Founding documents of the Women's History Archives
Exhibition in the National Library
13.01.2025 - 13.02.2025

Iceland's Women's History Archives was founded on January 1, 1975 by three women: Anna Sigurðardóttir, Elsa Mia Einarsdóttir and Svanlaug Baldursdóttir. It was founded in Anna's home, on the fourth floor of a block at Hjarðarhagi 26 in Reykjavík, and she worked there as the director of the Women's History Archives for 20 years.
The Women's History Archives arose as a response to the traditional view of history, which placed the greatest emphasis on the achievements of men. The goal was to highlight the history of women and their contribution to society over the centuries, so that history cannot be falsified by silence.
From the beginning, the goal was for it to be housed in a large public museum, preferably in the National Library, which was under construction at the time. After the tireless struggle of women and their organizations, that dream became a reality. When the National and University Library, opened its doors on December 1, 1994, space was reserved for the Women's History Archives on the 4th floor. The Women's History Archives has been working within the National Library ever since, as a separate unit in a larger collection, with one paid employee and three people on the board. The Archives continues to work in the spirit of the policy from 1975 to increase the visibility of women in Iceland in national history through information provision, special projects and the collection of private documents.
A micro-exhibition has been set up in the Library on the founding documents of the Women's History Archives.
Exhibitions
Previous exhibitionsTranslations of Icelandic literature to Norwegian and German
Exhibition in the National Library
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