Manuscript Collections

Donna Novak Coles Georgia Women's Movement Archives

In June 1995, the The University Library Special Collections Department and the Women's Studies Institute of Georgia State University initiated a project documenting the Women's Movement in Georgia.  One development of that project, the Donna Novak Coles Georgia Women's Movement Archives in the Special Collections Department, is building an outstanding collection of primary and selected secondary materials supporting the research needs of GSU's graduate and undergraduate students as well as researchers and scholars from elsewhere.

The collection is primarily the personal and professional papers of women active in the second wave (1961- ) of the women's movement. Documentation of both the individual and organizational efforts to pass the Equal Rights Amendment in Georgia as well as women in politics and business and the economic and legal issues affecting Georgia women since the 1970s, can be studied.  Materials available for research include correspondence, visual materials, audio recordings, meeting minutes, jewelry and pinback buttons, clothing, banners and sashes, and printed materials including newsletters. In addition, tapes and transcripts of the oral history interviews conducted with participants in the Georgia Movement are added to the Collection regularly. These collections also include materials related to feminism and women's rights and the involvement of Georgia State University, its faculty, administrators, and students since the 1960s in women's issues via seminars, conferences, and rallies held, as well as the development of continuing education and academic classes in women's studies and the establishment of the Women's Studies Institute.