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Book Category: Women's Studies

St. John of the Cross, Teresa of Avila’s Brother Monk

This illustrated life of San Juan de la Cruz captures the spiritual journey and miracles of the first male Discalced Carmelite and spiritual companion of the rock-star Renaissance nun Santa Teresa de Ávila. It was printed shortly after his beatification and focuses heavily on his interactions with nuns of this newly created religious order of the Counter-Reformation period. The texts and images also imaginatively reproduced important moments in San Juan’s many travels, his foundation of Discalced Carmelite houses across Spain, and several years’ persecution with St. Teresa by the Spanish Inquisition. Among the many detailed and handsomely engraved images is the famous scene of Teresa and Juan simultaneously rising up into the air and levitating side-by-side, uplifted by their seraphic discussion of the mystery of the Holy Trinity; another depicts Juan miraculously exorcizing a demon from a possessed nun in the convent. Only three other copies of this first edition are known, one in the British Library and two (one missing numerous of the engravings) in the National Library of Spain.

Friendship Album

Friendship albums were popular in the 19th century, and included autographs, poems, and short prose selections, either original or copied from published material.

Nursing at the Turn of the Century

This photo archive consists of 35 photos depicting nurses from the 1890s until the early 1920s. This archive depicts camaraderie and accomplishment amongst women in one of their few signature professions at the time.

A Century of Jewish Thought

One of only seven known copies worldwide (and the only in the state of Maryland) of a speech given by Baltimore’s own Henrietta Szold to the Baltimore section of the National Council of Jewish Women. It explicitly discusses Zionism by name more than a year before Theodor Herzl would go on to convene the first Zionist Congress in Basel, Switzerland, in August 1897.

Suffrage Speeches from the Dock

This book contains highlights from the 1912 conspiracy trial of Emmeline Pankhurst, Fred Pethick Lawrence, and Emmeline Pethick Lawrence. In these speeches, Pankhurst and the other leading militant suffragists defend themselves against the charges of damaging city property in their attempt to publicize the issue of women’s suffrage. They illustrate the complexity of the issue and the ambivalence of the court, which found them guilty of damaging city property yet acknowledged the virtues of the cause for which they were fighting. The publisher, the Women’s Press, while an independent entity, played a strategic role in bringing suffrage into public discourse.

On Suffragette Force-Feeding

In 1914, Frank Moxon wrote a 32-page pamphlet that is widely considered to be the most effective attack on forcible feeding in English prisons. While there had been earlier texts denouncing the practice against the imprisoned suffragettes, Moxon’s account, written while he was doctor in Moorfields, made the case most effectively. He begins his article by stating that he is going to avoid any “sentimental” approach to the problem and that his intention is to present a “frank and complete report on the medical aspects of this treatment.” The publisher, the Women’s Press, while an independent entity, played a strategic role in bringing suffrage into public discourse.

Typewriter Firm Rings Bell with Women’s Lib

The protest was a response to an unfortunate advertising campaign by Olivetti Typewriters promoting “brainy” typewriters that were supposed to eliminate the typing errors made by incompetent secretaries. A TV commercial showed a secretary as a vacuous pin-up girl who found that she could attract men by becoming an “Olivetti girl.” This infuriated a group of New York City secretaries, backed by members of the National Organization of Women, which picketed Olivetti’s headquarters at 500 Park Avenue (“Rebel Secretaries,” Time, 20 March 1972).

The photographs, shot in black and white by an unknown photographer, show women with protest signs outside the headquarters. Additional photos show a man setting up the “Olivetti Weary Protestors Relief Bar,” where “the liberator” was being served: “one part orange juice, one part Cointreau, one part champagne.”

The Italian typewriter company, founded in 1909, is credited with manufacturing the first programmable desktop computer, the Programma 101, launched at the 1964 World’s Fair.

Feminism in a New Key

Overview of the revitalized feminist activity of second wave feminism, including sections on coalitions and trends, and raising questions such as “Is it possible to get government and foundation funding without being coopted?”