The database provides access to full texts of international auction catalogues published between 1600 and 1900. Approx. 35,000 titles are planned to be digitized. Electronic fulltexts are based on filmed versions of holdings from diverse libraries, among others the Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie (RKD), The Hague; the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam; the National Art Library, Victoria and Albert Museum, London; the Courtauld Institute, London.

In the late 1800's, Dutch physician and feminist Aletta Jacobs and her husband C.V. Gerritsen began collecting books, pamphlets and periodicals reflecting the revolution of a feminist consciousness and the movement for women's rights. By the time their successors finished their work in 1945, the Gerritsen Collection was the greatest single source for the study of women's history in the world, with materials spanning four centuries and 15 languages. The Gerritsen curators gathered more than 4,700 publications from continental Europe, the U.S., the United Kingdom, Canada, and New Zealand, dating from 1543-1945. The anti-feminist case is presented as well as the pro-feminist; many other titles present a purely objective record of the condition of women at a given time.