WAUPowellMildredPHColl558.xml Guide to the Mildred T. Powell Photograph and Ephemera Collection circa 1904-1952 Powell (Mildred T.) Photograph and Ephemera Collection Special Collections, University of Washington Libraries © 2003 (Last modified: 1/31/2020)
Seattle, WA 98195
Finding aid written in English. Finding aid based on DACS (Describing Archives: A Content Standard). University of Washington Libraries, Special Collections PH0558 Powell, Mildred T., 1886- Mildred T. Powell photograph and ephemera collection circa 1904-1952 circa 1935-1952 92 photographic prints; 1 drawing (1 box) ; sizes vary Collection materials are in English. Photos document the civic and other activities of Mildred Towne Powell, Seattle city councilwoman

Mildred Towne Powell was a Seattle area political activist and civic leader. She served as the only woman member of the Seattle City Council from 1935-1955, and is the second longest serving woman on the council. She was born on February 9, 1886, in New London, CT, to parents Walter Alanson Towne and Alice Nichols Warner. Following her graduation from New London's Williams Memorial High School (a public school for girls), Powell attended Wellesley College for one year before transferring to Smith College where she received a bachelor’s degree in 1908. She taught school in Connecticut and Massachusetts until 1910, when she married Francis Foster Powell and moved to Montana. In 1923, the Powell family--including children Francis, Jr., Alanson, and Alice--moved to Seattle. Powell was actively involved in the local community, including serving as the president of the Seattle Parent Teacher Association. After her husband died in 1934, she was urged by prominent leaders, among them Bertha Knight Landes, to run for the City Council. She ran as Mrs. F. F. Powell (in honor of her husband) and was elected in 1935. She was re-elected for her second term in 1938 with the highest number of votes of any candidate and was the third woman to ever sit on the City Council. She served in many positions on the Council including the Council President and acting Mayor of Seattle (three times).

At the end of WWII, she was chosen to represent the U.S. to lecture on municipal government in England and Germany. In 1950, she ran unsuccessfully as a candidate for the First Congressional District. She was active in the Moral Re-Armament (MRA) movement, which was based on Christian ideals that promoted world peace and unity and opposed Communism. It was founded by Frank Buchman in the 1920s, was ecumenical in nature, and by the 1950s, encouraged the spread of the MRA ideology through the production of plays such as The Vanishing Island . At that time it maintained a popular international following and worked to stop the spread of Communism. In 1955, she was invited to join a peacemaking journey to 28 countries in Asia and the Middle East by the MRA. She encouraged Myrtle Edwards to fill her Council position. When Mildred resigned from the City Council, more than 40 organizations and leaders, including the Governor of Washington, praised her years of service on the Council. She continued to be active in the MRA for many more years until her health brought her home to Seattle, where she died on June 16, 1977.

This collection contains photographs of Mildred T. Powell as well as other civic and national leaders of her day, such as Mayor William F. Devin (Seattle mayor, 1942-1952), Raymond Allen, president of the University of Washington, and Eleanor Roosevelt, wife of president Franklin Roosevelt.

Photographs of Mildred Towne Powell's political activities on the city council, her unsuccessful run for a congressional seat, and her work on the MRA (Moral Re-Armament) movement that opposed Communisum. The collection also include views of her home in Laurelhurst that were made for the "Better Homes and Gardens" magazine

View selections from the collection in digital format.

Collection is open to the public.

Request at UW

Possibly donated by M. Powell 1/20/1972.

Processed by Zach Hooker and Jocelyn Spicer, 2002.

Mildred Powell Photograph Collection (2017062601) has been merged with this accession.

 Material Described Separately: Mildred Powell Papers (Mss Coll 1829) Visual Materials Collections (University of Washington) Powell, Mildred T., 1886- --Archives Powell, Mildred T., 1886- --Photographs Roosevelt, Eleanor, 1884-1962--Photographs Devin, William F. (William Franklin), 1898-1982--Photographs Seattle (Wash.). City Council--Photographs Women city council members--Washington (State)--Seattle--Photographs City councils--Washington (State)--Seattle--Photographs Mayors--Washington (State)--Seattle--Photographs Civic leaders--Washington (State)--Seattle--Photographs Seattle (Wash.)--Politics and government--20th century--Photographs Drawings Photographs Ephemera Seattle Photographs Government and Politics Women

 

Series 1 Portraits 1 1 Mildred Towne, high school graduation 1904 Giles Bishop and Son, Conn. 1 2 Mildred Powell 1 3 Drawing of Mildred Powell, possibly from a memorial service program 8 Mildred Powell photographs and campaign portraits 1940s-1950s Series 2 City Council Activities 2 4 Mildred Powell with Seattle Mayor William F. Devin and the Seattle City Council, at presentation of flag to Mayor Devin 1952 2 5 Mildred Powell and Mayor Devin 1952 Heib, Seattle 2 6 Seattle City Council 1952 Heib, Seattle

Robert Harlin, M.B. Mitchell, Clarence Massart, Mildred Powell, and Frank Laube are identified.

 2 7 City Council group, including Mildred Powell, Frank Laube, and M.B. Mitchell Fred Carter, Seattle

Powell, Laube, and Mitchell's city council terms overlapped during the period 1941-1954.

 2 8 City Council group including Mildred Powell 9 Service Pin Awards 1954 10 City Suggestion Award Plan 1955 Series 3 Other Civic Activities 3 9-14 Mildred Powell and Douglas Welch (of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer) at the ice caves at Big Four Inn, Washington Summer, 1941 3 15 Mildred Powell with others, including Eleanor Roosevelt, Don Abel (Seattle WPA administrator), and Anna Roosevelt Boettiger ca. 1935-1943 3 16 Seattle Chamber of Commerce Members' Council luncheon with Mildred Powell, C.W. Eshom, F.R. McAbee, and Raymond Allen (president of the University of Washington) Dec. 10, [1948?] 3 17 Beryl Northcott from London, England (of British American Associates), and Mildred Powell, Seattle Oct., 1951 3 18 Seattle Gas Company function with Mayor Devin, Henry Gellert, and Mildred Powell Winter, 1952 3 19 Mildred Powell, Nancy Curtis, Frank McCaffrey, and Joy Lawson looking at "Out of the Frying Pan" Positive Pictures, Washington D.C. 3 20 Raymond Allen, president of the University of Washington, Mildred Powell, and Frank P. Helsell, president of the Civic Unity Committee Gerald Beaudin, Seattle 11 Mildred visiting pilots 1950s 12 Associations and civic organizations 1934-1949

Parent Teacher Board for child welfare 1934, Seattle Council Founder's Day 1947, British American Associates 1949, and other organizations.

 13 Mildred lecturing at Heidelberg University, Germany 1949 14 Eleanor Roosevelt 1941 Series 4 Moral Re-Armament 3 21 Mildred Powell leaving for Moral Re-Armament civic conference in San Francisco 1940 4 Newspaper clippings: MRA, Peter Howard 1965 Series 5 Mildred and Francis Powell, Homes 5 Montana Ranch 1910-1922 6 House: 4404 52nd NE, Laurelhurst 1938 7 House: 4132 42nd Ave 1930s Series 6 Miscellaneous 15 Miscellanous 1950-1960s 16 Seattle Post-Intelligencer 1946, 1967