PLENARY: Making Invisible Women Visible: Women’s History and Women in the Archives, 1970 – 2020

Abstract

The development of women’s history as a vibrant field of study had a profound effect on the archival profession across the United States. Drawing on her experience as a historian of Virginia women and her work during the past 40 years in the archival collections of the Library of Virginia, Sandra Gioia Treadway will describe the transformations in both fields that she has witnessed during her career. She will reflect on the great strides that archival repositories in Virginia have made in preserving the record of women’s lives and activism while looking ahead to the challenges that remain.

Treadway has served as Librarian of Virginia since July 2007, overseeing the Library’s comprehensive collection of print and manuscript materials documenting the history, culture, and government of Virginia. She holds a doctoral degree in American History from the University of Virginia and a master’s degree in Library and Information Science from the University of Tennessee. The author of Women of Mark: A History of the Woman's Club of Richmond, Virginia, 1894-1994, Treadway is also co-editor of The Common Wealth: Treasures From the Collections of the Library of Virginia and several women’s history anthologies. She has served as president of the Chief Officers of State Library Agencies and the Southern Association of Women Historians, and on the board of the Council of State Archivists.