The Valdosta State University Archives has many interesting historical artifacts, so for Women’s History Month, we decided to see what interesting stories we can uncover.
Deborah Davis is the director of Archives and Special Collections in VSU’s Odum Library. Deborah and her students showed us a very special collection they are working with. VSU holds in its archives the largest collection of “Equal Rights,” the official weekly magazine of the National Women’s Party published from 1923 to 1954. This publication was a resource for women to stay informed on the status of equal rights legislation and other issues affecting women worldwide. During the time when women and so many others were fighting for equality, this publication played a very important role in keeping those who were advocating for these causes informed and educated.
Valdosta State acquired these artifacts when the Alice Paul Institute sent out an invitation to archives across the nation to request the collection for their institutions. Deborah jumped on that opportunity and promptly submitted VSU’s request. The publications were gifted to VSU by The Sewall-Belmont House, museum and headquarters of the National Woman’s Party, and Deborah and her students began a plan to make them accessible to everyone.
Jazmine Rendon, an Archives volunteer digitizing the issues of “Equal Rights”
They began working to create a searchable article-by-article guide to the entire contents of the collection. Students work to index each article in each publication complete with keywords and summaries. Those are then entered into a database called Equal Rights Newsletter Index, 1924-1954 located on the Archives website. Students and others who are interested in certain topics are then able to search the database and see if any of the articles in the magazine relate to what they are looking for.
Owen Riggins, an intern with VSU Archives pursuing a Bachelor of Science in Criminal Justice and a Minor in Women’s and Gender Studies, has been working on this part of the project since January. He says it has been a very interesting project to be part a part of.
He says it has been a very interesting project to be part a part of, especially “seeing how things have changed and the struggles they went through, as well as seeing how the rights they fought for are the ones we enjoy today.”
An issue of “Equal Rights”
Because of the hard work of Deborah and her students, the contents of these publications are now accessible to the public in a way they have never been before. Students are also working on digitizing the entire collection issue by issue so they can be read in their entirety. When this work is complete VSU will have the only indexed collection of “Equal Rights” in the world.
Jazmine Rendon, an Archives volunteer pursuing a Bachelor of Business Administration in Management, has been working on this project for four semesters. She has been enjoying the front seat to history.
“I have been able to learn a lot about what women were going through at that time that you don’t get to learn in class or from history books, so that has been really interesting,” Rendon said.
Deborah Davis calls “Equal Rights” a wonderfully rich resource and an eyewitness to the time.
If you are interested in finding out more about this project, you can visit the Archives website to read more about it.
