The Young Women's Christian Association (YWCA) of Durham was founded in 1920 and served the larger Durham community from the 1920s until the 1970s. The Harriet Tubman branch of the Durham YWCA served the African-American community in particular and, through collaboration with the Central branch, fostered integration in a racically segregated Durham. In the 1970s, the YWCA became the home of the Durham Women's Health Co-op and the Durham Rape Crisis Center, which operated out of the YWCA Women's Center. These organizations were central to reform movements throughout Durham, from women's health and childcare to fair wages and civil rights. The YWCA of Durham records reflect both the administrative history of the YWCA, as well as the programs, projects, social events, and community outreach that formed the backbone of the organization. For example, a series of scrapbooks, put together by Y Teen groups, program participants, and residents of the YWCA's boarding houses captures the strength of the YWCA community. The broader impact of the YWCA is evident in their range of programming, especially the clubs they hosted, from PMS and Single Mothers groups to a "Matrons Club." The YWCA's impact is also reflected in administrative and financial materials that tell the story of the Y's work to serve the people of Durham that needed a safe place to build community for themselves and their families.

The Young Women's Christian Association (YWCA) of Durham was founded in 1920 and served the larger Durham community from the 1920s until the 1970s. The Harriet Tubman branch of the Durham YWCA served the AfricanAmerican community in particular and, through collaboration with the Central branch, fostered integration in a radically segregated Durham. In the 1970s, the YWCA became the home of the Durham Women's Health Co-op and the Durham Rape Crisis Center, which operated out of the YWCA Women's Center. These organizations were central to reform movements throughout Durham, from women's health and childcare to fair wages and civil rights. The YWCA of Durham records reflect both the administrative history of the YWCA, as well as the programs, projects, social events, and community outreach that formed the backbone of the organization. For example, a series of scrapbooks, put together by Y Teen groups, program participants, and residents of the YWCA's boarding houses captures the strength of the YWCA community. The broader impact of the YWCA is evident in their range of programming, especially the clubs they hosted, from PMS and Single Mothers groups to a "Matrons Club." The YWCA's impact is also reflected in administrative and financial materials that tell the story of the Y's work to serve the people of Durham that needed a safe place to build community for themselves and their families.

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.

Musician and academic music therapist. Collection includes manuscripts, sound recordings, and photographs from York's music career, with materials from her participation at the 1986 International Music Festival; press kits with photographs and reviews of her music; contracts and agreements from Ladyslipper Inc.; and materials relating to her album Transformations, released in 1985. Also includes materials documenting academic career including research, teaching, publishing, and grant administration.

Collection includes manuscripts, sound recordings, and photographs from York's music career, with materials from her participation at the 1986 International Music Festival; press kits with photographs and reviews of her music; contracts and agreements from Ladyslipper Inc.; and materials relating to her album Transformations, released in 1985.

Accession 2018-0113 consists of materials documenting York's academic career as a music therapist, including her M.A. thesis, university evaluations and a tenure portfolio, teaching materials, research materials, conference materials, presentations, correspondence, workshop materials, a performance piece called Finding Voice, grant materials, and music therapy workshop materials.

York also co-edited a number of issues of the lesbian feminist quarterly Sinister Wisdom, which are included in the collection, as are production materials, drafts, and correspondence related to those issues. Also included are issues of the women's periodicals Hotwire and Paid My Dues.

Anzia Yezierska (1880-1970) was a Polish-American author. Collection consists of materials collected by Lisa Unger Baskin about the publication of "Anzia Yezierska: A Writer's Life," a biography by Yezierska's daughter, Louise Levitas Henriksen, published in 1988. Materials include drafts of a New York Times book review by Helen Yglesias. Acquired as part of the Sallie Bingham Center for Women's History and Culture.

Galley proof, unbound book manuscript, dust jacket, and materials regarding the publication of Anzia Yezierska: A Writer's Life, written by Louise Levitas Henriksen and Jo Ann Boydston in 1988. Includes a typescript draft with manuscript corrections of a review of the book by Helen Yglesias, later published in the New York Times.

Helen Yglesias (1915-2008) was an American novelist. Collection comprises photocopies of research material, along with an edited and final manuscript related to Yglesias' book, ISABEL BISHOP.

Collection comprises photocopies of research material, along with an edited and final manuscript related to Yglesias' book, ISABEL BISHOP, published by Rizzoli, 1989, New York.

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.

The Workers' Defense League was an American socialist organization devoted to promoting labor rights. Collection comprises material mailed by the Workers Defense League primarily as part of fundraising efforts, particularly on the part of legal cases undertaken by the organization.

Collection comprises material mailed by the Workers' Defense League primarily as part of fundraising efforts, particularly on the part of legal cases undertaken by the organization. The main case was that of Odell Waller, a Virginia sharecropper sentenced to death in 1940 for killing his white landlord. Arguing that the landlord had cheated Waller and that he had in any case acted in self-defense, the WDL raised money for Waller's defense, lobbied for the commutation of his sentence, and mounted a nationwide publicity campaign on his behalf. The effort was unsuccessful, and Waller was executed on July 2, 1942. Other cases included Alton Levey, Rosario Chirillo, and Tee Davis; the organization worked in support of federal regulation to repeal poll taxes. Items include brochures on the Waller case, luncheon and dinner invitations, a tear sheet for an advertisement, action alerts, flyer announcing a contest and a mass meeting in New York, and contribution forms with mailing envelopes.

Also includes a fundraising mailer (1946 May 16) related to Tee Davis and sent by Lillian Smith, the author of the novel STRANGE FRUIT. Tee Davis was an African American from Arkansas who was sentenced to ten years in prison for assault with intent to kill. His crime was firing a shotgun towards the bottom of the front door to his home while an intruder tried to break in. The intruder was a white sheriff looking for thieves.

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.

Virginia Woolf was an English writer and publisher, and one of the foremost modernists of the twentieth century. Collection contains a letter from Virginia Woolf to Quentin Bell. Topics include her cook's operation; distractions during the letter writing process, "How any woman with a family ever put pen to paper I cannot fathom;" how Vanessa Bell produced an old French lady to replace the cook; and relates the incident of lost keys to the [Gordon Square] flat. She informs Quentin that "We are now at Rodmell for Whitsun, and the Austrians are gliding over our heads like gulls. Yes, this is a fact. They have tents on the downs and prove that one can fly up and down Asheham Hill without an engine. As I never doubted it myself, I take little stock of it." This is in reference to very enthusiastic and popular Sussex gliding, or sail plane, club. After a bit of village business, she adds that the family cocker spaniel has had five pups and that "Julian [Bell, Quentin’s older brother] is coming to Charleston with a troupe next week." She also reports that the senior tutor of Kings College has been shot by one of his students. Woolf fills Quentin in on the further doings of the Keyneses, Roger Fry and his Aunt Vanessa with regard to a troublesome art show, from which Fry has resigned, and looks forward to each friend bringing her up to speed on the outcome. She tells Quentin that Vita Sackville-West's book is selling so well "that Leonard and I are hauling in money like pilchards from a net. We sell about 800 every day. The Edwardians it is called." Woolf asks her nephew if he is at his family's French retreat in Cassis, and asks for a letter from him describing his "life from the inside." In closing, she laments she hasn't actually said what she wanted to say, and that the "snap-snap of the typewriter frightens me as the snap of a turtle frightens fish. So good bye." Also contains a black-and-white photograph of Virginia Woolf and Quentin Bell, undated, but probably around 1930.

Collection contains a letter from Virginia Woolf to Quentin Bell. Topics include her cook's operation; distractions during the letter writing process, "How any woman with a family ever put pen to paper I cannot fathom;" how Vanessa Bell produced an old French lady to replace the cook; and relates the incident of lost keys to the [Gordon Square] flat. She informs Quentin that "We are now at Rodmell for Whitsun, and the Austrians are gliding over our heads like gulls. Yes, this is a fact. They have tents on the downs and prove that one can fly up and down Asheham Hill without an engine. As I never doubted it myself, I take little stock of it." This is in reference to very enthusiastic and popular Sussex gliding, or sail plane, club. After a bit of village business, she adds that the family cocker spaniel has had five pups and that "Julian [Bell, Quentin’s older brother] is coming to Charleston with a troupe next week." She also reports that the senior tutor of Kings College has been shot by one of his students. Woolf fills Quentin in on the further doings of the Keyneses, Roger Fry and his Aunt Vanessa with regard to a troublesome art show, from which Fry has resigned, and looks forward to each friend bringing her up to speed on the outcome. She tells Quentin that Vita Sackville-West's book is selling so well "that Leonard and I are hauling in money like pilchards from a net. We sell about 800 every day. The Edwardians it is called." Woolf asks her nephew if he is at his family's French retreat in Cassis, and asks for a letter from him describing his "life from the inside." In closing, she laments she hasn't actually said what she wanted to say, and that the "snap-snap of the typewriter frightens me as the snap of a turtle frightens fish. So good bye." Also contains a black-and-white photograph of Virginia Woolf and Quentin Bell, undated, but probably around 1930.

Sarah Wood was the co-owner of GERLL Press, a zine distro based in Chicago, Ill., in the early to mid-1990s. The collection consists of about 150 zines self-published by women and girls, largely in the United States. Subjects include feminism, the riot grrrl movement, body image and consciousness, women's health, women athletes, sexual abuse, television and film, poetry and short stories, rock music and punk music, violence against women, sexual identity, homosexuality, and bisexuality. Acquired as part of the Sallie Bingham Center for Women's History and Culture.

The collection consists of about 150 zines self-published by women and girls, largely in the United States. Many of these zines come directly from the GERLL Press inventory, or were submitted to Wood and Curry by their authors to be considered for sale through the distro. Subjects include feminism, the riot grrrl movement, body image and consciousness, women's health, women athletes, sexual abuse, television and film, poetry and short stories, rock music and punk music, violence against women, sexual identity, homosexuality, and bisexuality. Acquired as part of the Sallie Bingham Center for Women's History and Culture.

Womonwrites is an annual conference of lesbian writers. Collection includes anthologies of writings by Womonwriters (conference attendees), conference chronological files, meeting notes, meeting evaluations, and membership lists. Acquired as part of the Sallie Bingham Center for Women's History and Culture.

Collection includes anthologies of writings by Womonwriters (conference attendees), conference chronological files, meeting notes, and membership lists. Acquired as part of the Sallie Bingham Center for Women's History and Culture.

RESTRICTIONS: Membership mailings lists, in Box 3, are CLOSED until 2020.

Women Work! improved women's economic security through job training, education, lobbying policymakers, and partnering with other national organizations. It was originally known as the Displaced Homemakers Network, and operated from 1978 until 2009. Accession (2009-0163) (12,375 items; 16.5 lin. ft.; dated 1979-2009) includes board materials, training guides and reports, program materials, conference files, newsletters and publications, news clippings and photocopies, photographs, slides, electronic files and images, and videos. Acquired as part of the Sallie Bingham Center for Women's History and Culture.

Accession (2009-0163) (16.5 lin. ft.; dated 1979-2009) includes board materials, training guides and reports, program materials, conference files, newsletters and publications, news clippings and photocopies, photographs, slides, electronic files and images, and videos. CDs and other electronic data files have been removed and transferred to Duke's ERM server. Acquired as part of the Sallie Bingham Center for Women's History and Culture.

Accession (2015-0112) (0.6 lin. ft.; dated 1975-1990) is an addition that includes board materials, training guides and reports, program materials, administrative records, correspondance, and copies of the Network News, the publication for the Displaced Homemakers Network.

Materials documenting the Women's Worship Circle activities including correspondence, invitations, programs, handouts, liturgies, member reflections, photographs, planning and meeting notes and agendas.

The Women's Worship Circle records document the creation and operation of the organization, in which members engaged with and performed feminist theology through the development of their own worship services. The records consist of correspondence, liturgies, programs, meeting notes, handouts, members' reflections, photographs and invitations.

The Women's Theological Center, founded in 1981 and active through 2007, was a Boston-based organization that provided feminist theological and ministerial education for women. Collection consists of administrative records documenting the foundation and development of the WTC, as well as board meeting and other committee notes. Also included are grant applications and funding requests, publicity and programming materials (especially related to the Study/Action program), and writings and publications. Acquired as part of the Sallie Bingham Center for Women's History and Culture.

Collection consists of administrative records documenting the foundation and development of the WTC, as well as board meeting and other committee notes from Francine Cardman and Gay Harter. Budgets, membership information, and reports are also in the administrative records. Collection also includes grant applications and funding requests, publicity and programming materials, and writings and publications. The publicity and programming materials document the WTC's activities and include articles, brochures, and event programs, as well as information, readings, and other materials from the Study/Action program. Most of the Study/Action material is from Gay Harter's files. Writings and publications include WTC newsletters, drafts of an unpublished book about the Study/Action program, and other writings by WTC members.

WTC members who appear frequently in the administrative records, particularly meeting minutes, as well as Study/Action materials and WTC newsletters include Donna Bivens, Nancy Richardson, Marian (Meck) Groot, Angelica (Gay) Harter, Francine Cardman, and Joan Martin.

Collection comprises a poster that promotes the organization's "aims to make knowledge about women's bodies and health available to women," and to "develop policy about women's health with women." Important issues illustrated include affordable health care, stopping the spread of AIDS, and a woman's right to choose contraception. There is also contact information.

Non-profit, inter-racial organization founded in Durham, N.C. in September 1968; Elna Spaulding was founder and first president. Collection comprises correspondence, by-laws, meeting agendas and minutes, budgets, articles of incorporation, as well as information about the organization's relationship to the Women In Action Foundation of Durham, N.C. Documents the organization's involvement in the Durham community on a variety of issues, including easing racial tensions; smoothing the way for court ordered school integration in 1970; providing for the recreational and cultural needs of disadvantaged youth; and establishing a clearinghouse to offer information and referral services to Durham citizens for a variety of social problems.

The records of Women-In-Action for the Prevention of Violence and Its Causes, Inc. (WIAPVC), an interracial community service non-profit organization based in Durham, North Carolina, span the years 1968 to 1998. Materials document the organization's history beginning with its foundation in 1968, and include correspondence, by-laws, meeting agendas and minutes, budgets, articles of incorporation, clippings, photographs, a scrapbook, awards, and other documentation of its activities and milestones. The records contain information about the organization's various projects and workshops, and its relationship with the Women In Action Foundation of Durham, N.C., Inc. Persons associated with the organization included business, political, and community leaders and activists, among them Ann Atwater, Mrs. William A. Clement, Mrs. James E. Davis, Dr. Juanita Kreps, Mrs. H.M. Michaux, Mrs. Kenneth C. Royall, Margaret Rose Sanford, Mary Duke Biddle Trent Semans, and Mrs. Albert Whiting. There are also letters of support from Senators B. Everett Jordan and Sam Erwin.

The bulk of the early items in the Correspondence Series, dating from 1968 to 1969, reflects the tenacity and persistence on the part of Spaulding, the first president, in seeking money for the organization's activities. She sought funding from national and North Carolina foundations and local businesses. Among the contributors were the Mary Duke Biddle Foundation, the Grant Foundation, and the City of Durham. Money was also raised by dues paid by its members, which became a point of controversy for the organization.

The Administrative Files include agendas and minutes for WIAPVC's general, board, executive, and advisory committees. Agendas and programs for general meetings indicate that the leaders in the organization attempted to maintain a balance between focusing on some aspect of the group itself (such as its by-laws and self-evaluation) and programs of community-wide importance. The advisory committee evolved from the steering committee and was made up of subcommittee chairs.

Folders in the Subcommittees Series generally contain correspondence, reports, and guidelines. Records show that the number of subcommittees waxed and waned depending on the need for them. Subcommittees for which records exist include Civic Improvement, Education, Human Relations, and Police-Community Relations. The subcommittees undertook outreach and programs that were significant to Durham's community.

The organization's outreach activities are also documented in the Conferences, Workshops, and Projects series. Conferences and workshops sponsored by the organization reflect the group's efforts to improve itself, support other organizations, and reach out to provide service to the community. In the same series, WIAPVC projects indicate the wide range of interests and responsibilities which the organization sought to undertake. Among those represented in the files are the Center for School Support; the Clearinghouse, which offered information and referral services to Durham citizens for a variety of concerns; Cornwallis Housing Project, which helped provide recreational needs for youth residing in the project; the Cultural Experience Pilot Project, which allowed for 37 Durham junior high school students from low income families to spend three days in Washington; the Durham Emergency Energy Committee, which helped provide fuel to needy families in the Durham community; and various intern projects, in which students from the Duke Divinity School Field Education Program participated.

The bulk of the processed collection consists of the early records of the WIAPVC. Later years (1980s-1990s) are represented in Accession 1996-0164 and Accession 2008-0104, which include financial activities, projects, administrative files, reports, event planning information, newsletters, and awards ceremonies.

Collection comprises a four-page embroidery examination completed in ink by Mrs. Fred Kennedy in Norfolk, Nebraska, including 6 stitch samples. The exam did not provide the questions, and has been annotated by the person who graded it, who also attached four typed comments to the stitch samples. Includes original mailing envelope.

During her career in women's public policy, Leslie R. Wolfe served as both the director of the Women's Educational Equity Act Program (WEEAP), and as the longtime director of the Center for Women Policy Studies. This collection documents her professional life and contains materials generated by her work with WEEAP, her speeches, women's health policy materials focusing on HIV/AIDS and human trafficking, and publications from the Center for Women Policy Studies.

The collection consists of materials documenting Leslie R. Wolfe's career in women's public policy, particularly her work as the director of the Women's Educational Equity Act Program from 1979-1987. These include lobbying materials, publications, speeches, grant administration, and correspondence. The collection also contains materials documenting Wolfe's work on women's health care policy from her time with the Center for Women Policy Studies, with an emphasis on HIV/AIDS and human trafficking. These materials include publications, conference proceedings, research reports, and correspondence.

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.

Delouis Wilson is an African American artist, and jewelry designer, and art collector, based in Durham, North Carolina. The papers comprise her journals (1977-2008); calendars; sketchbooks, art school notebooks, and loose pieces of mixed media artwork. The journals, currently closed to use, document in detail her personal life, travels in the U.S. and abroad, including time spent in Tunisia in the Peace Corps, life in Durham, N.C., and employment as a jewelry designer. The collection also includes 30 large photographic studio portraits of African Americans, almost all hand-tinted crayon enlargements, dating from about 1890 to 1945 and collected by Wilson chiefly in the Southern U.S. Acquired as part of the Archive of Documentary Arts, the Bingham Center for Women's History and Culture, and the John Hope Franklin Research Center for African and African American History and Culture at Duke University.

The papers of Delouis Wilson, an artist and jewelry designer based in North Carolina, consist of a set of 27 journals (1977-2008, currently closed); a few calendar notebooks; sketchbooks and notebooks from her time at Atlanta College of Art; and loose pieces of artwork. An important component of Wilson's archive consists of a collection of 30 large photographic portraits of African Americans dating from the late 1880s to about 1940, collected by Wilson chiefly in the American South.

Wilson's journals (closed to use by donor request), calendars, and notebooks document in detail the personal life of the artist, life in Durham, N.C., her travels abroad and in the U.S., including time in Tunisia in the Peace Corps, and her career as a jewelry designer. They include small illustrations contain as well as laid-in items such as letters and postcards; some have handmade covers constructed of textiles and other non-paper materials.

The artwork, sketchbooks, and art notebooks present a mix of drawings, sketches, prints, textile work, and mixed-media color paintings created by Wilson during and shortly after her art school years, all 8x11 inches or less. The notebooks also include art school class notes and handouts, creative writings, and personal notes such as recipes, lists, housing notes, and addresses. There are self-portraits scattered throughout, including a larger piece from 1990 laid into a sketchbook. Also in the collection is one large color photograph of an African American woman by Wilson. The artworks range in size from 4 1/2 x 6 to 16x20 inches.

A central component of the collection are thirty historic studio portraits of individual Black men and women (1890s-1940s), with some of couples and families, collected by Wilson in thrift shops and flea markets throughout the Southern U.S. Most belong to a process called crayon enlargements. The studios developed faint enlargements of the photographic images on convex pieces of thick card stock, then outlined and filled them with ink, crayon, or pastel pigments to resemble a painting. One portrait in the collection is a fully-developed gelatin silver photograph. A few smaller portraits are sized approximately 10x8 to 13x9 inches; the majority are larger, ranging from 19x13 to to 20x16 inches. Most of the prints are hand-tinted with a variety of tecniques, but some are black-and-white, and some are on flat rather than convex mounts.