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Women, Gender, and Sexuality in Special Collections

This guide offers brief descriptions of relevant Women in Society collections. Links are provided whenever online inventories exist.

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Teaching with Primary Source Materials

Our collections exist to be used. When students work directly with primary source materials, historic photographs, and documents that are old or unique, they discover an excitement and passion not generated by textbooks.

Primary source documents can inspire, but they also teach about learning to verify sources, tracking down connections, finding evidence from content and from physical clues.

Academic Women | SCUA Collections Documenting Women, Gender, and Sexuality

Special Collections and University Archives collects in the topical area Women, Gender, and Sexuality, including Women’s Back to the Land movement, women linguists focusing on gender issues in language, women who have affected the political process and cultural landscape.

Carson, Luella Clay (1856-1938)

Papers. 1889-1916. 1 ft.
Luella Clay Carson was a professor of rhetoric at the University of Oregon from 1888 to 1909 and president of Mills College in California from 1909 to 1913. Her papers include letters from former students and official letters concerning her work at Oregon and at Mills College. There are eight volumes of syllabi, grade books, and memorandum books.
(Ax 109)

Ernst, Alice Henson (1880-1980)

Papers. 1900-1976. 9.75 cubic ft.
Alice Henson Ernst was an associate professor of English at the University of Washington from 1920 to 1923, and at the University of Oregon from 1924 to 1950. She was interested in early theater in the Pacific Northwest. The collection includes correspondence, manuscripts of Trouping in the Oregon Country and The Wolf Ritual of the Northwest Coast, diaries, notebooks, and photographs.
(Coll. 39)

Gates, Doris (1901-1987)

Papers. 1936-1985. 27 ft.
Doris Gates taught at San Jose State College and the University of San Francisco in the 1940s and was an author and editor of children's books. Her papers include correspondence, manuscripts, editorial files from Ginn and Company, letters from children, audio tapes, and books.
(Coll. 180)

Stevenson, Janet (Marshall) (b. 1913)

Papers. 1929-1978. 7.5 ft.
Janet Marshall Stevenson was a writer, playwright and lecturer at West Coast colleges. The collection includes correspondence, manuscripts, political writings, and documents about her dismissal from the University of Southern California faculty in 1952.
(Ax 265)

Underhill, Ruth Murray (b. 1884)

Papers. 1959-1971. 3.5 ft.
Ruth Murray Underhill was a social worker, anthropologist, and teacher. The collection includes manuscripts with research material, correspondence, and mementos of George W. Ingalls (1838-1920), an Indian agent.

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Preferred Citation Format for SCUA Materials

[Identification of item], Date (if known), Collection Title, Collection Number, Box and Folder number [or photo ID number], Special Collections & University Archives, University of Oregon Libraries, Eugene, Oregon.

Mission | Special Collections & University Archives

Special Collections and University Archives is the primary repository for the University of Oregon’s archives, rare books, historic photographs, and one of the largest historical manuscripts collections in the Pacific Northwest. Our mission is to acquire, preserve, and make available a clearly defined set of primary sources and rare books, reflecting the written, visual, and audio history and culture of Oregon, the Pacific Northwest, and selected aspects of American and world history. Our diverse collections support all types of research, from K–12 education to international scholarship. We strive to play an active and creative role in the teaching, research, and service missions of the University.

Historical Collection Strengths

  • Oregon history, politics, culture
  • Authors and illustrators of children’s books
  • The conservative and libertarian movement in the last half of the twentieth century
  • Popular literature, with an emphasis on Western fiction
  • Missionaries to foreign countries, especially in the Far East
  • Labor History
  • Journalism and Communications
  • Photographs of the Northwest, including the Major Lee Moorhouse and Angelus Studio collections
  • Environmental history
  • Northwest literature, including fiction by Ken Kesey, Damon Knight, Kate Wilhelm, Ursula K. Le Guin, Molly Gloss, and William Stafford
  • Doris Ulmann photograph archives of Appalachia
  • Utopian and intentional communities
  • Northwest architecture
  • Northwest economic history