Founded in 1984, the GFWC Women’s History and Resource Center (WHRC) collects, preserves, interprets, and promotes the history of GFWC. The WHRC documents the social and political contributions of GFWC clubwomen from 1890 to the present through the GFWC archives and related special collections. Our holdings are available for research by clubwomen, academics, and the general public.
The WHRC collections encompass GFWC’s institutional archives, including convention records, files related to our programs and leadership, and “Clubwoman” magazine (and its predecessors). We hold a robust photograph and audio-visual collection, as well as GFWC ephemera, memorabilia, and the art and artifacts that furnish our historic Headquarters building. We also maintain a reference library collection focused on women’s history, the woman’s club movement, and the history of volunteerism.
Please note: While we do have many state- and club-level archival and photographic materials, we do not maintain official records for State Federations or local clubs, or for outside organizations.
WHRC: From the Archives
Pioneer Workers of the General Federation Generally speaking, the Women’s History and Resource Cente…
WHRC: From the Archives
“Where we meet at present”: The GFWC Clubhouse Photo Collection Although most of the GFW…
WHRC: From the Archives
Family Connections (Part 2) As we saw in last month’s post, the theme of FAMILY runs through t…
Research at the WHRC
Learn more about the collections, request research assistance, or make an appointment to visit in person. To inquire about a potential donation, please email us with details: whrc@gfwc.org
LEARN MORE It`s National Rosie the Riveter Day, when we honor the many American women who took on jobs in factories and shipyards during World War II. Without their efforts, the essential work of production during the war could not have happened.
In times of national crisis, GFWC members have stepped up to the plate – and WWII was no exception. GFWC Headquarters churned out countless brochures advising our women on how they could contribute to the war effort, from fundraising to conservation to literally upending their lives by joining the military, training to become a nurse, or getting "a job in a war industry."
"Through the years history has shown us that whenever a crisis occurs, women stand ready to respond to their country`s needs," this booklet proclaimed, before detailing the opportunities available. "This war is not just a man`s war, it is a woman`s war as well."
📷 Booklet: "Women in Industry – War Service Department, Industry Committee, Program Number 2", 1942. From Programs Collection, PRO 1941-1944 f26
#clubwomeninhistory #womenshistoryisamericanhistory
#rosietheriveterday
It`s National Rosie the Riveter Day, when we honor the many American women who took on jobs in factories and shipyards during World War II. Without their efforts, the essential work of production during the war could not have happened.
In times of national crisis, GFWC members have stepped up to the plate – and WWII was no exception. GFWC Headquarters churned out countless brochures advising our women on how they could contribute to the war effort, from fundraising to conservation to literally upending their lives by joining the military, training to become a nurse, or getting "a job in a war industry."
"Through the years history has shown us that whenever a crisis occurs, women stand ready to respond to their country`s needs," this booklet proclaimed, before detailing the opportunities available. "This war is not just a man`s war, it is a woman`s war as well."
📷 Booklet: "Women in Industry – War Service Department, Industry Committee, Program Number 2", 1942. From Programs Collection, PRO 1941-1944 f26
#clubwomeninhistory #womenshistoryisamericanhistory
#rosietheriveterday
We missed National Girl Scout Day last week! GFWC and the Girl Scouts of America have had a close relationship over the past century, and we`re saddened to have missed the organization`s birthday on March 12th. To make up for it, here`s a 1978 photo showing GFWC Executive Secretary Jewell Hamilton (left) greeting Frances Hesselbein, CEO of the Girls Scouts, and Dr. Gloria Randle Scott, President of the Girl Scouts, at a reception at Woodrow Wilson House in DC.
Hesselbein was CEO of the Girl Scouts of the USA from 1976 to 1990. Scott, the first Black woman elected as Girl Scouts of the USA President, held that office from 1975 to 1978 (she remains on the Board of Directors).
Happy belated birthday, @girlscouts!
We missed National Girl Scout Day last week! GFWC and the Girl Scouts of America have had a close relationship over the past century, and we`re saddened to have missed the organization`s birthday on March 12th. To make up for it, here`s a 1978 photo showing GFWC Executive Secretary Jewell Hamilton (left) greeting Frances Hesselbein, CEO of the Girls Scouts, and Dr. Gloria Randle Scott, President of the Girl Scouts, at a reception at Woodrow Wilson House in DC.
Hesselbein was CEO of the Girl Scouts of the USA from 1976 to 1990. Scott, the first Black woman elected as Girl Scouts of the USA President, held that office from 1975 to 1978 (she remains on the Board of Directors).
Happy belated birthday, @girlscouts!
One the strengths of the GFWC Women`s History and Resource Center collection is the information it contains on the stories and histories of "ordinary" women. That`s true of our reference library as well, where we have biographies of women both famous and lesser-known. Here are just a very few of those biographies, from the shelves.
Are you hoping to read any biographies this Women`s History Month, either on your own or with your club? Let us know in the comments!
#womenshistorymonth #womenshistoryisamericanhistory
One the strengths of the GFWC Women`s History and Resource Center collection is the information it contains on the stories and histories of "ordinary" women. That`s true of our reference library as well, where we have biographies of women both famous and lesser-known. Here are just a very few of those biographies, from the shelves.
Are you hoping to read any biographies this Women`s History Month, either on your own or with your club? Let us know in the comments!
#womenshistorymonth #womenshistoryisamericanhistory
A great way to celebrate International Women’s Day: presenting on the WHRC at the GFWC Maryland Mid-Winter Rally!
A great way to celebrate International Women’s Day: presenting on the WHRC at the GFWC Maryland Mid-Winter Rally!
Today`s #ArchivesHashtagParty theme is #ArchiveHandwriting – celebrating the handwritten materials in our collections! Here`s a personal favorite example from our Clubhouse Photograph collection: a real photo postcard showing a building "owned by the Judith Lyford Woman`s Club, Cabot, Vt." The club was formed in 1912 for the purpose of providing a permanent town library.
The postcard`s contributor, Mrs. Lillian F. Rogers, took the time to label each room and its use (listed below), showing the building`s importance to the town. It is still standing, known today as the Willey Building.
Mrs. Rogers` handwritten caption tells a fuller story than just the photograph by itself would… but it also helped obscure that story, because for a period of time between its donation in the 1920s and last year, it was mis-read as "Cabot, Ut." and filed under Utah. 😑
📷 Judith Lyford Woman`s Club, Cabot, Vermont. Rooms labeled as "1. Boys Club room; 2. J.L. Woman`s Club room & girls; 3. Public library; 4. Auditorium & Town Hall; X Dining room and Kitchen in rear of Building". Clubhouse photo collection, CP VT 003
Today`s #ArchivesHashtagParty theme is #ArchiveHandwriting – celebrating the handwritten materials in our collections! Here`s a personal favorite example from our Clubhouse Photograph collection: a real photo postcard showing a building "owned by the Judith Lyford Woman`s Club, Cabot, Vt." The club was formed in 1912 for the purpose of providing a permanent town library.
The postcard`s contributor, Mrs. Lillian F. Rogers, took the time to label each room and its use (listed below), showing the building`s importance to the town. It is still standing, known today as the Willey Building.
Mrs. Rogers` handwritten caption tells a fuller story than just the photograph by itself would… but it also helped obscure that story, because for a period of time between its donation in the 1920s and last year, it was mis-read as "Cabot, Ut." and filed under Utah. 😑
📷 Judith Lyford Woman`s Club, Cabot, Vermont. Rooms labeled as "1. Boys Club room; 2. J.L. Woman`s Club room & girls; 3. Public library; 4. Auditorium & Town Hall; X Dining room and Kitchen in rear of Building". Clubhouse photo collection, CP VT 003
The WHRC welcomes researchers by appointment – like Prof. Vivian Appler and her mother / research assistant Phyllis Appler (past president of GFWC-NH)! Have a project that we might be able to help with? Let us know!
The WHRC welcomes researchers by appointment – like Prof. Vivian Appler and her mother / research assistant Phyllis Appler (past president of GFWC-NH)! Have a project that we might be able to help with? Let us know!
Happy Presidents` Day from the GFWC Women`s History and Resource Center!
📷 Winners of the GFWC-CITGO "Beauty for Business" contest – in which women`s clubs around the country worked with local businesses to "improve the appearance of their establishments and the environment of the nation" – visit the Lincoln Memorial, 1972.
Happy Presidents` Day from the GFWC Women`s History and Resource Center!
📷 Winners of the GFWC-CITGO "Beauty for Business" contest – in which women`s clubs around the country worked with local businesses to "improve the appearance of their establishments and the environment of the nation" – visit the Lincoln Memorial, 1972.
Happy International Day of Women and Girls in Science! To celebrate, let`s take a look at the career of a historical scientist: Dr. Florence Bascom (1862-1945), the second American woman to earn a PhD in geology (and incidentally the first woman to earn a PhD at Johns Hopkins), and the first woman to work for the US Geological Survey. She helped pioneer fieldwork for women geologists while teaching at Bryn Mawr College; when she was appointed there in 1895, the news was reported in papers across the country.
Was she a GFWC clubwoman? Unclear at this point, though she belonged to many scientific organizations (and to the Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority), and her mother Emma Curtiss Bascom was an active suffragist… so it`s not out of the realm of possibility.
Your GFWC Women`s History and Resource Center Librarian (hi! 👋) is *not* a scientist, so I won`t attempt to summarize Bascom`s many achievements, discoveries, and publications – but I encourage you to take some time today to learn more about her, and/or about other women in STEM history!
📷Florence Bascom, circa 1900.
#internationaldayofwomenandgirlsinscience #womenshistoryisamericanhistory
Happy International Day of Women and Girls in Science! To celebrate, let`s take a look at the career of a historical scientist: Dr. Florence Bascom (1862-1945), the second American woman to earn a PhD in geology (and incidentally the first woman to earn a PhD at Johns Hopkins), and the first woman to work for the US Geological Survey. She helped pioneer fieldwork for women geologists while teaching at Bryn Mawr College; when she was appointed there in 1895, the news was reported in papers across the country.
Was she a GFWC clubwoman? Unclear at this point, though she belonged to many scientific organizations (and to the Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority), and her mother Emma Curtiss Bascom was an active suffragist… so it`s not out of the realm of possibility.
Your GFWC Women`s History and Resource Center Librarian (hi! 👋) is *not* a scientist, so I won`t attempt to summarize Bascom`s many achievements, discoveries, and publications – but I encourage you to take some time today to learn more about her, and/or about other women in STEM history!
📷Florence Bascom, circa 1900.
#internationaldayofwomenandgirlsinscience #womenshistoryisamericanhistory
Take a trip with us to a lovely #archiveslandscape during today`s #archiveshashtagparty! Our green meadow comes from our sheet music collection: "In the Meadow" by Carrie Jacobs-Bond (1862-1946). In the 1930s, GFWC put together a Music Loan Library for clubs looking to embrace musical programming. Many of the available songs, like this one, were by women composers.
📷 "In the Meadow," words and music by Carrie Jacobs-Bond, (c) 1925; printed by The Boston Music Co. Sheet Music collection, SM 177
Take a trip with us to a lovely #archiveslandscape during today`s #archiveshashtagparty! Our green meadow comes from our sheet music collection: "In the Meadow" by Carrie Jacobs-Bond (1862-1946). In the 1930s, GFWC put together a Music Loan Library for clubs looking to embrace musical programming. Many of the available songs, like this one, were by women composers.
📷 "In the Meadow," words and music by Carrie Jacobs-Bond, (c) 1925; printed by The Boston Music Co. Sheet Music collection, SM 177
February 3rd is celebrated as National Women Physicians Day, in memory of the birthday of Elizabeth Blackwell (1821-1910), the first female doctor in the US. To honor the occasion, we want to share a bit about another 19th century woman of medicine: Dr. Leila G. Bedell (1838-1914) of Chicago.
GFWC members might recognize her name, since she is cited in our history as the person who first suggested we adopt a "Federation Insignia." (Swipe to see her words on the topic at our first convention in 1892.) A member of the Chicago Woman`s Club, as well as organizations dedicated to the advancement of women in medicine, she was a major figure in the early days of the General Federation. Her medical career began in Chicago in the early 1870s, and she was (per her obituary) "an authority on various medical subjects, and frequently lectured before the medical schools of homeopathy." She published "The Abdominal Brain," a study of the sympathetic nervous system, in 1885, just as she began her three-year term as President of the Chicago Woman`s Club.
📷Photo of Dr. Bedell from her obituary in the "Chicago Tribune, March 31, 1914
📄Address of Dr. Bedell, closing the Executive Session of the First Biennial Meeting of GFWC, Chicago, May 1892
#NationalWomenPhysiciansDay #ClubwomenInHistory @gfwcil
February 3rd is celebrated as National Women Physicians Day, in memory of the birthday of Elizabeth Blackwell (1821-1910), the first female doctor in the US. To honor the occasion, we want to share a bit about another 19th century woman of medicine: Dr. Leila G. Bedell (1838-1914) of Chicago.
GFWC members might recognize her name, since she is cited in our history as the person who first suggested we adopt a "Federation Insignia." (Swipe to see her words on the topic at our first convention in 1892.) A member of the Chicago Woman`s Club, as well as organizations dedicated to the advancement of women in medicine, she was a major figure in the early days of the General Federation. Her medical career began in Chicago in the early 1870s, and she was (per her obituary) "an authority on various medical subjects, and frequently lectured before the medical schools of homeopathy." She published "The Abdominal Brain," a study of the sympathetic nervous system, in 1885, just as she began her three-year term as President of the Chicago Woman`s Club.
📷Photo of Dr. Bedell from her obituary in the "Chicago Tribune, March 31, 1914
📄Address of Dr. Bedell, closing the Executive Session of the First Biennial Meeting of GFWC, Chicago, May 1892
#NationalWomenPhysiciansDay #ClubwomenInHistory @gfwcil
Welcome to the Year of the Snake! We want to wish all of our readers a happy Lunar New Year.
👉Swipe to see these two little serpentine friends in their natural habitat (aka the Drawing Room murals here at GFWC Headquarters), by Albert Herter, circa 1909.
Welcome to the Year of the Snake! We want to wish all of our readers a happy Lunar New Year.
👉Swipe to see these two little serpentine friends in their natural habitat (aka the Drawing Room murals here at GFWC Headquarters), by Albert Herter, circa 1909.
Happy #libraryshelfieday from the WHRC reference library! As much of the country struggles through extreme wintry weather, I’m hoping to hasten the arrival of the next season by posing with our copy of “The Year’s at the Spring” (collected by Anita Browne, 1940) from our poetry shelf. Stay warm, friends!
Happy #libraryshelfieday from the WHRC reference library! As much of the country struggles through extreme wintry weather, I’m hoping to hasten the arrival of the next season by posing with our copy of “The Year’s at the Spring” (collected by Anita Browne, 1940) from our poetry shelf. Stay warm, friends!