Our Rare Books, Our SMC: An Exhibit of Items Held at Saint Mary's College

Patterson, The Past Now

Getting the opportunity to work in Saint Mary’s Rare Book Room this semester has been an incredibly breathtaking experience. Prior to this semester, I was completely unaware of the fact that Saint Mary’s even had a rare book room, but after learning about it, I could not wait to explore it. When we first entered the room, I was completely enamored by what I saw, and even more so after walking through the shelves. I am a double major in English Literature and Communication Studies and being in that room allowed me to delve into those different subjects. There were countless shelves lined with classics by Shakespeare, Dante, and Woolf to name a few-- which really spoke to my English Literature side-- along with so many other books with titles and authors I didn’t know but wanted to read more about. As for my Communication Studies side, I was focused on the language but also the form the works (books, pamphlets, magazines, etc.) were presented in. In the end, the entirety of the Rare Book Room and all of its contents really made me think about the history of my majors while allowing me to work towards the future. 

There were two works I was most fascinated with: Our Bodies, Ourselves and A Vindication of the Rights of Woman. My first interaction with Our Bodies, Ourselves was brief but long-lasting; I immediately opened the cover and began reading the content. It was filled with health information about women and for women which instantly caught my eye due to the fact that the edition in the Rare Book Room was published in 1971. It discussed basic health information, such as anatomy and physiology, pregnancy, and prepared childbirth, along with other health information that was taboo and even illegal at the time of publication. The table of contents introduces topics such as sexuality, birth control, abortion, and postpartum which were not often discussed in everyday life, let alone the medical field. The Boston Women’s Health Course Collective had this in mind when creating Our Bodies, Ourselves; they wanted women and other people with female anatomy to understand themselves and also open conversations. Following this was my introduction to A Vindication of the Rights of Woman that was written almost 200 years prior to Our Bodies, Ourselves. This book was written by Mary Wollstonecraft and published in 1792, and it discussed a woman’s place in society. Wollstonecraft, being a scholar and women’s rights activist, argued that women belong in all realms of life. She wrote about women in education, politics, marriage, and society, while making it clear that these are all places women belong. This was a controversial book at the time, similar to Our Bodies, Ourselves, and that made me want to learn more. I was completely captivated by these women and their desire and success in producing works specifically to empower and create voices and space for women to be heard. 

I hope that the viewers of the work I have put into this project will understand the importance of sharing knowledge. The ability to give and receive knowledge is one of people’s greatest gifts, and I found that represented not only in the two works I focused on but also in the entirety of the Rare Book Room. My focus on these two feminist texts really helped me to understand the fight that women went through to be educated--and not just in the classic sense. As women, we deserve to have access to the content that Our Bodies, Ourselves provided for the people of the 20th century, but it also makes us question why we did not have it and why it is still a fight today. A Vindication of the Rights of Woman made it known that there were people who believed in women, people who were feminists prior to the word's first use almost a century after Wollstonecraft’s book. I hope that the people who view and want to understand the Rare Book Room and its importance understand the fact that history is the foundation of our society and that we must look back in order to understand and imagine our future. 

Trudi Patterson 
Majors: English Literature and Communication Studies 
Class of 2026

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