Women's Clubs and Organizations

Club Journal of Colored Women's Federation
of Washington and Jurisdiction, 1922-1925

A recent addition to the Women's History Consortium Collection is the Club Journal of Colored Women's Federation of Washington and Jurisdiction, 1922-1925 . Founded in 1917, this organization was known by various names, including the Washington State Federation of Colored Women’s Clubs, the Colored Women’s Federation of Washington and Jurisdiction and, in later years, the Washington State Association of Colored Women. Prominent members included Nettie Asberry, a founder of the Tacoma Branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and a member of the Progressive Mothers' Club of Tacoma and the Tacoma Inter-Racial Council.

100 Years 100 Women 1889-1989. Yakima County, Washington

A recent addition to the Women's History Consortium Collection is the 100 Years 100 Women 1889-1989. Yakima County, Washington . 100 Years 100 Women 1889-1989. Yakima County, Washington. In 1984 the General Federation of Women's Clubs opened a Women's History and Resource Center in Washington D.C. to help commemorate Women's History Week. Clubs across the country were asked to contribute histories. In Yakima County, clubs, granges, community organizations and individuals were invited to nominate, with a written history, women to be honored. This book is a product of those nominations.

Dr. Karen Blair on Women's Clubs

Why Women's Clubs

In this essay, Dr. Blair looks at how the study of the history of Washington State's women's organizations provides a useful vehicle for understanding women's contributions to our past. The essay outlines how women who settled in the Pacific Northwest were quick to establish voluntary associations for self-improvement, charitable work, and civic reform, especially from the mid-nineteenth century to the 1930s.

A History of Clubs (audio presentation)

Dr. Karen Blair, noted authority on Women's Clubs nationally and in the Northwest, gave this one hour presentation on the history of the development of women's clubs at the Washington State Capitol Museum in March of 2008. Dr. Blair's presentation is reproduced here in four segments.

The history of the AAUW stretches back to 1881. On January 27, 1927, a group of women of Washington state, at the invitation of the then AAUW Cowlitz County Branch, gathered in Longview to form a Washington Division of AAUW. The movement to form a state organization was born from the suggestion of the national organization because Washington already had more than ten active branches by 1927.

Washington State Federation of Women's Clubs

The First One Hundred Years: A Condensed History of Washington State Federation of Women's Clubs 1896-1996

This book was originally compiled and published in celebration of the 100th anniversary of the Washington State Federation of Women's Clubs and distributed at the April 1996, WSFWC Convention in Tacoma. The WHC created a digitized version for use on this site with the permission of the WSFWC.

Utsalady Ladies Relief Club
Celebrated its 100th anniversary on March 8, 2008

This profile of the Utsalady Ladies Relief Club, a longtime Camano Island women's club, looks at the 100th anniversary of this organization on March 8, 2008. The Ladies Relief Club building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1999.