Records of the Massachusetts Girl Scouts, 1915-1967
Overview
Minutes, reports, photographs, etc., of Massachusetts Girl Scouts, which provided leadership training, camping, health education, and volunteer work for young girls.
Dates
- Creation: 1915-1967
Language of Materials
Materials in English.
Access Restrictions:
Access. Collection is open for research.
Conditions Governing Use
Copyright. Copyright in the records created by the Massachusetts Girl Scouts 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. Records may be copied in accordance with the library's usual procedures.
Extent
2.29 linear feet ((5+1/2 file boxes) plus 14 photograph folders, 1 oversize folder, electronic records)This collection contains minutes, reports, and other records of the State Camp Committee (1921-1949); Camping Department (1923-1941); Metropolitan, Eastern, and Western Divisions (1926-1936); Eastern Division Field Committee (1926-1935); and Local Directors' Association (1926-1934). There are also reports, biographical information, correspondence, and other papers of Sarah Louise Arnold, Augusta B. Hartt, Helen Storrow, and various other Massachusetts Girl Scouts leaders, including Anne Hyde Choate, Mrs. Carl Dennett, and Gertrude Allisder Perkins. In addition, there are many letters from and articles about Lou Henry Hoover, National Girl Scout President from 1922 to 1925 and from 1935 to 1937. Also, there are many photographs of Sarah Arnold, Augusta Hartt, Helen Storrow, and other leaders and Scouts. There are few records prior to 1921. The Massachusetts Girl Scouts' web site is being captured periodically as part of Harvard University Library's Web Archive Collection service (WAX); searchable archived versions of the web site will be available through this finding aid in 2010.
HISTORY
The American Girl Scout program, an adaptation of Sir Robert Baden-Powell's English Scouting and Guiding movement, was founded in Savannah, Georgia in 1912 by Juliette Gordon Low. In 1915 the program was incorporated and established their headquarters in Washington, D.C. The following year the headquarters were moved to New York City. "Local councils" were formed in Massachusetts in 1916, and by 1917 almost 800 Massachusetts girls belonged to troops in Boston, Brookline, New Bedford, Salem, Springfield, and other cities. The local councils soon joined together as a State Council to set standards for activities and uniforms. This Massachusetts Council, chartered under a new constitution and incorporated in Massachusetts in 1919, helped establish standards and regulations later adopted by the National headquarters. Women representing the Massachusetts Girl Scouts served on the National Board from its inception, and helped set the course for scouting nationwide. Among the pioneering efforts of the Massachusetts Girl Scouts were the organization in 1916 of the first "Junior Scouts" (later named "Brownies") in Marblehead, and the First National Training School for Girl Scout Leaders, held at the Winsor School in Brookline in the summer of 1917.
In 1919 the Massachusetts organization was divided into the Eastern, Western, and Metropolitan (Boston) Divisions. Activities included leadership training, camping, health education, and volunteer work. Organizers and early leaders of the Massachusetts scouting movement included Sarah Louise Arnold, Augusta Batchelder Hartt, and Helen Osborne Storrow. In addition to her active involvement in Scout programs, Storrow donated "Our Chalet" in Switzerland as an international gathering place for Girl Scouts and Guides. Histories of the Massachusetts Girl Scouts can be found in folder 119 and in oversize folder.
ARRANGEMENT
The collection is arranged in ten series:
- Series I. Massachusetts State Camp Committee. Folders 1-27.
- Series II. Camping Department. Folders 28-49.
- Series III. Metropolitan Division. Folders 50-60.
- Series IV. Eastern Division. Folders 61-71.
- Series V. Western Division. Folders 72-84.
- Series VI. Eastern Division Field Committee. Folders 85-94.
- Series VII. Local Directors' Association. Folders 95-98.
- Series VIII. Other records. Folders 99-102, E.1.
- Series IX. Girl Scout leaders. Folders 103-134.
- Series X. Photographs. Folders 135-148.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Accession numbers: 75-107, 75-109
The records of the Massachusetts Girl Scouts were given to the Schlesinger Library in April 1975 by the Massachusetts Girl Scouts.
SEPARATION RECORD
The following items have been removed from the collection and transferred to the Organization File:
- "The Report of the First American Brownie Pow-Pow or Council, Held at Norbeck, Maryland, November 1922," 91 p., mimeo.
- "Historical Statement of the Constitution and By-laws of the Girls Scouts, Inc.," 64 p., mimeo., c.1922
- "With the Girl Scouts in 1922," published pamphlet, 8 p.
- Girl Scout Leader, Vol. 39, No. 3, March 1962 - 50th anniversary issue with articles and pictures on GS history.
CONTAINER LIST
- Box 1: 1-27
- Box 2: 28-55
- Box 3: 56-76
- Box 4: 77-106
- Box 5: 107-134
INDEX OF CORRESPONDENTS
- Alden, Verna - 109
- Arnold, Ida Persis - 130
- Arnold, Sarah L. - 68, 104
- Baden-Powell, Lady Olave - 112
- Bailey, Alice Taylor - 105
- Ball, Ida - 128
- Barnes, Harriet C. - 105
- Barsciauskaite, Elena - 106
- Brady, Genevieve G. - 105, 107
- Bunker, Mary Hawthorne - 130
- Byng, Evelyn - 130
- Chester, Alice - 133
- Choate, Anne Hyde - 102, 111-114, 128, 130
- Clapp, Sarah - 130
- Clise, Rosalind H. - 105
- Cooke, Bertha R. - 110
- Cumnock, Ruth - 130
- Davis, Dorothea - 115
- Delano, Leila B. - 106
- Emerson, Ella May - 112
- Faden, Evangeline - 128, 134
- Falk(?) see Von Herrenschwand, Ida
- Feustermacher, Dorothy - 113
- Ford, Grace - 112
- Forrest, Harriet - 105
- Francken-Dyserinck, W. Wijaendts - 106
- Furse, Katherine - 106
- Glenn, Georgiana - 110, 113
- Greer, Mrs. Fred - 114, 130
- Hall, Emma - 130
- Hartt, Augusta B. - 110-114, 122
- Hoffman, Mira - 115
- Hoover, Lou Henry - 107, 128
- Hunt, Melissa - 115
- Husband, Elfrida - 106
- Jackson, Dorothy - 106
- Jenks, Betsy - 112
- Kelley, Anne P. - 112
- Kelley, Mrs. James J. - 128
- Kerr, Rose - 106
- Letson, Helen - 113
- Lewis, Caroline E. - 130
- Lilinska(?), R. - 106
- Lindberg, Elin A. - 111
- Lindenmeyer, Antonia - 106
- Lingham, Grace E. - 130
- Miller, Clementine - 111
- Moore, Lillian - 115
- Moreland, Marion C. - 130
- Morse, Evelyn - 112
- Neal, Cora - 105
- Parson, Llewellyn - 105
- Perkins, Gertrude Allisder - 130
- Pfaff, Gertrude - 109
- Piepers(?) - 106
- Rippin, Jane Deeter - 105
- Rittenhouse, Constance R. - 111
- Roberts, Marion A. - 102
- Royal, Betty Anne - 130
- Rusk, Ethel - 130
- Sandiford, Alice - 134
- Sill, Lewis Ashley - 109, 114
- Sinnett, Edith - 115
- Stephen, Mary - 113
- Stevens, Helen Ward - 112
- Storrow, Helen - 112, 128
- Storrow, James J. - 130
- Vance, Mary - 115
- Von Herrenschwand, Ida ("Falk") 133
- Warren, Leslie C. - 112
- Watson, Jeannette K. - 105
- Wellman, Mary Lines - 113, 114, 130
- Wells, Katharine Abbot - 102
- Wendell, Edith - 109, 112
- Wheeler, Edward C., Jr. - 112
- White, Alice - 102
- Willett, Martha W. - 130
- Wright, Mrs. Leonard - 114, 130, 133
- Wright, Margaret B. - 105
Processing Information
Processed: March 1978
By: Katherine Gray Kraft
Subject
- Hartt, Augusta Batchelder, 1872-1961 (Person)
- Title
- Massachusetts Girl Scouts. Records of the Massachusetts Girl Scouts, 1915-1967: A Finding Aid
- Author
- Arthur and Elizabeth Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America
- Language of description
- eng
- Sponsor
- The collection was processed with funds provided by the National Historical Publications and Records Commission.
- EAD ID
- sch00725
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.