Raising the Archival Consciousness: How Women’s Archives Challenge Traditional Approaches to Collecting and Use, Or, What’s in a Name?

This article examines archival collecting, taking as case studies two women’s archives. Drawing on their experiences building the collections of the Archives of Women in Science and Engineering (Iowa State University) and the Iowa Women’s Archives (University of Iowa), the authors explore how such efforts challenge traditional approaches to collecting. Proactive collecting, such as oral history projects focused on Latinas or women scientists, helps fill gaps in the historical record by encouraging people who have not traditionally been donors to participate in building and using diverse archival collections.