[The Aletta Jacobs Papers are housed at the Internationaal Informatiecentrum en Archief voor de Vrouwenbeweging (IIAV) in Amsterdam.]

Addams, Jane, Emily Balch and Alice Hamilton. Women of the Hague: The International Congress of Women and Its Results. New York: l9l5.

Vivid accounts by three key participants in the Hague conference and its aftermath, including their reflections on the war and on the role of media in molding public opinion, and their impressions of the European leaders of belligerent and neutral nations with whom they had personal encounters. Appendices include the set of resolutions adopted at the congress.

Blackburn, Susan. “Western feminists observe Asian women: an example from the Dutch East Indies” . In Women Creating Indonesia. The first fifty years, edited by Jean Gelman Taylor, 1–21. Clayton, Australia: 1997.

Focuses on the articles Jacobs wrote for De Telegraaf during the three months she and Catt spent in the Indies, where Jacobs, a Dutch woman with relatives and many contacts in the islands, played a special role. Emphasis on the tension between her positive view of Dutch colonial rule and her espousal of international feminism. Bibliography includes works in English and Dutch about Indonesian women and Indonesian history.

Bonner, Thomas N. To the Ends of the Earth: Women’s Search for Education in Medicine. Cambridge, Mass: l992.

Traces women’s struggle to study medicine in Paris, Zürich, Bern, St. Petersburg, and other centers of medical learning—their achievements, their setbacks, and the perseverance of the pioneers, particularly the first Americans who went to Europe to study. Does not treat Jacobs directly but gives a nuanced international context for her achievements. Extensive bibliography includes many works in German and Russian.

Bosch, Mineke. Een onwrikbaar geloof in rechtvaardigheid. Aletta Jacobs, 1854–1929. Amsterdam: 2005.

The first full-length scholarly biography of Jacobs, published by Uitgeverij Balans in Amsterdam.

Bosch, Mineke. “Aletta Jacobs and the Women’s International Congress at the Hague, l9l5: Peace, internationalism and the discourse of Dutch nationalism.” Paper delivered at the conference: Hull-House as a Resource for Teaching U.S. and World History. September 22–23, 2000. University of Illinois at Chicago.

Presents Jacobs’s peace initiative within its Dutch context, with a focus on how the Dutch saw their small nation and its colonial policies in relation to the other great colonial powers. Bosch argues that Jacobs’s initiative actually brought her suffrage work closer to fruition because of the special nature of Dutch nationalism at the time.

Bosch, Mineke. “Colonial Dimensions of Dutch Women’s Suffrage: Aletta Jacobs’s Travel Letters from Africa and Asia.” Journal of Women’s History, Vol. 11 #2 (1999): 8–34.

Critical reinterpretation. in light of post-colonial and feminist theory, of Jacobs’s articles in De Telegraaf for Dutch readers. Her acceptance, indeed advocacy of the idea of ‘benevolent’ colonial role is according to Bosch not really in conflict with her international feminism but rather a way of asserting a key role for Western feminists in outreach to other nations and cultures.

Bosch, Mineke, with Annemarie Kloosterman. Politics and Friendship. Letters from the International Woman Suffrage Alliance, 1902–1942. Columbus: l990.

Focuses on the evolution and development of the International Woman Suffrage Alliance (IWSA), including the upheavals brought about in the organization by World War I and by the rise of fascism in the l930s. Emphasis on the inextricably entwined personal and professional lives of the women involved. Each explanatory chapter is followed by a selection of letters among five key participants: Aletta Jacobs, Carrie Chapman Catt, Rosa Manus, Anna Howard Shaw and Rosika Schwimmer. Appendices include boards and officers of the IWSA from 1904 to 1942. Bibliography of works in English and Dutch, some in German.

This book is a translation and adaptation of Mineke Bosch and Annemarie Kloosterman, Lieve Dr. Jacobs: Brieven uit de Wereldbond voor Vrouwenkiesrecht 1902-42. Amsterdam: 1985.

Feinberg, Harriet. “Aletta Jacobs’s Reisbrieven uit Afrika en Azië.” Unpublished paper. Cambridge, Mass: l995.

Overview, with vignettes and extended quotations, of the articles Jacobs wrote for De Telegraafduring the journey she and Catt took in l9ll–12. Highlights Jacobs’s impressions of different nations’ colonial rule, then the near-epiphany she and Catt experienced in China, and seeks to assess whether her views of nonwhite women changed during the journey.

Feinberg, Harriet. “ A Pioneering Dutch Feminist Views Egypt: Aletta Jacobs’s Travel Letters.” Feminist Studies 10 (2) (Fall l990): 65–77.

Describes Jacobs’s impressions in the articles she wrote from Egypt and Mandate Palestine, and finds an interplay of two modes of discourse: ‘encouraging our peers’— based on an idea of universal sisterhood—and ‘lifting up our native sisters’—based on an assumption of white Western superiority. Argues that her suffrage work pulls Jacobs toward the egalitarian mode.

Posthumus-van der Goot, W.H. Vrouwen vochten voor de vrede. Arnhem: l961.

Broad exploration of the growth of peace activism in Europe and the United States during the nineteenth century, before and during World War I, in the interwar years, and after World War II. Jacobs and her circle are considered mainly in chapters l3–15. Reflections and speculations on the role of Quakers and other peace groups and on future prospects for peace. No bibliography.

Posthumus-van der Goot, W.H. and Anna de Waal, eds. Van Moeder op Dochter: De maatschappelijke positie van de vrouw in Nederland vanaf de Franse tijd. Revised edition, Nijmegen: l977.

Pioneering in-depth study of the social position of women in the Netherlands from 1798 to the l960s. Jacobs is prominent in the sections on suffrage and on health; she is considered within a rich context of other early Dutch feminists. Appendices include Dutch women’s organizations, Dutch women elected to the legislature. No bibliography.

Randall, Mercedes. Improper Bostonian: Emily Greene Balch. Nobel Peace Laureate l946. New York: l964.

Biography by a younger close associate of Balch which explores the development of her commitment to pacifism. The book gives a detailed and emotional account of her participation in the Hague conference and its aftermath, of her subsequent pacifist activities during the war, and of the founding meeting in Zurich of the Women’s International League of Peace and Freedom.(WILPF). Much material is drawn from private correspondence and unpublished papers.

Rupp, Leila. Worlds of Women: The Making of an International Women’s Movement. Princeton: l997.

Focuses on the International Council of Women (ICW), the International Alliance of Women (IAW) [formerly IWSA] and the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) in a broad inquiry into the personal relationships and issues that shaped these and other groups. Considerable attention is given to Jacobs and her Dutch cohorts. Extensive bibliography includes many manuscript collections, conference proceedings, and dissertations, as well as an international range of primary and secondary sources.

Tilburg, Marja et al, ‘Op mij rusten grooter en ernstiger plichten.’ Dr. Aletta Jacobs’

zorg voor de wereld.’ RUG: Werkgroep Vrouwenstudies Letteren Groningen, l992.

A group of three articles prepared in connection with a 1992 exhibit honoring Jacobs at the University of Groningen’s museum.The booklet includes a biographical sketch by Mineke Bosch, an assessment of Jacobs’s contribution as a physician by Annita Deen, and an analysis of her belief in progress by Claudia Vrieling. Photographs, illustrations, bibliography.

Van Brakel, Nouchka, film producer. Aletta Jacobs, het hoogste streven. Netherlands, Circe Films, l995.

An appealing, somewhat fictionalized film focusing on Jacobs’s medical training, her early years of practice, and her relationship with Carel Gerritsen. Includes flashbacks to her childhood and glimpses of her in old age.

Van Voris, Jacqueline. Carrie Chapman Catt: A Public Life. New York: l987.

Biographical study emphasizing Catt’s growth toward internationalism and her feminist networks. Chapters 10 and 11 cover Catt and Jacobs’s 1911–1912 trip through Africa and Asia and form a useful complement to Jacobs’s own account in her Reisbrieven, particularly because Van Voris quotes from Catt’s private diary while Jacobs’s articles were intended for publication in a Dutch newspaper.

Wenger, Beth. “Radical politics in a reactionary age: the unmaking of Rosika Schwimmer, l9l4–l930.” Journal of Women’s History, Vol.2 #2 (fall l990): 66–99.

Biographical study of Jacobs’s Hungarian Jewish friend and associate in suffrage and peace work, from whom she was later estranged. Wenger chronicles Schwimmer’s ascendance as an outspoken pacifist and feminist and her difficult, often desperate, later years in the United States.

Wilde, Inge de. “ Aletta Jacobs en het geluk van de wereld.” In In de vaart der volken. Nederlanders rond 1900, 161–171. H. Belién, M. Bossenbroek and G.J. van Setten (eds). Amsterdam: l998,

Succinct biography integrating much recent Jacobs scholarship into a balanced, clear account of Jacobs’s aspirations and multiple achievements.

Wilde, Inge de . Nieuwe deelgenoten in de wetenschap: Vrouwelijke studenten and docenten aan de Rijksuniversiteit Groningen l871–1919. Dissertation, University of Amsterdam. Assen: l998.

Traces the history of women’s presence at the University of Groningen. The second chapter, pp. 40–84 is devoted to Aletta Jacobs and her sister Charlotte Jacobs, the first two female students. De Wilde provides corroboration and enhancement for some of Jacobs’s assertions in her autobiography, questions and modifies others. The extensive bibliography on higher education for women, particularly in the Netherlands, includes all de Wilde’s prior published work on Jacobs and her circle and on other academic women and women’s organizations.

Wilde, Inge de, ed. “Er is nog zooveel te doen op de wereld.” Brieven van Aletta H. Jacobs aan de familie Broese van Groenou. Zutphen: l992.

Personal letters from Jacobs to various members of this family who were very dear to her give insights often absent from her more public writings. General introduction plus comments and notes on most letters. Many photographs.

Wilde, Inge de. Aletta Jacobs in Groningen. Groningen: Studium Generale/Universiteitsmuseum/Rijksuniversiteit te Groningen, l979.

Examines the currents of thought in Groningen intellectual circles about higher education for women, and traces Jacobs’s progress from her preparations for admission to completion of her dissertation. Reproduces key documents and letters. Bibliography of Jacobs’s articles on medical and social problems.

Wiltsher, Anne. Most Dangerous Women: Feminist Peace Campaigners of the Great War. Connecticut: l985.

Narrative of the tumultuous events within the suffrage movement, particularly among the British suffrage leaders, leading up to the Hague conference and beyond. Focuses on Jacobs’s fiery friend Rosika Schwimmer, from whom she was later bitterly estranged. Written by a journalist, the book creates vital scenes and moments that embody key issues.