Andrew Carnegie gave Radcliffe College $73,900 in 1905 for the building that now houses the Arthur and Elizabeth Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America. Here you’re in a place that Nancy F. Cott called “the largest and most significant repository of documents covering women’s lives and activities in the United States. The building itself began with a gift: in 1905 Andrew Carnegie gave Radcliffe College $73,900 to build a library, and Henry Forbes Bigelow, a Boston architect, designed the library that was built in 1906.
Inside this long-running center for women’s history is a story of collection and dedication: on August 26, 1943 Radcliffe alumna and former suffragist Maud Wood Park ’98 donated her papers, books, and memorabilia, a gift that grew into the Women’s Archives. In 1965 the archives were renamed for Elizabeth Bancroft Schlesinger and her husband Arthur M. Schlesinger, who were strong supporters; Arthur taught at Harvard for thirty years (1924–1954), and Elizabeth was a feminist and civic activist who served on the library’s advisory board. Notice Henry Forbes Bigelow's 1906 design still standing among the Harvard Radcliffe Institute buildings that surround it.