Women and Gender Project

Image of a letter from Margaret Sanger to Mrs. H.A. Hirshberg about the establishment of a Planned Parenthood clinic in San Antonio, 1931.

Letter from Margaret Sanger to Mrs. H.A. Hirshberg, 1931 (Folder 1:9), Planned Parenthood of San Antonio and South Central Texas Records, 1931-1999, MS 83, Archives and Special Collections, UTSA Library. In this letter, Sanger refers to her recent visit to San Antonio and the possible establishment of a clinic in the city.

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 (CSWG) at the University of Texas at San Antonio. It soon became a joint effort between the CSWG and the UTSA Library's Archives and Special Collections 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 and Special Collections 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

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. Repository URLs are current as of February 2008.

Women and Gender Project

History

Future

Resources

At the UTSA Archives

At Other Repositories

Collections

Using Collections

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