Kent (on International Women's Day, 2006); at Bromley Town Hall in Bow; in Hertfordshire and at the Liberal Jewish Synagogue, London. It also includes one folder of Civil Partnership ephemera.

As at 2008 the collection contains records donated by:

• Sarah Ingle and Carol Goulden

• Jan Pimblett and Meg Davis

• Bridget Leach and Susan Flanagan

• Susan Crane and Karen Newman.

The archive consists of reading copies of tapes, summaries and transcriptions of fourteen individual interviews. The National Life Stories (formerly National Life Story Collection (NLSC)) was established at the British Library in 1987 to 'record first-hand experiences of as wide a cross-section of present-day society as possible'. This small collection focuses on the lives of pioneering career women, each of whom made their mark in traditionally male-dominated areas such as politics, the law and medicine. The project was supported by the Women's Library and the Friends of The Women's Library (formerly known as the Fawcett Society Library).

The collection consists of 205 interviews available in digital audio file format and one folder of contextual material relating to the interviews, including essays and reports by Brian Harrison. The digital files are copies of the original oral history interview recordings that are held on reel-to-reel cassette.

The archive consists of a bundle of [Reuters] telexes, visual news-service production sheets from the News Research Unit of Visnews News Services and other papers, including press releases. All relate in some way to women's status, rights, actions and issues in different countries of the world, including France, Zimbabwe, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), United States of America (USA), South Africa, Italy, Ethiopia and Libya.

The collection contains c 76 individual letters between various different correspondents detailing the situation of women's enfranchisement in Australia, New Zealand and the United States of America.

The collection is arranged in chronological order and includes letters written by and to individuals concerned with work in this area, including: Dr Elizabeth Blackwell, Sir John Seeley, George Eliot, Elizabeth Garrett Anderson, Cardinal Manning, Lady Strangford, Lord Shaftesbury, Mr Rickman J Godlee Dr Helen Wilson, Dr Sophia Jex-Blake, Frances Power Cobbe, Millicent Garrett Fawcett, Lord Baldwin and Margaret Lawrence (45 items, 1865-c.1972). Subjects include the training of women as doctors, the medical profession and their experiences as medical students.

The collection contains letters written to members of the Church League for Women's Suffrage, principally Ursula Roberts, connected with fact-finding and the organisation of a conference on the role of women in the Church and the general issue of women's ordination. Letters to Ursula Roberts in 1913 regarding reply to circular questionnaire from: Isabel Basnett (2 letters), Gertrude Francis, Ethel M Davis (2 letters), Miss Clare Portsmouth, William Temple, Edith Clarence, Dr Maude Royden, Mabel Day, Jessie C Barton, Janet B Allen, Ruth Cavendish Bentinck, Irene Batty, GM Gunter, Ethel Fennings, MEJ Taylor, Florence Canning, Mother Gertrude, Miss RL Taylor, Dorothea Layton, MB Alder, Edith de Burgh, EM Griffiths. Papers and letters to Ursula Roberts in 1914 regarding arrangements for a conference in Sep 1914, later postponed until 1917: from Ruth Cavendish Bentinck, Edith Picton Turberville, the Rector of Rampton College Cambridge, Isabel Basnett, Miss Z Fairfield, Janet B Allen (2 letters), GM Gunter, Ethel M Davis (2 letters), Miss Clare Portsmouth, Dr Maude Royden, Jessie C Barton, Janet B Allen, Ruth Cavendish Bentinck, MEJ Taylor, Florence Canning, MB Alder, E Maude Griffiths, Miss IB O'Malley, Agnes Aubrey Hilton, G Tollemache, Dr Jane Walker, Sister Ethel (2 letters), Mabel Fitzroy Hecht, Dorothea Jordan, Mrs Anne Warner Marsh. Papers and letters to Miss Corben in 1914 regarding arrangements for the same conference: Bishop of Kensington (2 letters), Board of Trade (in reply to letter from her also in the collection), Bishop of London. Letters in 1915: to Miss Corben from William Temple, Archbishop of Canterbury (and reply); to Mrs Roberts from Anne Gilchrist, Rev. TB Allworthy. Letters in 1916: to Miss Corben from Bishop of Kensington, Bishop of Willesden, Dr Maude Royden; to Ursula Roberts from Anne Gilchrist (3 letters), Arthur W Robinson, JC Squire, Dr Jane Walker (2 letters), MEJ Taylor (2 letters), Maude Royden (2 letters), Miss Edith Picton Turberville; to Anne Gilchrist from Maude Royden; to Miss Corben from Maude Royden; Ursula Roberts to the Bishop of London, Lady Willoughby de Broke to Dr Maude Royden; paper by Miss MEJ Taylor. Letters in 1917: to Miss Corben from the Archbishop of Canterbury, Bishop of London and Miss GE Hodgeson; to Miss Picton Turberville from the following - Bishop of Southwark, Bishop of Wakefield, Bishop of St Edmundsbury and Ipswich, Bishop of Lichfield (2 letters), Bishop of Newcastle, Bishop of Sheffield, Bishop of Oxford, Bishop of Gloucester (2 letters), Bishop of Ripon, Bishop of Norwich, Bishop of Lincoln, Bishop of St David's, Archbishop of Canterbury, Bishop of Salisbury, Bishop of Ely, Millicent Garrett Fawcett; letters to the Church league for Women's Suffrage from Mr Athelstan Riley and the Earl of Halifax; letters to Ursula Roberts from Rev. FM Green and Edith Picton Turberville; Alfred Fawkes to the Rev Roberts, Lady Montgomery to Miss Glichrist, J Outram Marshall to Rev. CG Langdon and reply, circular letter to all bishops from the Bishop of Willesden and timetable of Quiet Day and conference conducted by Agnes Maude Royden. Letters in 1918: to Church League for Women's Suffrage from Dean Inge of St Paul's (2 letters), Rev HJ Hall, Rev V Holt, Rev. AM Bolland; to Miss Corben from Millicent Garrett Fawcett, Bishop of Lincoln, Maude Royden. Letters in 1919: to Miss Corben from Maude Royden, the Bishop of Kensington, Rev HRL Sheppard, Bishop of Lincoln, Bishop of Oxford; to Miss Picton Turbeville from Rev S Proudfoot (6 letters) and Mrs Knox; to Ursula Roberts from Maude Royden. Letters in 1920: to Miss Corben from the Bishop of Winchester, the secretary of the Bishop of Lincoln, the bishop of Ely, the archbishop of Canterbury and Edward A Welch, the Rector of Southchurch; to Miss Picton Turberville from Rev JEC Welldon, and the Rev. Gage S Green; M Dorothea Jordan to Mrs Roberts, the Bishop of Norwich to the League (2 letters) and the Archbishop of Canterbury to the Bishop of London. Letters in 1921: Secretary of King's College London to the League, Dr Maude Royden to Miss Corben, the Rev. GKA Bell to Miss Corben and Miss Abadam to Mrs Acres. Letters in 1922: Rev GKA Bell to Mrs Acres (2 letters), Lawrence Housman to the CLWS, AG Robinson Archdeacon of Surrey to Mrs Acres. Letters in 1924: Rev Edward Paget to Mrs Acres, Mary Scharlib to Mrs Acres Letters in 1926: Father Lacey to Mrs Acres (2 letters). Letters in 1927: Rev Dick Sheppard to Mrs Acres. Letters in 1928: Sybil Thorndyke to Mrs Acres, Archbishop of Canterbury to Mrs Acres Letters in 1931: John Carl Flugel to Ursula Roberts, Helen Ward to Viscount Cecil, Rev. Alfred Fawkes to Ursula Roberts. Letters in 1932: JK Mozley, Cannon Matthews and SM Payne to Ursula Roberts. Letters in 1933: Marjorie Brierly, Evelyn Underhill, Canon Grensted and Leonard Hodgson to Ursula Roberts.

The collection contains correspondence of Edith Palliser, Pippa Strachey, Eva Gore-Booth, Eileen Hughes and Edith Dimmock amongst others, notes on various professions such as journalism, bookbinding and fashion designing, and materials issued by the Women's Industrial Council, the Women's Labour League and the London Society for Women's Suffrage.

The collection contains 30 letters written between 1885 and 1924. Correspondents include William Thomas Stead, Frances Power Cobbe, Millicent Garrett Fawcett, Herbert Stead, the Governor of Holloway Prison, Mrs Stead, Mr W Shaen, Miss Kensington the Secretary of Girton College, Mrs Frederic Whyte; the materials also include W T Stead's 'Holloway' New Year Cards, 1885. The letters discuss the Criminal Law Amendment controversy, speeches, his term in jail and emotional state, theology, Leslie Stephens, Edmund Garrett Fawcett, women's suffrage and education, the Royal Commission of 1871, trips for working women and the loan of Millicent Garrett Fawcett's Stead letter collection to a biographer.

The collection contains a series of letters addressed to Louisa Hubbard concerning articles for the Woman's Gazette, Work and Leisure and the Englishwoman's Yearbook; women's education; professions for women and letters of condolence written to Louisa's brother on her death.

The collection contains letters to and from Harriet McIlquham concerning her political and suffrage campaigning work.

The collection contains letters and some papers of Hannah More, 'Rhapsody on Friendship' by More, 1774; letter to Cadell (publisher), 1793; letter to Messers Cadell and Davies, 1799; Rev Jarrett, 1801; Mrs Bright, 1801; John S Harford, 1807; to Mr Bird (representative of Cadell and Davies), 1807; to unnamed man, 1807; Miss Topping, 1807; Mrs Hoare, 1808; John S Harford Jr, 1811; Miss Scott, 1812 (fragment); Mr Z MacAuley, 1818; to Rev Thomas Biddulph, 1818; poem addressed to Master John MacGregor, 1825; to Dr Carrick, 1825; Mrs Balgin, 1827; series of letters between 1827 and 1833 to: unnamed man, Miss Roberts, John Harford Jr, Dr Lovell, and two unnamed men; letter from Rev Henry Thompson to Mr Hall regarding a visit to More's home at Barley Wood.

The collection contains letters from Isabella Bird to a friend, 1868; to Captain Coburn, 1879; to Mrs Waller, 1879; to Miss Gilpin, 1887; to Mrs Smith, 1887; to unnamed man, 1889; to unnamed man, 1889. Constance Gordon-Cumming to Miss Smith, 1897. Mary Kingsley to Mr Maclehose, 1899. Rosita Forbes to Mr Simpson, 1910. Mary Hall to Mr Simpson, 1910. Olive Macleod to Mr Simpson, 1910-1911. Edith Durham to Mr Christy, 1912-1914. Freya Stark to Lady Currie, 1933-1936. Evelyn Cheesman to Miss P Strachey, 1936; Note by Miss Strachey introducing Miss Cheesman's lectures; letter from Miss D Steiner about programme of lectures.

The collection contains letters from women involved in the arts concerning their work, business matters, publicity, articles and general social correspondence. Correspondents include Sarah Siddons, Emily Faithfull, Fanny Kemble, Elizabeth Thompson, Isabella Dallas Glyn, Mary Davis, Fanny Stirling, Mrs Morritt, Lady Bancroft, Genevieve Ward, Lucy Kemp-Welch, Madge Kendall, Mrs Steele, Philippa Strachey, Ethel Coffin, Rutland Boughton, Marion Terry, Eva Moore, Sybil Thorndyke, Alys Russell, Lena Ashwell, Marie Tempest, Agnes Hill, Marie Lohr, Dame Ethel Smyth, Irene Vanbrugh, Ruth Draper, Ethel Warwick, Dame Laura Knight, Cicely Courtney, Lilian Braithwaite and Ninette de Valois.

The collection contains the following: letters from Beatrice Webb to Miss M Lees (1908) on the treatment of infants in Oldham; Sidney Webb to Lady Strachey (1911) on model standing orders form; Beatrice Webb to Cavendish Bentinck (undated), Sidney Webb to CB (1912) on his role as suffragist, his wife's changing attitudes to the question and the Fabian Society; Sidney Webb to Cavendish Bentinck (1913); Ray Strachey to Sidney Webb (1919) asking permission to include name on advisory council with reply written on setting out position via women as 'blackleg' workers; Beatrice Webb to Miss Moore (undated.) on forms for committee membership sent out; card from Sidney Webb to Ray Strachey (1929) to say the copy of the requested publication is on its way and requesting payment); BW to 'Ruth' [Cavendish Bentinck] can't come to stay as too busy with BBC talk.

The collection contains letters to, from and about women who were in the past traditionally perceived to be 'militant suffragettes' and who were involved in direct action as well as other areas of activity. Including Emmeline Pankhurst (18 letters, 1890-1927), Christabel Pankhurst (17 letters, 1904-1956), Adela Pankhurst (1 letter, 1908), Sylvia Pankhurst (19 letters, 1915-1956), Emmeline Pethick-Lawrence (34 letters, 1907-1936), correspondence to, from and related to Myra Sadd-Brown and her imprisonment, including press cuttings, draft letters and propaganda sheet (33 letters, 1911-1927), Charlotte Despard (29 letters, 1907-1928), Teresa Billington Greig (1 letter, 1910), Nina Boyle (1 letter, 1913), MVC Brackenbury(1 letter, 1908), Flora Drummmond (1 letter, 1909), Katherine Gatty (6 letters from prison, 1912), Mary Gawthorpe (2 letters, 1908), Annie Kenney (1 letter, 1907), Jessie Kenney (1 letter, 1961), Nellie Kenney (1 letter, 1908), Eunice Murray (1 summons, 1913), Alison Neilans (3 letters, 1909) and Mary Philips (1 letter, 1968).

The collection contains correspondence related to the theme 'Scholars and Learned Ladies', including letter from Anna Gurney to Sir William Hooker, c. 1850. Correspondence dealing with the election of Miss Mary A Blagg as a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society. Extract from Professor Turner's introduction to Miss Blagg's 'Collated List of Lunar Formations'. Letters from Professor Turner. Letter from Frank Dyson. A short account of the life and work of Mary Blagg produced by her nieces, 1968. Correspondence in 1962 about the late Miss Pernel Strachey's typescript edition of the Emmanuel College manuscript. Admission of women Fellows to the Royal Society. Correspondence between Royal Society, Society for Women's Service, Mrs Hutton and Miss P Strachey, 1954. Correspondence between Lucy Norton, John Carter and Joan Bennett about some George Eliot letters and an article on them by Joan Bennett, 1968. Copy of a letter from Mrs Baines (Bedford College) to Miss Pernel Strachey about a tapestry for Newnham College, 1945. Letter from Myra Curtis (Newnham) to Pernel Strachey, 1945. Letter from Hertha Ayrton to Dr Gorthon, 1911. Autograph signatures of Margaret McNair Stokes, Mrs Agnata Frances Butle, Jane Ellen Harrison.

The collection contains letters and postcards written predominantly by Alice von Cotta to Penelope Lawrence (addressed as 'Dear Nelly'). Some letters to Penelope Lawrence from Frau von Cotta (Alice's mother) and Ilse von Cotta (Alice's younger sister). Penelope Lawrence and Alix von Cotta, went to Newnham College, Cambridge, where in c. 1874 they became friends.

The collection contains correspondence, mostly concerned with the activities of the British Women's Temperance Association.

The collection contains of biographical notes of various women, mainly suffrage campaigners, created by Mrs Teresa Billington Greig.

The collection contains correspondence amongst the Taylor Family and their friends between 1910 and 1914 related to events and in particular the imprisonment of Mrs Mary Ellen 'Nelly' Taylor, Mark Wilkes and the Pethwick-Lawrences.

Correspondents include:

• Mrs Mary Ellen 'Nelly' [sometimes Nellie] Taylor,

• Dr Elizabeth Wilkes, sometimes addressed as Mrs Wilkes, known as Lily or Lilla.

• Captain Thomas Smithies Taylor, Nelly's husband, addressed as 'Tom'.

• Mark Wilkes,

Ramsay MacDonald and Frederick Pethick-Lawrence.

Letters addressed to Tom refer to her husband Thomas. Letters addressed to Tom and children refer to her husband and her children, Dorothea and Garth.

The collection contains letters between members of the Strachey family and other correspondents. Writers include Philippa Strachey, Ralph Strachey, Richard Strachey, Oliver Strachey, Sir Richard Strachey, Pernel Strachey, James Strachey, Lady Jane Strachey, Dorothy Strachey, Marjorie Strachey, Elinor Rendel, Dorothy Bussy, Roger Fry, Virginia Woolf and Mlle Souvestre.

9/27/A- Letters between Roger Fry and Philippa Strachey 1915-1933.

9/27/B- Letters from Ralph Strachey to Philippa Strachey 1869-1893.

9/27/C- Letters to Philippa Strachey from Richard Strachey 1886-1917 and to Philippa Strachery from Oliver Strachey 1906-1912 (Begin at AL/4767).

9/27/D- Ralph at School 1878-1889; James at School 1899; Elinor Rendel 1889-1896; Sir Richard Strachey 1889-1899; Pernel Strachey 1891 & 1894-1895.

9/27/E- Letters from: Pippa to her mother 1902/1905; Passport 1915; Dorothy Strachey to Pippa Strachey 1895-1903; Dorothy Bussy to Pippa Strachey 1903-1929; Marjorie Strachey to Pippa Strachey 1898-1956; Ray Strachey to Pippa Strachey 1911-1929.

9/27/F- Letters from friends and acquaintances to various members of the Strachey family 1865 to 1958; Letters from Marietta Pallis to Philippa Strachey Nov 1955-Jan 1957 - begin AL/5073; Letters of Condolence on the death of Pernel Strachey. Arranged alphabetically 1951-1952 - begin AL/5097.

9/27/G- Letters from Mlle Souvestre to Mrs Strachey written in French from 'Les Ruches'; The Strachey letters Volume 27 Part G II, Letters from Mlle Souvestre to Mrs Strachey, Written in French 1874-1879 - Begin AL/5156.

The collection contains correspondence by, to and between members of the Becker family discussing family concerns and suffrage issues.

9/28/A- Letters written by Lydia Becker 1836-1890; Letters written to Lydia Becker 1853-1890; Posthumous letters etc. concerning Lydia Becker 1890; Lady Lytton's Family Letters 1858-1881; Lady Lytton's Family Letters 1858-1881 - Begin AL/5321.

9/28/B- Becker Family Letters 5 Feb 1816-16 Feb 1857; Letters from Stratton Lodge, home of Eleanor Becker 1881-1895 - Begin AL/5357; Letters to Arthur Becker 1881-1921 - Begin AL/5372; Family letters 1909-1922 - Wilfred Becker, Fanny Price, Esther Becker - Begin AL/5383.

The collection contains letters, a charge for orders, and notes from, to and concerning Billinghurst from a range of writers including Alice Ker, Dora Gregory, Harriet Ker, Jessie Kenney, Beatrice Sanders, Christabel Pankhurst, Major Coates, the Home Office, Elinor Penn Gaskell, Mabel Tuke, Jane Terrero, Winifred Mayo, Henry D Harben as well as members of her family. The second section of the volume consists of letters from Dr Alice Ker, from Holloway Prison, to her daughter Margaret Ker.

9/29 - Billinghurst Letters and Dr Alice Ker Letters; Billinghurst Letters 1912 and 1913; Letters of Dr Alice Ker to her daughters, 1912 - Begin AL/5459.

The collection contains letters from members of the Tabor family (1830-1851), letters from Eliza Tabor to John Stephenson (1873), letters from Eliza Tabor to Mary Holdich (1876-1877), letters from Eliza Tabor to John Stephenson (1880-4), letters from Eliza Tabor to John Stephenson (1885), letters from Eliza Tabor to Mary Catherine Tabor, letters from and to Mary Catherine Tabor (1843-1887), various letters to Mary Catherine Tabor and Eliza Tabor and others (1862-1897).

9/30/A- Part 1 - The Tabor Letters. Letters from various members of the Tabor Family 1830-1877; Early Correspondence between Eliza Tabor and John Stephenson 1873 - Begin AL/5498; Letters from Eliza Stephenson in India to her mother Mary Tabor in Malvern 1876-7 - Begin AL/5504;

9/30/B - Letters from Eliza Stephenson to John Stephenson 1880-1884 - with a few additional.

9/30/C- Letters from Eliza Stephenson to John Stephenson 1885.

9/30/D- Letters from Eliza Stephenson to Mary Catherine Tabor 1886-1887; Letters to and from Mary Catherine Tabor 1843-1887; Various letters to Mary Catherine and Eliza Tabor and others.

The Cavendish-Bentinck Library contains many pre-1850 books, pamphlets and periodicals. There are many seventeenth and eighteenth century classic publications, such as Richard Brathwaite's The English gentlewoman: drawne out to the full body and Look ere you leap: or, A history of the lives and intrigues of leud women; first editions of publications by Mary Wollstonecraft, Mary Shelley, the Brontes, Fanny Burney, Maria Edgeworth, George Eliot, Virginia Woolf and many others. The periodical holdings include The Lady's magazine 1760-1839 and The Englishwoman's domestic magazine 1852-1879. Cookery and household management books include Hannah Wolley's The Queen-like closet, 1675, and Mrs Beeton's Book of household management, 1861. The collection is also strong on material relating to the suffrage campaigns, including many rare pamphlets. Newly acquired material was added to the collection until the 1950s - hence this collection houses most of the The Women's Library's printed holdings dating from 1600 to 1850. The Cavendish-Bentinck collection is catalogued on The Women's Library's online catalogue and volumes can be ordered by completing a Collections order slip and consulted in the Reading Room. Due to the age and fragility of most of the material in the Cavendish-Bentinck collection no photocopying is permitted.

The Josephine Butler Society Library is an unrivalled resource for the study of sexuality and public morality from the late nineteenth to the mid twentieth century. This unique collection of books, pamphlets, periodicals, leaflets and, campaigning documents, covers subjects ranging from the regulation of prostitution, venereal disease, social purity, sexuality and public health to criminology, penology, eugenics and population control. Although a small number of individual items continue to be added to the collection by the Josephine Butler Society, the bulk of the printed materials date from the late nineteenth and early to mid twentieth centuries.

The Josephine Butler Society Library is particularly important because it brings together the Library of the organisation alongside its campaigning literature and business papers. In addition to sources for the study of prostitution and attitudes to sexuality in Britain the collection includes significant amounts of material on slavery, procuring, public health and the armed forces in India. It contains late nineteenth century works on sexology by Havelock Ellis, Bloch, Forel and Krafft-Ebing and psychology by Freud, Jung and Ellis, as well as works on marriage, the family and sex education. Although most material in the collection is in English there are small but significant numbers of works in European languages. The geographic scope of the collection extends beyond Britain and the Commonwealth; papers of the International Bureau for the Suppression of Traffic in Persons 1899-1968, for example, relate to the Bureau's work with the League of Nations.

The Sadd Brown Library was founded in 1939 in memory of Myra Sadd Brown, and contains books and periodicals about, and often by, women of the Commonwealth. It covers colonial pioneers to modern day freedom fighters, as well as investigations of women's political and economic advancement and their positions in other societies and religions. For example it includes conference reports of the British Commonwealth League from 1925 to 1938 which vividly reveal the feminist concerns of pre-war generation, some issues having a contemporary resonance many decades later.The Library was the tribute of her suffrage colleagues to Myra Sadd Brown and it continues to grow with support from her family and the Commonwealth Countries League. The collection includes some late nineteenth century publications, such as Olive Schreiner's Trooper Peter Halket of Mashonaland, 1897, but most of the collection dates from the twentieth century. Some examples of books and periodicals in the Sadd Brown Library include The African child by Evelyn Sharp 1931, Women living under Muslim laws newsheet, Pakistan 1992-, Onions are my husband: survival and accumulation by West African market women by Gracia Clark, 1994 and Race relations news, South Africa 1947-1955.

Over 3,000 periodical titles are held dating from 1745, some in single issues, but many in complete or representative runs. The Periodicals Collection brings together academic, popular and campaigning women's journals in one location and gives a unique insight into periodicals published about, for and by women. Titles range from commercially-produced popular magazines (Vogue, Harper's Bazaar, Cosmopolitan), to academic quarterlies (Gender and History, Feminist Review), organisational journals (One Parent Families, National Association of Women Pharmacists), special interest publications (Executive Black Woman), and older titles such as the English Woman's Journal. Many of these titles are not held in other research collections. The non-commercial nature of many of these periodicals with limited self-published print runs, resulted in periodicals that were issued irregularly, on poor quality paper and often only selectively deposited with the main copyright libraries.

COMMERCIALLY PUBLISHED

The Library's collection of commercially published magazines, a key resource for research into social history and popular culture, begins with the Ladies' Almanack of the 1740s and documents women's fashion and domestic concerns from runs of the Englishwoman's Domestic Magazine, The Queen, Ladies' Magazine, Ladies Monthly Magazine and Lady, Gentlewoman, in the 19th century; Home Chat, Woman's Weekly, Woman, Woman's Own, Honey,, Cosmopolitan and Marie Claire in the 20th century; Grazia, Glamour and Easy Living of more recent years. Also included are some magazines aimed at girls and young women such as The Girls' Own Paper, Petticoat, Just 17 and Jackie.

FEMINIST AND CAMPAIGNING

At the heart of the Periodical Collection are the women's campaigning journals and feminist periodicals. The collection of feminist periodicals at The Women's Library is unrivalled in its extent and breadth. It begins with the English Woman's Journal of the mid-19th century, and continues with titles such as The Young Women and includes complete runs of titles such as The Women's Penny Paper, the Woman's Herald, Victoria Magazine, the Woman's Signal, the Woman's Leader, Englishwoman's Review, Englishwoman, Freewoman, Time and Tide, Woman's Gazette, and Shafts all of which were key to the development of feminist theory and progressive ideas.

SUFFRAGE

The Library's extensive collection of suffrage periodicals is central to the study of women's rights in the 20th century, titles including Votes for Women, Common Cause, Woman's Dreadnought, The Vote, the Women's Suffrage Journal, Women's Franchise, the Suffragette Newssheet, the Independent Suffragette, Britannia, and the Suffragette as well as titles such as the Anti-Suffrage Review.

WOMEN'S LIBERATION MOVEMENT

The collection of journals documenting 'second-wave' feminism in the UK includes complete runs of titles such as Spare Rib and Trouble and Strife and near complete runs of other liberation titles such as Red Rag, Shrew, WIRES, Outwrite and the London Women's Liberation Newsletter. Regional involvement was an integral part of the movement and this is charted through a number of regional titles including Brighton and Hove Women's Liberation Group, Edinburgh Women's Liberation newsletter, Leeds Women's Liberation newsletter, Leicester Women's Liberation newsletter, Manchester Women's Liberation newsletter and Norwich Women's Centre newsletter.

CONTEMPORARY FEMINISTS

The periodical holdings continue to document the development of contemporary feminism, sometimes referred to as 'third wave', with titles including Verve and Subtext. Additional contemporary feminist publications can be found within our 'zine' collection (dating from 2002).

WOMEN'S ORGANISATIONS

Periodicals created by women's organisations, networks and campaigns. These can include weekly or monthly newsletters and magazines aimed at members, quarterly and annual journals aimed at members and a wider academic audience, and annual reports aimed at a wider audience. Given the short life of many campaigning organisations, their newsletters and bulletins often provide the main record of their activities. Few of these publications are held elsewhere, and they are only selectively deposited with national collections, organisations include: the Fawcett Society, National Council of Women, The National Federation of Women's Institutes (Home and Country), Townswomen's Guilds (The Townswoman), UK Federation of Business and Professional Women, Girls' Friendly Society, Executive Black Woman, Catholic Citizen and National Association of Women Pharmacists document women's efforts to come together to improve the quality of their lives.

SPECIALIST INTEREST

Whilst retaining the collecting focus of women's lives in the UK, there are a number of subject specialist interest areas including:

• The Arts - titles such as Feminist Arts News, Heresies: a feminist publication on art and politics, n.paradoxa: international feminist art journal, Vogue and Women's Art Magazine.

• Domestic Violence - titles such as Rights of Women Bulletin, Violence Against Women: an international interdisciplinary journal and Women at War: preventing gun violence, WAVAV - Women Against Violence Against Women.

• Education - titles such as Gender and Education, The Woman Teacher, Gen: an anti-Sexist Education Journal, British Federation of University Women, and The Parents' Review.

• Employment - titles such as Work and Leisure, Women's Union Journal, Labour Woman, Women's Trade Union Review, Equality Now: magazine of the Equal Opportunities Commission, Executive Woman, the Woman Worker, The Woman Engineer: journal of the Woman's Engineering Society and Double shift: working women's newsletter.

• Family and the home - titles such as Women's Weekly, Woman's Own, Family Planning Today and New Home economics.

• Feminist Theory - titles such as Feminist Studies, Feminist Economics, Feminist Theory, and the International Journal of Feminist Studies.

• Health - titles such as Women and Health, Top Sante, London Black Women's Health Action project newsletter and Mental Health.

• Law - titles such as ALRA newsletter: Campaigning for a Woman's Right to Choose on Abortion, Family Law, Individualist: monthly journal of personal rights, Lesbian Employment Rights, and Rights of Women Bulletin, National Abortion Campaign.

• Literature - titles such as Mslexia, Silver Moon Quarterly and Writing Women.

• Media - titles such as Feminist Media Studies, The Woman Journalist and Women's Media Action Bulletin.

• Medicine - titles such as Women in Medicine: newsletter of the Medical Women's Federation and National Association of Women Pharmacists newsletter.

• Motherhood - titles such as Home and Family: journal of the Mother's Union, Journal of Marriage and Family, Maternity Alliance, Gingerbread, One Parent Families, World Congress of Mothers News and Information.

• Sexuality - titles such as Sappho, Sex Roles: a journal of research, Journal of the history of sexuality, Chroma, Diva, Arena Three and Dykelife.

• Women and peace - titles such as Woman today, Greenham Newsletter, Peace and Freedom News: journal of the British Section of Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, Sellafield Women's Peace Camp Newsletter, Women for a Nuclear Free and Independent Pacific Newsletter and WoMenwith Hill: Women's Peace Camp Newsletter.

• Politics - titles such as Equal Opportunities International, Gender and Society and the NAWO e-bulletin (National Alliance of Women's Organisations).

• Prostitution - titles such as The Shield: to promote the repeal of Contagious Diseases Act, Network: news from the English Collective of Prostitutes and WHISPER: Women hurt in systems of prostitution engaged in revolt.

• Ethnicity - titles such as Pride, Race Today and Manushi.

• Religion - titles such as Church Militant, Jewish Women's Review, Catholic Citizen, Newsheet/Women Living Under Muslim Laws International Solidarity Network, and Movement for the Ordination of Women.

• Science and Technology are The Woman Engineer, Science for People, Women Chemists Newsletter and Forum: Journal of the Association for Women in Science and Engineering.

• Sport - titles such as Poise: the Health and beauty magazine, Ladies' Alpine Club, The Dyke: Lesbian Walkers' Magazine, Women in Sport: the Voice of Women's Sport and Outdoor Women.

The catalogued Pamphlet Collection comprises over 12,000 titles dating from approximately 1830 to the present. The Pamphlet Collection consists of printed material less than 60 pages in length and includes government policies, reports, annual reports and campaigning material, primary law, including Bills and Acts. The subject material of the collection reflects and enriches the wide range of topics held elsewhere in the Women's Library.The topics covered include: English fiction, children's stories, poetry, women's organisations, feminism, role of women in society - UK and abroad, nursing, sex discrimination law, divorce law, employment, occupations, careers, equal opportunities, labour law, pension law, social security, taxation, housing, health, pregnancy, abortion, birth control, domestic violence, mothers, one-parent families, children, family life, housekeeping, religion, ordination, arts, costume, suffrage. Organisations include Equal Opportunities Commission, Elizabeth Garrett Anderson Hospital, National Union of Suffragettes, National Society for Women's Suffrage, US Women's Bureau, American National Red Cross, Union of Jewish Women, National Union of Townswomen's Guilds, National Federation of Women's Institutes, Fawcett Society, National Council for the Unmarried Mother and Her Child, British Federation of University Women, Association of University Women Teachers, Divorce Law Reform Union. Most of the material is in English, but there are also pamphlets in other languages, such as Italian, German and French.The pamphlets are arranged in two sections - one for standard sized pamphlets and one for oversized pamphlets.

The 'UDC Pamphlet Collection' [Universal Dewey Decimal Classification]: In addition to the main Pamphlet Collection is the 'UDC Pamphlet Collection.' The UDC collection was the first pamphlet collection created by the Library and consists of approximately 10,000 pamphlets dating from mid nineteenth to mid twentieth centuries, covering all subjects. As the collection was gradually acquired during the Library's first 20 years of life, it was arranged by subject, using the Universal Decimal Classification system. The pamphlets were primarily deposited by organisations and individuals, although some purchases were made. There is a finding aid kept with the collection but the collection was never catalogued and therefore remained a hidden resource within the Library for more than 80 years. Unsurprisingly other libraries did not collect most of these pamphlets. In 2007 as part of a cataloguing funding bid preliminary sampling of the collection against Copac (the merged online catalogues of 24 university research libraries in the UK, plus the British Library and the National Library of Scotland) found that over 60% of the UDC pamphlets were not listed in these major research collections. This is a very significant level of unique printed material.Cataloguing of the UDC collection started in 2007 and as the pamphlets are catatogued, they are transferred to the main pamphlet collection described above. As at 2009 the collection was partially catalogued and The Library was seeking additional funds to complete the project.

The Women's Library continues to document the development of feminism in the UK, and examples of '3rd wave' activity can be found within our Zine Collection. The Zine Collection began with a donation of 50 zines by Ladyfest London in 2002. This Collection comprises self-published magazines reflecting contemporary feminism and the attitudes and concerns of young women in the UK today. It currently includes over 150 indexed zines on topics ranging from music, feminism, art, fashion, food, politics, sexuality, gender, ethnicity, popular culture, travelling, relationships, parenting and much more. The Women's Library aims to collect and preserve women's zines from the 1970s to the present day.

Papers of Emil Torday, [1908-1931], including:

MS 192

Typescript notes for 'African races', published as Division I, no. 4 of Descriptive sociology, edited by H. Spencer, London, 1930, including notes on a number of African peoples including Bantu, Khoikhoi and Bushmen.

MS 193

Typescript notes on Loango, Angola.

MS 194

Questionnaires, papers and letters in connection with the Union Internationale de Secours aux Enfants, 1930-1931.

MS 195

Translation of Bacongo incantations and prayers, by J. van Wing, S.J.; translated by E. Torday. (London, 1930) and related correspondence.

MS 196

Draft of a book entitled Yarns from the West coast: being the diary of Mr Hilary Jones, edited by F.R.G.S., c. 1908, annotated with corrections.

MS 197

Typescript papers and lectures, [c 1930], including lectures on Hungary to Rotarians; lecture 'On some oddities of the Congo people'; lecture on West Africa, [1931] and lecture on female initiation in Africa.

MS 198

Typescript articles and African folk stories, annotated corrections, mostly in Hungarian.

MS 424
Notes ethnographiques sur les peoples communément appelés Bakuba, by Torday and Thomas Athol Joyce, 1911 (3 copies).

MS 425

Index cards from Torday's library.

The archive consists of:

GB 160 AMS/A - Administrative records (1897-2006): Executive Committee minutes; Minutes of Sub-committees; Minutes of Annual General Meetings; Financial records; Constitutional and organisational papers; Correspondence; Papers relating to the Josephine Butler Collection.

GB 160 AMS/B - Enquiries and Campaigns (1824-1999): Memorial of the Contagious Diseases Acts; Canvassing Parliamentary candidates regarding solicitation laws; Ten Towns Enquiry; Solicitation (papers and publications on amending solicitation laws eg Street Offences Act 1959); Venereal diseases; Procuration; Armed Forces; Seamen in ports; Sexual morality; Women in the Colonial Office / Colonies Service Committee; Traffic in Women; Employment of Women Police; Russian Women's Hostel in Shanghai; Executive Committee Correspondence; Sexual offences and age of consent; Prostitution; Mrs Bligh Scrutton's papers; Female circumcision; Human rights (majority of papers relate to Human Rights Year 1968); Women's Action Group; Correspondence and reports of W Moody; Press cuttings

GB 160 AMS/C - International work : India (1867-1979): Acts, Regulations and Parliamentary Papers; Correspondence and papers of Henry J Wilson; 1893 Cantonments enquiry; Secretary's India files 1913-1925; Meliscent Shephard: correspondence 1928-1946; Organisation of the work in India 1929-1937; Papers relating to work in Bombay (1878-1934), Ceylon (1899-1955), Madras, Mysore, Delhi, Calcutta (1929-1939); Association for Moral and Social Hygiene in India (1943-1979)

GB 160 AMS/D - International work : other countries (1869-1970): Papers concern the international work of the Association for Moral and Social Hygiene in opposing the state regulation of prostitution (apart from India). Material consists of fact-finding (reports, enactments and press cuttings) and action (memoranda, articles and correspondence). Countries: Africa, Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, British Guyana, Canada, China, Colonies, Congo, Cyprus, Denmark, Egypt, Ireland, Ethiopia, Germany, Gibraltar, Guernsey, Hong Kong, Mui Tsai in Hong Kong and Malaya, Hungary, Indonesia, Israel [Palestine], Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Kenya, Lithuania, Malta, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nigeria, Norway, Peru, Portugal, Rangoon (Burma), Romania, Seychelles, Singapore and Malaya, South Africa, Southern Rhodesia, Sudan, Sweden, Switzerland, Syria, Tangier, Turkey, Uganda, USSR (Union of Soviet Socialist Republics), United States of America, Uruguay, West Indies

GB 160 AMS/E - Papers relating to the International Abolitionist Federation (1876-1999): Minutes of meetings of the International Committee and of the Executive Bureau of the International Abolitionist Federation; Reports; Papers relating to Congresses of the Federation and other related conferences; Correspondence concerning the publication of Congress proceedings; Papers relating to Constitutional reform; Publications

GB 160 AMS/F - Other organisations (1948-1997): Papers relating to: Anti-Slavery Society for the Protection of Human Rights and their relations with Minority Rights Group, Interights, Liberty, Human Rights Network; British Council of Churches; British Federation against the Venereal Diseases; British Social Biology Council and British Social Hygiene Council (both formally the National Council for Combatting Venereal Diseases); Commonwealth Countries' League; Commonwealth Secretariat; European Parliament; International Council of Women; Mothers' Union; National Council for Voluntary Organisations; National Council of Women; Status of Women Committee; United Nations including the United Nations Status of Women Commission and United Nations Association (UNA) Women's Advisory Council (WAC); Wel-Care; The Women's Council (co-operating with Women of Asia); Women's Freedom League; Women's National Commission; Papers relating to French organisations; publications

GB 160 AMS/G - Photographs (c 1850-1997): Portraits of Josephine Butler; Representations of Josephine Butler; Photographs of the Butler family; Individual portraits; Group portraits; Photographs of buildings associated with Josephine Butler

GB 160 AMS/H - Memorials and centenaries (1882-1983): Josephine Butler Centenary Memorial at Westminster Abbey in 1928; Josephine Butler Memorial Appeal and setting up the Josephine Butler Fellowship; post-centenary memorials (Chrystal MacMillan Memorial, Centenary Dinner of Association for Moral and Social Hygiene, 150th anniversary of birth of Josephine Butler in 1978); Alison Neilans's anniversary and memorials

GB 160 AMS/I - Publicity (1947-2006): Papers relating to the Josephine Butler Society publications 'Newsletter' and 'News and Views'; papers relating to articles written about the Josephine Butler Society in journals or newspapers; material concerning radio and television broadcasts about the Josephine Butler Society or film proposals about the life of Josephine Butler

GB 160 AMS/J - Josephine Butler miscellanea (1873-1993): Manuscript material by Josephine Butler; Printed material by Josephine Butler; Material relating to death of Josephine Butler; Articles about Josephine Butler; Material about the Grey Family; Representations of Josephine Butler; Play and screenplay about Josephine Butler; Audio cassette

GB 160 AMS/K-L Objects and Paintings are uncatalogued

GB 160 AMS/M - Publications (1847-1960) (Please note that publications can be found throughout this collection): Acts and statutory instruments; various pages from House of Commons Parliamentary Debates: Hansard; 3 volumes 'Social Evil Extracts'; 3 volumes of reports, press cuttings, flyers and posters

GB 160 AMS/N - Press cuttings (1950-1970) (Please note that press cuttings can be found throughout this collection): These press cuttings are uncatalogued

This catalogue includes material previously referenced as 3/AMS2 and 3/JBS/2.

This archive contains many publications. Any duplicates have been removed and can be consulted in The Women's Library Printed Collection. A note to this effect is made in the archive description.

Telecommunications minuted papers relating to Post Office telegraph and telephone services. Minuted papers were those papers which had been submitted to the Postmaster General for a decision, and then been retained in the Post Office registry.

At first, the papers minuted tended only to be the particular case submitted to the Postmaster General but, as time went on, registry staff followed a practice of continuing to add physically to an existing minuted case all other cases on that subject which came to hand. As a result, the minuted papers frequently consist of quite large bundles of files on a common subject spanning many years. The date range of the files is consequently often much earlier or much later than the date suggested by the Former Reference used by the registry staff.

POST 30 records concern telecommunications issues in England and Wales, 1792-1952; POST 31 concern Ireland, 1841-1960; and POST 32 concern Scotland, 1864-1966. On its introduction in 1921, POST 33 superseded these sequences and is concerned with telecommunications issues across all these geographies 1921-51, as does its successor in 1949, with POST 102 covering years 1936-76.

The subject of individual files among the minuted papers can be wide-ranging, from the mundane administrative minutiae to policy decisions on developments of critical importance. The diversity and depth of these files can be seen by such examples as the introduction of Bell's telephones to the Post Office (POST 30/330), signalling systems for Belfast and County Down Railway Company (POST 31/74) , arrangements for female telephonists working late duties (POST 32/254D), development of Rugby Radio station (POST 33/1079B), design of telephone kiosks by Giles Gilbert Scott (POST 33/1448), voice recording service for British and Allied armed forces (POST 102/6), telecommunication scheme plans in case of wartime invasion (POST 121/360), and the London to Birmingham television cable linke (POST 122/471).

'The National Institute of Houseworkers was set up in 1946 with the primary aim of raising the status of domestic employment. thus attracting more workers into this essential occupation, and establishing, by means of training and by examination of those already possessing the necessary qualifications, a recognised standard of skill for employment under agreed working conditions.' Introduction to The Houseworker - The Journal of The Institute of Houseworkers, March 1951. Address of headquarters 53, Mount Street, London. Collection includes: copies of the journal The Houseworker 1948-1956; Annual Reports 1949-1965 and Conference Reports 1954-1955. Copy of 'A Training Scheme for Houseworkers' not dated.

Collection includes: The position of women after the war: report of the Standing Joint Committee, 1916; A comparison between the rates under certain trade boards for women, 1921; Women in the trade union movement, 1955; The Woman Worker - Journal 1907-1921; agenda of biennial conference; annual reports.

Collection includes: Periodicals 1925- , annual reports 1923-1957, rules, pamphlets etc of the Women Sanitary Inspector's and Health Visitors Association (founded 1896) renamed Women Public Health Officers' Association and later renamed again Health Visitors' Association. News sheet, 1925-1946, (incomplete) Women Public Health Officers' Association journal 'The Woman Health Officer' 1928, 1936-1937; Health Visitors' Association rules; Woman Health Officer: official organ of the Health Visitors' Association; pamphlets and annual report; A History in Health 1896-1996 by Jennifer Smith, 1996. Association for Moral and Social Hygiene founded by Josephine Butler in 1870, annual reports 1922-1934 (incomplete).

Collection of pamphlets and reports relating to women's education and workplace training. Includes: 'Industrial Training Council - Training Girls in Industry' 1962; 'The Vocational Education of Women 1965-1975'; 'Women and Training News' 1980s; 'The Education, Training and Employment of Women and Girls' 1973; 'Women's Education Past, Present and Future. A WEA Policy Statement' 1989.

Collection of pamphlets, journals and papers relating to nursing. Includes: Guild of Nurses Quarterly Review, 1940s; Recruitment of Nurses and Midwives to Training Institutions, 1945; The Association of Nurses, 1937; The Jewish Nurse in Palestine, 1947; Nurses Salaries Committee, 1940s; Government publications; International Labour Office Publications relating to employment and conditions; Queen's Nursing Institute annual reports. Also material relating to the Royal College of Nursing.

Collection of books, leaflets, articles and periodicals relating to women and employment. Includes: 'The Position of Women after the War' Committee of Women's Organisations, 1916; 'Women in Industry after the War' by B L Hutchins, 1917; 'Payment structures and smaller firms: women's employment in segmented labour markets' by Christine Craig and others, 1985, reference HD 6061; 'The position of women in industry' by Nancy Seear, 1968, reference HD 6664; 'Putting equality into practice: a Shadow Ministry of Women consultation document' 1991; 'Unemployed Women: a study of attitudes and experiences' by Arnold Cragg and Tim Dawson, 1984. Other topics includes: legislation, local government, First World War, Second World War and other countries. Periodicals include: Woman Engineer, Women's Gazette, Women and Manual Trades Newsletter.

Material created by the University of East London's MA in Gender, Ethnicity and Sexuality to support study, from [1990] to the time of writing, comprising: a series of folders containing academic papers related to gender, ethnicity and sexuality arranged alphabetically by the surname of the author; printed books, articles, periodicals, journals, course materials, statistics, newssheets, conference materials, academic papers and press cuttings. Topics include racism, multiculturalism, feminism, sexuality, religion, the state, society, development, aid, education, health, culture, gender, international organisations, war, community, human rights, nationalism, imperialism, colonialism, migration, refugees, citizenship, ethnicity and indigenous people.

Archives of the North London Collegiate School (NLCS) comprising:

records of governance including rough Governors Meeting minutes 1898-1919; signed minutes of the Governors of North London Collegiate School and Camden School for Girls (Frances Mary Buss Foundation), 1870-1992; Governors meeting attendance book 1910-1940; Governors meetings and Finance Committee attendance book, 1949-1958, 1975-1994; NLCS Trustees attendance book 1871-1875; record of Appointment of Governors 1875-1910, 1958-1977; Governors agenda book 1873-1875, also containing Reception Committee minutes 1879; Governors agenda books 1910-1914, 1927-1959; Governors agenda book 1910-1913 also containing Finance and General Purposes Committee agendas 1958-1959; Finance and General Purposes Committee minutes, 1970-1982; Finance Reports NLCS and CSFG 1875-1890, 1921-1933; Treasurers meetings minutes 1895-1910; Schools Committee minutes 1910-1913; Schools Committee attendance book, 1910-1914; Memorial Committee minutes 1871; Building Committee minutes 1875; minutes of the Trustees of the Frances Mary Buss Memorial Scholarship Fund, 1897-1937; minutes of the Frances Mary Buss Memorial Travelling Scholarship 1964-1965 and 1969;

NLCS correspondence 1871-1883; NLCS Secretary's reports 1871-1875; Headmistresses report to Governors, 1871-1920;

administrative records including inventory of equipment and furniture Sep 1875-1904; NLCS Dates of Terms, 1877-1939; Timetable analysis 1947-1966; Billetting addresses in Luton; Secretary's information notebook; NLCS Visitors books 1884-1917, 1949-1965; Examiners reports 1891-1903;

records relating to school staff including Staff Meetings minutes 1885-1894, 1912-1986; Staff meetings attendance book 1874-1913; Staff register 1883-1927; Staff register of appointments 1893-1932; Register of mistresses and administrative staff 1909-1938; Teachers agreement book; Staff attendance register 1882-1886, 1933-1958; Staff address books, 1917-1956; Staff Dramatic Club minutes, [1965]-1970; Staff log book (scrap book) 1937-1955; rough notes of lectures on English composition 1860-1876; Camden School for Girls (staff) salaries book 1909-1914;

student records including admission books, 1850-1911; Admission register index 1925-1938, with index 1935-1938; Admissions application forms, 1871-present; Register of applications 1874-1942; Register of pupils 1875-1878; New entrants to school, 1942-1978; Withdrawal books 1871-1906; Camden and NLCS register of [withdrawn] pupils, 1871-1878; Leaving lists 1939-1979;

scholarships register 1894-1941; Scholarships, exhibitions and prizes register 1873-1918; Register of London County Council Scholars at NLCS 1910-1930;

medical record register 1882-1884; Miss Buss Gymnasium medical notes 1882-1886; Gymnasium medical reports 1885; Mrs Hoggan's private (medical) notes 1882-1885; Mrs Hoggan's medical notes to Miss Buss 1882-1885;

records of pupils' examinations including NLCS external examinations results 1873 - 1890; NLCS Special Examinations results 1874-1887, containing copies of some question papers; Register of external examinations results 1890-1930; University of London examinations results including general school examination, higher school examinations, Oxford and Cambridge examinations, general certificate of education, and O levels, 1931-1979; Record of GCSE certificates sent to girls who have left, 1952-1970; Register of honours gained chiefly by old pupils, 1911-1936; Class reports 1874-1876; Summary of old pupil reports 1884-1914; Holiday work reports 1882-1919; Results of school sports competitions 1890-1920, 1926-1938; Prize day reports and lists, 1850-1909; Printed prize lists 1874-1909; Upper V examination totals 1931-1976;

records of pupils meetings and societies including Prefects and monitors meetings minutes, 1880-1970 (incomplete); Form minute books including third to sixth forms 1948-1957; Lower Fifth form imposition book 1937-1939; Upper Fifth form after-school fixture book; Botanical Club minutes 1885-1891; Debating Society minutes 1887-1913; Sunshine League minutes 1904-1920; Science Club notes and queries 1909-1930, Science Club Committee minutes 1931-1937, Science Club General Meeting minutes 1932-1936, Science Club Photographic section and General meeting minutes 1961-1970; Classical Society minutes 1914-1927; Sketch Club minutes 1928-1936; Current Affairs Club news cuttings, 1942-1947;

certificates of NLCS students 1882-1914, 1936-1946;

examples of pupils work including Log book of Bromley Camp 1927, 1928, 1934, 1929; Writing book 1955-1956; Housewifery notes, with sewing samples, 1904; geography project, 1921, Dame Kitty's book - 1966 contains copies of poems by junior students; Cookery notes, (with recipes) 1904; compositions 1899; The Searchlight, manuscript magazine Vol 1 - 1912, Vol 2 1913, Vol 3, mss, 1914; photographs 1920s in student workbook titled Hygiene; displays 1947, 2000, 2002; journal of exchange visit 1967;

personal papers including Miriam Shillito's (English teacher) letters and papers 1935-1949, and photograph album 1919-1935; Monkhouse sketch books, [1935-1937]; Hill family - Gladys, Kathleen and Lucy - NLCS, student exercise books, notebooks, photos, letters, 1905-1919 (1 box);

personal papers of Dame Kitty Anderson (1903-1979), Headmistress from 1944 - 1965, comprising Founders Day address (undated), certificates to 1924-1971, greeting cards 1956; log book, 1943-1944 and Bath High School photos, 1973; thesis 'The treatment of vagrancy and the relief of the poor and destitute in the Tudor period, based upon the local records of London to 1552 and then to 1576', Submitted for PhD, University London, 1933; letters of congratulation on her DBE award; and related papers;

material relating to Madeleine McLauchlan, Headmistress from 1965-1985, comprising photographs, mainly speeches, invitations, and school files, [1965-1985]; and papers of Joan Clanchy, Headmistress from 1986-1997, comprising photographs, news cuttings, letters and school files [1985-1997];

records relating to the Association of former pupils of NLCS including reports of the Old Pupils Association, 1874-1901; minutes of Old Girls Association general meetings 1916-1939; Old Girls Association attendance book (with addresses) 1916-1953; minutes of Old North Londoners Association Committee 1916-1956; minutes of Old North Londoners Association Annual Business meetings 1941-1979;

records of the Parents Guild including minutes of the Parents Guild Committee 1928-1973, Parents Guild cash book 1928-1940;

financial records of the school including Registration fees, 1963-1972; Fees ledgers 1879, 1939-1943, 1945-1956; Fee books 1872-1976 (incomplete); Ledgers, 1854-1858, 1872-1907, 1910-1982; Day book 1872-1875; Cash books 1872-1907, 1924-1926, 1938-1986; Cash journal 1910-1952; Cash payments 1952-1964; Petty cash books 1921-1926, 1930-1941, 1963-1974; Cash book (House) 1905-1910, 1910-1924; House Keeping petty cash book 1911-1915; Botany and Chemistry cash book, 1914-1961; Physics petty cash book 1917-1975; Staff Committee accounts 1937-1968; Staff salaries books 1875-1923, 1932-1950; NLCS superannuation book 1922-1950; Vouchers II (bills) 1899-1912 ; House receipts 1895-1915; and printed copies of audited accounts;

scrap books and news cuttings collections including scrapbook titled 'Edinburgh Schools' containing pamphlets and notes on schools in Edinburgh, [1871-1872]; newspaper cuttings 1871-1892 relating to NLCS, Camden School, and women's education; general newspaper cuttings 1883-1892; news cutting relating to the School, 1899-1900; news cuttings relating to Frances Mary Buss, 1894-1900; Scrap book of printed critiques of 'Our Magazine, 1883-1893; and two albums containing pamphlets and press cuttings 1850-1876, 1877-1914; Elizabeth II Coronation cuttings; press cuttings relating to former pupils (undated);

records relating to Frances Mary Buss House (FMBH), Bromley-by-Bow, including FMBH Society (executive) committee minutes 1919-1931; Society minutes 1927-1936; general meetings minutes 1924-1968; attendance at Annual General Meetings, 1932-1970; bank book 1932-1944; receipt books 1968-1978; cash books 1925-1929, 1937-1941; FMBH Thrift Club ledgers 1953-1969-1979; FMBH log book of evacuation to Oxford,1940-1942; photographs and drawings including drawings of Sandall Rd buildings, 1939; photographs of school exterior, 1982; albums depicting school life [1900-2000]; NLCS Senior Dramatic Club albums, 1910-1938; evacuation to Luton 1939; school photograph albums, 1877, 1892, 1895 1896, 1900; staff holiday album, 1897; collection of forms, sports, events and staff photographs [1920-1950]; glass plate slides, including images of staff members and pupils, also relating to missionary work (approx 75 slides); photographs of Dame Alice Owen and Dame Kitty Anderson. 1949; photographs of staff and pupil groups, [1850-2003]; various maps and plans relating to the school premises; copy of typescript essay 'Pioneers of women's education in Victorian Britain, a study of the problems found in the education of middle class women in Victorian Britain and the work of the women who solved them', Valerie McAlister, 1992; copies of thesis 'Common threads, curriculum relationship between mathematics and needlework in the history of education', Mary Harris;

publications including Our Magazine, 1875-2000; Camden Magazines 1948-1956, 1958-1959, 1961-1967; NLCS Final year/Sixth form year book 1992-2002; Omnibuss Magazine (Junior School), 1996-present; Online Magazine (publication of the Old North Londoners), 1995-present;

boxes of papers relating to School Advisory Council; Applications for Headmistress 1917, 1940; Fees, free places, scholarships and subsidies by local councils 1920s-1930s; 1990-1992; National Curriculum Council; FMB House, Bromley; Canons Month, 1960s and Vice Versa, 1980s; Done family; Camden School; Head Mistress's Conference 1964; London County Council Minutes and Reports 1901-1911, 1912, 1920, 1921; Education Bills 1869-1901 and departmental memoranda; Centenary letters; Association of Head Mistresses 1887-1977; Direct Grant; Centenary Press;

Audio visual material including video about Kitty Anderson 1965-1979, and audio cassette recording of Open University Program on Frances Mary Buss and Dorothea Beale, NLCS Handel Concert [1985], Women's House, 2000, NLCS Founders Day, Memorial Service for student, 2002;

audio visual material relating to the history of NLCS and Canons, includes 'Everyone Matters', BBC, 1965 featuring Dame Kitty Anderson, and scenes of school life; and 'Story of Canons: nine centuries of building at Canons', 1997.

Contains records of the Royal Masonic Institution for Girls (formally the Royal Cumberland School for the Daughters of Indigent Free Masons and the Royal Freemasons School for Female Children). This includes minutes, agendas, signature books, membership records, reports, business statements, interview books, correspondence and administration files of the Institution’s Courts and Committees; Festival records, including minutes, agendas, a signature book, cash books, ledgers, administration files and printed memorabilia; records concerning petitioners and beneficiaries, including petitions and certificates, précis of petitions, petition registers, admission registers, a register of Junior School staff and pupils, summer holiday administration files and general beneficiary administration files; financial records, including ledgers, cash books, purchase journals, annual reports and accounts, sealing registers, investment accounts and dividend received books, lists of grants awarded from the Institution’s funds, collector books, donation and subscription registers, lists of governors and subscribers and general financial administration and correspondence files; staff records, including personal, pay and pension administration files; property records, including architectural plans and maps, building, receipts and payments books, visitor books, schedules of deeds and other documents deposited with banks, deeds and leases, tenant and property management files for the Institution’s property in Great Queen Street, London, Parker Street, London and Rickmansworth, Hertfordshire and administration files concerning the closure and redevelopment of the Royal Masonic Junior School for Girls, Weybridge, Surrey and publicity records, including VHS tapes, photographs and general promotional material.

Letter from John Fisher of Weymouth to Patrick Colquhoun, LLD, 18 Sep 1816. Regarding plans for the provision of a female penitentiary and lock hospital [i.e. hospital for treating sexually-transmitted infections] in Bath; accompanying a copy of the institution's prospectus.

Autograph, with signature.

Letter from Robert Bald of Edinburgh to Joseph Hume MP, 27 Apr 1826. Excusing his silence 'but ... I have been uncommonly pressed with mineral surveying and reporting thereon arising in a great degree from the conflicting elements which arise betwixt master and servant. Coals rise in price to an exorbitant rate, and the great manufacturing interests of Glasgow & chief consumers of coal there agreed to have the districts surveyed as to the means of supplying the City with abundance of coal at a moderate rate, and to lay rail ways into the coals fields which were the best'. He encloses "two copies of the treatise I wrote regarding the coal trade of Scotland and the slavish system of bearing coals by women. I have been attacked and run down for doing so: this I care nothing about ...'. Autograph, with signature.

Papers concerning the personal archive of Anna Coote (1954-1983), including: notes about a reappraisal of a case of a woman's dismissal from work and the industrial tribunal hearing; the labour situation; papers concerning various cases of dismissial of female employees from various employers, including testimonials; articles on a range of topics, including industry and the law, women at work, outside work schemes, the duties of a Personnel Officer; transcripts of interviews with various secretaries and employers, as well as letters describing personal experience of being a secretary; and typescripts of chapters from a proposed book on secretaries (1954-975). Also included are government publications and documents that relate to the personal archives (1971-1983), including: material relating to a decision of industrial tribunals and court cases; documents relating to the Sex Discrimination Act 1975; copies of parliamentary debates on the Sex Equality Bill, 1983; Social Security Pensions Act 1975; second review of the Race Relations Act 1976; documents relating to the Abortion Act 1967, and the Abortion (Amendment) Bill 1975; "How M.P.s vote on abortion"; Abortion, 1976; Domicile and Matrimonial Proceedings Bill; Matrimonial Causes Act 1973; Equal Pay Act 1970; Anti-Discrimination Bill 1971; Employment Protection Bill 1975; Children Bill 1975; report on the circumstances of families 1967; survey of women's employment 1968; proposals for a tax-credit system, 1972; proposals for a new pensions scheme 1974; government proposals on employment and training, 1973; equality for women, 1974; the select committee on violence in marriage, 1975; select committee on the Anti-Discrimination (No 2) Bill, 1972-1973; sixth report from the expenditure committee on the employment of women, 1972-1973; and the report of the committee on one-parent families, 1974.

Ephemera collected at SlutWalk, London 11th June 2011, including leaflets produced by Women Against Rape, Marxism Festival, Revolution Socialist Youth and London Feminist Network.

Papers of The Centre for Sexual and Reproductive Health Research comprise posters and ephemera relating to sexual and reproductive health, and evaluation and campaign material, 1980s-1990s. Posters notably concern AIDS prevention and originate from countries across Europe including Norway, Greece, Switzerland and UK. Posters use strong imagery including condoms and syringes to illustrate the importance of sexual health, for example a Swedish poster includes an image of man and woman with condoms as halos, the caption reads 'Var din egen skyddsangel' or 'Be your own guardian angel'. Ephemera includes badges, bags, leaflets and tapes and videos from various countries concerning AIDS and sexual health campaigns.

Evaluation and campaign material relates to work carried out in 1980s and 1990s concerning AIDS and notably includes pamphlets and leaflets from campaigns carried out across Europe, AIDS Strategic Monitor publications and surveys and research collated by various market research companies. The material was presumably collected from and hence relates to Sweden, Switzerland, Spain, Netherlands, Poland, Austria, Italy, Luxemburg, UK, Germany, Belgium, Denmark, France, Ireland, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Norway and Greece.

As at Jan 2009, The Women's Library held approximately 562 badges in the Museum Collection, with c 200 additional badges identified in the archives.

The earliest badges held in The Women's Library were produced by women's suffrage campaigns, organisations represented include: the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies, the Women's Social and Political Union, Women's Freedom League, and faith-based organisations such as the Catholic Women's Suffrage Society and the Jewish League for Women's Suffrage.

In addition, the collection contains women's liberation movement and contemporary badges dating from the 1970s to the present day. It includes a selection of badges produced by women's anti-nuclear and peace organisations, campaigns against male violence, pro-choice (abortion) organisations and lesbian support and campaigning groups.

A small number of modern women's campaigning jewellery items, such as earrings and pendants that are currently stored in this collection.

As at Jan 2009, The Women's Library held approximately 4,000 objects in the Museum Collection, with 3,840 additional objects identified in the archives.

The Women's Library Museum Collection objects are grouped in the following categories: Badges; Banners; Paintings; Photographs; Postcards; Posters; Textiles; - Objects and other ephemera e.g. souvenir material related to women's campaigning, ceramics used to promote or commemorate women's campaigning activities, artefacts associated with famous/prominent women.

The strength of the Museum Collection lies in the range of printed ephemera and artefacts that document suffrage campaign activities, in addition there is some material relating to later 20th century women's organisations and campaigning, such as feminist activity during the 1970s and 1980s. The Museum Collection complements the range of artefacts and ephemera held in The Women's Library archive and printed collections.

For further information about the scope of the banner, postcard, photograph and poster holdings see the introductions to (object numbers: twl.banner; twl.postcard; twl.poster).

Objects can be searched using the 'ObjectName' field. The main categories are named: badge, banner, photograph, postcard, painting, poster, textile.

Additional object names include: Album, Arm band , Ashtray, Bag, Blouse, Bookmark, Book token, Bottle, Braid, Bunting, Bunting flag, cake server, Calendar, Candleholder, Caricature, Cartoon, Chair back, Christmas card, Cigarette box, Clay pipe, Coaster, Coin, Comb, Cup, Design, Envelope, Flag, Flier, Fragment of aluminium, Game, Goblet, Gown, Greetings Card, Illustration, Jabot, Jacket, Key-ring, Magazine, Mallet, Map, Medal, Medallion, Membership Card, Memorial, Menu, Metal Cast, Mug, Needlecraft, Notebook, Offprint, Ornament, Packaging, Page, Patch, Pattern, Pen, Pin, Plaque, Plate, Print, Presentation volume, Programme, Record, Ribbon, Rosette, Sash, Saucer, Scarf, Seal, Shield, Ship's card, Sign, Silhouette, Spoon, Stamp, Sticker, Swizzle stick, T-Shirt, Tea Spoon, Tea Towel, Textile, Textile fragment, Ticket, Toy, Trousers, Unitard, Wallet, Wallpaper.