The Women's Manuscript Collection Project By Kathie Johnson University Archives and Records Center The Women's Manuscript Collection at the University Archives and Records Center (UARC) is an ongoing attempt to provide a resource center for local women's history. In 1988, spearheaded by Sherrill Redmon and Tom Owen, the Kentucky Foundation for Women funded a grant to process the papers of specific Louisville women and women's organizations. Then in 1994, UARC received major assistance toward its goal by receiving a grant from the National Historic Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC) for the amount of $55,968 to process the papers of eight prominent women and to conduct a survey of primary materials on women at the University of Louisville (UofL.) Laura Miller Derry was the first female attorney to represent a client before a U.S. Army Court- Martial. She served as president of the National Association of Women Lawyers and editor of the Directory of Women Lawyers. Diane DiPrima, widely published writer and teacher, was one of the few women active in the 1950s Greenwich Village Beat scene with Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg. Her work has been translated into at least eight languages and four of her plays have been produced off-Broadway. Grace James, pediatrician and activist in the African American community, moved to Louisville in 1953, becoming the first African American female member of both the UofL Medical School faculty and the Jefferson County Medical Society. James was also a founder of the West Louisville Health Center and active in the Kentucky Black Women's Political Caucus. Louisville native Hortense Flexner King wrote critically acclaimed poetry and children's books. She received an honorary doctorate from UofL in 1972. Lois Morris, famous for her Derby parties, was an activist in the African American community and in politics. She served as Louisville 6th Ward Alderman and was a 1977 mayoral candidate. Mary Kay Bonsteel Tachau, constitutional historian, UofL professor of history, feminist, and activist, served the UofL community in many ways including serving as President of the Faculty Senate and member of the Board of Trustees. She was also an historical advisor to the Senate Watergate Committee, and a member of the Bicentennial of the United States Constitution Commission. Louise Weillerhad a long and varied career as a Louisville radio personality and journalist. Weiller graduated from UofL in 1920, and while here held every office in her class in addition to being the editor of the yearbook, The Thoroughbred. Rebecca Westerfield, attorney, judge, and activist, graduated from University of Kentucky in 1972 (A&S) and 1975 (Law). She was elected to Jefferson County Circuit Court in 1987 and served as President of the Kentucky Bar Association and chaired the Kentucky Task Force on Gender Fairness in the Courts. She attracted national attention as the attorney for Sallie Bingham in the breakup of the Bingham media empire. An important component of the project was the required survey of all UofL libraries for women's manuscript materials. Lesley Conniff and Kathie Johnson collected information from all of the libraries at UofL. Primary source material on women was found in almost every library. The Margaret R. Bridwell Art Library contains material on women artists, writers, and philanthropists. Special Collections: Rare Books and Photographic Archives in Ekstrom Library has many wonderful collections on female writers, photographers, and patrons of the arts. Kornhauser Health Sciences Library has primary source material on medical librarians, nurses, physicians, writers, and activists. The Law Library is the repository of a major collection from a Supreme Court justice, containing a great deal of correspondence to and from women. The Dwight Anderson Music Library houses collections relating to writers, musicians, composers, and philanthropists. UARC has over 460 linear feet of material relating to women, individuals and organizations. In the process of surveying the various libraries, it became clear how the lives and works of women become hidden from view. It was discovered that some manuscript material by women was listed under a male family member's name, and oftentimes there was nothing to indicate the presence of women's papers in a collection. In the 200 linear feet of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis' papers, there is a great deal of correspondence from at least thirteen women. In the Allen Rose Hite Papers approximately one-half is material by or about his wife, Marcia Shallcross Warren Hite. Women are widely represented in the holdings of Special Collections: Rare Books and Photographic Archives, sometimes in collections that bear their own names, but often in larger collections, such as the Standard Oil Company Collection or the Roy Stryker Collection. At UARC, the papers of Kentucky Congressman Swagar Sherley contain a diary of his wife, Mignon Critten Sherley, as well as her correspondence from a trip to the Orient in 1905. The Richard Campbell Smith Papers include manuscripts of novels by a Mrs. C. Parry Smith. On close examination, one finds that the MacDowell Music Club has only female officers, and all the photos and articles checked in a sampling are of and by women only.     In the records of various offices of the university one finds papers of the UofL Dames Club, Women's Athletics, the Department of Home Economics, the School of Nursing, the Dean of Women, and the UofL Women's Club. The Oral History Center, located at UARC, is also full of women's resources. Among the holdings are 47 interviews with women in the African American community, 43 interviews with women in the Jewish community, 90 interviews about Louisville, 43 interviews about women in public life, and 36 interviews about family history. These items are mainly cataloged under the various subject headings, such as ethnic communities, business, education. To complete the NHPRC project, the information gathered from the survey was compiled by Mary Margaret Bell, resulting in a publication entitled Guide to Women's Archival Collections at the University of Louisville Libraries. A hard copy was printed, as well as a web version mounted on the UARC web site, complete with photos from several collections. The entries in the Guide describe each library, then each pertinent collection in that library, showing the name and size of the collection, as well as the amount of women's material in the collection. The Guide is fully indexed, to assist researchers in locating material.