Laura Clay Papers now digitized and online at ExploreUK

This just in from Deirdre Scaggs, Associate Dean, Special Collections Research Center; Director of the Wendell H. Ford Public Policy Research Center, University of Kentucky Libraries:

The Laura Clay Papers have been digitized and are online. You can access the materials via the finding aid https://exploreuk.uky.edu/fa/findingaid/?id=xt70rx937t9n or through a key word search https://exploreuk.uky.edu/catalog/?q=laura+clay+papers

This collection is extremely valuable in that it is likely a combination of collections from multiple associates of Laura Clay, including her mother Mary Jane Warfield Clay and her sisters: Mary Barr Clay, Sallie Clay Bennett, Annie Clay Crenshaw. According to the Finding Aid entry, these papers include the following:

"The Laura Clay papers (dated 1819-1959, bulk 1906-1920; 13.63 cubic feet; 34 boxes, 2 folders, 3 items) consists of correspondence, pamphlets, periodicals, organizational records, petitions, scrapbooks, broadsides, programs, legal documents, and suffrage pins and ribbons, which document the career of Kentucky suffragist Laura Clay. The bulk of the collection consists of Clay's correspondence with other suffragists, family members, legislators, and businesspeople. Notable correspondents include Susan B. Anthony, Carrie Chapman Catt, Anna Howard Shaw, Harriet Taylor Upton, Madeline McDowell Breckinridge, Ida Husted Harper, Kate M. Gordon, Alice Stone Blackwell, Ida Porter Boyer, and her father Cassius M. Clay. The collection includes programs, petitions, expenditures, and minutes of the Kentucky Equal Rights Association, the National American Woman Suffrage Association, and the Southern States Woman Suffrage Conference. Additionally, the collection includes membership card rolls for the Fayette County Equal Rights Association and the Kentucky Equal Rights Association. There are a number of pamphlets dealing with topics such as woman suffrage, child welfare, civil service reform, the peace movement during World War I, and temperance as well as speeches given by Laura Clay and others on these topics. The collection contains periodicals, newspapers, pamphlets, and newspaper clippings related to women's issues. It also holds many of Laura Clay's personal materials, including a diary, badges, banners, and compositions. Additionally, the collection contains six of her scrapbooks, containing newspaper clippings, programs, and handwritten notes."