Library Briefings

Women Advising Women, 1631-1837

Last two sections of historical microfilm now available

The set is now complete. The Library is pleased to announce the purchase of the last two sections (Parts 6 & 7) of the comprehensive microfilm set Women Advising Women: Advice Books, Manuals and Journals for Women, 1450-1837. With these latest additions, the Northwestern community has access to primary materials that provide a broad understanding of household management and domestic economy during the Victorian and Edwardian periods. The very last section is comprised of advice manuals, conduct books, and pamphlets for the period 1631-1837, from the Women’s Library, London, which houses the most extensive collection in the United Kingdom of materials for the study of women's history (and was previously known as the Fawcett Library).

Women Advising Women is composed of early works mainly published in Britain by women writers. It is a multidisciplinary resource of interest to scholars in education, women's studies, gender studies, history, literatures in English, medicine and nutrition, psychology, and sociology. Childbirth and divorce, material culture and fashion, metropolitan and provincial living, household government, women's education, and cookery are examples of research topics supported by primary works in diverse formats including almanacs, broadsides, didactic literature, essays, ephemeral publications, journals, manuscripts, monographs, and pamphlets.

Although this is a microfilm set, as opposed to an electronic database, it comes with enhanced accessibility. An online guide to the contents is available via the publisher's website at AMP Digital Guides. Titles or keywords in NUcat will retrieve the 1,151 individual titles of Parts 1 - 5. The records for titles appearing in Parts 6 and 7 will be added soon. Both the microfilm and a printed guide are located in the Library's Newspaper/Periodical Reading Room.

L. E. Lyons
Bibliographer
l-lyons@northwestern.edu