Margaret Sanger (1879-1966) was the principal founder and lifelong leader of the American and the international birth control movements. Her vast collection of papers, filmed in two series, reveals a complex portrait of the personal and public lives of one of the 20th century’s most influential and controversial figures. The Margaret Sanger Papers microfilm edition covers every aspect of the birth control movement, including the movement’s changing ideologies, its campaign for legitimacy, and its internal conflicts and organizational growth. The edition also provides significant insight on the history of changing attitudes towards women’s roles and sexuality, and has significant research value to the fields of women’s history, social and intellectual history, medicine and public health, religion, and world economic development, among others.

The Smith College Collections

Between 1946 and 1966, Sanger donated many thousands of documents to the Sophia Smith Collection at Smith College. This donation has been augmented by the papers of many of her relatives, friends, and associates. The Sophia Smith Collection and Smith College Archives hold other important Sanger documents in 20 different archival and manuscript collections, including the papers of Dorothy Brush, Blanche Ames Ames, and Florence Rose as well as the records of both the Planned Parenthood Federation of America and the Margaret Sanger Research Bureau.

The Smith College Collections series of this microfilm edition consists of approximately 45,000 documents from these holdings.