Women's Archives and Libraries

Materials resulting from women's activities in political, social, cultural, religious, commercial and economic life are the focus of the collection. The Archives collection includes legal papers, business and personal correspondence, family memorabilia, and family photo albums. Once collections are processed and cataloged, information is accessible through the library's catalog and online to researchers not only in the community but also internationally.

Special Collections at the University of Nevada, Reno began its Nevada Women's Archives Project in 1992. With the participation of the UNLV Libraries, the Nevada Women's Archives Project became truly a statewide effort to collect, to catalog, to preserve, and to make accessible the records and the papers of Nevada women and women's organizations.

The Nevada Women’s History Project was founded by former Clark County State Senator Jean Ford to collect and disseminate information about Nevada women to historians and the general public through its website, publications and other public outreach. Upon retiring from political life, Jean became Acting Director of Women Studies at the University of Nevada, Reno in 1991. In the spring of 1992 she designed and taught a new course: “Nevada Women on the Frontier,” which dealt with the study relating to the historical and current aspects of women’s history in Nevada. In the course development she was amazed to find that there was a glaring absence of information specific to Nevada women. Sometime later, while compiling an anthology of Nevada women she confirmed her hypothesis that the subject of women’s participation in Nevada’s history was indeed, comparatively nonexistent and nebulous.