Records of the New England Women's Club, 1843-1971

The collection provides a detailed record of board, annual and social meetings, 1868-1963; biographical information on some of the leading members; lists of members and officers; programs, calendars, financial records (1891-1963), and reports of officers, committees and classes, for many of the years of the club's existence; a small amount of correspondence; some documentation of the difficulties encountered by the Dress Reform Committee (#73-75) and of the financial crisis of 1899 (25v); and papers on the relationship of the New England Women's Club to the Massachusetts Federation of Women's Clubs from the latter's founding in 1893 (#119).

Series I, History, 1843-1971, undated (#1v-21f), includes the bylaws and constitution; lists of officers, nominations, and ballots; yearbooks; Historian's records, other historical information; and photographs.

This series includes a historian's records scrapbook started by Julia A. Sprague, and was intended partly as an autograph collection and includes letters, poems or messages by Louisa May Alcott (copy of a poem for Club Tea, 1875); Julia R. Anagnos; William Henry Channing; Ednah Dow Cheney; James Freeman Clarke; Abby Morton Diaz; Kate Field (article re: New England Women's Club, 1869); Isabella Stewart Gardner; William Lloyd Garrison, William Lloyd Garrison, Jr. (poem to New England Women's Club, 1897); Lucy Goddard; Julia Ward Howe (Battle Hymn of the Republic and story of its writing, encomiums); Mary Holman Ladd; Mary A. Livermore; Abigail Williams May; Maria Mitchell; Lucretia Mott; Louise Chandler Moulton; Elizabeth Palmer Peabody; Lucia M. Peabody; Olive A. Perry; Wendell Phillips; George Ripley; Caroline M. Severance; Julia A. Sprague; Lucy Stone; Henry David Thoreau (fragments of poem, "The Winter's Walk," by Gavin Douglas, in handwriting of Henry David Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1843); Kate Gannett Wells; John Greenleaf Whittier; Abba Goold Woolson; and Marie Elizabeth Zakrzewska.

A photograph album found in this series (#19) include images of Elizabeth Cary Agassiz, Louisa May Alcott, Alice Stone Blackwell, Henry Brown Blackwell, Ednah Dow Cheney, James Freeman Clarke, Lidian Jackson Emerson, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Charles Follen, William Lloyd Garrison, William Lloyd Garrison, Jr., Thomas Wentworth Higginson, Julia Ward Howe, Samuel Gridley Howe, Harriot K. Hunt, Mary A. Livermore, Abigail Williams May, Maria Mitchell, Louise Chandler Moulton, Lucia M. Peabody, Julia A. Sprague, Lucy Stone, Booker T. Washington, Kate Gannett Wells, John Greenleaf Whittier, and Marie Elizabeth Zakrzewska.

Series II, Secretaries' records, 1868-1963, undated (#22-57), includes the recording secretary's minutes (Board of Directors, annual, and regular Monday afternoon meetings); annual reports; and reports of the corresponding secretary. The records of the recording secretary also contain membership, committee, and class information, as well as financial reports, such as treasurer's reports, auditor's reports, and Reserve Fund reports.

Board of Directors minutes also include regular and annual meetings minutes, and annual reports. All of the recording secretary's annual reports were written by Lucia M. Peabody. Additional material related to Lucia M. Peabody can be found in Series I, III, and IV.

Series III, Programs, 1868-1966, undated (#58-120), includes four sections: committee reports; class reports; projects, and material related to the New England Women's Club's relations with other women's organizations. Each section is arranged alphabetically.

The meetings arranged by the Discussion Committee (#70-72) covered a variety of topics, such as cycling for women, literature, foreign travel, manners, crime, politics, suffrage, immigration, public education, education for girls, and paid work for women. Some of the committee's annual reports give a cursory description of topics discussed, others are more detailed.

Folders titled "Projects" can include papers read to the club, programs for performances, meeting announcements, original charades, book and travel talks, and the Horticultural School for Women. Papers read to the club (#106-108) also cover a variety of topics and they include "Legal condition of women in Massachusetts" by Lucy Stone. Those by Julia Ward Howe include one about the Department of Woman's Work at the World's Industrial and Cotton Centennial Exposition (New Orleans, 1884-85); most of the rest are about the New England Women's Club and the women's club movement.

Additional material material related to Lucia M. Peabody can be found in Series I, II, and IV.

Series IV, Membership, 1868-1969, undated (#121-144), contains in the following order: membership lists, membership proposals and applications, each section arranged chronologically; and a section of documents by and about individual members. This last section is arranged alphabetically.

Membership lists can include addresses, and information about new members, life members, honorary members, and guests. Individual member folders can include biographical information, and correspondence. Membership information can also be found in Series III (#58, 87). Additional material related to Lucia M. Peabody can be found in Series I, II, and III.

Series V, FINANCIAL RECORDS, 1891-1968, undated (#145-177), includes treasurer's records, which include reports (multi-year, annual, and monthly); receipt and expenditure ledgers; checks and checkbooks; budgets; donations made by New England Women's Club; auditor's reports; and material related to the Reserve Fund. Reserve Fund records include reports, bank records, and correspondence. Reserve Fund report folders can also include investment inventories.

Financial records can also be found Series I (#4-8), throughout Series II, and in Series III (#81-84f+). Researchers following up on names or subjects listed in the added entries should be aware that much of the relevant documentation can be found in the board, annual, and regular meeting minutes and in committee reports.

Many file units listed as volumes in the 1973 inventory of these records have now been placed in folders for preservation purposes, and are numbered accordingly. This series is arranged chronologically by record type.