- Spanish Periodicals and Newspapers: Women's Magazine Digital Collection/Revistas y Periódicos Españoles: Colección Digital de Revistas Femeninas
In the 1970s, the Thomas J. Dodd Research Center at the University of Connecticut acquired the vast collection of Spanish periodicals accumulated by the bibliophile, Juan Pérez de Guzmán y Boza (1852-1934), Duque de T'Serclaes in the Spanish province of Badajoz. The periodicals and newspapers, mainly from southern Spain, date from the eighteenth to the early twentieth century, with a majority of the materials from the nineteenth century. The collection as a whole covers a wide variety of topics including politics, literature, science, business, art, and music; as such, it aptly reflects the complex history of Spain of this period.
Of interest in the present review is that portion of the Duke's collection comprised of a selection of women's magazines "written by men to appeal to an elite female audience," as stated on the website's home page. An ongoing e-mail communication with Marisol Ramos, Library Liaison to Latin American and Caribbean Studies, Spanish Studies, and Curator of the Latin American and Caribbean Collections at University of Connecticut Libraries and the person charged with maintenance of the present archive, explains that this particular subset of the entire collection came about through a desire to support the research of various scholars with a particular interest in periodical literature directed to a female audience, but who were unable to access this material directly in Spain.
As it stands, the collection, replete as it is with short stories, poetry, conduct advice, fashion, sheet music, needlework patterns, and advertising all directed to the female reader of these publications, opens a fascinating window into the lives of nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Spanish womanhood. A sampling of the digitized titles, with capitalization that follows the style of the website and that of the original nineteenth century publications, includes: El Álbum de las Bellas: periódico de ciencias, literatura, artes y modas, dedicado al bello sexo, por una sociedad de jóvenes sin nombre literario(Sevilla: 1849); La Amenidad: periódico semanal de literatura, modas y teatros(Málaga: 1844-45); La Antorcha: semanario enciclopédico de ciencias, bello sesco, artes, industria y literatura(Barcelona: 1848-49); El Correo de las Damas, Periódico de Modas, Bellas Artes, Amena Literatura, Música, Teatros, etc.(Madrid: 1833-34); Correo de las Damas, o, Poliantea Instructiva, Curiosa y Agradable de Literatura, Ciencias y Artes. (Cádiz: 1804?-07); El Espósito: revista semanal de literatura, ciencias, artes, modas y teatros(Cádiz: 1846-47); El Espósito: periódico de literatura, teatros y modas, á beneficio de la casa de maternidad de esta ciudad(Córdoba: 1845); Gaceta de las Mugeres(Madrid: 1845); La Luna: periódico para el bello sexo(Madrid: 1848); La Margarita: Álbum de las señoras católicas-monárquicas(Madrid: 1871); La Mujer Ilustrada(Madrid: 1905-06); La Ilustración: álbum de las damas(Madrid: 1845-46); La Suerte: periódico semanal de ciencias, artes, literatura, modas y revista de teatros(Sevilla: 1855-57); Silvina: semanario de literatura, música, teatro y modas, dedicado al bello sexo(Valencia: 1857); and El Tocador: gacetín del bello sexo, periódico semanal de educación, literatura, anuncios, teatros y modas(Madrid: 1844-45). Furthermore, the collection contains the New World offering, Las Hijas de Eva(San Juan, PR: 1880), of interest by virtue of being the first and only women's magazine in Puerto Rico during the Spanish colonial period; its structure and content are similar to publications produced in Spain during the same era.
Each entry in the archive includes publication information and a description of the periodical, including the particular volumes held in the collection. An image of the original periodical is [End Page 222]provided and the user has a variety of access options, which are just a click away. Some of these include: reading the original...