The Archives Collection
Jessie Street National Women's Library (JSNWL) Archives holds approximately 132 archival collections. The focus of the archives collection essentially is on Australian women of the 20th century although some international material is included where it is relevant. Most of the material is contemporary and documents 'second wave Australian feminism.' The material mostly dates from the 1970's and 1980's to the present day, however a few collections date back to the turn of the 20th century.
The archives document the lives and issues of vital importance to Australian women. They cover attitudes to topics as varied as women and the church, women's rights, abortion law reform, family planning, contraception, the peace movement, women's refuges, rape crisis centres, health care, discrimination against women in the workforce, the fight for equal pay and struggles for government funded child care, women and advertising, and women in local government.
Included in our holdings are papers of diverse women's groups such as the Australian Council for Women, Canberra Women's Archive, Association of Non English Speaking Background Women of Australia, King George V Women's Advocacy Group, Parent Centres of Australia, Nursing Mother's Association, Matrix Guild, Sydney Older Women's Network, and Older Women's Network (ACTION), Australian Women's Local Government Association, War Widows Guild of Australia and papers from the Women's Reconciliation Network. There are also papers from defunct groups such as Women and Management and Capital Women.
The archive has collected papers from individual women from all over Australia. These include the collections of songwriter and writer Meta MacLean, artist Helen Sanderson and writer Helen Ruby from Queensland; from NSW Josie Conway political activist, Olympic swimsuit designer Gloria Mortimer-Dunn and Betty Hart; Betty Searle and Biff Ward from ACT; and Josephine Dowling from WA. We hold original manuscripts and published works of writer Cecilie Milne who wrote as Barbara Gordon/ Sarah Maitland, and a proof copy and notes of a novel Freighter by Susan Yorke.
The size of the collections varies from just one tiny file such as a letter dated 1916 from Annie Golding (1855-1934) - teacher, suffragist, NSW Secretary of Women's Progressive Association 1901, President 1904, to extensive collections such as the papers from political activist, feminist, nurse, photographer Helen Leonard(1945-2001) . Helen Leonard's large collection includes papers from many of the organisations she was associated with such as Nursing Mother's Association of Australia (NMAA) Women's Electoral Lobby (WEL), National Women's Media Centre (NWMC) and a compilation of well over 13,000 photographs which document the women's movement over the past thirty years.
Many of the collections we hold do not fit within a conventional archival collection policy. In 2005 State Records of NSW donated to the archives a small collection of papers which belonging to cookery teacher Emily Winifred Nell. These date back to 1910 and clearly illustrate how the patterns of women's lives have changed over the past 100 years. We hold material from academic sources that cannot find a home in a university. Academics such as Dr Heather Radi, Dr Patricia Ranald, Dr Robin Porter, Dr Jane Innes, Dr Sybil Jack and TAFE principal Wilga Pruden, have deposited their papers with the Archives. Interesting small collections have been donated by the sons of deceased feminists. These include the papers of Violet Patrick, Patricia Carey and Pam Ledden (Older Women's Network)
Photographer Elaine Norling donated 11 poster-sized framed photographic collections which document Australian women's activities at the Beijing Women's Conference in 1995. The Archives also hold another exhibition entitled 'Significant Women' that includes photographs with short biographies of significant women in Australian history compiled by Elaine Norling, with documentation by Audrey Green, a Jessie Street National Women's Library volunteer. Our Pine Gap photographic collection is a series of 35 story boards which illustrate activities at the women's peace camp and protests at Pine Gap in the NT in 1983.
The large poster collection of well over 1000 posters illustrates changing attitudes to women particularly in the areas of work and education and date from the late 1960's to the present day.
Beverley Sodbinow
20 October 2006