Thomas J. Dodd Research Center | UConn

http://doddcenter.uconn.edu/collections/spanwomen.htm

Spanish Periodicals and Newspapers: Women's Magazine Digital Collection

In the early 1970s, the Thomas J. Dodd Research Center at the University of Connecticut acquired an incredible collection of Spanish Periodicals and Newspapers collected by the famous bibliophile, Juan Perez de Guzman y Boza, the Duque de T' Serclaes. Now housed in Archives & Special Collections at the Thomas J. Dodd Research Center, this rich collection reflects the complex history of Spain through periodicals and newspapers dating from the 18th-20th centuries, with the bulk of the collection dating from the 19th century.

Of significant interest is the wide selection of women's magazines written by men to appeal to an elite female audience. The collection is full of things such as short historical stories, poems, good advice for both men and women about the proper behavior of ladies at any age, beautiful colored and engraved images with the latest news of Paris fashion, music sheets of polkas and other music specifically composed for the magazines, and patterns for needlework, to name only a few. These magazines are an amazing window to understand the social dimensions of women in 19th century Spain.

Because of their significance to international researchers unable to travel to the University, the Dodd Research Center, in collaboration with the UConn Libraries, digitized 20 titles from the collection. Thanks to the support and funding of the UConn Libraries' Digital Project Team (DPT) and its members (Dave Lowe, Michael Bennett) and cataloger Tom Koenig, the Libraries have created in-house this digital collection, to provide electronic access to researchers around the world.
The digital copies are available through the Internet Archive and the UConn Digital Collections site and are available in several different formats and the text is searchable. This webpage grouped all the digitized titles available for easy access.

For more information about this collection, visit our previous Item of the Month feature from August 2009

Thomas J. Dodd Research Center | UConn

Discovering American Women's History Online

 Discovering American Women's History Online

This database provides access to digital collections of primary sources (photos, letters, diaries, artifacts, etc.) that document the history of women in the United States. These diverse collections range from Ancestral Pueblo pottery to Katrina Thomas's photographs of ethnic weddings from the late 20th century.

This database simplifies access to digital collections of primary sources (photos, letters, diaries, artifacts, etc.) that document the history of women in the United States. These diverse collections range from Abigail Franks' letters to her son from the 1730s and 1740s (Center for Jewish History) to Katrina Thomas' photographs of ethnic weddings from the late 20th century.

Search and Browse Options

Please see the Search Tips page for several examples of simple and complex searches.

Researchers can browse the database by subject (150+ entries), place (i.e., states), time period, and primary source type. By browsing through these lists of preconfigured searches, researchers not only gain a quick sense of the scope of the database, but may also discover topics (e.g., women engineers) and approaches to research (e.g., using scrapbooks as primary sources) that they had not considered. In addition, many users will be pleasantly surprised by the number of collections that document the history of women in their home state.

Thumbnail Images

Many "short records" in the database include a thumbnail of an image from the collection that the record describes. The use of thumbnails in this way provides a visual cue to the content of the collection. Full records include a thumbnail caption field.

About the Developer

Ken Middleton is a reference librarian at Middle Tennessee State University Library. He has a second master's degree, with an emphasis in American women's history, from the same university.

Credits and Acknowledgements

Numerous people have provided valuable advice, technical knowledge, and encouragement. Many thanks to Fagdeba Bakoyema, Al Camp, Mary Hoffschwelle, James Staub, Mayo Taylor, and the entire Digital Projects team at Walker Library.

Discovering American Women's History Online