September - November 2019

Curated by Jeffrey Makala, Special Collections Librarian and University Archivist   

This year, the Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Program offers a major concentration in addition to a minor. To mark this significant event, we have assembled a group of materials from Furman’s special collections that offer significant potential for future student research projects in WGSS. Each item or collection of items shown here has the potential to generate many research questions for semester papers, summer research projects, theses, and creative works. 

In addition, the exhibit traces a history of materials created by or of interest to women as authors, creators, and readers, stretching back to an example of the output of a woman-owned print shop in Germany in 1532. The cases on early 20th century social change and on Second Wave feminism are particularly rich in textual and graphic depictions of texts that reflect significant shifts in women’s power and access to power in the West in their respective time periods. LGBT+ materials are also prominent and reflect a number of growing collections for Furman, from the first English-language publications to address same-sex desire through to a new collecting interest in contemporary queer zines. As the program and these collections both grow, we hope to provide for Furman students and faculty a rich array of primary sources from many historical periods that allow for unique classroom and research experiences and the creation of new knowledge and creative works as a result.

Many thanks are due to Rick Jones for photography and to Kathie Sloan for creating the poster for this exhibition.

—Jeffrey Makala, Special Collections and Archives