Top of page

Category: Women’s History

Picture of Ann Caracristi

Mathematics and Primary Sources: Historic Codes, Ciphers, and Computational Thinking, Part II – the Women Codebreakers of WWII

Posted by: Danna Bell

Sending and cracking secret messages dates back to the foundation and exploration of the country. But did you know that much of the cryptographic work that helped the United States win World War II was accomplished by female codebreakers?

One woman watches as another examines with a magnifying glass an ornate, decorative image on a printed page

Sojourner Truth and the Power of a Portrait

Posted by: Stephen Wesson

A photograph of the abolitionist and suffrage activist Sojourner Truth that appears in the Library's newest Primary Source Set for educators, "Civil War Images: Depictions of African Americans in the War Effort," provides an opportunity to discover the questions that the objects in a portrait can raise about the message that image might have been meant to convey.

One woman watches as another examines with a magnifying glass an ornate, decorative image on a printed page

A Civil War Nurse’s Memoir: Discerning Women’s Experiences

Posted by: Cheryl Lederle

Primary sources such as the letters and diaries of Civil War Nurse Mary Ann Bickerdyke offer rich insights into the lives of real people. The fragmented, personal nature of these sources requires careful reading in context and comparison across multiple accounts to glean information and construct understanding.