Papers of Louise Merwin Young, 1910-1992

Author, independent researcher, and professor of English at American University, Louise Merwin Young was the eldest of six children of Charles and Estella Merwin. She was educated at Ohio Wesleyan (B.A., 1925) and the University of Pennsylvania (M.A., 1927, Ph.D., 1939), and was married to economist Ralph Young, who was on the faculty at the University of Pennsylvania. Her interest in the possibilities of women's participation in the political process was piqued by her attendance at the 1944 national convention of the League of Women Voters, and when her husband moved to Washington, D.C., to join the staff of the Federal Reserve Board, she became increasingly active in the League of Women Voters, speaking throughout the country, and eventually arranging the organization's files for the Library of Congress. Young was also executive vice-chair of the National Committee on the Status of Women (1946-1948), and representative of the International Alliance of Women at U.N. Conferences of Non-Governmental Organizations (1947-1948). She edited an issue of Annals, the journal of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, on Women's Opportunities and Responsibilities, issued in May 1947, and was the author of Understanding Politics: A Practical Guide for Women (1950), and In the Public Interest: The League of Women Voters, 1920-1970 (1989), among other works. Louise Merwin Young died in Redlands, California.