The Idaho Third District Federation of Women's Clubs was organized in 1902. Its object was to unite all women's clubs in the third district, an area from Lewiston north to the Canadian border, for mutual federation. Membership was open to any club which was not a partisan, political, or secret organization. All clubs also had to belong to the Idaho Federation of Women's Clubs and the General Federation of Women's Clubs. By 1986 the membership had dwindled to seven clubs located in Moscow, Lewiston, Coeur d'Alene, and Sandpoint; by contrast, there were 18 clubs in 1965. Since none of the members was willing to hold an office the delegates at the 1986 district convention voted to dissolve the organization and have the member clubs absorbed by the adjacent second district.
The records of the Idaho Third District Federation of Women's Clubs span the years 1946 to 1998 with the bulk of the material covering the years 1975 to 1986. The material includes the constitution and bylaws, the secretary's correspondence and financial files, minutes of state and district conventions, the treasurer's record books and check registers, convention registration records and programs, and twelve scrapbooks, eleven of which contain newspaper clippings, newsletters, programs, photographs, and correspondence, and one which contains yearbooks from all member clubs.
When additional records were processed in May 2011 some folders were added that contained: correspondence, letterhead, statistical report, conventions, conferences and workshops, GFWC Idaho Volunteers. There were also folders created that contained the history of the Sandpoint Civic Club, the Women's Club Movement in Idaho and the Women's Club Federation at the national level. In addition to these folders, nine scrapbooks and one daybook were added to the collection.
When additional records were processed in February 2021 some folders were added that contained General Federation of Women's Club (GFWC) and Idaho Federation of Women's Club (IFWC) materials. Most of the materials added, however, were added to existing folders. During this addition, Sub-series were added to denote materials at a district, state, and national level. The folders containing district and state convention minutes was created in prior processing and was not separated out into district and state materials under the new sub-series structure. A minute book was also added to the collection that was too large to box with the rest of Series I, so it is stored in Box 3 with scrapbooks.
Collection is open for research.
The records of Idaho Third District Federation of Women's Clubs were donated to the University of Idaho Library between March 1982 and May 1987 by Coleen Atmore of the Bonner County Historical Society (MA 1985-37 and MA 1987-20). More materials were donated by past president Anne Cordes between 1990 and 1995 (MA 1990-17;MA 1991-02; and MA 1995-18).
The material was in no discernable order when received, so an order was created during processing. They were processed by Judith Nielsen in October 1989. In May of 2011, Jenny Johnson processed and added additional accessions to the collection. In Febraury 2021, Courtney E. Berge processed and added an additional accesion to the collection.
[Description of Item], Idaho Third District Federation of Women's Clubs records, MG 163, Special Collections and Archives, University of Idaho Library, Moscow, Idaho.