Gender Studies at the William Andrews Clark Memorial Library

The Clark Library collects creative material by visual artists and writers who are women. Women of various classes, races, nationalities, and gender expressions are represented in the fiction, poetry, and visual art highlighted below, specifically from the seventeenth through twenty-first centuries. The works address themes of enslavement, intimacy, critique of gender norms, class consciousness, gender fluidity, friendship, family, women’s suffrage, the natural world, sex, sexuality, socialism, feminism, philosophy, fashion, and religion. The following subsections are a sampling of the collection. 

Examples: 

• “Annotations on Abdelazer, or The Moor’s Revenge,” after 1677. Clark Library Rare Book Stacks; PR3317 .A11 *: Manuscript annotations by an unknown owner in the 1677 copy of Aphra Behn’s (1640–1689) Abdelazer, or The Moor’s Revenge, a 1676 tragic play about a Abdelazer, an enslaved Moorish general in the Spanish army seeking revenge on the king who killed his father. The play represents Behn’s career-long interest in writing about enslavement. 
• Austen, Jane. Sense and Sensibility: A Novel: In Three Volumes. By a Lady. London: Printed for the author and published by T. Egerton, 1811. Clark Library Rare Book Stacks; PR4034 .S41 *: Austen is only named as “a Lady” on the title page. 
• Brontë, Charlotte. Shirley: A Tale. By Currer Bell, Author of ‘Jane Eyre’; in Three Volumes. London: Smith, Elder and Co., 1849. Clark Library Rare Book Stacks; PR4167 .S51 *: A novel by Charlotte Brontë (1816–1855) focused on Shirley, a woman in Yorkshire, England who questions gender norms in an era rife with economic and industrial changes. This rare book is a first edition published under Currer Bell, Brontë’s alias.
• Eliot, George. Silas Marner: The Weavers of Raveloe. Edinburgh: W. Blackwood and Sons, 1861. Clark Library Rare Book Stacks; PR4670 .A1 *: Silas Marner is George Eliot’s (1819–1880) third novel and narrates the false accusations of theft against a poverty-stricken weaver.
• Rachilde. Monsieur Vénus. Préface de Maurice Barrès. Paris: Libraire française, 1902. Clark Library Rare Book Stacks; PQ2643.A323 M7 1902 *: Rachilde (1860–1953), a gender ambiguous Symbolist and Decadent writer from the fin-de-siècle, explores gender fluidity in the fictional relationship between the well-to-do Raoule de Vénérande and Jacques Silvert, a poor flower artist. 
• Woolf, Virginia. The Waves. London: Leonard and Virginia Woolf at The Hogarth Press, 1931. Clark Library Press Collection; Press coll. Gill Lib. 364: Virginia Woolf (1882–1941) weaves an experimental work of modernist fiction about six friends in six different times in their lives.

Examples:

• Browning, Elizabeth Barrett. The Earlier Poems of Elizabeth Barrett Browning, 1826–1833. London: Bartholomew Robson, 1878. Clark Library Rare Book Stacks; PR4182 .R667 *: A book of Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s (1806–1861) early poetry, including “Essay on Mind,” “To My Father on His Birth-Day,” “Spenserian Stanzas,” “Verses To My Brother,” “On The Death of Lord Byron,” “Memory,” “To —,” “Stanzas Occasioned By A Passage in Mr. Emerson’s Journal,” “The Past,” “The Prayer,” “On A Picture Of Riego’s Widow,” “Song,” “The Dream,” “Riga’s Last Song,” and “The Vision Of Fame.” 
• Reed, Anna M. Morrison. Gethsemane: and other writings. Petaluma: Northern Crown Pub. Co., 1915. Clark Library Rare Book Stacks; PR5821.A4 G39 *: A collection of 41 poems by Anna M. Morrison Reed (1849–1921), a California-based poet and suffragette. The poems include, “Your Life and Mine,” “Her King,” “Death of President Garfield,” “One Eastern Day,” “To My Children,” “The Lyre of Greece,” and “Ante Mortem.” 
• Rossetti, Christina. Goblin Market and Other Poems. By Christina Rossetti; with Two Designs by D.G. Rossetti. Second edition. London and Cambridge: Macmillan & Co., 1865. Clark Library Rare Book Stacks; PR5237 .G51 1865 *: Christina Rossetti (1830–1894) was a poet in the Victorian period who wrote prolifically. This collection of poems includes “Noble sisters,” “Echo,” “My secret,” “Mirage,” “Sister Maude,” and “Christian and Jew.” The text is accompanied by two designs by Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828–1882), an esteemed artist in the Pre-Raphaelite movement and Christina’s brother. 
• Wheatley, Phillis. Poems on various subjects, religious and moral. London: Printed for A. Bell, 1773. Clark Library Rare Book Stacks; PS866.W5 P7 *: A collection of 39 poems by prolific poet Phillis Wheatley (1753–1784). The poems include “On Virtue,” “To the King’s Most Excellent Majesty. 1768,” “On the Death of a young Lady of Five Years of Age,” “Thoughts on the Works of Providence,” and “To a Lady on the Death of Three Relations.” Wheatley was an enslaved woman kidnapped from Senegal/Gambia when she was a child and brought to Boston. She was enslaved by Susannah and John Wheatley, and the preface to the book includes a letter “sent by the author’s master to the publisher” and signed by John Wheatley. The frontispiece portrait is an engraving after a drawing by Scipio Moorhead (1750–?), an African-American artist enslaved by Reverend John Moorhead of Boston.

Examples: 

• Fans by Sarah Ashton (Eighteenth Century): Sarah Ashton was a famous and productive publisher of fan leaves in England. She was part of The Worshipful Company of Fan Makers, and the Clark Library collection includes many of her uncut and mounted fans. 

Examples: 

• [Bouquet fantasque]. London: Published by Sarah Ashton, 1791 (Clark Library Annex 3; Artwork Box 13A, Folder 1): A fan of hand colored riddles, word games, and puzzles in the style of medley prints. It is a folding paper fan mounted on wooden sticks. 
• Shakespeare’s Seven Ages. London: Sarah Ashton, 1796 (Clark Library Map Drawer; Drawer 53, Folder 06): The fan shows the seven ages of man as explained by Jaques to the Duke in Shakespeare’s Seven Ages of Man speech in As You Like It. It is uncut with visible markings for final cutting. 
• The County Fan. London: Sarah Ashton, 1794 (Clark Library Annex 3; Artwork Box 13A, no. 3): There are five columns of text with historical and topographical notes on the counties of England and Wales. It is a folded paper fan mounted on wooden sticks. 
• The Lady’s Adviser, Physician & Moralist, or Half an Hours Entertainment at the Expence of Nobody! London: Published by Sarah Ashton & Co., 1797 (Clark Library Annex 3; Artwork Box 6A, Folder 4): Comedic vignettes, not mounted. 
• Vive la Bagatelle: Let us Live, Love, & Laugh. London: Published by Sarah Ashton & Co., 1797 (Clark Library Annex 3; Artwork Box 17A, Folder 11): A print for a “conundrum fan” featuring scrolls with riddles in English and French; harp; branches; cup and squirrel on a small-scale decorative background; decorative border; letter cases with days of the week; and more. It is an unmounted printed fan leaf in a semi-circular format. 

• Paintings, Drawings, Prints, and Sculptures 

Examples:

• Helen Hall Culver, Plaque bas relief of William Shakespeare, 1929 (Clark Artwork; Annex 3; Box 1): Made of bronze.
• Kate Traumann Steinitz, Picture of Federic W. Goudy and two others, 1941 (Clark Artwork; 2D Annex Drawer AA): Pencil drawing with a white card mount. 
• Lesley Blanch, Vision of love and strange delights, 1930 (Clark Library Rare Book Stacks; Drawer 2, Flat File 5): Pencil and watercolor illustration for the Golden Cockerel Press edition of John Dryden’s Songs and Poems. 
• Marilynn Dwyer Mason, Copper King Mansion, 1966 (Clark Artwork; 2D Annex Drawer AA): Black ink print on copper paper.

• Books

Examples: 

• Lewis, Samella S., and Ruth G. Waddy, eds. Black Artists on Art. Los Angeles: Contemporary Crafts Publishers, 1969. Clark Library Press Collection; Press coll. Ritchie 0779: In this edited volume, Samella Lewis (1923–2022), a visual artist and art historian who created a museum for African-American artists, and Ruth Waddy (1909–2003), a painter, printer, and champion for African-American art, introduce the work of overlooked African-American artists. Many Black women artists are highlighted in the two volumes, including Margo Humphrey (1942–), Betye Saar (1926–), Della Brown Taylor (1922–2005), Mary Parks Washington (1924–2019), Lois Mailou Jones (1905–1998), Jewel W. Simon (1911–1996), Gloria Bohanon (1938–2008), Margaret Burroughs (1915–2010), Gwendolyn Knight (1913–2005), and Elizabeth Catlett (1915–2012).
• Studio One Gallery. “Shall We Join the Ladies?”: Wood Engravings. By Women Artists of the Twentieth Century. Oxford: Studio One Gallery, 1979. Clark Library Press Collection; Press coll. Skelton F001: A collection of black and white wood engravings by 27 artists, including Mary E. Groom (1903–1958), Rachel Reckitt (1908–1995), and Clare Leighton (1898–1989). 
• Summerly, Felix, Henry Cole, and David Cox. A Hand-Book for the Architecture, Sculptures, Tombs, and Decorations of Westminster Abbey: With Fifty-Six Embellishments on Wood. Engraved by Ladies; and Four Etchings by David Cox. London: George Bell, 1842. Clark Library Rare Book Stacks; Armstrong coll. S955h *: The wood engravings in this rare book were made by women. 

Ann Yerbury wrote poems, hymns, and prose on a variety of subjects between 1729 and 1753. She married into a wealthy family of clothiers from Bristol, England (the Yerburys) on June 24, 1735. Ann likely died on May 30, 1799 (as per her will). The majority of materials in the Clark Library’s Ann Yerbury collection are poems covering topics like death, illness, birth, rebellion, natural disasters, and friendship. 

Examples from the Ann Yerbury Papers:

• A small, leather notebook with four pages by Ann Yerbury’s mother (Box 1, Folder 2): It details births, deaths, and marriages in the family.
• “To a profess’d Libertine,” 1729 (Box 1, Folder 4).
• “the divine wish,” 1730 (Box 1, Folder 5).
• “A mournful soliloquy in the illness of a Relation,” 1732 (Box 1, Folder 7).
• “on a storm of thunder and lightning,” 1733 (Box 1, Folder 8).
• “a Hymn (to be sung after my own funeral sermon,” 1733 (Box 1, Folder 8).
• “a Hymn for the last moments (or this to be sung after),” 1734 (Box 1, Folder 9).
• “on my recovery from an illness in ye spring,” 1736 (Box 1, Folder 10).
• “on Mr Yerbury’s being dangerously ill of a Feavour,” 1739 (Box 1, Folder 13).
• “On my Birth Day. Feb 4 ye the 12. 1741 February 12,” 1741 (Box 1, Folder 14).
• “on being disappointed of ye assistance of a friend in some Distressing Affair,” 1745 (Box 1, Folder 16).
• “A Hymn for the late Public Saft. in ye time of the Rebellion,” 1745 (Box 1, Folder 16): Likely about the Jacobite Rebellion.
• “Reflections in a Mornings Walk,” 1747 (Box 1, Folder 18).
• “A Hymn on Redemption,” 1750 (Box 1, Folder 20).
• “Some Thoughts in the late terrible Earthquakes,” 1750 (Box 1, Folder 20).
• “a petition for a Friend dangerously ill,” 1752 (Box 1, Folder 22).

Dollie Radford (1858–1920), the nom de plume of Caroline Maitland, was an English writer of poems, plays, and short stories. She was a writer with Pre-Raphaelite and Romantic influences who linked aesthetics with socialist and feminist politics. Radford’s poetry addresses themes of nature as beauty and violence; anti-industrialism; the difficulties of being a working mother; women’s rights; domesticity; and love as pain. She was in the circles of William Morris (1834–1896), George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950), H.G. Wells (1866–1946), and W.B. Yeats (1865–1939), and a dedicated contributor to The Yellow Book, a British literary quarterly published between 1894 and 1897. 

For more information on Radford’s subversive poetics read Richardson, LeeAnne Marie. “Naturally Radical: The Subversive Poetics of Dollie Radford.” Victorian Poetry 38, no. 1 (Summer 2000): 109–24.

The Clark Library’s Dollie Radford Papers (1883–1910) document her literary career and family life through literary manuscripts, diaries, correspondence, and books. The literary manuscripts are primarily by Dollie, but some are by her daughters, Margaret Maitland Radford (1884–?) and Hester Maitland Radford (1886–1962), and husband, Ernest Radford (1857–1919). 

Archival materials in the collection include: 

• Diary, 1883–1889 (Box 1): Manuscript diary reflecting the life of Dollie. It opens in the May of the year she married Ernest. 
• Diary, 1891–1900 (Box 1): Manuscript diary known in the Radford family as the “Tragic Diary,” as it covers the period of Ernest’s first mental breakdown. It mentions visits to William Morris (1834–1896) and T.J. Cobden-Sanderson (1840–1922). 
• Collection of papers, 1895–1896 (Box 1): Includes an agreement with John Lane, publisher of the Bodley Head, for the publication of Songs and Others Verses. 
• “At night” poem by Dollie Radford (Box 2).
• “The Church of God” poem by Dollie Radford (Box 2).
• Notebook of poems (Box 3): Contains many of Dollie Radford’s early poems with notes by her of their publications. One poem, “She comes through the meadow yonder,” is marked “Music by G.B. Shaw.” 
• Collection of 18 photographs of Ernest and Dollie Radford, their children, and other family members (Box 3).
• “The fortune,” short story by Hester Maitland Radford (Box 4).
• “The cockle-shell: a London voluntary,” by Margaret Maitland Radford (Box 4).

Examples of Radford Books:

• Radford, Dollie. Good night. London: David Nutt, 1895. Clark Library Rare Book Stacks; PR5205.R5 G65 *: Designs by Louis Davis (1860–1941), a Pre-Raphaelite artist. The Clark Library has three copies. The first is the author’s presentation copy to Hester Maitland Radford, and the second is the author’s presentation copy to Margaret Maitland Radford. The last is the copy of Emery Walker (1851–1933), British printer and book collector. 
• Radford, Dollie. One way of love: an idyll. London: T. Fisher Unwin, 1898. Clark Library Rare Book Stacks; PR5205.R5 O58 *: The Clark Library has three copies. One copy was the author’s own, and it includes her signature on the recto of the front free endpaper. The second copy was the author’s presentation copy to Ernest Radford. The last copy belonged to Hester Maitland Radford. 
• Radford, Ernest. Measured Steps. London: T. Fisher Unwin, 1884. Clark Library Rare Book Stacks; PR5205.R6 M4 *: This is the author’s presentation copy to Dollie Radford. Her name is inscribed in his hand on the half-title page. 

Dorothea Conyers (1873–1949) was a popular Irish novelist who penned dynamic, comedic, and romantic novels about the Irish sporting class. Her well-known works include The Thorn Bit (1900), Lady Elverton’s Emeralds (1909), For Henri and Navarre (1911), and Sporting Reminiscences (1920). 

The Clark Library’s Dorothea Conyers Papers includes typescripts and manuscripts of many of Conyers' works. Some materials include: 

• Come On Ch. 1–4 (Box 1, Folder 1).
• Blind.
• Correspondence and Unidentified Works (Box 3, Folder 1).
• Unidentified Works (Box 2, Folders 1–5; Box 3, Folders 2–7; Box 4, Folders 1–7; Box 5, Folders 1–8; Box 6, Folders 4–9; Box 7, Folders 1–7; Box 8, Folders 1, 3–11; Box 9, Folders 3, 7–8).

Marion Kronfeld (1912–2004), was a Los Angeles-based artist known for her printmaking and lithography techniques. She studied printmaking at the National Academy and the New School for Social Research in New York and moved to Pasadena, California with her husband, Alfred Kronfeld (1915–1996), after finishing her studies. She studied printmaking and lacquers with José Gutierrez in Mexico and published illustrations for the Plantin Press in Los Angeles. Kronfeld carefully documented her life in sketchbooks and diaries; the sketchbooks include landscapes, and portraits, and her diaries document her thoughts on everyday life, politics, marriage, travel, philosophy, and art. 

The Clark Library’s Marion Kronfeld Collection holds sketchbooks, notebooks, diaries, and correspondence. Some materials include: 

• Blue “The Scribble-In Book” sketchbook (Box 1, Folder 2): This hardcover sketchbook contains pencil sketches with a few ink and watercolor pages. Names, telephone numbers, addresses, and some price lists are written inside the front and back covers. 
• Terracotta sketchbook, early to mid-1950s (Box 2, Folder 5): This sketchbook contains some spiritual and philosophical writing, as well as notes of art principles. There are sketches in ink, pencil, paint, pastels, and colored pencils. 
• Mexico notebook and ephemera, 1954 (Box 2, Folder 6): Contains many handwritten formulas for lacquers and mural painting; lists for Spanish words and phrases with their English translations; journaling entries about her dreams, life, work, and marriage; and philosophical writing about Albert Guérard (1914–2000), an American novelist and essayist. 
• Cards and other correspondence to Vance Gerry, 1977–1999 (Box MS.2009.007, Box 1, Folder 1, 3–6): Cards and letters written to Vance Gerry (1929–2005), an American storyboard artist. Nearly all the items are written on pochoir cards made by Kronfeld. 

To find printed books, art objects, manuscripts, and fine press books go to UC Library Search. Click on “Advanced Search,” select the “Subject” field, and type either “Women artists,” “Women as authors,” “African American artists,” “Clark artwork,” “Fans (costume accessories),” or “Friendship – Fiction.” To find works by specific authors, select the “Author” field and type “Lewis, Samella S.,” for example. You can also do a keyword search either in the simple search or in the “Any field” field of the “Advanced Search.” Once you have search results, you can limit to the Clark Library by selecting it from the “UCLA Locations” facet. 

For detailed inventories of archival collections related to Ann Yerbury, Dollie Radford, Dorothea Conyers, and Marion Kronfeld please consult the Clark Library's page on the Online Archive of California (OAC).