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Collection Overview

Creator:
Holden, Miriam Young.
Collector:
Princeton University. Library. Special Collections
Title:
Miriam Y. Holden Collection
Repository:
Manuscripts Division
Permanent URL:
http://arks.princeton.edu/ark:/88435/d504rk359
Dates:
1676-1993 (mostly 1930-1969)
Size:
104 boxes and 45.0 linear feet
Storage Note:
  • Firestone Library (scamss): Box 1-104
Language:
English

Abstract

The Miriam Holden Collection consists of books, periodicals, manuscripts, clippings, photographs, cartoons, letters, and other materials about women and their achievements collected by Holden.

Collection Description & Creator Information

Scope and Contents

The collection contains personal papers of Holden, including lectures, speeches, articles and correspondence, reflecting the views of American feminists during the post-19th Amendment, pre- Feminine Mystique era, especially the early efforts to pass an equal rights Amendment. Also included alongside contemporary feminist views is a bulk of materials related to the role women have played in long history, from ancient Rome to the first women lawyers to depictions of women in mythical stories, reflecting Holden's belief that something needed to be done about the absence of women in the world's history.

Papers of mid-20th century women's rights groups feature prominently in this collection, especially the National Woman's Party, of which Miriam Holden was a member of the National Council. Materials from this group contain bound volumes of correspondence, pamphlets, Equal Rights, and a detailed record of the 1947 schism within the party. Also included are papers related to the World Center for Women's Archives, including extensive correspondence with Mary Beard. Also included are collections of papers belonging to Eugenie Andruss Leonard and Elsa Grove Butler, both friends of Holden and fellow women's studies scholars. Materials related to The American Woman in Colonial and Revolutionary Times, 1565-1800: A Syllabus with Bibliography, written by Miriam Holden, Eugenie Andruss Leonard, and Sophie Hutchinson Drinker, are also included as are the 34 radio scripts for the 1939-40 series "The Gallant American Woman," written by Jane Asham. Many of these materials represent the earliest stages of women's history as a body of scholarship and demonstrate efforts made by individuals before the formal establishment of this body of historical study in 1963.

The largest portion of this collection belongs to the Subject Files--materials collected by Miriam Holden on specific topics, people, events, and ideas. These largely cover subjects related to women's rights and history, although also include many other topics of interest to Holden, including anti-vivisection, hurricanes, New York social clubs, and social welfare. Many of these files include clippings, book reviews, pamphlets, advertisements, and notes. These subject files also include original 19th-century materials belonging to such important women as Belva Lockwood, Susan B. Anthony, Lydia Maria Child, Dorothea Dix, Caroline Norton, Alice Paul, and Victoria Woodhull. These materials largely include correspondence and writings. There are also several original sermons (mid-19th-century) and an autograph song by Victoria Woodhull on the Beecher & Tilton Scandal.

Above all, this collection clearly demonstrates the efforts of a woman who spent her life collecting knowledge about the role of women in history in a time when women's history had yet to be established as a formal field of historical inquiry as well as her dedication to the cause of advancing women's rights during the 20th-century.

Collection Creator Biography:

Holden, Miriam Young.

Miriam Holden was born Miriam Young in Boston in 1893. She graduated from Miss Mary's School and attended Simmons College. After marrying Arthur Holden, she moved to New York, where she and her husband had three children. She was active in such diverse organizations as the Junior League, the Urban League, family-planning groups, and settlement-house work. She was on the advisory boards of the Women's Archives at Radcliffe College and the friends of the Columbia University Libraries, and co-authored The American Woman in Colonial and Revolutionary Times, 1565-1800. She was also a member of the National Council of the National Woman's Party and created the Miriam Young Holden Library in New York City in order to document the roles of women in history and to help researchers further the cause of women's histories. She died in 1977.

Collection History

Acquisition:

This collection was the gift of Miriam and Arthur Holden in 1980 (AM 80-58) with additional gifts from Arthur Holden in 1980 (AM 80-58a) and 1990 (AM 1990-108). Some materials were also extracted from the Arthur Holden Papers (C0767, AM 1994-121) in 1999. The collection was added to with a purchase in 1996 (AM 1996-07) and a gift from the Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library in 2013 (AM 2012-72). Provenance and acquisition information was kept in tact as much as possible through reprocessing, but some materials were not documented in records.

Appraisal

No appraisal information is available.

Processing Information

This collection underwent substantial reprocessing in 2014 by Nicholas Williams '2015, which included restructuring and re-housing of materials.

Access & Use

Conditions Governing Access

Collection is open for research use.

Conditions Governing Use

Single copies may be made for research purposes. To cite or publish quotations that fall within Fair Use, as defined under U. S. Copyright Law, no permission is required. For instances beyond Fair Use, it is the responsibility of the researcher to determine whether any permissions related to copyright, privacy, publicity, or any other rights are necessary for their intended use of the Library's materials, and to obtain all required permissions from any existing rights holders, if they have not already done so. Princeton University Library's Special Collections does not charge any permission or use fees for the publication of images of materials from our collections, nor does it require researchers to obtain its permission for said use. The department does request that its collections be properly cited and images credited. More detailed information can be found on the Copyright, Credit and Citations Guidelines page on our website. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us through the Ask Us! form.

Physical Characteristics and Technical Requirements

For preservation reasons, original analog and digital media may not be read or played back in the reading room. Users may visually inspect physical media but may not remove it from its enclosure. All analog audiovisual media must be digitized to preservation-quality standards prior to use. Audiovisual digitization requests are processed by an approved third-party vendor. Please note, the transfer time required can be as little as several weeks to as long as several months and there may be financial costs associated with the process. Requests should be directed through the Ask Us Form.

Credit this material:

Miriam Y. Holden Collection; Manuscripts Division, Department of Special Collections, Princeton University Library

Permanent URL:
http://arks.princeton.edu/ark:/88435/d504rk359
Location:
Firestone Library
One Washington Road
Princeton, NJ 08544, USA
(609) 258-3184
Storage Note:
  • Firestone Library (scamss): Box 1-104

Find More

Related Materials

The Princeton University Library also possesses Mrs. Holden's collection of books relating to women and women's studies.

Subject Terms:
American literature -- Women authors -- 20th century.
Authors and publishers -- 20th century.
Authors, American -- 20th century.
Autographs -- Collections.
Book collectors -- United States -- 20th century.
Christianity and other religions.
Civil rights -- United States -- 20th century.
Civil rights movements -- United States -- 20th century.
Collectors and collecting -- United States -- 20th century.
Constitutional law -- United States -- 20th century.
Education, Higher -- United States -- 20th century.
Feminism -- Religious aspects -- Judaism.
Feminism and literature.
Feminists -- United States.
Historians -- United States.
International Women's Year, 1975.
Libraries.
Presidents' wives -- United States -- 20th century.
Publishers and publishing.
Radio scripts -- United States.
Slave records -- United States -- 19th century.
Social reformers -- United States -- 20th century.
Suffrage -- United States.
Suffragettes -- United States -- 19th century.
Women -- Economic conditions -- 20th century.
Women -- Education -- New Jersey -- Princeton.
Women -- Legal status, laws, etc. -- 19th century.
Women -- Suffrage -- United States.
Women college students -- Education.
Women in politics.
Women's history.
Women's rights -- United States.
Women's studies.
Genre Terms:
Commonplace books -- 19th century
Correspondence -- 19th century
Engravings -- 19th century.
Names:
World Center for Women's Archives
National Woman's Party
Princeton University
Asham, Jane