Towards the end of 2022, The Women’s Library was fortunate to have Alice Tompson, a University of Sydney student, spend time volunteering with us as part of her major research project for History at the University of Sydney.

Over a couple of weeks, Alice dug into our archives, sorted boxes and boxes of material, and discovered information held by the City of Sydney. Through her research, she developed a good sense of the library’s importance as a women’s space and repository of women’s knowledge and she produced three wonderful visual stories about the library and its collection, as a record of the project

You can read more about the project on the University of Sydney website where Alice has published two articles. She introduces the library in the first: A place of books, tea, and feminism

The Women’s Library in Newtown beautifully continues this idea of reclaiming space and ideas for women. When I first visited The Women’s Library, I was told they had recently repainted the space. I looked around, and sure enough, I was surrounded by walls of pink and purple.

And she goes on to talk about her research project in the second article: An overview of the library and the project’s process.

Alice’s snapshots are published on Instagram so that everyone can enjoy a glimpse of our history. The first one is there now. The other two will be there in the next couple of days.