LSE Library

📢Excited to share a new job opportunity: Wikimedian in Residence and Research Visibility Champion to develop our engagement with Wikimedia and research visibility tools, working collaboratively with LSE colleagues to increase research impact.
Closing: 17 Aug 2025
jobs.lse.ac.uk/Redirect.asp...

LSE Library Fellowships Apply for our funded six week research fellowship designed to support researchers wanting to use our unique archives and special collections.

We are excited to share a new opportunity to research with our unique archive collections. Our 3 Library Fellowships offer up to 6 weeks to conduct original research that will provide new perspectives on our collections.
Applications open until 22 September. Read more
www.lse.ac.uk/library/what...

LGBT+ Badges This is a growing collection of digitised badges from the Hall-Carpenter Archives ephemera collection.

We’ve added our digitised collection of LGBT+ Badges to Flickr. flic.kr/s/aHBqjCgHQP
These badges are from the Hall-Carpenter Archives ephemera collection. #PrideMonth #Pride

Who was Claire Madden? Explore the life of Claire Madden (1905 to 1998) through her archive held at the Women’s Library.

📆Fri 4 Jul, 1-2pm: join PhD researcher, Kelly Bosomworth, talking about Claire Madden, an Irish-born, Communist librarian of the 'Daily Worker' and part of Six Point Group, an influential gender equality campaign group of 20th cent. @womenshistnet.bsky.social www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/who-was-cl...

Black and white photograph of 2 women (delegates) in conversation with other women around them - Betty Friedan and another delegate of the conference.

Black and white photograph of woman at podium speaking - Begum Bhutto addressing the conference

From 19 June to 2 July 1975, the first UN International Conference on Women was held in Mexico City on the theme of equality, development and peace.
Find out more about this conference and subsequent conferences in our current free exhibition continuing until August: www.lse.ac.uk/library/what...

Lessons on revolution 6pm Wed 18 Jun | Lisa McQuillan, Sam Rees, Gabriele Uboldi, Wendy Willems | Free event at the LSE Festival: Visions for the Future | Ticket required

📅Wed 18 Jun, 6-8pm: Samuel Rees and Gabriele Uboldi will be at #LSEFestival performing and discussing their acclaimed play Lessons on Revolution, about two flatmates who uncover the history of a student movement in 1968 at LSE.
Book your free ticket! ow.ly/vE8750W79Yq

Whatever happened to an Internationalist British Feminism? Join Liberating Histories in The Women's Library Reading Room

📆Tue 13 May 4pm Whatever happened to an Internationalist British Feminism? Join @liberatinghistorys.bsky.social discussing the research of feminist magazines from Shrew to Spare Rib, Red Rag and Outwrite with original copies from the archives on display. www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/whatever-h...

Ambedkar's birthday: open archives + tour Join us for this archives drop-in session where you'll be able to get up close to some treasures from our archives.

📅Mon 14 Apr 12-2pm Ambedkar's Birthday Open Archives + Tour. We are displaying the School file from the archives of
LSE alumnus, Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar, who championed Dalit rights and Chaired the Drafting Committee for the Indian constitution. @lsesouthasia.bsky.social www.lse.ac.uk/library/even...

A monochrome photograph of a group of suffragettes dressed in mock prison garb, standing and waving inside a bus. The bus has a poster from the Women's Social and Political Union displayed on the front.

We’ve launched our new look LSE Digital Library!
Take a look digital.library.lse.ac.uk

We are eager to work with researchers using our collections so we can further develop the site to support teaching, learning and research. We can help out with legacy links and bookmarks too (e.g. a metadata csv to cross-check references). Get in touch! digital.library.lse.ac.uk/about#usingT...

A monochrome photograph of a group of suffragettes dressed in mock prison garb, standing and waving inside a bus. The bus has a poster from the Women's Social and Political Union displayed on the front.

We’ve launched our new look LSE Digital Library!
Take a look digital.library.lse.ac.uk

A See Red Women's Workshop poster with the text "Capitalism Also Depends on Domestic Labour" A factory is in the background with a line of workers coming out to go to a line labelled 'Home Sweet Home'. On that line a group of women comfort and prepare the worker to go back to the factory.

“When capital pays husbands they get two workers, not one”

Wages For Housework activists argued that unwaged workers in the home have the least power in a capitalist society. Demanding wages was the first step toward women refusing housework and rejecting social roles. More posters: bit.ly/3nie8t1

Lovely open evening of The Women’s Library @lselibrary.bsky.social tonight on eve of #InternationalWomensDay2024. So nice to see friends & colleagues.

Now to chill for tomorrow. 🦾

A simple poster showing three characters. One (a man) is sitting at a desk talking on the phone with his feet up. Another (a woman) is sat next to him taking (his) notes. Another (presumably a woman) is on the floor scrubbing. The text reads as follows and is what the man is saying on his call: 'OH YES WE'VE GOT EQUAL PAY HERE'.

We don't know much about this simple poster found in Mary McIntosh's archive, but we like it! #WomensHistoryMonth #EqualPay

Women Against Pit Closures Learn about Women Against Pit Closures through a tour of some of the archives held at LSE Library.

New blog: "Women Against Pit Closures" — the Jean McCrindle archives and the 1984/5 Miners' Strike.

A large screen displaying a hammer and details of an exhibition. Within the casing are various items on display including a jacket.

A large screen displaying a photo of two people meeting each other. One is Ronald Reagan and the other Lady Olga Maitland. Various other objects are on display.

A case with various items on display from Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT), including a hammer and photos.

“A Say in the End of the World” is now open!
Come check out our newest exhibition in our Gallery — free and open to all.

ℹ️ www.lse.ac.uk/library/even...

A sign on a desk advertising LSE Library Late on 7 March 2024, 6pm to 9pm.

Come and celebrate The Women's Library with us next Thursday! Details: www.lse.ac.uk/library/even...

The Women's Library at LSE. A view of the Reading Room from outside with its lines of desk and suffragette print on the glass.

A decade later, the library was yet again plagued with financial problems and, after a successful bid, it moved to
LSE in 2013. Everybody is welcome to use this incredible resource: lse.ac.uk/library/usin...

A photo of the outside of the converted wash houses on Old Castle Street, E1, with The Women's Library branding.

Following a successful Heritage Lottery Fund grant, the Library acquired a new home on Old Castle Street and a new name, The Women’s Library, in 2002. 📸 Paul E Smith. The Women's Library, E1. Wikimedia Commons. CC BY

A photo of the desk at the Women's Library, City of London Polytechnic in Old Castle Street.

Rita Pankhurst smiling and stood next to a banner with "Justice For Loyal Citizens" on it.

Despite all efforts, the Fawcett Society couldn't finance the Library and sought a new home for it. In 1977, it moved to the City of London Polytechnic in Old Castle Street, East London, under the care of Rita Pankhurst, chief librarian and daughter-in-law of Sylvia Pankhurst.

A hand-drawn design for Fawcett House with red brick and yellow doors.

In the 1950s, the London Society changed its name to the
Fawcett Society and the library became the Fawcett Library in memory of Millicent Garrett Fawcett. New premises were secured at 27 Wilfred Street, Westminster. Here’s Elisabeth Scott’s design for Fawcett House.

In 1940, Women’s Service House was bombed in an air raid. The Library, now over 10,000 items, was rescued and moved to Oxford, only to return to London nine years later. Once again, the collection was scattered with most held at Westminster Public Library.

Black and white image of a young Virginia Woolf.

The Library attracted prominent feminists as members such as Virginia Woolf and Vera Brittain. During the 1930s, Woolf used the collection to do research for ‘Three Guineas’. She became a member of the London Society, gave talks, and donated many books to the Library.

A drawing of Women's Service House in black and red ink.

By the 1920s, the London Society had developed quite a collection of material. Vera transformed this small society library into a major research resource. The Library was housed at 35-37 Marsham Street, Westminster, a converted pub. This became Women’s Service House.

The 1866 women's suffrage petition - Google Arts & Culture Discover why a petition presented to Parliament by MP John Stuart Mill, in 1866, was a pivotal moment in the early suffrage campaign.

The origins of the London Society, and of its Library, developed from the Women’s Suffrage Committee founded in London in 1866.

Find out more about the 1866 origin...⬇️

During her time as librarian, Vera was dedicated to two aims: to preserve the history of the women’s suffrage movement and to provide a resource for newly-enfranchised women taking their part in public life.

Vera was born in Lahore in 1894 to a wealthy Anglo-Indian family but she renounced them and insisted on living in London on a modest wage as a librarian.

A portrait photograph of a young Vera Douie.

The Women’s Library was officially opened as the Women’s Service Library in 1926 by the London and National Society for Women’s Service. Vera Douie was appointed as the first full-time librarian and stayed in post until 1967.

The Women's Library Learn about the Women’s Library which tells the story of women in the UK and the great political, economic and social changes of the past 150 years.

Happy Women's History Month!

We're proud to be home to the Women's Library — the oldest and largest library in Britain devoted to the history of women’s activism. A brief history 🧵