About

The goal of the Open Collections Program (OCP) of Harvard University Library is to increase the availability of historical resources from Harvard's library and museum collections for purposes of teaching, learning, and research -- both at Harvard and around the world. Harvard University established the Open Collections Program 2002, with funding from The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. The program has received subsequent support from The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation and The Lisbet Rausing Charitable Fund, and will continue to build topic-based digital collections from across Harvard's repositories.

OCP operates under 3 main principles of quality:

Selection Standards - to create comprehensive, subject-based digital collections through the careful selection of topics and materials
Production Standards - to create high-quality digital resources that can be shared with other institutions
Access Standards - to provide easy online access to digital collections for teachers, students and researchers through local and national catalogs and a dedicated website

Selection Criteria for Collections

In the early stages of the program, OCP established criteria for selecting and building digital collections. To learn more about these criteria, please see the selection criteria page.

The First Open Collection

Women Working, 1800-1930
http://ocp.hul.harvard.edu/ww

This collection explores women's roles in the US economy between 1800 and the Great Depression. Working conditions, conditions in the home, costs of living, recreation, health and hygiene, conduct of life, policies and regulations governing the workplace, and social issues are all well documented by original source material. The collection, drawing from 9 Harvard libraries and 1 museum, debuted in 2004 and now contains:

3,500 digitized books, pamphlets and serials
70 consumer and trade catalogs
40 magazines
1,125 photographs
7,500+ pages from manuscript collections

OCP encourages teachers to make use of these materials, including incorporating them into course syllabi and lesson plans. The collection provides an opportunity for students to learn the value of working with historical resources and the nature of scholarly analysis and research. An early study commissioned by the program, Using Women Working Resources in Schools, illustrates models for using OCP resources in the classroom.

In the years following the Civil War, the United States underwent a tremendous transformation. As new industries like ready-to-wear clothing, meat-packing, and consumer manufacturing developed, new cities were born and old ones expanded, fueled by immigration from overseas and internal migration. The late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries saw markedly increased participation of women in paid work.

Unskilled women could find employment as domestic servants, waitresses, or factory workers in the food-processing, cigar-making, garment, and textile industries. Women with more education found increased opportunities in positions that emphasized traditionally female roles, like teaching and nursing. Between the industrial and professional jobs, new positions were formed by the changing economy; stenographers, typists, and telephone operators were most often women. The sixty years surrounding the turn of the century saw increased opportunities for women. In 1870 women were just entering the formal workforce in large numbers; by 1930 the modern woman could vote, had role models in high governmental positions, and had an increasing array of choices in her working life.

The Second Open Collection

Emigration and Immigration to the United States, 1789-1930
http://ocp.hul.harvard.edu/ei

OCP is embarking on another exciting project, which will digitize a selection of Harvard's library and museum resources on the topic of emigration and immigration to the United States between the American Revolution and the Great Depression. When completed, the project website will provide access to a comprehensive digital collection of hundreds of source materials on this topic. The first materials from this collection will become available online in the fall of 2005. The collection is expected to be comparable in size to Women Working when completed.

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