Photographs of the Women’s Lives Collection Opening Reception

The library celebrated the opening of the Women’s Lives Collection, donated by Andrea Wright, on Friday June 1, 2018 from 4-6:00 pm. The event was warmly attended by Hampshire staff, faculty, alums and friends as part of Hampshire’s Div IV weekend, Hampshire in Action: Community, Justice, and Resilience.This collection and donation have transformed the library nook next to the Career Options Resource Center of the Library’s 3rd floor.

The Women’s Lives Collection is a collection of 2,000 women’s autobiographies.  Andrea’s guiding question as she built the Women’s Lives Collection was: what does it take for people to be able to follow their dreams and to lead a meaningful life? Andrea proposes that role models are the most powerful influence. Role models may be family members, friends, teachers. Role models -whether known to someone in person or from books – share the stories of lives lived.

The Women’s Lives Collection give us the opportunity to explore the questions of what it means to “follow dreams” and leading a “meaningful life” and what constitutes a role model for you in that context. Do you see role models in this collection? Are your role models reflected in the autobiographies of women that were published in the last forty years? Are there gaps in representation and can we be inspired by autobiographies as we reflect on our own lives? 

In addition to enriching Hampshire’s collection, the books that duplicate holdings in the Harold F. Johnson Library are being donated to the Massachusetts Correction’s Institution in Framingham, Massachusetts. We are delighted that the generosity Andrea brought to Hampshire can be extended to women who are incarcerated.

We hope you will enjoy these nearly 2,000 volumes, and lovely reading area.

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