| Description | The Women's Library Archives Strand 3: Societies for the Abolition of State Regulation of Prostitution, consists of minutes, financial papers, correspondence including policy, campaigning and subject files, and printed papers. (More exact detail given in individual collection descriptions). Please see individual catalogues for full details.
The Josephine Butler Library brought these archives together and subsequently deposited them with the Fawcett Library in 1957. The Josephine Butler Society continues to deposit material with The Women's Library @ LSE (under 3AMS). The archives include organisational and personal archives that initially focus on the successful campaigns for the repeal of the Contagious Diseases Acts during 1869-1886, and later focus on subjects such as the regulation of prostitution, venereal disease, social purity, sexuality, public health, military sexual health, criminology, penology, eugenics and population control. There are regional (Lancashire & Cheshire Association for the Abolition of the State Regulation of Vice) national (Records of the Association for Moral & Social Hygiene) and international (British Committee of the Continental & General Federation for Abolition of Government Regulation of Prostitution) archives. There are also the letters of Josephine Butler (3JBL) and the papers of Henry Joseph Wilson, leader of the Northern Counties League (3HJW). Their national and international activities had very strong regional roots. Butler's personal archives are held the University of Liverpool (as a young woman she was an activist in Liverpool). Thus this collection, together with the printed materials held by The Women's Library @ LSE should be seen in conjunction with other key collections in other repositories. These include not only the relevant UK and European repositories with Butler material but also collections with key information on health and sexuality including the Wellcome Library for the History of Medicine. Together these collections tell a balanced story of the international political and medical developments.
The Strand comprised the following archives:
* 3AMS Association for Moral and Social Hygiene (Josephine Butler Society from 1962)
* 3BGF British Committee of the Continental & General Federation for Abolition of Government Regulation of Prostitution
* 3HJW Henry Joseph Wilson
* 3JBL Josephine Butler Letters Collection
* 3JSM James Stansfeld Memorial Trust
* 3LCA Lancashire & Cheshire Association for the Abolition of the State Regulation of Vice
* 3LNA Ladies National Association for the Repeal of the Contagious Diseases Acts
* 3NAR National Association for the Repeal of the Contagious Diseases Acts |