Finding Women in Periodicals

A key to locating periodicals in the Library of Congress collections is to have accurate titles and places of publication for them. Directories identify title changes, provide publishing information that can distinguish otherwise similar titles, and, more important for researchers, can provide subject access to journal titles that may not be indexed in bibliographies and indexes.

Using Directories
Women's Periodicals

Besides locating other libraries and assisting in verifying holdings information, many union lists provide publication history and editorial information to help you verify citations and trace title changes. The most comprehensive and indispensable historical title is Union List of Serials in Libraries of the United States and Canada, 3rd ed. (New York: H.W. Wilson Company, 1965; Z6945.U45 1965 N&CPR). First coordinated by the American Library Association in 1913, this five-volume set lists more than 150,000 serials from 1,000 libraries (including the Library of Congress); among them are annual publications, monographic series, children's magazines, and some pulp magazines. It excludes most newspapers, government publications, almanacs, law reports, house organs, and college student publications. Its value to researchers lies in its comprehensive gathering of serial titles and comparative information about collections held across various libraries. It is not intended to provide subject access to serials and lacks any kind of thematic organization of material.

Directories commonly used by division specialists include the following, which are available in most libraries. The following titles link to fuller bibliographic information in the Library of Congress Online Catalog. Links to additional online content are included when available.

Ulrich's international periodicals directory
Call Number: Z6941 .U5
Published/Created: 1932-present (Also on CD-ROM and the Web)
Ulrich's is published annually and provides subject access to periodical information. A worldwide, comprehensive directory, Ulrich's is also useful for periodicals published in the United States, one of the largest publishing countries in the world. It includes descriptive information other directories lack, for instance, refereed titles and indexing sources. “Women's Health,” “Women's Interests,” and “Women's Studies” are terms useful for locating current women's history and policy titles.
The serials directory: an international reference book by EBSCO
Call Number: Z6941 .S464 PN4731
Published/Created: 1986-present (2000- CD-ROM only)
\A competitor of Ulrich's, this international directory is published by a subscription agent for libraries. Useful features for journal titles include a content description, indexing and abstracting sources, and whether or not the journal produces its own index.
The Standard periodical directory by Oxbridge Communications
Call Number: Z6951 .S78
Published/Created: 1964/65-present
Although initially intended as a directory of U.S. and Canadian journals, Standard includes some international titles as well. Like Ulrich's, it has a section covering “Women's” periodicals.

Union Lists

Published union lists are also available for subjects or special interest areas and, to a lesser extent, for geographic regions of the United States. Generally, an authorized Library of Congress subject heading followed by the subheading “Periodicals—Bibliography—Union Lists” is used to find union lists on specific topics. A few sample browses are noted below:

by subject: Feminism--Periodicals--Bibliography--Union lists
by ethnic group: African Americans--Periodicals--Bibliography--Union lists
general: Serial publications--Bibliography--Union lists

Print Materials

The following titles link to fuller bibliographic information in the Library of Congress Online Catalog. Links to additional online content are included when available.

American Women's Magazines by Nancy K. Humphreys
Call Number: Z6944.W6 H85 1989
ISBN: 0824075439
Published/Created: 1989-02-01
The Annotated guide to women's periodicals in the U.S. & Canada.
Call Number: Z7962 .A56
Published/Created: 1983
A world of women : an illustrated history of women's magazines by Irene Dancyger
Call Number: PN5124.W6 D3
ISBN: 0717107302
Published/Created: 1978

Subscription Databases

The subscription resources marked with a padlock are available to researchers on-site at the Library of Congress. If you are unable to visit the Library, you may be able to access these resources through your local public or academic library.

Women's Magazine Archive (Collection I) External This link opens in a new window
Consumer magazines aimed at a female readership are recognized as critical primary sources through which to interpret multiple aspects of 19th- to 21th-century history and culture. Womens Magazine Archive (Collection I) provides access to the complete archives of the foremost titles of this type, including Good Housekeeping, Woman's Day, and Ladies Home Journal, which serve as canonical records of evolving assumptions about gender roles and cultural mores. Other titles here focus on narrower topics but deliver valuable source content for specific research areas. Parents, for example, is of particular relevance for research in the fields of childrens education, psychology, and health, as well as reflecting broader social historical trends. Elsewhere, Seventeen, Cosmopolitan, and Essence disclose trends in and responses to the changing roles and experiences of teenage, young adult, and African-American women respectively. In combination, the publications here cover topics such as consumer culture, economics/marketing, family life, home economics, health and fitness, careers, fashion, popular culture, home/interior design and many more. This material serves multiple research areas, from gender studies, social history, and the arts, through to education, politics and marketing/media history.
Vogue Archive External This link opens in a new window
The Vogue Archive contains the entire run of Vogue magazine (US edition), from the first issue in 1892 to the current month, reproduced in high-resolution color page images. Every page, advertisement, cover and fold-out has been included, with rich indexing enabling you to find images by garment type, designer and brand names. The Vogue Archive preserves the work of the world's greatest fashion designers, stylists and photographers and is a unique record of American and international fashion, culture and society from the dawn of the modern era to the present day.

In addition to the editorial content, all covers, advertisements and pictorial features have been captured as separate documents to allow for searching and discovery. For advertisements, the featured company and brand names have been assigned to the document records, and all image captions are captured to a high accuracy, allowing accurate retrieval of photographs and illustrations. Contributor names that appear in image credits, such as photographers, stylists and illustrators, are also indexed. You can also limit your search by journal editor, to find items published during the editorship of, say, Diana Vreeland (1963-71) or Anna Wintour (1988-present).

The Vogue Archive also features specialist indexing of full-page images from photo features. This has been newly created by Cond Nast, with expert indexers using controlled lists to apply keywords to each separate image within a document. There are separate designated fields for Fashion Item (e.g. kimono, Breton jacket, scoop neckline), Person Pictured, Company/brand, Designer Name, Material (e.g. chiffon, wool, taffeta), Trend, Color and Print (e.g. batik, gingham, Liberty).

American Women: Resources from the Serial & Government Publications Collections

Finding Women in Periodicals

Union Lists

Print Materials

Subscription Databases