Archiving the feminist self: reflections on the personal papers of Merle Thornton

Abstract

Over the last couple of decades, the modern Australian women’s movement has been the subject of history, which includes the creation of feminist archives in various locations This essay analyses one particular collection – the personal papers of the feminist activist, Merle Thornton – as an account of the making and meaning of a feminist archive. I wish to explore the ways in which the feminist subject impacts on the archive. Accordingly, I analyse the archival process, as well as the contents of Thornton’s personal papers. What emerge are the difficulties of negotiating the public–private divide for this feminist activist.