Boston College
×
This exhibit was inspired by the 100th anniversary in August 2020 of the ratification of the 19th Amendment, which granted suffrage to some though certainly not all American women. In the summer before the anniversary, Rare Books Curator Laurel Davis, Professor Mary Bilder, and Associate Law Librarian Helen Lacouture went digging into our special collections to find lawbooks with imprints featuring women printers and booksellers.
Historian Maureen Bell writes that “the existence of the man effectively blots out any record of activity by the woman” regardless of her involvement. Therefore, it typically was only after the death or incapacity of a printer or bookseller husband (or other male relative) that women’s names appeared on title pages. Additionally, book imprints often just use initials, making it difficult to identify traditionally female names. Despite these challenges, we were overwhelmed by our findings!