THE LIBRARY IS

The largest collection of writings specifically by and about Unitarian Universalist women, a non-circulating research collection for the use of all who are interested in historic UU women, including academics in the fields of women studies and women’s history, ministers, religious educators, and those preparing programs or worship services on UU women.
A connection with other locations for preserving and locating archival materials, such as correspondence and collections.
An advocate for preserving historic materials as history is being made.

Visit the Library by appointment at Bethany Union, 256 Newbury Street, Boston, MA.
Engage with history -- be surrounded by 'living history' -- preserve and track archives and collections related to Unitarian and Universalist women.
THE LIBRARY COMMITTEE The Library Committee of the Unitarian Universalist Women’s Heritage Society oversees the development, maintenance, and advancement of the Library. The Committee welcomes suggestions, volunteer time, and contributions of resources. Joan Goodwin, Reference Librarian, heads this activity. For more information about the Library, contact Joan Goodwin, Reference Librarian and Chair of the Library Committee, at jgoodbrook@aol.com

THE LIBRARY NEEDS A part time consulting Librarian. We would like to develop this as an endowed position.
Electronic equipment (computer, printer/copier, fax, scanner, internet/communication capability.
Resources to maintain the inventory and prepare notices for the Newsletter and web site. This would include the Library Committee and possibly additional personnel (volunteer or paid).
Personnel and funding to establish a lecture or discussion series, as a function of UUWHS.
Resources to prepare publicity and handle communications.
Supplies for ongoing proper storage, including acknowledgment plates, acid-free file folders.

HOW YOU CAN HELP Contribute to UUWHS Fundraising.
Become a member of the Library Committee or a Volunteer with the Library.
Spread the word about the Library.
Help to secure the resources needed.
Let the Library know about collections and items that could be part of the Library network.

Thank you

LIBRARY NOTES

Recent activities at the WHS library include several gifts and a visiting Mary Livermore scholar.

The Rev. Glenda Walker of Wausau WI has contributed a copy of E. R. Hanson’s Our Women Workers (Chicago: The Star and Covenant Office, 1882). According to the preface, this is a collection of biographical sketches of “women who during the first century of the Universalist Church have identified themselves with its fate or who had been instrumental in promoting its growth.” It has been on our library wish list for a long time. Thank you, Glenda Walker!

A new biography of Unitarian women is Megan Marshall’s The Peabody Sisters: Three Women Who Ignited American Romanticism (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2005). Megan was a featured speaker at our UUWHS celebration of Elizabeth Peabody’s birthday in May, 2004. She inscribed the book: ”Power to the UUWHS, in Sisterhood.”

Conributors to our files on UU women include Glory Southwind of Chicago, who sent a copy of an article on Augusta Jane Chapin that she wrote for Women Building Chicago, 1790-1990 (University of Indiana Press, 2001). Glory was fortunate in coming across a box of Chapin’s letters which she purchased and passed along to the Schlesinger Library of Women’s History in Cambridge MA.

Julie McVay of West Roxbury MA is doing research on Hannah Elizabeth Stevenson and sent a biographical sketch of her subject. Stevenson was a friend of Theodore and Lydia Parker and a Civil War nurse. Louisa May Alcott dedicated her Hospital Sketches to Stevenson.

Brigid Alverson of Melrose MA is an independent scholar working on a biography of Mary Livermore . She heard about the WHS library from Bonnie Smith and came by one morning to look at the books and miscellaneous papers we have on that 19^th-century Universalist activist and lecturer, known as “Queen of the Platform.” She found some new information on Livermore and in the process discovered Phebe Hanaford and other women who interested her. She will be back!

If you would like to contribute books or other materials on Universalist, Unitarian or UU women to the UUWHS library, please send us a description of what you have. And if you are doing research on a U, U, or UU woman, please get in touch with us.

Joan Goodwin (Jgoodbrook@aol.com)