WHRC: From the Archives - General Federation of Women’s Clubs

Welcome!

By: Joanna Church, Women’s History and Resource Center Librarian

September 5, 2024

Welcome, readers, to our new monthly blog series, direct from the GFWC Women’s History and Resource Center! Here, we’ll highlight stories of General Federation history, pulled from our unique archival, photograph, and artifact collections. Check back on the first Thursday of each month for a new post.

To kick things off we’ve chosen a few images from our collections that show clubwomen, past and present, hard at work and Living the Volunteer Spirit. Let’s take a tour through our history!

The Trained Nurses’ Club and Reading Room, New York City, 1894. “A New York City club for ‘trained nurses’ was formed in 1894 in conjunction with a reading room for members who were described as ‘graduate nurses and those who stand high in the profession.’ Pictured are members in the reception area of the club rooms, which included sleeping apartments. Mrs. M.G. Willard, founder of the club, was a permanent resident.” This photo and caption appeared in Reaching Out, the definitive history of GFWC written by Mary Jean Houde and published in 1989 for our Centennial; the image was earlier used in the very first history of GFWC, Jane Cunningham Croly’s 1898 book, The History of the Woman’s Club Movement in America. Many early clubs were organized for study and relaxation, though soon we moved to community action and improvement.

GFWC staff at Headquarters, Washington, DC, 1928. “The ‘Long Office’ at Headquarters in which is rendered valuable service to thousands of clubs and individual club women scattered throughout the world.” Since the 1980s, this 60-foot-long room has served as our Archives, where much of the WHRC collections are housed. This photo and its caption can be found in the August 1928 issue of our magazine, at that time called “General Federation News.”

GFWC leaders with the New Hampshire Federation of Women’s Clubs Bookmobile, 1941. The April 1941 issue of “The Clubwoman” featured this image of GFWC President Saidie Orr Dunbar (far left) with Mrs. Frederick B. Preston (center), President of the New Hampshire Federation, and Lucy Jennings Dickinson (also of New Hampshire), GFWC 2nd Vice President and future President. They are posed with a bookmobile purchased by the New Hampshire Federation for the state public library commission. Libraries – whether stationary or mobile – have long been a major focus of American women’s clubs, and of the General Federation itself.

“Saguache, Colorado club women at work,” 1959. Since the late 1940s, GFWC has sponsored a biannual contest for club projects focused on improvements within the local community. Though the contest has gone by different names over the decades, today it is called the Community Impact Program (CIP) award. Because contest submissions include detailed text, imagery, and supporting data, the CIP collection contains a wealth of information for historians, as well as for present-day club members hoping to learn from their predecessors’ successes. (Look for a lot more from the CIP collection in future WHRC blog posts.) In this instance, four clubs in Saguache, Colorado joined forces to organize a community council, secure a town doctor, and create a museum; the project was a national finalist, netting the clubs a $1,000 prize in 1960.

Officers of the San Xavier Woman’s Club, Tucson, Arizona, 1964. GFWC has a long history of member clubs in Native American communities, particularly in western and midwestern states. The San Xavier Woman’s Club of Tucson was founded in the 1950s as a “mother’s club” by women living in the Tohono O’odham Nation (then called the Papago Reservation); in 1964 they federated with Arizona and GFWC in order to better coordinate their work with other area organizations. This photo, showing the club officers receiving their GFWC Charter, was published in “Clubwoman,” November 1964. Left to right (seated): Miss Carmelita Antone, president; Miss Mary Lucy Wilson, 1st vice president; (standing): Mrs. Albert S. Frank, treasurer; Miss Rufina Morris, 2nd vice president; and Miss Evangeline Ignacio, secretary.

Kansas clubwomen repairing windows, 1972. Here’s another photo from our CIP collection, this one showing members of the Johnson County Young Matrons, of Shawnee Mission, Kansas, rehabbing a house to hold the Temporary Lodging for Children, an emergency shelter for community kids “who are temporarily without parents of a home due to circumstances beyond their control.” The project was awarded first place in the 1972-1974 contest. In the club’s submission, this photo was captioned: “The fruits of our labor brought satisfaction to all!!” (Yes, complete with two exclamation marks!)

Members of the São Paulo Women’s Club sorting donated clothes, 1986. GFWC has welcomed international affiliates since our earliest days. Here, a member club in Brazil distributes clothing to children at the Castelinho Community Center; the clothing was donated by Health-Tex as part of the GFWC Concern for Kids International program. The São Paulo Club helped organize the community center in the 1960s, and won third place in the International CIP contest for their work; in 1986 they won first place for their continued efforts with the center. This photo was published in “Clubwoman,” September/October 1986.

Club members delivering donations, 1995 and 2007. Our magazine has gone by a variety of names over the years, but no matter the title, the hard work of our clubs has been featured since the beginning. Left: Members of the GFWC Woman’s Club of South Milwaukee, Wisconsin, made a donation of paper goods to their local Ronald McDonald House; they were featured in the “Club News” section of the August/September 1995 issue of “Clubwoman.” Right: North Carolina club members made nearly 150 stuffed bears, which were then donated to the Wake County Emergency Medical Services for the benefit of young patients; this photo appeared in the August/September 2007 issue of “Clubwoman” under “Volunteers in Action.”

Atlanta Woman’s Club members preparing lunch for shelter residents, 2023. The inaugural GFWC National Day of Service, held on September 24th, 2023, brought nearly one thousand GFWC clubs together to tackle the problem of food insecurity in their communities. Participating clubs submitted reports and photographs, which are preserved in the WHRC archival collections. Here, the Atlanta Woman’s Club of Georgia is shown preparing some of the 45 lunches they contributed at a homeless shelter.

GFWC Atlanta Woman's Club food insecurity on National Day of Service 2023

Remember to check back next month for more stories from GFWC history (and present)! To learn more about the WHRC collections, visit the WHRC page or contact us at whrc@gfwc.org.

Joanna Church is the Women’s History and Resource Center Librarian at GFWC Headquarters in Washington, DC. She oversees the WHRC collection, handles research requests, and loves sharing our unique resources with fellow lovers of women’s history.