On December 31, 1931, the Municipal Council of the City of Paris accepted the donation of the collections gathered by Marguerite Durand (1864-1936) throughout her life and thus created the first French "Feminist documentation office".
Collections
• 45,000 books and brochures since the 17th century, on feminism (history of struggles, biographies of activists, feminist theory, etc.), but also on the place and role of women in society, the arts, sciences , sports, travel, etc.
The library is also very rich in original editions of literary works written by women.
Among the precious works, we can mentionMiscellaneous Observations on Sterility, Loss of Fruit, Fertility, Childbirth and Diseases of Women (1609) by Louise Bourgeois, midwife to Marie de Medici, On the Equality of the Two Sexes (1673) by François Poullain de la Barre, first great modern “feminist”, the works of Olympe de Gouges, author in 1791 of the Declaration of the Rights of Woman and of the Citizen , notebooks of women's grievances, the works of Flora Tristan, etc.
• 1,200 titles of periodicals women and feminists, activists and researchers, since the 18th century, with very rare titles, such as La Spectatrice (1728-1729), La Femme libre (1832-1834) or La Voix des femmes (1848).
The library preserves almost all the French feminist titles of the 19th and 20th centuries, among which, for the "first wave", Le Droit des femmes , founded in 1869, La Citoyenne founded in 1881 by Hubertine Auclert, one of the first French suffragists, La Fronde (1897-1905), La Française founded by Jane Misme in 1906, La Suffragiste founded by Madeleine Pelletier in 1908, and for the titles of the Women's Liberation Movement Le Torchon brule, Histoires d'elles, Sorcières, Women are stubborn , etc.
• 5,000 documentary files compiled since the founding of La Frondeand classified by personalities and subjects; they include a large number of press clippings, tracts, biographical notices, statutes of associations, invitations, programs, etc. and provide researchers with rich documentation on a wide variety of themes
• 4,500 autograph letters and manuscripts, mostly unpublished, from women writers, artists, scientists, travellers, feminists, politicians, journalists (George Sand, Louise Colet, Louise Michel, Sarah Bernhardt, Colette, Alexandra David-Neel...)
• an old and modern iconographic fund: portraits of writers, artists, politicians, feminist demands and demonstrations, women at work, fashion and regional costumes, etc. through 3,500 postcards, 4,200 photographs, 1,000 posters, and a collection of various iconography (drawings, engravings, illustrated newspapers)
• 75 archive collections of associations and personalities, including Nelly Roussel, Jane Misme , Eugénie Cotton
• paintings, engravings, works of art, feminist propaganda documents: stamps, illustrated blotters, goose game and suffragist fan.
La Française: journal of feminine progress