Records of the National Committee on the Cause and Cure of War, 1920-1994 (inclusive), 1924-1949 (bulk)

In 1924, Carrie Chapman Catt convinced nine of the leading national United States women's organizations of the need for a conference on the cause and cure of war. The National Committee on the Cause and Cure of War was founded at a meeting in Washington in 1925. Carrie Chapman Catt served as chair until 1932, and as honorary chair thereafter.

The National Committee on the Cause and Cure of War was an umbrella organization composed of the following women's organizations: American Association of University Women, Council of Women for Home Missions, Federation of Woman's Boards of Foreign Missions, General Federation of Women's Clubs, National Board of the Young Women's Christian Association, National Council of Jewish Women, National League of Women Voters, National Woman's Christian Temperance Union, and the National Women's Trade Union League. In 1940, the National Federation of Business and Professional Women's Clubs and the National Women's Conference of the American Ethical Union became members.

Together, these organizations of educated women attempted to understand the causes of war, rather than protest against it. Members wrote letters to members of Congress, gave lectures, and organized petitions, study groups, and round-table discussion groups known as "Marathon Round Tables." The National Committee on the Cause and Cure of War also sponsored state, regional, and annual national conferences. The organization's focus was on education and promoting legislative methods of preventing war, particularly the World Court, the Kellogg-Briand Pact, and disarmament treaties.

In 1943, the National Committee on the Cause and Cure of War changed its name to the Women's Action Committee for Victory and Lasting Peace, which after World War II became the Women's Action Committee for Lasting Peace. The goal of the new organization was to "To unite American women to work for full participation by the United States in the United Nations in order to build a world of peace and justice under law." The Women's Action Committee for Lasting Peace had a research arm, the Committee on Education for Lasting Peace, which produced publications including the bulletin Backlog for Action. Carrie Chapman Catt died in 1947, and the Women's Action Committee dissolved in 1949.

Esther (Wanner) Hymer was born in 1898 in Chicago, Illinois. She was graduated from the University of Wisconsin in 1920, and studied at Northwestern University, Columbia University, and the Zimmern School of International Affairs in Geneva, Switzerland. She married Howard Hymer, a mining executive, in 1922; they had two children. They lived in Arizona and Montana, finally settling in Shrewsbury, New Jersey. Hymer became involved with the National Committee on the Cause and Cure of War in 1934, when she served as a representative from the American Association of University Women. She chaired the Marathon Round Table committee, organized the discussion groups nationwide, and wrote materials for use in the program. Hymer attended the organizing conference for the United Nations in 1945 as an aide to Margaret Hickey, representative for the National Federation of Business and Professional Women's Clubs. She later served as a non-governmental representative to the United Nations focusing on women's issues. She was elected chair of the Committee for the International Women's Year and the Decade for Women and served in this position from 1972 to 1982. In addition to her work with the National Federation of Business and Professional Women, Hymer directed the World Relations Program for Church Women United from 1955 to 1964. Hymer died on April 4, 2001.