Skip to main content
COLLECTION Identifier: 75-38--76-46

Papers of Lucile Heming Koshland, 1947-1974

Overview

Records of Carrie Chapman Catt Memorial/Overseas Education Fund include correspondence, history, clippings, etc., of Lucile Heming Koshland, political and civic volunteer.

Dates

  • Creation: 1947-1974

Language of Materials

Materials in English.

Access Restrictions:

Access. Collection is open for research.

Conditions Governing Use

Copyright. Copyright in the papers created by Lucile Heming Koshland is held by the President and Fellows of Harvard College for the Schlesinger Library. Copyright in other papers in the collection may be held by their authors, or the authors' heirs or assigns.

Copying. Papers may be copied in accordance with the library's usual procedures.

Extent

2 linear feet (2 cartons)

This collection of Lucile Heming Koshland's Carrie Chapman Catt Memorial Fund/Overseas Education Fund records consists of two series, arranged in Koshland's original order.

I. Organizational records, 2-30. Correspondence, history, clippings, reports of officers, minutes, and publications; includes records of Freedom Agenda, a program to develop the community study of civil liberties that resulted in charges of "un-American activities."

II. Overseas projects, 31-63. Correspondence and reports of American and foreign participants in projects to foster democratic movements and citizen involvement. Includes reports of visits and exchanges; and papers re: lecture tours abroad by Carrie Chapman Catt Memorial Fund/Overseas Education Fund members and campaigns against illiteracy in India and Italy.

BIOGRAPHY

Lucile Wolf Heming Koshland, political and civic volunteer, was born in New York City in 1898. She attended private schools in New York and spent a year at Vassar College before entering Barnard College, from which she graduated in 1919. She married Charles E. Heming, who died in 1929. In 1959 she married Daniel Koshland, Sr., former president of Levi-Strauss, and moved to California, where she lived until her death in 1978.

Koshland was president of the League of Women Voters of New York State; she was also the first president (1947-1953) of the Carrie Chapman Catt Memorial Fund (later the Overseas Education Fund), member of its Board of Directors, and trustee until 1966.

The Carrie Chapman Catt Memorial Fund, a research and educational fund, was established in 1947 by the League of Women Voters of the United States in memory of the League's founder, Carrie Chapman Catt. At the close of World War II, the League received numerous requests from the State Department suggesting that it sponsor programs to promote the application of democratic principles and civic education among women abroad. Because the League had neither the financial nor professional resources to meet these requests, it created the Carrie Chapman Catt Memorial Fund as a financially and legally independent organization, "to impart to men and women in all parts of the world a knowledge of the principles and workings of self-government." It sponsored visits to the United States by foreign women, organized exchange programs, and fostered literacy programs abroad. A publications fund was established with the sale of a sapphire brooch given to Carrie Chapman Catt in gratitude for her work in gaining passage of the Nineteenth Amendment. Publications included German and Japanese translations of Simplified Rules of Parliamentary Procedure, bulletins, progress reports, and pamphlets on voter education. Always a "two-way street," the exchanges also benefitted American members who learned a great deal from the interaction with countries abroad.

With the expansion of the program, the name was changed to the Overseas Education Fund, although it maintained the structure and functions of the Carrie Chapman Catt Memorial Fund.

Physical Location

Collection stored off site: researchers must request access 36 hours before use.

Immediate Source of Acquisition

Accession numbers: 75-38, 76-46

The papers of Lucile Wolf Heming Koshland were given to the Schlesinger Library by Lucile Heming Koshland in February 1975, and by Mrs. John Cunningham in February l976.

CONTAINER LIST

  1. Carton 1: 2-34
  2. Carton 2: 35-63

Processing Information

Preliminary inventory: December 1986

By: Lucy Thoma

Title
Koshland, Lucile Heming. Papers of Lucile Heming Koshland, 1947-1974: A Finding Aid
Author
Arthur and Elizabeth Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America
Language of description
eng
EAD ID
sch00674

Repository Details

Part of the Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute Repository

The preeminent research library on the history of women in the United States, the Schlesinger Library documents women's lives from the past and present for the future. In addition to its traditional strengths in the history of feminisms, women’s health, and women’s activism, the Schlesinger collections document the intersectional workings of race and ethnicity, gender, sexuality, and class in American history.

Contact:
3 James St.
Cambridge MA 02138 USA
617-495-8540