'Suitable for Lay Reader': Dickinson, Kinsey, and Mrs. Dutcher's Cards at the New York Academy of Medicine Library

In the late 1930s, Dr. Robert Latou Dickinson enlisted three New York society women to create an annotated card index for the New York Academy of Medicine Library's sexuality collections. These bibliographers assigned each item a rating ('suitable for lay reader,' 'suitable for scientific reader,' or 'pornographic'). Dickinson lobbied for the establishment of a sex education library at the academy for medical practitioners and the public, using the annotated cards to make his case. He enlisted Alfred Kinsey to support the project. This article describes the library activism of two influential sexologists who believed sexual information should be available to a wider public. KEYWORDS: medical libraries, sexuality, access, Alfred Kinsey, Robert Latou Dickinson
IN 1918 MARIE STOPES, THE BRITISH BIRTH CONTROL advocate and campaigner for women's rights, published Married Love and Wise Parenthood. The books were instant bestsellers in Britain, devoured by readers [...]