by Maida Goodwin

The Young Women’s Christian Association (YWCA) is a world-wide movement which aims to develop the leadership of women and girls to achieve human rights, health security, dignity, freedom, justice, and peace for all people. The U.S. National YWCA was established in 1906 to facilitate formulation of an overarching national program and policies for local YWCAs spread around the country. It was not a hierarchy directed from above, but a participatory democracy whose programs and policies were determined by the membership and officially adopted at Conventions called every two or three years. The National Board of Directors, described as “servant and prophet of the local YWCA,” worked with a myriad of committees and an extremely dedicated National Staff to devise ways to “put Convention actions into living form.” Continue reading →

In 2016 Smith College Special Collections was awarded a CLIR Digitizing Hidden Collections grant to digitize, describe, and publish materials from the YWCA of the U.S.A. records. Over the course of two years we will describe, preserve, and make available approximately:

• 380 reels of microfilm
• 48 linear feet of photographs
• 14 volumes of serials

The collection hold objects of great historical importance for women, women’s work, women’s equality, race equality, and other social and economic topics taken on by the YWCA USA. The digitized materials will make access to these records Continue reading →

Digitizing the YWCA USA