These collections are key archival resources for the history of women at Yale University, from students to staff to financial patrons. We recommend that researchers begin their research with these collections, especially if they are interested in the history of Yale women in the twentieth century. Clicking on the name of each collection will take you to the finding aid for that collection. From there, individual boxes may be ordered through Archives at Yale.
The records of the Office on the Education of Women (previously known as the Coeducation Office) document all aspects of Yale University's transition to undergraduate coeducation, as well as the status of women at Yale and women in academe.
The Yale Daily News Historical Archive provides access to digitized versions of printed issues of the Yale Daily News, the student newspaper of Yale University. The full text of these issues is indexed and searchable through the web interface. The historical archive begins in 1878 and ends in 1995 and access to the digital content is open to the world, representing 20,623 issues (including some special issues and supplements).
This box is part of MS1258 (Yale Miscellaneous Manuscripts Collection). David Lee Saurer was an undergraduate student in Yale College (1970) who compiled resources on the history of women at Yale University prior to 1969, when Yale College became coeducational. Saurer especially gathered information on "first" women: first women students in the various graduate and professional schools, first women to be Yale faculty, etc. He intended to write an essay based on this research, and while the essay never materialized, his research materials give a valuable overview of women's history at Yale.
Collection contains materials related to the Yale Women's Coordinating Council (YWCC), the administrative assembly of members of various Yale organizations. During the early years of full coeducation, the YWCC coordinated programs, interest groups, communications, and served as a sounding board for all women at Yale.
The records consist of clippings, reports, and correspondence documenting the Yale Women's Action Committee study of sexual and gender harassment at Yale. Note that some records in the finding aid for this collection have been redacted, as they include student names, donor names, and other restricted data.
This collection consists of the records of the Office of Institutional Research (OIR), an office at Yale University tasked with conducting research on various aspects of Yale's operations, personnel, etc. Particularly relevant to the general history of women at Yale is a report in Accn. 1980-A-014, Box 4, folder 81, entitled "Women at Yale: A Statistical Profile, 1969-1979,” which contains statistics on women’s enrollment at Yale by school, majors chosen by women and grade distributions of men and women in Yale College, and women in ladder-track faculty and research positions at Yale between 1969 and 1979.
There are also relevant materials in Accn. 2001-A-028, Box 10, which were gathered together as part of the construction of Maya Lin's "Women's Table" sculpture, mostly documentation of early women students at Yale University (prior to 1976).
Relevant boxes include:
-RU173, Accn. 1980-A-014, Box 4, folder 81 (1979)
-RU173, Accn. 2001-A-028, Box 10 (1970-1997)
Folder contains records of the Yale University Women's Organization Oral History Project, mostly transcripts of interviews with notable women who have been affiliated with Yale in some way.
Collection contains folders with biographies, vitae, photographs and related materials documenting the careers of members of the Yale community. Included in this collection are folders on a number of prominent Yale women, especially early faculty members and high-ranking administrators.
These records consist of correspondence, committee minutes, and reports documenting the activities of Judith Brandenberg, associate dean of Yale College (1977-1984), concerning the education of women. Of special note are the records from an unfinished "Notable Women at Yale" project from the early 1980s; data was compiled concerning important women in Yale's history but never published. Also contains material related to Center for Independent Study, an organization founded in 1977 in New Haven by five women married to Yale faculty, to provide resources for independent scholars; the organization was disbanded in 2007.
This collection includes records (administrative files, event records, publications, staffer journals, etc.) of the Yale University Women's Center from 1969 to 2014.
This collection contains the records related to the Yale University Women's Organization, which was established in 1965. The organization is still active and since its founding has been open to women members of the Yale community, including faculty, staff, wives of faculty and staff, and other women affiliated with the university in some capacity. Its main activities include educational lectures, social activities, and a scholarship program. This collection also contains materials related to the Newcomers' Club, a now-defunct group for women affiliated with Yale (mainly wives of male Yale faculty) who were within two years of beginning their association with Yale.
The Manuscripts and Archives Digital Library contains digital reproductions of photographs, posters, drawings, text documents, and other images taken from the research collections of Manuscripts and Archives, Yale University Library. The database includes photographs of women as staff, faculty, and students at Yale, particularly in the decades after full coeducation (1969).
Collection contains the records of Reuben A. Holden during his tenure as Secretary of Yale University. Holden helped oversee the coeducation of Yale College, and his records contain a number of interesting materials related to coeducation and women faculty at Yale. Of particular interest is a press release entitled "Yale and the Female," briefly summarizing some of the history of women at Yale prior to coeducation, to be found in Series II, Box 58, folder 388.
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