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Gloria Steinem and Dorothy Kenyon, circa 1970s. Photographer unknown.

This exhibit marks the opening for research of eight collections of 20th century women activists: the papers of Constance Baker Motley, Dorothy Kenyon, Mary Kaufman, Frances Fox Piven, Jessie Lloyd O'Connor, and Gloria Steinem and the records of the Women's Action Alliance and the National Congress of Neighborhood Women. These new resources highlight women's part in the multiple struggles for social change that span the century including labor, socialism, civil liberties, peace, racial justice, urban reform, welfare rights, and women's rights. They illuminate connections between reform movements, as well as the interplay of race, ethnicity, class, and gender within them. Processing of these collections was made possible in part by the generous support of the National Endowment for the Humanities.

• In September 2000, the Sophia Smith Collection hosted the Agents of Social Change Conference to celebrate the opening of these collections and to explore their research potential.


• In collaboration with the National Women's History Project, the SSC has also created curriculum packets with lesson plans designed for middle and high school students featuring additional primary sources from these collections.

Kudos to the manuscripts processing team: the "Agents" behind the scenes (a.k.a. Women in Black): Marla Miller, Amy Hague, Amanda Izzo, Margaret Jessup, and Kate Weigand (not pictured) in the stacks of the Sophia Smith Collection, 1999. Photograph by Burd Schlessinger.