The Archive collection is broadly comprised of three elements: Archives donated to GWL, the Lesbian Archive (formerly the LAIC), and GWL’s own archives.
Archives Donated to GWL
GWL collects the papers and records of organisations and individuals that represent the achievements and activities connected to women and women’s issues.
Specific collections include:
- Scottish Women’s Aid archive including newsletters; information literature; files of correspondence and organisational photographs
- Women’s Suffrage Collection including ephemera such as card games, jewellery, postcards and clocks; Jus Suffragii, the newsletter of the International Women’s Suffrage Alliance and rare books on the topic of Women’s Suffrage
- Josephine Butler Society which includes the journal The Shield; research files and files of correspondence
- Scottish and National Abortion Campaign archives
- Journals including Spare Rib, Off Our Backs, Trouble and Strife
- Newsletters from the Women’s Liberation Movement including Glasgow, Edinburgh, London and Scotland
- Scottish Women’s Rural Institute
- Zines including Yummi Hussi; Essex Riot Girrl; Team Girl Comic and Unskinny
- Knitting and dress making patterns
- Girls’ annuals c.1950s – c.1980s
The Lesbian Archive
Glasgow Women’s Library is home to one of the most significant LGBTQ+ historical collections in the UK. With material spanning from the 1920s to the present day, with a particular focus on the late 20th century, the collection holds significant archives and artefacts of UK and International LGBTQ+ history.
One of the largest collections we have at Glasgow Women’s Library is the Lesbian Archive and Information Centre collection. The LAIC began in London in 1984, and was funded by the Greater London Council supporting the wages of one full-time and two part-time workers to develop and sustain a collection of UK Lesbian History and culture in London. Like Glasgow Women’s Library’s own collection, materials in the archive were all donated. After the organisation’s funding was heavily cut, the Archive was transferred to its current home at Glasgow Women’s Library in 1995. It comprises material including books, photographs, personal papers, journals, ephemera, badges and t-shirts.
The donation of the LAIC Archive marked GWL as an organisation committed to the preservation of LGBTQ+ history. Since that time we have housed a large and ever-growing collection of LGBTQ+ material, which is mainly Scottish in its focus and dates from the early 1990s to the present.
More information about the Lesbian Archive and related resources
GWL Archives
The Library keeps its own organisational records relating to its groundbreaking work with women across Scotland and beyond. Material within this part of the Collection includes Women In Profile, newspaper cuttings, events and publicity material, 21 Revolutions, oral histories, photographs and posters. You can find out more about our history here.
The Archive Catalogue
You can explore the archive catalogue online here – please note that cataloguing of the collection is an ongoing process, so these records may be incomplete. If you’re not able to find something in the archive catalogue or our museum collection catalogue, please contact us.
Access to the Archive collections
The archive and museum collection at Glasgow Women’s Library is open to everyone. We operate a free public space where our collections can be consulted and no membership is required. However, due to the high volume of research enquiries and access requests we receive, we do ask people to arrange an appointment in advance to access material.
You are welcome to pop by the library to browse our books during opening hours, and there are spaces to sit, including tables, throughout the building. Our research mezzanine is also open to the public, where, on a quiet day, you’ll be welcome to browse handling collections and our themed display cases. This is subject to availability, as the space is small and we are often fully booked with researchers.
Our archive and museum collections are open to researchers on an appointment-only basis Tuesday-Friday 10am to 4.30pm. We ask people to arrange an appointment in advance if they wish to access material in the archive and museum collections not currently on display.
More information about accessing the collections, including how to arrange an appointment, what to expect when visiting, and more information for researchers, is available in How to Access the Collections.
