Defiance Business and Professional Women records

Collection – Multiple Containers

Identifier: MS-0250

Staff Only

Collection Overview

Abstract

The records of the Defiance Business and Professional Women date from 1931-1982. The collection consists of meeting and board minutes, committee reports, financial documents, scrapbooks, yearbooks, and newsletters.

Dates

Creation: 1931-1982

Extent

1.84 Cubic Feet (4 legal manuscript boxes)

Creator

Defiance Business and Professional Women (Organization)

Scope and Contents

The Defiance Business and Professional Women's collection contains records form 1931 to 1982. The records include minutes, bylaws, district and committee reports, history of the organization, financial documents, scrapbooks, newspaper clippings, printed materials, and newsletters.

The regular meeting and board minutes (1966-1977) contain the most specific information about the club's activities, projects, and policies. This source is limited by its incompleteness, the earlier minutes not being available. Another valuable source of information is the Fort Defiance News-Bee, the monthly newsletter, which includes a calendar of events, a review of the preceding meeting, a look at the upcoming meeting, and news items concerning members. Issues are fairly complete from 1956 when it was first published to 1978. Clippings from various local newspapers from 1954 to 1979 reflect the organization's active role in community affairs as do the scrapbooks and printed materials.

The Defiance BPW has been involved in many community activities and one in particular, Women Responsible for Accident Prevention (1968-1969) is well documented in this collection with organizational plans, news clippings, correspondence, and pamphlets. The committee reports (1955-1981) have many gaps, but still give an indication of the function and general activities of each committee.

General information on the local, state, and national BPW can be found in the directories (1939-1944, 1970s, 1981-1982), yearbooks (1937-1982), programs (1931-1942, 1957), and miscellaneous printed materials (1940-1981). This group of documents, although incomplete, includes club objectives, rules, organization of leadership, programs, lists of officers, and local members' occupations.

Also included in the collection are bylaws of the organization, which are amended annually, and financial records dating from 1959 to 1982 with some gaps. The budgets offer an indication of the assistance the club has given to the community.

The Defiance Business and Professional Women's collection contains information on the careers and interests of its members, the social benefits of the organization to the members, and the club's impact on the community.

Biographical / Historical

The Defiance Business and Professional Women's Club is a member of the Ohio Federation and National Federation of BPW Clubs. The National Federation was founded in 1919 and the first Ohio Federation convention was held the following year. In 1929, the Toledo chapter sponsored the organization of the Defiance BPW.

The local clubs are the smallest units of the Ohio and National Federation of BPW Clubs. Membership is open to business and professional women and the local clubs are self-governing, non-profit, non-partisan, and non-sectarian. The organization is designed to offer programs on political, economic, and social topics that will prepare members for leadership roles in the community and elsewhere.

The objectives of the National Federation as stated in the handbook are: "To elevate the standards of women in business and the professions; to promote the interest of business and professional women; to bring about a spirit of cooperation among business and professional women; and to extend opportunities to business and professional women through education along lines of industrial, scientific, and vocational activities."

The Defiance BPW holds fund-raising activities which supply it with project money. Some past projects include a scholarship fund for a Defiance High School girl graduate, donations to local hospitals, the County Home, and Children's Home. Other programs involving the BPW are the Women Responsible for Accident Prevention (1968), the Defiance Car Safety Check, Heart Fund Drives, and immunization campaigns.

Conditions Governing Access

No known restrictions.

Conditions Governing Use

Researchers using this collection assume full responsibility for conforming to the laws of libel, privacy, and copyright, and are responsible for securing permissions necessary for publication or reproduction.

Language of Materials

English

Additional Description

Immediate Source of Acquisition

The records were donated and transferred to the Center for Archival Collections in July 1982 with the cooperation of Mrs. Hilda Figley and Jill Gates Smith, Field Specialist for the Women's Studies Archives Project (WSAP) of the Center for Archival Collections.