1893 Chicago World's Fair
19th-century gender politics
A01=Sarah Wadsworth
A01=Wayne A. Wiegand
American women's social history
American women's writing
Author_Sarah Wadsworth
Author_Wayne A. Wiegand
Category=DS
Category=GLC
Category=JBSF1
Category=NHK
Category=WQH
Columbian Exposition history
cultural history of 1890s
cultural treasures of the Columbian Exposition
early women's texts
eq_bestseller
eq_biography-true-stories
eq_history
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
eq_society-politics
formation of landmark collections
gender and literary history
historical exhibits and public education
historical library initiatives
historical literary preservation
historical women's libraries
history of American librarianship
history of book collecting
history of gendered literary spaces
history of women writers
institutional history of collections
institutionalizing women's writing
intellectual history of women
interdisciplinary women's studies
late 19th-century American culture
late 19th-century American women
library and archival history
library formation history
literary archives for women
literary history of 19th-century America
modernity and women writers
nationalism and imperialism in literature
professional libraries and gender
professionalization of librarianship
public access to women's texts
public engagement with women's literature
racial politics in 1890s America
regionalism in American culture
scholarly analysis of women's texts
Woman's Building Chicago
women authorship history
women in public exhibitions
women's labor and writing
women's literary collections
women's movement in America
women's rights debates
women's voices in public sphere
women's writing and cultural identity
Product details
- ISBN 9781558499287
- Weight: 456g
- Dimensions: 154 x 231mm
- Publication Date: 30 Jan 2012
- Publisher: University of Massachusetts Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Paperback
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On May 1, 1893, the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago opened its gates to an expectant public eager to experience firsthand its architectural beauty, technological marvels, and vast array of cultural treasures gathered from all over the world. Among the most popular of the fair’s attractions was the Woman’s Building, a monumental exhibit hall filled with the products of women’s labour—including more than 8,000 volumes of writing by women. Right Here I See My Own Books examines the progress, content, and significance of this historic first effort to assemble a comprehensive library of women’s texts.
By weaving together the behind-the-scenes story of the library’s formation and the stories between the covers of books on display, Wadsworth and Wiegand firmly situate the Woman’s Building Library within the historical context of the 1890s. Interdisciplinary in approach, their book demonstrates how this landmark collection helped consolidate and institutionalize women’s writing in conjunction with the burgeoning women’s movement and the professionalization of librarianship in late nineteenth-century America.
Americans in this period debated a wide range of topics, including women’s rights, gender identity, racial politics, nationalism, regionalism, imperialism, and modernity. These debates permeated the cultural climate of the Columbian Exposition. Wadsworth and Wiegand’s book illuminates the range and complexity of American women’s responses to these issues within a public sphere to which the Woman’s Building provided unprecedented access.
By weaving together the behind-the-scenes story of the library’s formation and the stories between the covers of books on display, Wadsworth and Wiegand firmly situate the Woman’s Building Library within the historical context of the 1890s. Interdisciplinary in approach, their book demonstrates how this landmark collection helped consolidate and institutionalize women’s writing in conjunction with the burgeoning women’s movement and the professionalization of librarianship in late nineteenth-century America.
Americans in this period debated a wide range of topics, including women’s rights, gender identity, racial politics, nationalism, regionalism, imperialism, and modernity. These debates permeated the cultural climate of the Columbian Exposition. Wadsworth and Wiegand’s book illuminates the range and complexity of American women’s responses to these issues within a public sphere to which the Woman’s Building provided unprecedented access.
Sarah Wadsworth is associate professor of English at Marquette University and author of In the Company of Books: Literature and Its “Classes” in Nineteenth-Century America (University of Massachusetts Press, 2006).
Wayne A. Wiegand is F. William Summers Professor of Library and Information Studies Emeritus at Florida State University and author, most recently, of Main Street Public Library: Community Places and Reading Spaces in the Rural Heartland, 1876-1956.
Wayne A. Wiegand is F. William Summers Professor of Library and Information Studies Emeritus at Florida State University and author, most recently, of Main Street Public Library: Community Places and Reading Spaces in the Rural Heartland, 1876-1956.
