Records of the National Association of Women Lawyers, 1913-1999

The records of the National Association of Women Lawyers document a long history of challenges and accomplishments for women in the legal profession. The records provide critical insights into women's leadership, the Association's organizational structure and participation in social reform, and the struggle to achieve women's equality under the law. Included are organizational and administrative records; correspondence; project and program files; publications; and membership records. Clippings have been organized with related series. The records were received in labeled folders, which the archivist modified to avoid duplication and consolidate related material. The archivist also provided the arrangement and interfiled loose material. Correspondence of the Association's officers can be found in all series, reflecting the multiple roles they played within the organization.

Series I, HISTORY AND ORGANIZATION, 1928-1995 (#1.1-5.13, PD.1f+, E.1), includes incorporation records, constitution, and by-laws; correspondence; and financial records that document the Association's formative years, including its organizational structure and financial status. The bulk of this series consists of correspondence and inter-office memoranda; financial records; reports; resolutions; photographs, and speeches associated with annual, mid-year, and regional meetings. Also included are minutes of the executive board that detail the decision-making process of the Association, and correspondence of the past presidents council that highlight their role as advisors. A small number of brochures, correspondence, reports, and an application document the Association's role as a member, delegate, and observer for the United Nations and its related programs. Also included are reports and correspondence of ad hoc, standing, and special committees organized to support specific administrative functions, governance, and redress within the legal profession, and social reform. These include committees on constitution and by-laws; finance; public relations; judicial administration; legislation; criminal law and criminology; juvenile law and procedures; and legal aid. The records of the service award committee document the Association's efforts to secure appointments for women in the judiciary through annual recognition awards and include letters of nomination to elected officials (see Series III for additional records of the service award committee and Series IV for records of the membership committee). Some committee records are sparse and most have gaps. In addition, the web site of the National Association of Women Lawyers is being captured periodically as part of Harvard University Library's Web Archive Collection Service (WAX). A searchable archived version of the web site starting in 2010, is now available through this finding aid (#E.1). Related correspondence can be found in Series II, III, and IV. The series is arranged alphabetically with meetings being arranged chronologically therein.

Series II, CORRESPONDENCE, 1946-1999 (#6.1-10.6), contains correspondence files for Association officers. This correspondence provides insight into individual leadership styles and mainly describes office procedures, day-to-day operations, and planning goals for annual, mid-year, and regional meetings. Included are awards, curricula vitae, and other biographical information; correspondence and inter-office memoranda; reports; revised by-laws; and draft programs and resolutions. Also included are clippings sent by affiliates and members describing various events, efforts to reform state laws, discriminatory practices, and updates on women in the legal profession, including their accomplishments, illnesses, and death. Correspondents include individuals and law firms seeking information about the Association, judges responding to questions involving discrimination in the workplace, and city officials and organizations involved in the planning of public events, including Bill of Rights Day, Constitution Week, and World Peace Under the Law. See Series III (Projects and Programs) for additional material regarding these events. Included is a letter from Hilary Rodham Clinton, who worked with the Association while serving as a member of the American Bar Association's Commission on Women in the Profession. Internal correspondence and memoranda from state and regional officers, the council of delegates, and past presidents' council describing various meetings are also included. Smaller files of officer correspondence have been consolidated in folders entitled "correspondence of officers" (#7.1-7.3). The series is arranged alphabetically by officer. See Series I, III, and IV for additional correspondence.

Series III, PROJECTS AND PROGRAMS, 1913-1999, n.d. (#10.7-17.10, FD.1), includes articles and clippings publicizing the Association's history; the contributions of its officers; and activities associated with annual, mid-year, and regional meetings. Installation of new officers and keynote addresses and panel discussions on topics that include the viability of the Association as a woman's organization, and law and the sexual revolution, are also documented here. The series also includes correspondence related to campaigns for the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA), including letters of support from John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon. Correspondence, memoranda and committee records in this series are associated with various projects that were generally short-term and appear to have been funded through fundraising events organized by officers, members, and co-sponsors. These projects include Bill of Rights Day, the Association's participation on the Board of the Women's Advisory Council to the New York World's Fair (1964-1965), and the Women Lawyers Centennial (celebrated in 1969). Materials documenting efforts to obtain a commemorative stamp honoring Arabella Mansfield, the first woman to receive a law license in the U.S. (1869), include letters of support from Senators Russell B. Long, Jack Miller, and Congresswoman Martha W. Griffiths. Programs, uncataloged photographs, and substantial correspondence related to annual award programs for women in public service include nominations for judgeships sent to President Eisenhower, Henry Cabot Lodge, John Foster Dulles, and other elected officials. The bulk of the series consists of correspondence and uncataloged photographs associated with the outstanding law student awards. Some educational material representing the young lawyers division established in the mid-1980s is also included. Amicus curiae briefs related to discrimination in employment, correspondence, memoranda, photographs, programs, and conference ephemera document collaboration between the Association and other organizations, including the American Bar Association, the International Bar Association, the National Women's Law Association, and others. Topics of interest include the Association's support of a controversial pro-life resolution authored by the American Bar Association. There is also substantial material used in the Association's quarterly publication Women Lawyers' Journal, including correspondence, speeches, articles, obituaries, interviews, manuscripts and uncataloged photographs of Association's officers, including Marguerite Rawalt, Virginia Mueller, and others; Justices Florence E. Allen, Beatrice S. Burstein, and Juanita Kidd Stout; and pioneering women lawyers, including Sarah Kilgore and Lucy Somerville Howorth. Related correspondence can be found in Series I, II, and IV. Published journals were transferred to the Schlesinger Library periodicals collection. Most of the photographs in this collection are or will be cataloged in VIA, Harvard University's Visual Information Access database. Others, referred to as "uncataloged" photographs, are not of sufficient research interest to warrant cataloging and are simply treated as part of the documents they accompany; they are marked on the back with an asterisk in square brackets [*]. The series is arranged alphabetically.

Series IV, MEMBERSHIP, 1942-1997 (#17.11-20.8), documents the various strategies used by officers of the Association to expand membership through active participation in elections, membership drives, and networking opportunities. The records include correspondence related to recruitment drives and subscriptions; membership applications and brochures; national membership lists; financial records and statistical reports; procedural handbooks; directories; and biographical data on members, subsequently published in the Encyclopedia of Women Lawyers and Who's Who of Women Lawyers. Items of special interest include special (honorary) memberships and awards for members over the age of 70 that includes pioneering lawyer, activist and feminist Lucy Somerville Howorth, Justice Beatrice S. Burstein, and Justice Genevieve Blatt. Also of interest are surveys and questionnaires used to identify topics for discussion at annual and mid-year meetings, including advancement within the American Bar Association, alternative dispute resolutions, gender bias in the courts, and the future of legal aid. The surveys also solicited recommendations for the Association's governing structure, election procedures, and quarterly journal. Related correspondence can be found in Series I, II, and III. The President's Newsletters and published journals were transferred to the Schlesinger Library periodicals collection. The series is arranged alphabetically.