Women's History Month 2019: US Craftperson

Let's look at another  example similar to yesterday's "directory after the fact."  These historical/biographical index/directories can be great resources for researchers.

The U.S., Craftperson Files, 1600-1995 from Ancestry.com.

From Ancestry.com 

Information on the cards includes the names of craftspeople, occupation and working dates, birth and death dates, where they lived, what they made, notes about their professional lives, and bibliographical and source references. 

What a great index! The original information comes from: Card File of American Craftspeople, 1600-1995. The Henry Francis du Pont Winterthur Museum, Inc. Winterthur, Delaware. This makes me wonder how many other museums have great directories they've compiled, like this one. 

This is an index which means that you need to verify everything but often the source citation can be found on the card.

Just to give you an idea of women represented in this directory. I searched on the first name "Mary" and received over 2,400 hits, Elizabeth brought nearly 2,000 hits, and Sarah 2,500. This is a great resource for women and tells us about their occupation, something we assume women of this time period didn't have. 

You can read more about the museum's collections at their website.