Archives West Finding Aid
Table of Contents
Montana Federation Of Colored Women's Clubs Records>, 1921-1978
Overview of the Collection
- Creator
- Montana Federation of Colored Women's Clubs
- Title
- Montana Federation Of Colored Women's Clubs Records>
- Dates
- 1921-1978 (inclusive)19211978
- Quantity
- 1.5 linear feet of shelf space.
- Collection Number
- MC 281
- Summary
- The Montana Federation of Colored Women's Clubs (originally the Montana Federation of Negro Women's Clubs) was a coordinating organization for local clubs of African American women around Montana. Records include minute books (1936-1952), correspondence, and reports of the Dunbar Art and Study Club, Great Falls; and miscellany reports and correspondence of the Phyllis Wheatley Club, Billings; Pearl Club, Butte; and the Pleasant Hour Club, Helena. Materials of the state federation include Legislative Committee reports, correspondence, clippings, bills concerned with civil rights state legislation; Claudia Bivens Scholarship material; state convention programs (1921-1978); constitution and bylaws; notes; clippings; and miscellany. [OVERSIZE MATERIAL: Map Case]
- Repository
-
Montana Historical Society, Library & Archives
Montana Historical Society Research Center Archives
225 North Roberts
PO Box 201201
Helena MT
59620-1201
Telephone: 4064442681
Fax: 4064445297
mhslibrary@mt.gov - Languages
- English
- Sponsor
- Funding for encoding this finding aid was provided through a grant awarded by the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Historical NoteReturn to Top
When the Montana Federation of Negro Women's Clubs first met in Butte on August 3, 1921, at least nine African American women's clubs were active in communities throughout the state. Representatives from seven of the local clubs attended the meeting called by Mary B. Chappell to organize the state federation as an affiliate of the National Association of Colored Women's Clubs, which organized in 1896. The representatives attending the Butte meeting elected Chappell as the state federation's first president. Women living in Kalispell formed Montana's first African American women's group, the Mutual Improvement Club, in August 1913. Three years later in 1916 twelve Helena women met as the Pleasant Hour Club. The Pearl Club formed in Butte in 1918, and two groups, the Phyllis Wheatley Club in Billings and the Dunbar Art and Study Club in Great Falls, organized in 1920. Four local clubs that formed in 1921 prior to the state federation's first meeting were the Bozeman Sweet Pea Study Club organized on January 5, Mary B. Talbert Art Club organized in Helena on January 7, Clover Leaf Club formed in Butte on February 4, and the Anaconda Good Word Literary Club, whose first meeting was in May.
The Montana Federation participated in meetings and activities of the National Association of Colored Women's Clubs and the National Association's Northwest Region with offices in Seattle. In addition to offering social activities for black women, the local clubs and the state federation supported the Claudia Bivens Scholarship Fund to help black high school students attend college, lobbied for civil rights legislation in the state legislature, and worked through a variety of programs to improve racial relations at the state and local level. At its annual meeting in 1948 the Montana Federation voted to change its name to the Montana State Federation of Colored Women's Clubs (MSFCWC).
After World War II membership in the state's local clubs dwindled as the black population in the state dropped. During the 1920s and 1930s as many as fifteen local groups were active in Montana, but by the 1970s only four clubs remained active, and on June 17, 1972, the state federation's executive board voted to disband. Federation assets and monies in the Claudia Bivens Scholarship Fund were given to the University of Montana, Missoula, to provide for a scholarship commemorating the MSFCWC.
Content DescriptionReturn to Top
Collection includes correspondence (1924-1971); minutes (1951-1972); convention reports (1922-1972); Claudia Bivens Scholarship records (1951-1972) including reports, correspondence, and clippings regarding scholarship recipients; legislative committee records (1938-1968) including reports, legislative bills, correspondence regarding state civil rights legislation. In addition to state federation records, the collection contains National Association of Colored Women's Clubs; Northwest Region Colored Women's Clubs material (1923-1970) including clippings, minutes, correspondence, and convention programs and reports; and records of the Phyllis Wheatley club of Billings, the Pearl Club of Butte, the Dunbar Art and Study Club of Great Falls and the Pleasant Hour Club of Helena. [OVERSIZE MATERIAL: Map Case]
Administrative InformationReturn to Top
Detailed Description of the CollectionReturn to Top
The following section contains a detailed listing of the materials in the collection
Statewide Organization Return to Top
Container(s) | Description | Dates |
---|---|---|
General Correspondence
|
||
Box/Folder | ||
1 / 1 | Correspondence re annual
meetings |
1958-1971 |
Miscellaneous
Correspondence |
||
Box/Folder | ||
1 / 2 | Letter to Joseph M.
Dixon thanking him for donation to National Association for the Advancement of
Colored People; letter from Floyd C. Miles to Robert Schuster re black
servicemen attending Great Falls social club |
1924, 1968 |
Minutes
|
||
Box/Folder | ||
1 / 3-5 | Annual state
convention minutes and miscellany |
1936-1971 |
1 / 6 | Executive board
|
1950-1972 |
Organization
|
||
Box/Folder | ||
1 / 7 | Constitution and
bylaws |
1921-1964 |
1 / 8 | Membership lists
|
1921-1968 |
Printed
Material |
||
Box/Folder | ||
1 / 9-10 | Annual
convention programs and clippings |
1921-1971 |
1 / 11 | Newsletters
(scattered) |
1952-1957 |
Reports
|
||
Box/Folder | ||
1 / 12 | State
President Mamie Lee Lacey's report |
1971 |
1 / 13 | Reports
re state annual conventions (includes delegate credentials) |
1953-1972 |
1 / 14 |
Historians' reports to State Convention (includes reports of state club
historian and historians of local clubs including Pleasant Hour Club of Helena,
Phyllis Wheatley Club of Billings, Dunbar Art and Study Club of Great Falls,
Pearl Club of Butte) |
1922-1971 |
Subject
Files |
||
Box/Folder | ||
2 / 1 |
Claudia Bivens Scholarship Fund: Education Committee reports |
1951-1970 |
2 / 2 |
Claudia Bivens Scholarship Fund: correspondence, and reports |
1962-1972 |
2 / 3 |
Claudia Bivens Scholarship Fund: clippings re scholarship recipients
|
1970-1971 |
2 / 4 |
Legislative Committee: includes reports, legislative bills, clippings, and
correspondence from black residents of the state re a wide variety of issues of
concern including civil rights bill of 1938; also includes report of Community
Council Inter-Racial Committee) |
1938-1968 |
2 / 5 |
National Association of Colored Women's Clubs, Inc. (includes clippings,
national publications, etc.; OVERSIZE MATERIAL in Map Case) |
1923-1972 |
2 / 6-7 |
National Association of Colored Women's Clubs, Inc.: Northwest Region (includes
convention programs, minutes, correspondence, and reports re conventions)
|
1947-1970 |
Miscellany |
||
Box/Folder | ||
2 / 8 |
Club songs, letterhead, inspirational reading |
n.d. |
2 / 9 |
Montana Federation of Women's Clubs material |
1968-1978 |
Clippings |
||
Box/Folder | ||
2 / 10 | Miscellaneous (re state federation) |
1948-1972 |
2 / 11 | Miscellaneous (re African American people in Montana;
Julian Anderson; and others) |
1938-1992 |
Phyllis Wheatley Club (Billings, Mont.) Return to Top
Container(s) | Description | Dates |
---|---|---|
Miscellany |
||
Box/Folder | ||
3 / 1 | Membership and activity reports, meeting programs,
convention correspondence |
1957-1971 |
Pearl Club (Butte, Mont.) Return to Top
Container(s) | Description | Dates |
---|---|---|
Miscellany |
||
Box/Folder | ||
3 / 2 | Reports and correspondence (also includes clipping re
Armeta Duncan) |
1957-1976 |
Dunbar Art and Study Club (Great Falls, Mont.) Return to Top
Container(s) | Description | Dates |
---|---|---|
Incoming Correspondence |
||
Box/Folder | ||
3 / 3 |
Miscellaneous (correspondents include Taylor Gordon, Montana Federation of
Women's Clubs, Pleasant Hour Club, Northwest Chapter) |
1961-1971 |
Minutes |
||
Box/Folder | ||
3 / 4-8 |
Minute books (also include treasurers' reports, membership lists)
|
1918-1924, 1936-1971 |
3 / 9 | Minutes
removed from minute book |
1952-1971 |
Organization |
||
Box/Folder | ||
3 / 10 |
Constitutions |
1950, 1953 |
Reports |
||
Box/Folder | ||
3 / 11 | Annual
and statistical reports |
1951-1971 |
Miscellany |
||
Box/Folder | ||
3 / 12 | Club
programs, year book, newspaper clippings |
1936-1978 |
Pleasant Hour Club (Helena, Mont.) Return to Top
Container(s) | Description | Dates |
---|---|---|
General Correspondence |
||
Box/Folder | ||
4 / 1 |
Correspondence to Pleasant Hour Club from membership and national leadership of
Federation of Women' s Clubs |
1968 |
Financial Records |
||
Box/Folder | ||
4 / 2 |
Treasurer's book, scattered receipts |
1956-1971 |
Reports |
||
Box/Folder | ||
4 / 3 | Annual
reports |
1960-1971 |
Miscellany |
||
Box/Folder | ||
4 / 4 |
Pamphlets, handouts, music lyrics [includes list of materials separated to
Museum and Photograph Archives] |
1971, n.d. |
Names and SubjectsReturn to Top
Subject Terms
- Women--Societies and clubs--Montana.
- African American women--Montana.
- African Americans--Montana.
- Civil rights--Montana.
- Clubs--Montana.
- Scholarships--Montana.
Geographical Names
- Great Falls (Mont.)--Social life and customs