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Women and Gender Project

The Archives for Research on Women and Gender (ARWG) project specializes in acquiring, preserving, arranging, describing, and providing access to primary source materials that document the lives of women, constructions of gender, and expressions of sexual identity in South Texas. Materials are collected from activists, politicians, educators, authors, business people, and other individuals, as well as, organizations, businesses, and foundations. The collections that comprise the ARWG project include primary sources such as: letters, speeches, reports, minutes, programs, brochures, newsletters, posters, photographs, and other kinds of personal and organizational documents. It is the intent of the ARWG project for its collections to represent the diverse populations in South Texas.

History

In 1993 the ARWG project was initiated by the Center for the Study of Women and Gender at the University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA). It soon became a joint effort between the Center and the UTSA Libraries Special Collections and Archives Department. In January 1996, funding through a University Strategic Initiative, proposed by the Center for the Study of Women and Gender, enabled the library to hire an archivist and begin processing collections acquired by the ARWG project. From September 1998 through July 2001, a grant from the National Historic Publications and Records Commission funded an additional processing archivist to arrange and describe more collections.

In August of 2001 the Center for the Study of Women and Gender was closed by the University. However, collecting women's primary documents continues to be one of the collecting foci for the Archives Department.

Future

The Archives continues to seek a broad range of materials that document the lives and activities of not only prominent women, but also women and men who have labored in the background on women's issues and gender issues. The Archives also acquires the records of organizations that are defined by gender, or focus on issues of sexual identity or gender equality. The Archives is committed to acquiring these materials because they are important historical resources that should be preserved as a part of Texas' history.

In the interest of proper preservation, the Archives cannot accept textiles, original works of art such as paintings or monotypes in oil or any other media, or large artifacts which the archivist determines require specialized housing.

Resources

At the UTSA Archives

• List of Women's Collections in the Archives
• Personal Papers of Women
• Records of Women's Groups
• Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Collections

At Other Repositories

In 1996, the Archives for Research on Women and Gender at UTSA compiled a list of websites of archives, libraries, and other repositories that have primary source materials by or about women. The list represents institutions holding collections of either records of women's organizations or papers of individual women.

• Additional Women's Collections (Main Page)
• Alabama - Missouri
• Montana - Wyoming, International