Looking back over the fifteen years that have passed since I began the research for this book, I am truly grateful to a large number of people and institutions for the help and support that they have given me. The National Endowment for the Humanities provided a grant that enabled me to travel to libraries and archives in Germany, France, and the Netherlands. The University of Louisville funded travel to Britain and a sabbatical leave. The Institute for Research on Women and Gender of Stanford University, where I spent a semester, gave me access to Stanford’s excellent libraries and a congenial atmosphere for thought and research. In addition, I thank my parents, Ann U. Allen and Franklin G. Allen, for the many forms of support that they have provided for all my endeavors.
The staffs of many libraries and archives provided me with indispensable assistance. I thank David Doughan of the Fawcett Library of London (now the Women’s Library) for his advice, which was based on a wide and deep knowledge of the library’s materials and of women’s history, and for the sense of humor that enlivened my long days of research. I also received able assistance at the Wellcome Library for the History and Understanding of Medicine. The Galton Society kindly gave me permission to see the records of the Eugenics Society, which are held at the Wellcome Library. Annie Dizier- Metz and the staff of the Bibliotheque Marguerite Durand provided friendly and collegial support for my research in Paris. I also thank the staffs of the Bibliotheque Historique de la Ville de Paris and of the Bibliotheque Nationale de France for their help in tracking down materials. Annette Mevis and her staff received me hospitably at the International Information Centre and Archives of the Women’s Movement in Amsterdam. In Germany, I am obliged to the staffs of the Landesarchiv Berlin, the Bundesarchiv Koblenz, the Bundesarchiv Lichterfelde, and the Deutscher Staatsburgerinnen-Verband. Finally, I thank the staff of the Ekstrom Library at the University of Louisville. Delinda Buie of the Special Collections Department applied for funding to acquire several microform collections, including the excellent Gerritsen Collection, that were crucial to my research. Jim Ryan of Interlibrary Loan helped me to find many important published sources. I thank Marja-Leena Hanninen and Sondra Herman for providing translations of sources, and Gail Chooljian Nall for compiling the bibliography.
Many colleagues suggested or provided research materials, helped me to navigate libraries and archives, commented on portions of this work that were contained in lectures, conference papers, and articles, or read drafts of
chapters or of the manuscript as a whole. A very incomplete list of these colleagues includes Marilyn Boxer, Sondra R. Herman, Tiina Kinnunen, Gisela Bock, Joao Esteves, Anne Cova, Susan Pedersen, David Lindenfeld, Kees Gispen, Gerald R. Kleinfeld, Thomas Trautmann, Michael Grossberg, Michael Schwartz, Francesca de Haan, Hugo Roling, Andrew Lees, Marjatta Hietala, Ulla Manns, Mira Bohm, Jurgen Zinnecker, Imbke Behnken, Lesley A. Hall, Pia Schmid, James C. Albisetti, Nancy Theriot, Julia Dietrich, Mary Ann Stenger, Eileen John, and Dawn Heinecken. Above all I thank Karen Offen, who gave generously of her time to support grant applications, to read manuscripts, to offer careful, honest, and demanding criticism, to suggest avenues for research, and to encourage me when I felt overwhelmed. I have benefited from her immense knowledge of European women’s history and from her friendship over many years.
This book is dedicated to the memory of Mary K. Bonsteel Tachau. When I came to the University of Louisville as an instructor in 1971, Professor Tachau was the only other woman in the Department of History. In the early years of my career, she was a guide, mentor, and friend. A distinguished scholar of American constitutional history and an activist for the rights of women, Professor Tachau encouraged me to teach and study women’s history—a new and controversial field at that time. Whatever I have achieved in this field, I owe in some measure to her.
Ann Taylor Allen Louisville, Kentucky