LibGuides: Gender, women, sexuality, masculinity and feminism: Special collections and other sources

Special Collections of archives, rare books and more...

The University’s Special Collections are available to all students in the University. The collections include rare books, manuscripts, records, letters, photographs, maps and drawings. Use the search box below to find specific items on the Enterprise catalogue.

The Special Collections Service is based on the London Road campus, in the same building as the Museum of English Rural Life. Items from the Special Collections cannot be borrowed, but they can be consulted in the reading room. You’re advised to plan ahead and contact Special Collections prior to your visit, so that we can have the material ready for you for when you arrive.

Find out about using Special Collections

Relevant items in our collections and archives

There are a few items within the archive and rare book collections that relate to gender studies.

The following collections may be relevant to your research and provide areas for potential study of gender roles.

Women's Land Army Collections

There are several collections relating to The Women’s Land Army (WLA), which was created in 1917 to help farmers cope with the shortage of male labour as a result of the First World War. It was brought back into action for the Second World War, at first as voluntary service and then as a form of conscription.

Find out more about the Women's Land Army Collections

The Archive of British Publishing and Printing

This collection contains records of printing and publishing firms, including author correspondence, manufacturing and production information, and the marketing and review of the finished book. Within the archive there may be records of books published on the study of gender, women, sexuality, masculinity and manliness, and feminism or books written by authors that are key to studies of literature in these fields.

Find out more about the Archive of British Publishing and Printing

Authors in the collection that may be of interest are:

Virginia Woolf (Hogarth Press)
Doris Lessing (Jonathan Cape)
Colette (Chatto & Windus)
Carol Rumens (Chatto & Windus)
Robert Stroller (Chatto & Windus)

See the following links for more information about each of the publishers' collections:

Archives of The Hogarth Press (MS2750)
The Hogarth Press, founded by Leonard and Virginia Woolf in 1917, was acquired by Chatto & Windus after the Second World War.
Archives of Chatto & Windus Ltd.
The firm that became Chatto & Windus in 1873 originated in the 1850s from the bookselling business of John Camden Hotten. In 1946 it acquired the Hogarth Press and in 1969 merged with Jonathan Cape, all three imprints being retained, as was Bodley Head when it joined the firm in 1973.
Archives of Jonathan Cape
Jonathan Cape established his publishing company in 1921. The firm published both mainstream and more experimental literature, including a number of classic works and best-sellers, and was taken over by Random House in 1987.

All of the archives listed above are imprints of Random House, and access to these archives is granted by Penguin Random House - more information on the following page:

Random House UK Archives
Several of the collections of publishers archives and records from Penguin Random House UK are on deposit here at the University of Reading. Permission is required to view them.

Author's papers

Special Collections also has a large collection of Authors' papers - literary manuscripts of 19th & 20th century novelists, poets and playwrights. Within the collection there may be papers of authors who published on the study of gender, women, sexuality, masculinity and manliness, and feminism.

Authors that may be of interest are:

Papers of Elinor Glynn (1864-1943)
Chiefly known for popular romantic fiction and for Hollywood film scripts. The collection includes typescripts of many of her books, articles and scripts, notes on film making, correspondence, publishers' agreements and agreements with film associates. Some of the correspondence relates to her two companies, Elinor Glyn Ltd and Talkicolor Company Ltd.
Papers of Pearl Craigie (1867-1906)
The author of plays and novels under the pseudonym John Oliver Hobbes. She was President of the Society of Women Journalists in 1895 and a member of the Anti-Suffrage League.
Papers of John Gawsworth
includes transcripts of letters Transcripts of Letters from George Egerton, pen name of Mary Chavelita Dunne (1859-1945), who had an interest in the lives of working-class women.
Samuel Beckett Collection
The world's largest collection of resources relating to Samuel Beckett (1906-1989) containing over 600 manuscripts, correspondence, stage files, critical and biographical works, and artwork. Masculinity in Beckett’s work has been a recent area of academic study.

Political correspondence

Papers of Nancy Astor
Political correspondence (1919-1945) of the first female MP to take her seat in the House of Commons.

University of Reading Academics

Within Special Collections there are papers of University of Reading academics who may be of interest such as:

Papers of Viola Klein (1908-1973)
A member of the University of Reading Sociology Department who wrote on the role of women and women’s employment.
Papers of Edith Morley (1875-1964)
A Professor of English Language at the University of Reading from 1908 to 1940, and as such was one of the first women professors in a British university. Morley's interest in politics, and at Reading her concern for the suffrage issue led to her becoming a suffragette, joining the Women's Social and Political Union.

Other collections

Mills & Boon
Editorial correspondence of both John Boon and Alan Boon, script registers, publicity material and some administrative records and a large proportion of the back catalogue of Mills & Boon books.
Children's Collection
Over 6,000 books and journals written for children, mostly from the 19th and early 20th centuries
Ladybird
Original Ladybird artwork and proof, and an extensive run of Ladybird books. Highlights from the collection now feature in the Ladybird Gallery at The Museum of English Rural Life, which opened in 2016, generously funded by Ladybird Books Ltd.
Stenton Library
Includes a collection of women’s history books.

Using Special Collections for your dissertation

If you would like to make use of the University's Special Collections for your dissertation research, a good place to start would be the Subject Explorer guides. This guide has been created to help you make use of the University of Reading Special Collections in your dissertation.

Undergraduate Dissertation Subject Explorers
Use these to find out more about how you could use Special Collections in your dissertation.

Getting items not held at Reading

Our Inter-Library Loans service can get articles, books and other publications not held at Reading from other libraries (usually from the British Library).

For more information see our webpages:

Inter-library loans service
Use this service to get publications not held at the University of Reading.

Visiting other libraries

As a member of the University of Reading you can usually use other academic libraries. However, if you want to consult another Library's collections please contact the Library concerned before making a special journey.

You can identify some UK research and University libraries by looking at the list of libraries contributing to the Library Hub Discover service:

Libraries covered by Library Hub Discover service

We are members of two SCONUL schemes which enable you to access many other UK HE libraries. In some cases you may be able to borrow.

For more information see our guide to using other libraries:

Using other libraries
Advice on visiting other libraries, including the SCONUL Access scheme which grants access to other university libraries.

Conference papers

Conference papers are published in a variety of ways - they may be published as a book, or as a special issue or supplement to a journal. Some may not be published at all!

If published promptly they can you give you the latest information on research in your field.

See our guide to finding conference papers for details of specialist sources for finding this type of information.

Finding conference papers

Finding theses

Reading University theses and dissertations

The Library receives a copy of all theses accepted for the degrees of PhD and MPhil by the University. All theses held by the Library can be found on the Enterprise catalogue. Recently submitted theses might also be available to download from the University's Institutional Repository, CentAUR.

Masters theses can usually be consulted in the relevant school or department.

Finding theses from other institutions

There are a number of specialist sources for finding theses produced at other institutions around the world. Many more are becoming available online making it much easier to get the full-text. For more information see our guide to finding theses.

See our guide to finding theses for more information:

Finding theses
A guide to identifying and consulting theses produced at Reading and beyond.

Box of Broadcasts (BoB)

Box of Broadcasts - feminism playlist (subscribed content)
The University subscribes to a video service called Box of Broadcasts. There are a wide range of useful resources available. Here's a playlist relating to feminism, there are others including women's history.