Carrie F. Young was one of the first advocates of women's suffrage in California, and was an activist for other political causes. Young eventually became a physician, the first woman to receive a medical diploma in California, from the Oakland College of Medicine in 1884. Collection includes miscellaneous written materials; flyers, handbills, and broadsides; and copies of serials.

Collection includes miscellaneous written materials; flyers, handbills, and broadsides; and copies of serials. There is a letter regarding political matters and a typescript page of general instructions for an unnamed convention, both written by Young's son, Robert E. Bush; a recommendation for Young's work on national campaigns as a Republican poltical activist and speaker, dated 1889; two advertisements for a Mrs. Dr. Tarbell's treatments of "nervous diseases and female complaints;" two pages of guidelines for a populist club; one of Young's calling cards; and an enclosure for the California Medical Journal. There is also a brochure for "photographic fern-leaf mottoes." In addition, there are 8 flyers, handbills, and broadsides, all advertising political speeches (especially for the People's Party), lectures, or medical work by Young, except for two that advertise speeches by Mrs. M. S. Singer of Chicago, and Dr. J. V. C. Smith. Collection also includes issues of the serials Life Crystals (March 1882, no. 3), edited by Young, and Pacific Journal of Health (January-September 1872, nos. 1-9), published by Young.

Collection comprises a volume entitled "Needlework," containing 16 pages of illustrations for sewing and darning patterns and techniques, accompanied by 22 finished samples. The title page indicates the work was done by Louisa Wright during a "Second Year" at an unnamed institute or training facility. There are illustrations for hemming and seaming, stitching, sewing on a tape, gathering, setting-in, making a buttonhole, herring-boning, darning a thin place, tacking, making a gusset, making a calico patch, darning a hole, whipping, using a print patch, crosscut darning, Swiss darning and grafting, and stocking-web darning. The volume has a sewn cover in khaki cloth featuring two pink ribbon closures with bows, buttons, and thread button-loops. The title "Needlework" is emboidered in pink thread.

Writing desk at which one would stand, designed and owned by Virginia Woolf. The sloping top of the desk features a central panel in two pieces, with hinges at the top. The panel lifts to reveal a storage compartment underneath. Two drawers are located below the storage area, one on each side of the desk. There are metal pulls on each drawer. The left-hand drawer pull surrounds a flower medalion; the medalion on the right-hand drawer is missing. The drawers and desk top each feature a metal lock, but no keys are present. Quentin Bell painted the figure of Cleo holding a trumpet on the top of the desk. He painted the rest of the desk, except the back, in grays with black accents. There are random spatters of paint present on all surfaces.

Writing desk at which one would stand, designed and owned by Virginia Woolf. The sloping top of the desk features a central panel in two pieces, with hinges at the top. The panel lifts to reveal a storage compartment underneath.Two drawers are located below the storage area, one on each side of the desk. There are metal pulls on each drawer. The left-hand drawer pull surrounds a flower medalion; the medalion on the right-hand drawer is missing. The drawers and desk top each feature a metal lock, but no keys are present. Quentin Bell painted the figure of Cleo holding a trumpet on the top of the desk. He painted the rest of the desk, except the back, in grays with black accents. There are random spatters of paint present on all surfaces.

Collection comprises a full-color, four-page manuscript metamorphosis book, with verses and pen-and-watercolor illustrations by Elizabeth Winspear, who was possibly a resident of New England. Each page features two flaps that fold out in stages to reveal new illustrations. Characters include Adam and Eve, along with a lion, griffin, and eagle, and themes include the attainment of wealth, and impact of sickness and death. Includes a clamshell box.

Helen Maria Williams was a British novelist, poet, and translator of French-language works. Collection comprises four letters written by Helen Maria Williams, two to her nephew, Athanase Laurent Charles Coquerel, one to Mrs. Joel [Ruth] Barlow, and one to an unidentified recipient.

Collection comprises four letters written by Helen Maria Williams, two to her nephew, Athanase Laurent Charles Coquerel, one to Mrs. Joel [Ruth] Barlow, and one to an unidentified recipient. Williams provided aid for fellow republican radicals. On 22 August 1798, she wrote to her American expatriate friend Ruth Barlow. Williams hoped that Ruth's husband, the diplomat Joel Barlow, would assist James Wollstonecraft (Mary's brother), who was then in prison in Paris as a suspected spy. The letter notes Thomas Payne's [Paine's] ineffective efforts on James' behalf. Other topics in the letters include Coquerel's position, her income, the health and situation of friends and family members, and an unnamed woman she wishes to avoid. Three letters are accompanied by partial or full transcription.

Collection comprises a letter from Lady Wilde discussing the loss of her mother, followed by her marriage, and announcing the birth of her eldest son, William Charles Kingsbury Wilde. She also comments on marriage, "a woman's duty ends with marriage. She becomes a vegetable, a house leek, a mop--I feel that I am 'potted' for the rest of my days...." Includes an enclosure with a note written in another hand identifying Wilde along with the letter's recipient, whose last name may be Grant.

Single page testimony signed by Emily G. Wightman describing her husband's physical abuse and his neglect of his children.

Single-page handwritten manuscript testimony signed by Emily G. Wightman on the topic of her husband's physical abuse of her and his neglect of their children. Text reads: "Cruel and inhuman treatment by my husband such as frequently and greatly impair my health and endanger my life rendering it unsafe for me to cohabit with him - Refusing & neglecting to provide sufficient provisions and clothing for his family and when otherwise provided he deprives the family of their use by hiding & secreting them and locking them up in places where they cannot be found or recovered by the family when needed." Acquired as part of the Sallie Bingham Center for Women's History and Culture.

Rebecca West was a British writer and critic. The Rebecca West note consists of a single autograph manuscript note to an unknown correspondent reading, "With Miss Rebecca West's compliments." On letterhead stationery: 15, Orchard Court. Portman Square.W.1., Welbeck 3606.

The collection consists of a single autograph manuscript note to an unknown recipient which reads, "With Miss Rebecca West's compliments." On letterhead stationery: 15, Orchard Court. Portman Square.W.1., Welbeck 3606.

Collection comprises a volume containing nine handwritten poems prepared by Mary B. Tuckey and others for the 1845 anti-slavery fair held in Boston, Massachusetts, but brought together in a presentation volume. The volume features hand-painted covers and two illustrations, and was presented to Maria Weston Chapman, editor of the Boston Liberty Bell, by Mary Mannix, secretary of the female anti-slavery society in Cork, Ireland, in 1846. The volume was enclosed in a case with a leather spine, with initials "M.M. to M.W.C" and dated "Cork, 1846." One of the poems commemorates Frederick Douglass' visit to Cork.

Dame Sybil Thorndike was a distinguished British actress best known for her work on stage. In this letter to the actress and playwright Elizabeth Robins, Thorndike thanks her for the gift of some heather from Yorkshire. She also sends her regards and thanks to "Lady Bell" for her support. The letter is addressed to Robins at Rounton Grange, the North Yorkshire estate which was the family home of the writer Florence Bell ("Lady Bell"). Bell and Robins were close friends and collaborators. Thorndike refers to a play; at the time of this letter, she was in rehearsals for the 1922-23 London production of Shelley's The Cenci at the New Theater, directed by her husband, Lewis Casson. This letter connecting three key female figures of the London stage is evidence of the strong support network these women formed in a male-dominated arena.

The collection consists of a single autograph typescript letter from Sybil Thorndike to Elizabeth Robins at Rounton Grange, Northallerton in North Yorkshire. In the letter, Thorndike thanks Robins for sending her a piece of heather from Rounton Grange. Thorndike writes, "I am sure it is going to bring us luck, and I love having something from Rounton on my dressing table. How lovely to think of you up there among the peacocks and the glorious moors! I really think the play is going to be a success." The letter is signed "yours affectionately, Sybil" with a manuscript postscript asking Robins to give her love to Lady Bell, and to thank Lady Bell for her support. The letter is composed on Thorndike's own letterhead stationery, "Miss Sybil Thorndike" at the address of the New Theater, London and listing her husband, Lewis Casson, as Director. The play in production Thorndike refers to is Shelley's The Cenci, in which she played the lead, Beatrice. With stamped, postmarked envelope.