A Guide to Women's History Collections

State Library of Florida: A Select Bibliography

The bibliography listed below includes books on women’s history and women’s issues that are available at the State Library of Florida. In addition to the resources listed here, scholarly journals, subject based periodicals, doctoral dissertations and masters’ theses, and genealogy holdings are available through the electronic databases on the computers in the reference room.

The Library also maintains biography files on Floridians, handbooks dated from the early to the late 20th century which outline the legal rights of women in Florida, and numerous works on a variety of subjects published by state and local women’s clubs.

This is a select bibliography and is not meant to be comprehensive.

Aldrich, Corinna Brown. Echoes from a Distant Frontier: The Brown Sisters' Correspondence from Antebellum Florida. Columbia, SC: University of South Carolina Press, 2004.

Ardalan, Christine. The Public Health Nurses of Jim Crow Florida. Gainesville, FL: University Press of Florida, 2019.

American Association of University Women, Stuart Area Branch, Writers Committee. Profiles: An Appreciation of Martin County Women. Stuart, FL: Stuart Area Branch of the American Association of University Women, 1976.

Anderson, Marie. Julia's Daughters: Women in Dade's History. Miami, FL: Herstory of Florida, 1980.

Bernhard, Virginia, Betty Brandon, Elizabeth Fox-Genovese, Theda Perdue and Elizabeth H. Turner, eds. Southern Women: Hidden Histories of Women in the New South. Columbia, MO: University of Missouri Press, 1994.

Bethune, Mary McLeod. Mary McLeod Bethune: Building a Better World: Essays and Selected Documents. Edited by Audrey T. McCluskey and Elaine M. Smith. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1999.

Blackman, Lucy Worthington. The Florida Federation of Women's Clubs: 1895-1939. Jacksonville, FL: Southern Historical Publishing, 1939.

Brennan, Beth. Who’s Who and Why of Successful Florida Women. Winter Park, FL: Currier-Davis Publishers, 1985.

_______. The Women of Florida. Jacksonville, FL: Southern Historical Publishing, 1940.

Brown, Arletta. Recollections: A History of the League of Women Voters of Florida, 1939-1989. St. Petersburg, FL: League of Women Voters Education Fund, 1989.

Butter, Stephen H. Legal Rights of Women in Florida. Miami, FL: Hurricane House Publishers, 1968.

Campbell, Doak S. A University in Transition. Tallahassee, FL: Florida State University, 1964.

Clayton, Bruce. "Lives Full of Struggle and Triumph": Southern Women, Their Institutions, and Their Communities. Gainesville, FL: University Press of Florida, 2003.

Conradi, Edward. Memoirs of Edward Conradi: President of the Florida State College for Women, 1909-1941. Tallahassee, FL: Florida State College for Women, 1945.

Cozens, Eloise N. Florida Women of Distinction. Daytona Beach, FL: College Publishing Company, 1956.

Davis, Jack E. Making Waves: Female Activists in Twentieth-Century Florida. Gainesville, FL: University Press of Florida, 2003.

Davis, Karen. Public Faces - Private Lives: Women in South Florida - 1870s-1910s. Miami, FL: Pickering Press, 1990.

Denham, James M. and Canter Brown Jr., eds. Cracker Times and Pioneer Lives: The Florida Reminiscences of George Gillett Keen and Sarah Pamela Williams. Columbia, SC: University of South Carolina Press, 2000.

Dodd, William George. Florida State College for Women: Notes on the Formative Years, 1958-1959. 1958.

Douglas, Marjory Stoneman. The Wide Brim: Early Poems and Ponderings of Marjory Stoneman Douglas. Edited by Jack E. Davis. Gainesville, FL: University Press of Florida, 2002.

Due, Tananarive Priscilla. Freedom in the Family: A Mother-Daughter Memoir of the Fight for Civil Rights. New York, NY: One World, 2003.

Evans, Tammy. The Silencing of Ruby McCollum: Race, Class, and Gender in the South. Gainesville, FL: University Press of Florida, 2006.

Green, Elna C. Looking for the New Deal: Florida Women's Letters during the Great Depression. Columbia, SC: University of South Carolina Press, 2007.

Hand, Edie and Tina Savas. Women of True Grit: Intimate. Informative. Inspirational. Vilas, NC: Canterbury House Publishing, 2010.

Hewitt, Nancy A. Southern Discomfort: Women's Activism in Tampa, Florida, 1880s-1920s. Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, 2001.

Hillstrom, Laurie Collier. The #MeToo Movement. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, 2019.

Kersey, Harry A. The Stranahans of Fort Lauderdale: A Pioneer Family of New River. Gainesville, FL: University Press of Florida, 2003.

Kleinberg, Howard and Arva Moore Parks. Legendary Locals of Greater Miami. Charleston, SC: Arcadia Publishing, 2013.

MacKinnon, Catherine A. Butterfly Politics: Changing the World for Women. Cambridge, MA: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2019.

MacManus, Susan A. Florida's Minority Trailblazers: The Men and Women Who Changed the Face of Florida Government. Gainesville, FL: University Press of Florida, 2017.

McMillen, Sally G. Motherhood in the Old South: Pregnancy, Childbirth and Infant Rearing. Baton Rouge, LA: Louisiana State University Press, 1990.

Metro-Dade County Park and Recreation Department. In the Company of Women: Inspirational Portraits of Dade County Award Winners: The First Six Years: 1989-1994. 1994.

Meyer, Jessie Hamm. Leading the Way, A Century of Service: The Florida Federation of Women's Clubs, 1895-1995. Lakeland, FL: GFWC Florida Federation of Women's Clubs, 1994.

Mohl, Raymond A. South of the South: Jewish Activists and the Civil Rights Movement in Miami, 1945-1960. Gainesville, FL: University Press of Florida, 2004.

Morris, Allen. A Changing Pattern: Women in the Legislature, 4th ed. Tallahassee, FL: Office of the Historian, Florida House of Representatives, 1991.

Moseley, Julia Winifred and Betty Powers Crislip, eds. "Come to My Sunland": Letters of Julia Daniels Moseley from the Florida Frontier, 1882-1886. Gainesville, FL: University of Florida Press, 1998.

Murray, Gail Schmunk. Throwing off the Cloak of Privilege: White Southern Women Activists in the Civil Rights Era. Gainesville, FL: University Press of Florida, 2004.

Oliver, Kitty. Multicolored Memories of a Black Southern Girl. Lexington, KY: University Press of Kentucky, 2001.

Parker, Idella. Idella Parker: From Reddick to Cross Creek. Gainesville, FL: University Press of Florida, 1999.

Pollack, Deborah C. Laura Woodward: The Artist Behind the Innovator Who Developed Palm Beach. Palm Beach, FL: Deborah C. Pollack, in association with the Historical Society of Palm Beach County, 2009.

Rawlings, Marjorie Kinnan. Poems by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings: Songs of a Housewife. Edited by Rodger L. Tarr. Gainesville, FL: University Press of Florida, 1997.

Reno, Jane Wood. The Hell with Politics: The Life and Writings of Jane Wood Reno. Atlanta, GA: Peachtree Publishers, 1994.

Revels, Tracy J. Grander in her Daughters: Florida's Women During the Civil War. Columbia, SC: University of South Carolina Press, 2004.

Rich, Doris L. Jackie Cochran: Pilot in the Fastest Lane. Gainesville, FL: University Press of Florida, 2007.

Rudderman, Gussie. Gainesville Women of Vision. Gainesville, FL: Coronado Publishers, 1980.

Schafer, Daniel L. Anna Madgigine, Jai Kingsley: African Princess, Florida Slave, Plantation Slaveowner. Gainesville, FL: University Press of Florida, 2003.

Shell-Weiss, Melanie. Coming to Miami: A Social History. Gainesville, FL: University Press of Florida, 2009.

Susie, Debra Anne. In the Way of Our Grandmothers: A Cultural View of Twentieth-Century Midwifery in Florida. Athens, GA: The University of Georgia Press, 1988.

Tarr, Roger L., ed. Max & Marjorie: The Correspondence Between Maxwell E. Perkins and Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings. Gainesville, FL: University Press of Florida, 1999.

Vance, Linda Darlene Moore. May Mann Jennings, Florida’s Genteel Activist. Gainesville, FL: University of Florida Press, 1980.

Walch, Barbara Hunter. New Black Voices: The Growth and Contributions of Sallye Mathis and Mary Singleton in Florida Government. Jacksonville, FL: Barbara H. Walch, 1990.

Weatherford, Doris. They Dared to Dream: Florida Women Who Shaped History. Gainesville, FL: University Press of Florida, 2015.

Williams, Emma F., ed. Pioneer Women Teachers in Florida. Tallahassee, FL: Mu State, Delta Kappa Gamma Society, International, 1953.

Williams, Philip J. A Place to Be: Brazilian, Guatemalan, and Mexican Immigrants in Florida's New Destinations. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2009.

Wright, E. Lynne. It Happened i n Florida. Helena, MT: Globe Pequot Press, 2002.

Wynne, Lewis N., ed. Florida at War. St. Leo, FL: St. Leo College Press, 1993.