30 Days of Feminist History

Ever wanted to learn more about feminist change-makers, radical collectives, artists, writers, and media-makers, and how to preserve the feminist internet? You’re in the right place!

Follow along:

On Instagram: Daily highlights from the TFI Digital Archive
On LinkedIn: Weekly insights on feminist culture, digital preservation, information activism, and the future of the arts + tech sectors
On Substack: Weekly deep dives into highlighted TFI Digital Archive objects with extended stories, archival context, and members-only content

In 2016, Kathleen Landy founded The Feminist Institute (TFI) to address educational inequities and make feminist primary source materials available online. When one’s work, voice, and story aren’t preserved and made accessible, they are forgotten, silenced, and made invisible. She was inspired by her difficulties locating feminist art history while writing her Master’s thesis at Villanova University, and by her dedication to championing women artists throughout her career.

Presently, TFI is a small, scrappy team of 3— our Archives + Program Manager, Allison Elliott, Strategic Development Consultant, Dena Muller, and our Founder, Kathleen Landy. We work to bring TFI’s mission to life: documenting and celebrating feminist contributions to cultureby preserving materials for public access in our digital archive; and promoting information activism and gender equity by infilling the cultural record to reflect fuller truths.

• Published 14 digital exhibitions.

• Hosted 43 public programs, including two Memory Labs at Pen+Brush, Queer Legacies Project with the American LGBTQ+ Museum and SAGE, Digitization Ethics Workshop with Archivists Roundtable and METRO, Artist Talks, Film Screenings, Panels, and more!

• Uploaded 1277 objects (photos, videos, correspondence, artworks, ephemera) to the TFI Digital Archive, along with 675 people/organizations, 39 locations, and 49 events that contextualize these materials.

• Digitized over 5,000 objects for the Digital Archive collections development and as a free public service during our Memory Labs across New York City.

• Working on 13 capsule collections, totalling 1,650 objects across 10 content partners.

• Developing our union catalog.

• Launching Preserving the Feminist Internet in 2026.
  
  The Feminist Institute builds on the mass dissemination that online search and technology offer us to advance the march of feminism and democratize access through digitization and preservation of born-digital materials. We need your support to continue this critical work— make a donation today to honor the women in your life.

As we endure a second Trump administration with increasingly violent attacks on marginalized communities and patriarchal censorship, it is more important than ever to revisit our feminist history. The existence of a feminist cultural record gives us the power by tapping into the legacy of our tenacious generations-long struggle. But if there aren’t independent memory organizations making this information accessible, how can we learn from feminists who came before us? That’s where TFI comes in: we’re preserving feminist histories to guarantee a feminist future.

In this photograph from the Mary Beth Edelson Collection, the Women’s Action Coalition (WAC) takes to the streets to confront violence against women. Images like this remind us of the political power that rests in history, how vital feminist resistance has always been, and how easily it can be lost. By supporting TFI, you protect these urgent stories of feminist movements so they can continue to inspire present + future generations.

Preserving feminist history is urgent work, but taking a feminist approach to documentation is just as vital. When TFI steps into someone’s archive, we’re entering an affective ecosystem. This is why we follow a feminist ethics of care archival practice: radical empathy, mutual responsibility, and collaboration over extraction. We stand in a lineage of feminist information professionals, culture-workers, and activists who reimagined cultural production. For us, this is information activism: not only uncovering and making available hidden narratives, but also building strong relationships within our community while we do it.

We’re opening the season with women and collectives who shifted culture on purpose. From Shirley Chisholm’s political courage to Heresies and Where We At Black Women Artists’ radical organizing, these stories remind us that feminist history moves because people do. During giving season, when so many of us are thinking about legacy, this week invites you to honor the women who fought so you could live with more possibility. Supporting TFI ensures their work doesn’t fade.

Art has always been feminist infrastructure. This week, we highlight artists like Dindga McCannon, Carolee Schneemann, Howardena Pindell, and Mary Beth Edelson, who shifted culture through their creative endeavors. As the art world heats up for the holidays (and for Basel), it’s the perfect moment to champion women who shaped visual culture, many without institutional support. Your donation helps preserve their visions and make sure future generations can see themselves reflected in the archive.

In Week 3, we dive into the writers, filmmakers, playwrights, and media-makers who captured feminist ideas in motion: Ntozake Shange, Michelle Handelman, Lola Pashalinski, Claudia Weill, and more. These are the voices that changed public consciousness, created new language for identity, and helped construct the feminist canon. If you’re searching for a meaningful holiday gift, preserving a woman’s story is one of the most profound.

We end by looking forward: at feminist webpages, digital projects, and the future of information activism. This week is for the tech-minded, the futurists, and the internet culture-obsessed. Preserving the Feminist Internet is our next major initiative, and supporting TFI during giving season directly fuels the work of stewarding digital feminist culture. Think of it as a gift to the future.

As part of our 30 Days of Feminist History campaign, we’re offering gifts for our Archive Angels.