The Arthur and Elizabeth Schlesinger Library, Harvard University, has contributed nearly 36,000 images to the Artstor Digital Library from their renowned archives centered on the subject of women in America.

The selection in Artstor features portrayals of women’s work in domestic service, and agriculture, their employment in factories, and opportunities in business, nursing, medicine, and teaching. The photographic archive richly documents key participants in the women’s rights and suffrage movements, as well as organized labor and vocational training. It also encompasses immigrant groups and materials related to women artists, such as sculptor and inventor Harriet Hosmer (1830-1908). The archive represents the work of both professional and amateur artistic and documentary photographers, including many women.

The Arthur and Elizabeth Schlesinger Library at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, Harvard University documents the history and lives of American women, across the full spectrum of activities and experiences of the 19th and 20th centuries. Particular strengths include women’s rights and suffrage, social reform, the labor movement, work and professions, family history, health and sexuality, culinary history, and gender issues.