Louisa May Alcott’s novel Little Women tells the story of the four March girls as they make the transition to womanhood and struggle to conform to society’s strict ideals of femininity in the midst of poverty. The story is set in 1860s Massachusetts during the Civil War and is loosely based on Alcott’s own childhood. The collection of resources here, made up of photographs, illustrations, letters, and physical objects, helps explain the era in which the March family lived and the challenges they faced, from the books they read and the clothes they wore to the struggles of war and illness.