In 1970, a group of twelve women working together as the Boston Women's Health Book Collective created a course book titled Women and Their Bodies. Published in Boston by the New England Free Press, Women and Their Bodies provided frank information about women's health and sexuality, while empowering readers to learn about their bodies and to take control of their healthcare. In April of 1971, the New England Free Press issued a new edition of the book, now under the title Our Bodies Our Selves.
Between December 1970 and January 1973, this work was printed eleven separate times. Each printing was slightly different than the one before it. In some cases, these changes primarily affected the layout and appearance of the book; at other times, changes reflected the Health Book Collective's reaction to evolving state abortion laws, provided updates to medical advice, or represented other substantive revisions.
The Boston Public Library Special Collection owns nine of those first eleven printings— many of them donated by community members who recognized the importance of this work and wanted to help preserve it for future generations. In conjunction with Our Bodies Ourselves, these printings are all digitized and available for free on Digital Commonwealth. This new digital resource will not only allow greater access to the original printings of this important work, but it will also allow curious viewers to compare the differences across the printing and see the evolution of the work.
As science and information have evolved since the 1970s, Our Bodies Ourselves has continued to publish new editions of the text. The most up-to-date information from their organization is available online at https://ourbodiesourselves.org/.
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