Global Voices from the Women’s Library at the World’s Columbian Exposition

Long recognized as a cultural watershed and touchstone of modernity, the 1893 Chicago World's Fair (World’s Columbian Exposition) was the site of the first large-scale international library of writing by women. The result of years of planning and cooperation by women’s organizations in twenty-four countries from North America, South America, Europe, Asia, and the Middle East, the library of the Woman’s Building contained more than 8,000 volumes, with more than 3,000 from countries other than the United States. This book collects the work of feminist scholars specializing in different national traditions and transnational comparative analysis and focuses on the contributions of the international (non-US) women’s committees to extend our understanding of women’s contribution to global print culture and the extension of women's rights up to 1893.