“We Are Not Bound by Traditions”: Women's Collections at Virginia Commonwealth University Special Collections and Archives

Abstract

Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) Libraries Special Collections and Archives has focused its manuscript collecting around women's collections since the department's inception in 1975. By happenstance, VCU's predecessor institutions, the Medical College of Virginia (1838) and the Richmond Professional Institute (1917), had accumulated research materials through their traditionally female-oriented courses of study, such as nursing and social work. Capitalizing on the rising popularity of women's history and the subject strengths found in its institutional archives, VCU began acquiring the papers of local women and the records of historically female organizations during the late 1970s and 1980s. This collection focus aligned with the urban, community-centered mission of the university and set VCU apart from other libraries and cultural institutions in central Virginia. The collecting area was expanded a decade later to include voices that were missing from the materials. Today, the collections are broad based and intersectional with wide-ranging representations of women.