Marie-Louise Bouglé (January 5, 1883 – June 13, 1936) was a French

feminist Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideology, ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social gender equality, equality of the sexes. Feminism holds the position that modern soci ...

, librarian, and archivist who founded a feminist library. The major themes of Archives Marie-Louise Bouglé are suffragism and pacifism. The collection is held by

Bibliothèque historique de la ville de Paris The , commonly abbreviated with the acronym BHVP, is a public library specializing in the history of the city of Paris, France. Formerly in the Hôtel Saint-Fargeau (now part of the Musée Carnavalet), when it was also known as the Bibliothèq ...

Early life

Marie-Louise Françoise Bouglé was born in Argouges on January 5, 1883. She was the youngest of a family of eleven children. Her father was a brickmaker. Bouglé left school at the age of ten. Orphaned at the age of 11, she joined her sister in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

. During the day, Bouglé worked as a saleswoman. In the evening, she learned

shorthand Shorthand is an abbreviated symbolic writing method that increases speed and brevity of writing as compared to Cursive, longhand, a more common method of writing a language. The process of writing in shorthand is called stenography, from the Gr ...

accounting Accounting, also known as accountancy, is the process of recording and processing information about economic entity, economic entities, such as businesses and corporations. Accounting measures the results of an organization's economic activit ...

, English, Spanish, and German. She also attended lectures at popular universities. She became a secretary-accountant and cashier in a restaurant in exchange for free meals.

Career

In 1910, Bouglé attended a conference facilitated by

Cécile Brunschvicg Cécile Brunschvicg (), born Cécile Kahn (19 July 1877 in Enghien-les-Bains – 5 October 1946 in Neuilly-sur-Seine), was a French feminist politician. From the 1920s until her death she was regarded as "the ''grande dame'' of the feminist move ...

. Bouglé discovered feminist movements and joined the

French Union for Women's Suffrage The French Union for Women's Suffrage (UFSF: ) was a French feminist organization formed in 1909 that fought for the right of women to vote, which was eventually granted in 1945. The Union took a moderate approach, advocating staged introduction o ...

(UFSF). After

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

, she became aware of the importance of documenting, centralizing and collecting documents on feminist and

pacifist Pacifism is the opposition to war or violence. The word ''pacifism'' was coined by the French peace campaigner Émile Arnaud and adopted by other peace activists at the tenth Universal Peace Congress in Glasgow in 1901. A related term is ''a ...

movements. In 1921, Bouglé began to build a library at home. In 1923, the library consisted of 12,000 documents, and was opened to the public two evenings a week. She found the descendants of 19th century feminists. She contacts the heirs of Léon Richer and Caroline Kauffmann, obtaining bequests. She collected the personal correspondence and photos of her friends and colleagues, the manuscripts of their notes for unfinished biographies of famous women as well as their studies of women's working conditions. The reputation of the library grew. It made exchanges with other foreign feminist libraries. After her marriage in 1933, Bouglé devoted herself entirely to her work as a librarian and archivist of feminist documents. She moved from her small room in the

10th arrondissement of Paris The 10th arrondissement of Paris (''Xe arrondissement'') is one of the 20 Arrondissements of Paris, arrondissements of the capital city of France. In spoken French, the arrondissement is referred to as ''le dixième'' (; "the tenth", formally ''l ...

to settle herself and her library in the 13th arrondissement. Of her motive, Bouglé said:— Bouglé rejected in principle the idea that her collection might be absorbed by that of

Marguerite Durand Marguerite Durand (24 January 1864 – 16 March 1936) was a French stage actress, journalist, and a leading suffragette. She founded her own newspaper, and ran for election. She is also known for having a pet lion. The Bibliothèque Margueri ...

because of ideological differences between the two women. After her premature death in 1936, the (Association of friends of the library of Marie-Louise Bouglé) was formed, chaired by her husband, André Mariani and run by

Henriette Sauret Henriette Sauret (after marriage, Sauret-Arnyvelde; 1890-1976) was a French feminist author, and feminist pacifist journalist. As a feminist literary critic, her comments were less favorable about other feminist pacifist books than other experienc ...

. The honorary presidency was bestowed on Cécile Brunschvicg.

Archives Marie-Louise Bouglé

Bouglé's relatives tried to find a place to deposit the collection, but no library wanted it on the pretext that it was devoid of historical interest. In 1942, Mariani decided to bequeath the collection to the

Bibliothèque nationale de France The (; BnF) is the national library of France, located in Paris on two main sites, ''Richelieu'' and ''François-Mitterrand''. It is the national repository of all that is published in France. Some of its extensive collections, including bo ...

. In 1946, the collection was inherited by the Bibliothèque historique de la ville de Paris. Known as "Fonds Bouglé" in its early years, it was later renamed as "Archives Marie-Louise Bouglé". The first inventory was made by and published in her 1982 thesis. In the present day, Bouglé's 6,686 works can be consulted at the library, and the archives of feminist personalities collected by Bouglé are gradually being described on the portal of the Bibliothèque historique de la ville de Paris. Two major themes characterize the Archives Marie-Louise Bouglé, suffragism and pacifism. The collection is also notable for the large number of images (photographs, posters, postcards) inserted in the files. These

fonds In archival science, a fonds (plural also ''fonds'') is a group of documents that share the same origin and have occurred naturally as an outgrowth of the daily workings of an agency, individual, or organization. An example of a fonds could be ...

and the

Bibliothèque Marguerite Durand The Bibliothèque Marguerite Durand is a specialized public library run by the Paris municipal library system. History Created from a massive collection started in 1897 by journalist and activist Marguerite Durand. It was initially located at th ...

preserve essential archives of the history of the first wave of feminism in France.Metz, Annie, "Mises en ligne", ''Archives du féminisme'', no. 28, 2020, p. 15.

Death

Marie-Louise Bouglé died in Paris on June 13, 1936.

Early life

Career

Archives Marie-Louise Bouglé

Death

References

Further reading