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COLLECTION Identifier: WRC 1104-1106f+; M-133, reel D49

Records of the Woman's Journal in the Woman's Rights Collection, 1888-1948

Overview

Correspondence, statements, subscription solicitations, etc., of the Woman's Journal, founded by Lucy Stone and Henry Browne Blackwell, suffragists and abolitionists. These records are part of the Woman's Rights Collection.

Dates

  • Creation: 1888-1948

Language of Materials

Materials in English.

Access Restrictions:

Access. Originals closed; use microfilm, M-133, reel D-49.

Conditions Governing Use

Copyright. The records of the Woman's Journal are in the public domain.

Copying. Papers may be copied in accordance with the library's usual procedures.

Extent

4 folders

This series contains correspondence and printed material that document the financial struggles and changing affiliations of the Woman's Journal between 1911 and 1917.

HISTORY

Lucy Stone and her husband, Henry Browne Blackwell, founded the Woman's Journal, a weekly newspaper, in 1870. Mary A. Livermore was among the editors in the first year. From 1872 until 1893, when Lucy Stone died, Lucy Stone and Henry Browne Blackwell edited the Woman's Journal; they were aided by Julia Ward Howe between 1872 and 1879. Lucy Stone and Henry Browne Blackwell's daughter, Alice Stone Blackwell, started work as an editor in 1883 and, after her father's death in 1909, became the sole editor until 1917. In 1887, Alice Stone Blackwell began editing the Woman's Column.

In addition to sales and subscriptions, the Woman's Journal relied on contributions to produce a newspaper national in both scope and readership. Although there was never enough advertising to secure its financial well-being, the Woman's Journal would not accept ads for tobacco, liquor, or medicines. Between 1908 and 1915 circulation jumped from 2,400 to 27,600. In the early 1910s, suffragists, licensed as "newsboys," sold the newspaper on the Boston Common. The Woman's Journal hired Margaret Foley, a popular suffrage speaker, to travel throughout the south and midwest promoting the journal.

At its founding, the Woman's Journal absorbed the Woman's Advocate. In 1910 it absorbed the Progress, the National American Woman Suffrage Association's publication, and until 1912 the journal was subtitled "official organ of the National American Woman Suffrage Association." During that brief period, NAWSA provided managerial and financial support. From 1912 to 1916, the newspaper was called Woman's Journal and Suffrage News. In 1917, after years of financial problems, Woman's Journal stockholders sold the newspaper to the Leslie Woman Suffrage Commission, which merged the Woman's Journal, Woman Voter, and National Suffrage News to form The Woman Citizen. The official organ of NAWSA, 1917-1920, the The Woman Citizen was published weekly, biweekly, and finally monthly until December 1927, when it was renamed The Woman's Journal. The Woman's Journal ceased publication in June 1931.

For additional historical information, see The Torch Bearer: A Look Forward and Back at the Woman's Journal, the Organ of the Woman's Movement, written by managing editor Agnes E. Ryan in 1916. The Torch Bearer includes a list of early stockholders and a description of the production process. A copy may be found in #69 of the Margaret Foley papers, MC 404, at the Schlesinger Library.

Physical Location

Collection stored off site: researchers must request access 36 hours before use.

Immediate Source of Acquisition

These papers of the Woman's Journal fill four folders of the Woman's Rights Collection, which was given to Radcliffe College in August 1943 and formed the nucleus of the Women's Archives, later the Schlesinger Library. The material in this series was prepared for microfilming in November 1990 by Kim Brookes. It was microfilmed as part of a Schlesinger Library/University Publications of America project.

Related Material:

This material forms part of the Schlesinger Library's Woman's rights collection, 1853-1958 (WRC).

Title
Woman's Journal (Boston, Mass. : 1870). Records of the Woman's Journal in the Woman's Rights Collection, 1888-1948: A Finding Aid
Author
Arthur and Elizabeth Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America
Language of description
eng
EAD ID
sch00577

Repository Details

Part of the Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute Repository

The preeminent research library on the history of women in the United States, the Schlesinger Library documents women's lives from the past and present for the future. In addition to its traditional strengths in the history of feminisms, women’s health, and women’s activism, the Schlesinger collections document the intersectional workings of race and ethnicity, gender, sexuality, and class in American history.

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