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assistants. Radcliffe hired forty-one Harvard undergraduates to work as
research partners with individual fellows. The undergraduates thereby gained
insight into a field that interests them, and the fellows acquired research
help. The final theme was unanimous acclaim for the dedication, commitment,
and intellectual leadership provided by Judith Vichniac, the director of
the Radcliffe Institute Fellowship Program.
The Schlesinger Library emerged from a three-year period of transition . . . with renewed
energy and focus on its core mission of documenting American women of the past and the
present for the future.
schlesinger library
The Schlesinger Library emerged from a three-year period of transition—
which involved a complete renovation of the building, a reorganization of
the staff, and a turnover in executive directors—with renewed energy and
focus on its core mission of documenting American women of the past and
the present for the future. The research community enthusiastically
returned to the beautiful new reading room, and the number of in-person
reference queries rose by 26 percent compared with the same period
last year.
The book department saw an increase of 97 percent in the number of
titles catalogued, adding more than three thousand titles this year. The manuscript
division acquired more than 754 linear feet of material in 235 collections,
one hundred collections more than last year. These include some very
exciting additions that add significantly to the library’s documentation of
women’s activism in feminism, health, and politics. The papers acquired this
year range from those of Patricia Ireland, former president of the National
Organization for Women; to those of Kay Dickersin, epidemiologist and advocate
for breast cancer survivors; to those of Kip Tiernan, activist for Boston’s
homeless women. This year’s purchases also included three nineteenthcentury
daguerreotypes and one tintype of mothers breastfeeding, a rare and
new area of collecting for the library.
Behind the scenes, real progress was made in addressing the backlog
of materials to be processed. The manuscript unit processed twelve collec-
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