Utah Federation of Women's Clubs records

Collection

Identifier: MS 0558

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

The Utah Federation of Women's Clubs records include documents of many Utah women's clubs from 1893 to the present. These records include yearbooks, reports, minutes, publications, financial date, correspondence, and scrapbooks. The General Federation and Utah Federation convention records make up the remainder of the collection.

Dates

1907-2008

Creator

General Federation of Women's Clubs of Utah (Organization)

Conditions Governing Access

Twenty-four hour advanced notice encouraged. Materials must be used on-site. Access to parts of this collection may be restricted under provisions of state or federal law.

Conditions Governing Use

The library does not claim to control copyright for all materials in the collection. An individual depicted in a reproduction has privacy rights as outlined in Title 45 CFR, part 46 (Protection of Human Subjects). For further information, please review the J. Willard Marriott Library’s Use Agreement and Reproduction Request forms.

Biographical / Historical

The General Federation of Women's Clubs was organized in New York City in 1890. The concept of the federation was to form an organization "that should be to the club, what the individual club is to the individual woman."

On 7 April 1893, representatives from Salt Lake City, Ogden, and Provo assembled to organize the federation of their clubs. Utah became the second state to federate, the first being Maine. The first clubs in the Utah Federation were the Ladies' Literary Club, the Salt Lake Woman's Club, the Cleofan, the Utah Woman's Press Club, La Coterie, and the Nineteenth-Century Club. The first UFWC president was Nora M. Jones of Provo's Nineteenth-Century Club. By 1899 the UFWC included thirty-three clubs, and by 1950 there were 149 clubs involved.

The objective of the Utah Federation, as stated in the first constitution, was "To bring into communication with one another the various women's clubs in Utah, that they may compare methods of work and become mutually helpful--and in general to promote such measures as shall best advance the educational, industrial, and social interests of the state."

The UFWC worked under the General Federation to develop state projects and services. The UFWC urged the organization of school leagues which later became the Parent-Teacher associations. It sponsored a traveling library, and founded or managed libraries in small towns. Other projects sponsored by the UFWC include art promotion, park cleanup campaigns, tree planting, development of health clinics, detention homes for juvenile girls, and playground construction.

Annual conventions were held by both the General and State federations. A monthly publication, Clubwoman, was produced by the GFWC, while the state published the Utah Clubwoman.

The federation lived up to its motto "Dedicated to thought, action, progress," for about eighty years. Then in the 1960s and 1970s, as more women began to work outside the home, the federation membership decreased, as it did in many women's clubs. The federation remains active.

Extent

103.5 Linear Feet (120 boxes)

Language of Materials

English

Additional Description

Abstract

The Utah Federation of Women's Clubs records (1907-2008) include documents produced by many Utah women's clubs from 1893 to the present. These records include yearbooks, reports, minutes, publications, financial date, correspondence, and scrapbooks. The General Federation and Utah Federation convention records make up the remainder of the collection.

Immediate Source of Acquisition

Boxes 1-113 were donated by various officers of the club between 1984 and 2003.

Box 114 was donated by Sharen Ward in 2004.

Boxes 115-116 were donated by Mohea Sprouse in 2006.

Boxes 117-119 were donated by Martha Pasker in 2006.

Box 120 was donated by Marrium Croom in 2010.

Related Materials

Forms part of the Aileen H. Clyde 20th Century Women's Legacy Archives.

Separated Materials

See also the Utah Federation of Women's Clubs photograph collection (P0350) in the Multimedia Division of Special Collections.

Processing Information

Processed by Jennifer Breaden, Lisa DeMille, Alison Rogers, Karen Carver, and Matthew Weathered from the 1980s-2013.

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