YWCA of the U.S.A. Records. Record Group 6. Program: Series I. Departmant, Staff, and Committees
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Sophia Smith Collection Smith CollegeNorthampton, MA
Finding aid encoded by Carrie Baldwin. July 11, 2008
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Encoded Archival Description (EAD) Version 2002
collection
Creation of YWCA of the U.S.A. Records. Record Group 6. Program: Series I. Departmant, Staff, and Committees
Time of Creation of YWCA of the U.S.A. Records. Record Group 6. Program: Series I. Departmant, Staff, and Committees
Young Women's Christian Association of the U.S.A.
Biographical History for: YWCA of the U.S.A. Records. Record Group 6. Program: Series I. Departmant, Staff, and Committees
Historical Note Organizational responsibility for development of the National Association program and program materials was especially fluid during the first twenty-five years of the YWCA of the USA. Initially, the Association divided its staff into a Home Department (concerned with work in the U.S.) and a Foreign Department (concerned with U.S. staff working abroad.) By 1909 the Association added a Department of Territorial Work to facilitate establishment of a single cohesive national organization out of the array of local, state, and regional organizations that made up the two predecessor organizations. YWCA Program Packet, Fall 1947 Though the National Association incorporated in 1907, the Home Department did not have its first meeting until November of 1909. This meeting brought together representatives of the Department's three committees--City, Student, and Association Extension-"to consider the questions of common importance." One of the first topics of discussion was a change of the Department's name to something that would better describe its responsibility for "developing and perfecting" YWCA methods. The group decided to change the its name to Department of Method at its second meeting in January 1910. Also in 1910 the Department of Territorial Work was re-christened the Department of Field Work and charged with responsibility for communication between the National Association and Community Associations on "standards, policies, finances, and work desired and contemplated." In theory, these two departments had quite separate responsibilities, but in practice, the staff seems to have been extraordinarily aware of the big picture needs of the Association and to have participated wherever and however they were needed. From its earliest staff configurations, the National Association seems to have remained unsure about whether or not it was desirable to divide responsibility for "method" and "services." The Method Department's duties included making studies "to reveal the needs of young women in different localities and groupings," making "continuous study of the Association as a cooperative instrument of service in any community," and testing the "adaptability of its policies to different localities by a series of experiments conducted by expert secretaries." By 1913 those "expert secretaries" included specialists in city, and small town and country association work; in economics, education, physical education and hygiene, and religion; work in college and universities, Indian schools, secondary schools, church schools, "colored" schools; and work with "colored" women, girls, women in industry, and new immigrants. Method Department staff traveled the country visiting Associations and reporting on their area of expertise, but also on any other aspects of YWCA program they felt warranted comment. The post-World War I staff reorganization and reduction placed specialist "subject" and "constituent group" staff in the newly-created Education and Research Division. The intent was for staff of the Division to act as a resource "to their colleagues at headquarters," but not to work so much with staff of local Associations. They were to carry out research; maintain the library and other resource files at headquarters (such as files on legislation and a clipping service); develop program materials and training courses on "girls as growing personalities," citizenship, general and vocational education, religious and social education, "constructive" health; and to correlate all material related to the educational work of the Association. As the National Association's financial challenges continued, and the emphasis on national-level development of program decreased, the size of the program staff and its placement within the administrative structure changed every few years until 1960. It was sometimes part of the office responsible for services to Community Associations, sometimes explicitly part of Training, and sometimes a department of its own. Staff overseeing the National Association's public advocacy (which originally emerged from the Method Department) was often linked with program staff, but almost as often under the supervision of General Administration. The establishment of the Bureau of Research and Program Resources in 1960 brought staff responsibility for research, program materials development, and public advocacy back together-though on a much-reduced scale. These activities remained linked, though under a succession of different names, through the end of the Twentieth century. Administrative History1907-09Home Department1909-19Method Department1919-23Research and Method Department1923-32program staff decentralized in Field Division and Education and Research Division1932-35Program Dept of the Laboratory Division (incl also Pubs and Lib)1936-39Program and Research Department of the Laboratory Divisioncirca 1940-Program staff in Community Division; [called Subject staff 1941, Program Subjects staff 1942, Program staff 1943-44]1945-circa 1948Program Subject Department1950staff from former Program Subject Department listed under Training Services1952above staff listed under Leadership Services in the Membership Resources Department1955Leadership Services Department1960Bureau of Research, Studies, and Program Resources1962-71Bureau of Research and Program Resources1972-circa75Program Development and Public Policy Unitcirca 1975-c.1984Program Unitcirca 1984-92 Program Services Division1992-Advocacy and Research Division Committees1908-circa 1917Secretaries [and Special Workers]: Minutes, 1908-171927-? Methods Council [program approval and evaluation]1933-39Review of Program and Budget1939-42Program Planning Nov 1948-Mar 1970Program and Budget Apportionment Committee Oct 1970-Sep 1971 Program Coordinating/Coordination Core Group [interim group until Organizational Renewal Committee finished work] Sep 1971-80?Program and Budget
The YWCA of the U.S.A. donated a portion of its records to the Sophia Smith Collection in 1964 and the remainder in 2002 and 2003.
Scope and Contents Forms part of the YWCA of the U.S.A. Records--Record Group 6. Program. NOTE: For the most part, the Microfilmed Records and the Original Format Records do not duplicate each other and both should be consulted. This description covers materials in both formats. See the Contents List for a folder-level inventory of the Original Format Records. See the Microfilmed Records Reel Lists for a detailed inventory of the microfilm. Records in this series include minutes, reports, publications, correspondence, conference files, studies, and training materials recording the work of the staff and committees overseeing development of the YWCA's overall program and general program materials. As the home department for secretaries working on a variety of subjects and with a variety of groups, the minutes and reports (particularly those pre-1921), as well as the publications (particularly the Program Packets from the 1940s), provide an excellent overview of national program activities and the myriad of techniques used to implement them. Publications and Resource Materials contain books, pamphlets, "work tools," forms, and kits covering techniques for planning program, for effective organization administration, a variety of political and economic subjects. They also include how-to guides on child care, running residences, space planning, and "world fellowship." The Program Series and Program Packets contain extensive suggestions for programs in all the YWCA's areas of concern. Because they cover so many different subjects, the various Program series and serials give an especially good sense of the scope of the Association's activities. The series includes records of the Family Commission (1924-29), a group charged by Convention in 1922 to study the "character, place and significance of work in the life of women." The eventual study was expanded to include "work, marriage and divorce, and changing moral standards of today." There are also a couple of small files on other projects. The bulk of the records date from the years of most intense National involvement in program activities, roughly 1906-39. As is true elsewhere in the records, few items have survived for the period between 1971 and 1988. Microfilmed Records, 1884-1970 only [see Microfilmed Records Reel List] The Minutes and Reports are also available on paper. Minutes and Reports Program and Budget CommitteeResearch and Method Committee [includes Home Department and Method Department] Research and Program ResourcesEducation StaffEducation and Research DivisionFamily CommitteeLaboratory Division CommitteeLeadership Services DivisionMembership Resources CommitteeMethods CouncilResearch and Investigation CommitteeSubject Files EconomicsEducationEducational Work of the YWCAFamily RelationsLaboratory DivisionLeadership ServicesMembership ResourcesNational Board-Program Research and Program ResourcesYWCA--Program Original Format Records, 1909-2000, n.d., 9 linear feet [see Original Format Records folder list] With the exception of some of the publications and the scrapbooks in the Miscellaneous section, most of the Original Format Records dated prior to 1971 are also on the microfilm. The two (disassembled) scrapbooks were presumably compiled as a reference tool on structures and their uses for staff consulting with Community Associations. They contain information about YWCA buildings and buildings of similar organizations. The original format records are arranged in nine subseries as follows: General and HistoryMinutesConferencesProjectsPublications and Resource MaterialsReportsStudiesTrainingMiscellaneous Related Materials All of the other Series in this Record Group contain information about different aspects of YWCA Program. There is material about reorganization of YWCA work with constituent groups after World War II on the Microfilm under War Work, World War II, YWCA Constituency Groupings (reel 151). RECORD GROUP 1. GENERAL AND HISTORY, SERIES II. REORGANIZATIONS contains records of the various consultants' reports and studies of the administrative structure and goals that helped to determine the National Association's approach to Program. Researchers should consult RECORD GROUP 2. PREDECESSOR ORGANIZATIONS AND NATIONAL BOARD for information about program in the predecessor organizations and discussions about program in the National Board and Executive Committee minutes. RECORD GROUP 4. NATIONAL CONVENTIONS AND CONFERENCES contains records of the development of the National Association's overall program and the related discussions and ultimate endorsement of the program. Information about Student Program was the responsibility of the Student Department and National Student Council and can be found in RECORD GROUP 7. STUDENT WORK.
The records are open to research according to the regulations of the Sophia Smith Collection without any additional restrictions. Access to audiovisual materials may first require production of research copies.
The YWCA of the USA retains copyright ownership of the records, but has authorized the Sophia Smith Collection to grant permission to publish reproductions or quotations from the records on its behalf. Copyright to materials authored by persons other than YWCA staff may be owned by those individuals or their heirs or assigns. It is the responsibility of the researcher to identify and satisfy the holders of all copyrights for permission to publish reproductions or quotations beyond "fair use."
Additional Formats A copy of the microfilmed records of the YWCA of the U.S.A. Records is available to borrow from the William Allan Neilson Library at Smith College via Interlibrary Loan. To request the microfilm from our library you will need to submit the following information to your library's Interlibrary Loan department: Author: Young Women's Christian Association of the U.S.A. National BoardTitle: Records, 1876-1970 [microform]WorldCat Accession Number: OCLC 57415795Notes: "Call # 689" and reel number(s) you want to borrow Full descriptions and reel lists of the microfilm are available online.
This Record group forms part of the YWCA of the U.S.A. Records
Processed by Maida Goodwin, Amy Hague, Kara McClurken, Amanda Izzo, 2008 FY 07-08
Consumer education--United States--History--Sources
lcsh
series
SERIES I. DEPARTMENT, STAFF, AND COMMITTEES
This is the Contents List for the Original Format Records only. The reel lists for the Microfilmed Records are in a separate file. See Scope and Content note for more description.
General and History
Miscellaneous, 1929-2000, n.d.
Child Care
General and History, 1948-90
"Women and Children First: A Century of YWCA Services to Young Children," 1984
Home/Method/Research and Method Department: Policies and Program of the Department, 1909-15
Education and Research Division
General, 1922-30
International relations, 1928-29, n.d.
Laboratory Division
General, 1931-39
Suggested Program of the Work of the National Board, Nov 1931-Dec 1932
Proposed Program for the Biennium, 1934-36
Proposed Program for the National Board, 1941-42
Program Subject Department, 1946-47
Decentralized Program, 1956-61
Research and Program Resources, 1962-68, n.d.
Program Unit
General, 1979-84
Chronological Correspondence, Mar-Dec 1983
Resource Center on Women
Program Services Division
General, circa 1984-89
Chronological Correspondence, Jan 1984
Core Program concept, 1988-95, n.d.
Minutes
Department/Division/Bureau
Home/Method/Research and Method Department, 1909-10, 1912-21
Education and Research Division, 1921-24, 1930-31
Laboratory Division Staff meetings, 1931-36, 1938-39
Bureau of Research and Program Resources, 1963-70
Committees
Ad-hoc Working Group on Strengthening the Family, 1955-57
Counseling and Family Life Education, 1945-47
Economic Sub-Committee/Committee, 1914-19
Education Sub-Committee/Educational Staff, 1913-19
Family Relationships: minutes and reports, 1937-39
Homophobia Working Group, 1985
Methods Council, 1927
Program and Budget, Committee on Review of , 1933-39
Program Planning Committee, 1939-42
Program and Budget Apportionment Committee
Program Coordination Core Group, Oct 1970-Sep 1971
Program and Budget Committee
Program Development Committee, 1983-86
Research and Method Department Executive Committee, 1917-21
Research Workers/ Research Bureau/Research Group, 1919-21
Research and Education Workers/Research and Education Group, 1919-20
Conferences
Women in the 1960s-Their Job World, a consultation sponsored by the National Board and the National Manpower Council, 1960
National Conference for YWCA Program Staff, Nov-Dec 1960
National Institute on Program, 1963
National Staff Planning Conference, May 1973
National Board and Staff Planning Conference, May 1974
Opportunity, Equity and Change: National Conference for YWCA Program Staff, Nov 1979
National Consultation for Programs on Domestic Violence, Dec 1980
General
Findings
Report
National Conference for YWCA Program Staff, 1983-84
Consultation on Homeless Women and Children, Feb 1988
Projects
Miscellaneous, 1963-74
Family Commission
General and bibliography, 1924-25, n.d.
Summary of Work, 1926
Minutes and reports
Notes by Elizabeth Hendee, n.d.
"The Family in the Life of Today: Handbook for Leaders of Discussion Groups," circa 1926
"Is the Family Essential to Christian Civilization?" Series IV, No. 9, 1926
Preliminary Outline No. 2 To Discover What Women and Young Women are Thinking Today on Questions of Family Life, 1925
Study questionnaire: Effect of Paid Work on Married Women and Their Families, 1929
Women's Research Project (proposed), 1982-87
Publications and Resource Materials
Abortion Laws: A Study Guide, Nov 1966
Applying Educational Principles to the YWCA, 1930
Child care, miscellaneous, 1950-72
Clerical work, miscellaneous, 1928-29
Consumer Problems and Projects, 1942
Educational program in the YWCA, 1916, 1918
Evaluating the Association Program, 1933
Fresh Perspectives on Program Planning: A Work Tool for Testing by Community Division Staff Members, Sep 1960
Fresh Perspectives on Program Planning: Guide for Studying the Role of a YWCA in its Local Community, 1963
The Growth of Interest in International Relations in the YWCA, 1928
A Guide to Program in the YWCA, 1963
Guides for Planning Decentralized Units of Program in the YWCA, 1953 and Supplement, 1958
Handbook of the Association Cafeteria, Blanche Geary, 1917
Help the Illiterate Home Woman: A Guide to Developing Literacy Groups in a YWCA, 1967
"How to be Effective in Politics: 'A Do-it-Yourself' Guide to Good Citizenship," 1963
In Summer, 1935
International Catch-All: Suggestions for the study and practice of world citizenship, 1931
International Threads Weaving Through YWCA Experience, 1929
The Job of the Program Director by Dorothy I. Height, 1951
Neighbors and Neighborhoods: A Housing Handbook, 1965
"Open Letter No. II: "Is Charm Possible for You?," Dec 1926
PACT: Peer Education in Sexuality and Health. YWCA of the USA Program Manual Series, 1989
Patriotism-What is it?: Suggestions for Discussions and Projects, Assembly Programs for Washington's or Lincoln's Birthday or Other Patriotic Occasions by Margaret Hiller and A Vesper Service "The American Dream" by Abbie Graham, 1938, 1942
Peaks of History: A Study and Discussion Course by Katherine Gerwick, 1922
Potters and Pipers by Oolooah Burner, 1924
A Primer of Economics by Elsie D. Harper, 1935
Program and Administration-Tentative Work Tool, Community Division, Feb 1949
Program Guide for Community Units of District and County YWCAs by Elizabeth Herring et al, 1948
Program Making and Record Keeping, 1931
Program Planning in the YWCA, 1956, 1959
Program Planning in the YWCA, number 8 in the series on Administration in the YWCA, "The Basic Documents of a Community YWCA," 1975
Program Planning Studies: A Handbook…, 1940
Program Resource Organizer's Kits, 2000
Program Suggestions for Members' Meetings, 1954
Programs One Way or Another: A Consideration of Techniques, 1939
Residences, 1939-40
The Social Aspects of Our Clothes: A Study and Discussion Course in 8 Lessons by Katherine Gerwick, 1923, 1925
Space Planning for a YWCA Building, Lab Division, 1932
Suggested Budget Form for YWCAs in Small Cities and Towns and for Association Branches, Lab Division, 1933
What's New for Women and Girls Today, reprinted from the YWCA Magazine, 1966
World Fellowship Suggestions for Town Associations, 1922
Series/Serials
House and Home Series: An Outline Course for Use with Clubs, 1919-20
Program Series, 1920s
The Workshop Series, 1926-27
Discussion Outline for Study of Work with Younger Girls, Series I, Nos. 1-6, [1930s]
Program Book Series, 1932-33
Program Series
Program Papers for Today and Tomorrow, 1941
Program Packets
Nov 1944-Mar 1945, Sections 1-4
Sections 5-10, Mar 1945- Spring 1946
Summer 1946-Summer 1947
Fall 1947-Winter 1950
Memo to Staff/Program Memo to Staff/Program Memo
Program Priorities,1964-67: binder, 1965
Contemporary Programming Series Kit No. 2, "Money Talk" The Wise Consumer Kit, Consumer Protection, circa 1969
Contemporary Programming No. 4, Apr 1969
Child Care Network News and Action Alert, 1988-89
Program Services newsletter, Jun 1987-Apr 1988
Program Services Bulletin, Apr 1988- Jan(?) 1992
Reports
Home/Method/Research and Method Department 1908-23
Department, Chair, and Executive Secretary, 1907-14, 1919-20
Committee annual
Association Extension/Town Committee, 1909-12
City Committee, 1911-12
Student Committee, 1910-11
Convention reports, 1911, 1920
Architect reports (Julia Morgan, William F. Thompson), 1918-19
Miscellaneous, 1918-20, n.d.
Secretary annual, biennial, and periodic
Margaret Alton, 1920
Elizabeth Anselm, 1918-19
Vera Barger, 1919
Helen F. Barnes, 1908
Alida J. Bigelow, 1920
Crystal Bird, 1918-19
Leslie Blanchard, 1913-20
Marion Griswold Boalt, 1919-20 (employment)
Elizabeth Boies, 1911-16
Dorothy Dulles [Bourne], 1917-19
Eva D. Bowles, 1913-21
Edith Terry Bremer, 1913-17
Rachel Brooks, 1917-20
Anna L. Brown, 1911-20
Etha Louise Buchanan, 1918-20
Alice Standish Buell, 1920
Oolooah Burner, 1911-21
Margaret Burton, 1913-18
Eliza R. Butler, 1913-17
Mary L. Cady, 1918-20
Anna M. Clark, 1920
Jessie Clark, 1921 (employment)
Bertha Conde, 1913-18
Ethel Cutler, 1912-21
Edith M. Dabb, 1913-20
Maud S. Davis, 1920-21
Lorna Dietz, 1918-20
Marcia O. Dunham, 1911-14
Mabel T. Everett, 1913-15
Lena M. Farrar, 1919
Jessie Field, 1913-16
Blanche Geary, 1911-20
Katy Boyd George, 1920
Katherine Gerwick, 1919-21
Gertrude Gogin, 1917-21
Gertrude Griffith, 1911-16
Maud L. Harrison, 1920
Mabel Head, 1919-21
Almira F. Holmes, 1921
Louise Holmquist, 1909-19
Marion E. Hopkins, 1917-19
Addie W. Hunton, 1913-14
Reba J. Hurn, 1919
Imogene Ireland, 1920
Mary E. Jackson, 1918-20
Elizabeth Jenkins, 1920
Eleanor Larrabee Lattimore, 1919-22
Catharine D. Lealtad, 1918
Clare Lewis, 1920-21 (employment)
Kate Logan, 1917-18
Hazel MacKaye, 1918-20
Louise McMaster, 1919-22
Gertrude F. Murrell, 1920
Mary Musson, 1917-18
Amanda C. Nelson, 1920
Helen J. Owen, 1918-19
Ruth Lee Pearson, 1920
Lena M. Phillips, 1918-19
Emma Phinney, 1918-21
Josephine Pinyon, 1911-15
Margaret Swain Pratt, 1920
Margaret Proctor, 1917-22
Anna V. Rice, 1913-21
Clarinda Richards, 1918
Mary E. Rust, 1920-21
Anna Seaburg, 1911-20
Anna G. Seesholtz, 1918
Agnes Sharp, 1920
Florence Simms, 1908-20
Mary Sims, 1913-20
Lucy R. Somerville, 1920
Marie Lutters [Stanton], 1920
E. Beatrice Stearns, 1920
Mrs. M. C. Stevens, 1920
Mabel Eleanor Stone, 1918-21
Mary S. Stuart, 1918
Helen L. Thomas, 1911-17
Helen Peters Wallace, 1915-18
Margaret Williamson, 1917-18
Grace E. Willis, 1919
Marie Wilson, 1913
Sue Ann Wilson, 1920-21
Margaret Wells Wood, 1920
Bertha J. Woodward, 1920
Education and Research Division1923-32
Biennial, 1928-31
Oolooah Burner, 1922-23
Margaret E. Burton, 1922-24
Bertha Conde, 1923-24
Maud S. Davis, 1922
Grace A. Day, 1924
Katharine Gerwick, 1922
Almira F. Holmes, 1922-23
Anna V. Rice, 1922
Mabel Eleanor Stone, 1922
Program Staff [post-1932]
Program-Planning Studies
Summary Report, 1931-33
Report, Jan-Jun 1939
Work Tool for Immediate Use, 1940
"Program to Meet Changing Needs," 1945-46
Report of the Committee on Program and Budget Apportionment to the National Board, 31 Jan 1950
"Program in the YWCA: Findings from 150 Self-Studies of Local YWCAs," Program Study Committee, May 1951
YWCA Involvement in Program under the Economic Opportunity Act of 1964
Special Report on the International Consultation on Sexism in the 1970s, World Council of Churches, West Berlin, Jun 1974
Studies
A Study of the Organization and Activities of the YWCA, circa 1919
The Study of a Plan for a College Dormitory or Residence, 1931
Study of Work with Younger Girls in the YWCA, 1932-34: report
Rural Life and the YWCA, 1934
Study of the Standards of Work of Association Employees Other Than Professionals, 1935-36, by Elsie D. Harper
The General Secretary of a Community Y.W.C.A., A Job Analysis by Margaretta Brereton, 1939-40
Study of Contemporary Housing Needs of Young Women Living in YWCA Residences, 1969: questionnaire only
Housing Questionnaire, 1971
YWCA Programs Serving Battered Women and Their Children: questionnaire, 1980
An Analysis of Child Care Programs in the YWCA, 1982-85
Training
"A Program Workshop: Suggested Guide for Leaders," n.d. (1950s)
Workshop on Program, Nov 1953
Seminar for Experienced YWCA Staff, Aug-Sep 1954
Workshop on Program Development, Mar 1959
Miscellaneous
Buildings scrapbooks [disassembled]
YWCA buildings
A-L
M-Z
Non-YWCA buildings, A-Z