The W&GS Collection supports the research and teaching of multiple departments at Texas A&M University, including the Departments of English, Global Languages and Cultures, Philosophy and Humanities, and Sociology. The last of these offers Undergraduate and Graduate Certificate Programs in Women’s and Gender Studies as well as a new LGBTQ+ Minor, making the existence of an accessible research collection particularly important. Women’s and Gender Studies is multi-disciplinary and inter-disciplinary with faculty spread throughout the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. Disciplines that inform or are informed by Women’s and Gender Studies include among others: literature, linguistics, geography, history, political science, international affairs, anthropology, law, medicine, education, economics, art and theater, film studies, psychology, public health, and biology.
The collection also supports students, staff, and faculty with similar research interests throughout the campus. Moreover, the policy also supports the research of faculty, staff and students that contribute to the critical understanding of the salience of women and gender in other disciplines throughout the university. o The Collection more broadly supports the research efforts of scholars and students nationally and internationally, helping thereby to maintain Texas A&M University’s worldwide reputation as a top-level research university.
The Collection is a cornerstone of the Brazos Valley LGBTQ community, as well, serving as a source of intellectual and emotional support and pride to LGBTQ students, staff and faculty.
The role of the Libraries is to help ensure that all members of the TEXAS A&M UNIVERSITY campus community have a place where their voices can be heard and where they can learn about experiences similar to their own. The W&GS Collection contributes to this obligation by providing sources of information by and about women and LGBT individuals, both groups that have substantial presences on this campus and in the TEXAS A&M UNIVERSITY System.
Covers
The W&GS Collection collects all sorts of materials that contribute to a greater understanding of the evolving history of women, their social status, and their societal contributions, in the United States and in the world at large. Furthermore, it collects materials that document the various interactions of gender with other identities such as race, ethnicity, sexuality, religion, and nation. As a subset of both these collection foci, the Collection collects materials relating to the history, social status, and societal contributions of LGBTQ-identifying individuals, particularly in the United States.
Materials are primarily collected from the mid-19th century forwards, though earlier materials are also collected depending on their scholarly significance or importance to the development of women’s or gender history.
Materials are primarily collected in English, though non-English materials are and will be collected depending on the scholarly significance of the items.
Materials will be accepted without geographic limit, though currently the Collection’s primary locus is the United States.
Primary sources are materials created in the time period being studied. These sources can include (but are NOT limited to): diaries, manuscripts, political tracts and pamphlets, organizational records, newspapers and periodicals of the time, monographs of the time, government records (including legislative reports, debates, and testimony, as well as court opinions and census records), religious records (including sermons and tracts, are published at the time), oral histories, et al. Primary source materials can be in almost any format from printed collections of correspondence, archival manuscript collections, microfilmed newspapers, or digitized monographs. All formats are desirable with permanent archival access as a major consideration.
Secondary sources are materials created later by someone that did not experience firsthand or participate in the events in which the author is writing about. Secondary sources often summarize, interpret, analyze or comment on information found in primary sources. These sources can include (but are NOT limited to) published books of history (academic and popular), literary works, documentary films and audiovisual presentations, biographies, dissertations, et.al. All formats are desirable.
Collection Strengths
The core of the W&GS Collection at the moment is the Don Kelly Research Collection of Gay Literature and Culture, the largest collection on the subject held by a public institution in the entire state of Texas. The collection, which continues to grow (in part through donated funds), is strong in documenting the male homosexual experience over the last two centuries and is particularly rich in its holdings of LGBT political activist materials, literature (novels, poetry, and drama), and LGBT-related periodicals. Many of these materials are relatively rare or scarce.
The W&GS Collection is also strong in preserving the historical experiences of the LGBT community at Texas A&M, with sub-collections such as the papers of TEXAS A&M UNIVERSITY Professors Antonio La Pastina/Dale Rice’s international LGBTQ materials, Harriette Andreadis (founder of A&M’s Women’s & Gender Studies Program), the University Archive’s GLBT archive that chronicles the groundbreaking Supreme Court decision and other collections related to student organizations, individuals, and community activities.
Other important sub-collections in the W&GS Collection include the Arden Eversmeyer lesbian literary and media collection, the Mark Sieling/John Algor rare transgender and gay materials collection, and the papers of Judge Phyllis Frye (the first elected transgender judge in Houston).
Current Collecting Foci
Acquisition status: Active
The W&GS Collection continues to collect widely, incorporating materials, regardless of media, that document the experiences of women and LGBT individuals across time.
Institutional Repository/Digitization Projects
Current/existing: N/A
Connections to other Special Collections and Archives collections
The experiences and voices of women and non-cisgendered individuals apply across multiple Cushing collections, including Science Fiction & Fantasy, Rare, Ragan Military, Texas, and University Archives. These collections all contain materials concerning the histories, literary contributions, and presence in American life of women and LGBT individuals.
Outside Cushing Library: The Women’s and Gender Studies Collection supplements and complements the general library collection materials on these subjects held at Evans Library. Together these collections provide a solid base of informational resources for Texas A&M students studying in these disciplines to utilize in achieving academic success. The Collection receives donations of materials from the LGBTQ+ Pride Center as well, helping to forge tighter links between the Libraries and the student community.