Description:
Explores the creation and significance of an exhibit hall at the 1893 world's fair that contained more than 8,000 volumes of writings by women.
Review Quotes:
"Right Here I See My Own Books is a deeply engaging study that makes significant contributions to our understanding of the history of American women's writing, American literary history, and the ways in which libraries both reflect and shape the work in which we live."--Libraries Information History
"The book is a major contribution for its documentation of a heretofore largely unexamined, yet telling aspect of the 1893 Woman's Building and of the Columbian Exposition."--Journal of American History"The brief but glorious history of the Woman's Building Library is a fascinating story in itself, yet Wadsworth and Wiegand perceive a larger significance within the very pages of the library's books. . . . By analyzing representative books, [they] uncover the 'gendered discourses of duty, vocation, and progress' reflected in the library's holdings."--American Libraries Magazine
"Women's issues and general book history holdings will find this a lively and important read."--Midwest Book Review "[A] thoughtful examination of a turning point in American society."--Wisconsin Bookwatch "A lively and important read."--California Bookwatch "Readers interested in understanding the phenomena of world's fairs through the lens of gender . . . will find this volume indispensible. . . . Ultimately, by illuminating how power and privilege shaped the rather unconventional collection of woman-authored texts at the Woman's Building Library and by providing a detailed overview of the Library's holdings, the authors broaden our understanding of how nineteenth-century women perceived their world, and how they shaped it through their own cultural contributions."--Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society"A compelling case study of how women's literature and culture were defined and institutionalized in the progressive era."--Susan Belasco, University of Nebraska, Lincoln