Reading & Resource Series: Her Body and Other Parties: Archives and Special Collections

Searching for Visual Material in Manuscript and Book Collections

Archives and Special Collections (ASC) is brimming with visually-rich materials to explore representations of gender. However, finding them within text-heavy collections, such as those focused on manuscripts and books, requires a bit of imaginative searching.

Summary: Key Resources

• Look into the Arthur Rackham editions and sketches
• Dive into related books cared for by Archives & Special Collections
• Explore flyers, pamphlets, and more related to the push for reproductive rights in Louisville and beyond
• Investigate diaries and scrapbooks of local women

Rare Book Collections

This photo shows two pages of the 1928 edition of the book "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" by Washington Irving. As visible on the right-hand page, this version included illustrations from artist Arthur Rackham, whose distinctive style mixed horror with childlike wonder.

Published works, such as rare books, in ASC collections can be searched for using the standard library catalog. To limit your search to materials stewarded by ASC, navigate to the left-hand search panel and click "Archives and Special Collections" under the header "Held by Library." Once you begin your search, there is the possibility that records for more recent publications will populate with images of their covers for you to explore. However, for exploring older book art or learning more about illustrations inside a work, you will need to click on an individual search record and head to the section "Physical Description".

The catalog record for The Legend of Sleepy Hollow with the field "Physical Description" highlighted

Exploring Related Fiction

Carmen Maria Machado's Her Body and Other Parties pulls on a variety of artistic lineages, such as folklore and the world of speculative fiction. The Rare Books section of Archives and Special Collections contains a host of related books for you to explore in the library catalog.

Some search areas and relevant collections include:

• The Ursula Le Guin editions, which span the career of the innovative speculative fiction author
• The Williams-Nichols Collection, which includes various works of queer horror, folklore, and urban legends
• The Sturtevant and Lucy M. Freibert Book Collections, both of which contain the works of leading Black authors in speculative fiction (such as Octavia Butler)
• The pulp magazine collection and the Edgar Rice Burroughs Collections, which both document the development of early to mid 20th century science fiction [note: racism and misogyny are present in a notable number of works in these collections]

If a book seems relevant, you can place a request to see it through the Archival Registration system. Hours for research with rare books are 10 AM to 5 PM, Monday-Friday.

Personal and Organizational Papers

Scan of a flyer from the Kentucky Civil Liberties Union/ACLU of Kentucky Records. The document features the stories of four women each under the question "will abortion services be there when you need them?" 

Surfacing visually-rich materials in archival collections requires a number of approaches, as the level of available description can vary across collections and record types. Our team in ASC has put together a host of resources to help with searching our archival catalog that range from getting started with a search to interpreting our form of description (i.e. finding aids). For seeking visually-rich resources related to gender, three possible approaches are:

• Searching by popular topics: This will allow you to automatically generate a list of collections associated with a theme such as "Arts in Louisville" and "Women's Manuscript Collections". There is also a LibGuide for topics of interest that provides a deeper introduction to these themes and more.
• Searching by material type: Through both subjects and the general search function, you can seek records by format (e.g. painting, negatives, etc.). 
• Consulting our team: in the Archival Registration system, via email (archives@louisville.edu), or via phone (502.852.6752), you can reach out to us for more information on collections. Hours for research are 10 AM to 5 PM, Monday-Friday.

Surfacing Records of Gender

The Archives and Special Collections team has put together two LibGuides that offer a host of queer and gender-diverse collections. While both guides are not exhaustive in covering the very wide range of ways gender is centered in collection material, both serve as meaningful introductions to some specific collections that may be of interest.

• LGBTQ Collections
• Women's Manuscript Collections