Girls’
History: History of Girls, II
Miriam
Forman-Brunell
and Ilana Nash, Contributing Editors
Studying
Girlhood on the Web
This
section offers brief coverage of web sites relevant to some branch
of the study of girlhood, both in its historical and contemporary
aspects. If you know of a site you would like to see listed, please
send the URL to Ilana Nash at ilana_nash@yahoo.com.
We will usually review two sites in each issue.
The “Girl Culture” Site at Duke University <http://www.duke.edu/~jbb1/girlculture/>
This web site was designed to complement a class at Duke University
called “Girl Culture: Studies in Femininity and Feminism”
a few years ago. The course description and syllabus are interesting
enough, but there is also a diverse bibliography which covers
both secondary and primary sources for the study of girlhood.
Secondary sources are divided into such headings as “Body,”
“Race and Ethnicity,” and “’Bad’ Girls/Delinquents.”
The selected readings cover historical material as well as up-to-date
social science writings about girls’ health, educations,
consumer patterns, and other topics. Primary sources include fiction
for and about girls, girls’ magazines, and films. The “Girl
Sites” section offers links to websites for girls, but does
not provide much by way of source materials for historical, academic
study of girlhood.
Girls' Literature in the Sallie Bingham Center For Women's
History and Culture at Duke University <http://scriptorium.lib.duke.edu/women/beyond-nancy-drew.html>
This web site references an outstanding collection of etiquette
and "conduct of life" books and girls' literature (e.g.,
novels; storybooks; mysteries). Some works in the collection are
grouped topically (e.g., heroines; nurses; tomboys), some by presses.
All titles listed in this bibliography can be found in Duke University's
Rare Book, Manuscript, and Special Collections Library, unless
noted otherwise. With few exceptions, titles are listed chronologically
within the various subject headings. This is a selective bibliography;
it is recommended that you search Duke University Library'sonline
catalog.
“The Jazz Age – Flapper Culture and Style”
<http://www.geocities.com/flapper_culture/>
This page is part of a larger website, “Pandorasbox.com,”
the homepage for a Louise Brooks fanclub (for those of you too
young to remember, Louise Brooks was a popular silent-film actress,
and one of the definitive flappers). The “Jazz Age –
Flapper Culture and Style” page is an excellent resource
for scholars of 1920s youth. In addition to the beautiful graphics,
the host has provided full-text transcriptions of two 1920s magazine
articles on the subject of flappers (one attack, and one defense).
There is also a link to another transcribed article – a diatribe
from the Ladies’ Home Journal (1921) listing the dangers
of jazz music and its deleterious effect on the young. The links
lead you to several other, well-selected sites for studies of
1920s music, fashion, literature, and youth culture. A real treat.
Primary Sources Online
Primary sources long considered a part of the women’s history
canon can be reunderstood within the context of girls’ history
and culture. While widely available in book form, they are now
also accessible in electronic formats making them especially useful
to students. These include:
“The
School Days of an Indian Girl,” by Zitkala-Sahttp available
via The History of Childhood and Education web site http://www.socsci.kun.nl/ped/whp/histeduc/links09b.html
Harriet Jacobs, Incidents in the Life of Slave Girl,
is available at http://xroads.virginia.edu/~HYPER/JACOBS/hjhome.htm
