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Special Collections Research Center
William & Mary Special Collections Research CenterEarl Gregg Swem Library
400 Landrum Dr
Williamsburg, Virginia
Business Number: 757-221-3090
spcoll@wm.edu
URL: https://libraries.wm.edu/libraries-spaces/special-collections
Finding Aid Authors: Benjamin Bromley, Public Services Archives Specialist.
Administrative Information
Conditions Governing Use:
Before reproducing or quoting from any materials, in whole or in part, permission must be obtained from the Special Collections Research Center, and the holder of the copyright, if not Swem Library.
Conditions Governing Access:
Collection is open to all researchers. Manuscript collections and archival records may contain materials with sensitive or confidential information that is protected under federal or state right to privacy laws and regulations, such as the Virginia Public Records Act (Code of Virginia. § 42.1-76-91); and the Virginia Freedom of Information Act (Code of Virginia § 2.2-3705.5). Confidential material may include, but is not limited to, educational, medical, and personnel records. If sensitive material is found in this collection, please contact a staff member immediately. The disclosure of personally identifiable information pertaining to a living individual may have legal consequences for which the College of William and Mary assumes no responsibility.
Custodial History:
According to the seller, this material was found in the bottom of a closet in the home of Grace Shipley Collins, a member of the WCTU in Ft. Smith, Arkansas, many years after her death. The seller was her granddaughter.
Preferred Citation:
Woman's Christian Temperance Union (Ft. Smith, Arkansas) Records, Special Collections Research Center, Swem Library, College of William and Mary
Processing Information:
Accessioned and minimally processed by Benjamin Bromley in December 2010. Physically and intellectually arranged by Leigh Soares, SCRC staff, in May 2011.
Historical Note:
Further information about this individual or organization may be available in the Special Collections Research Center Wiki:
Scope and Contents
Minutes, financial ledgers, correspondence, printed material, and religious ephemera, 1882-1960, relating to a chapter of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union in Ft. Smith, Arkansas, from the home of Grace Shipley Collins.
Related Material
A Guide to Women's Studies Resources in the Special Collections Research Center; Woman's Christian Temperance Union. Moira Chapter (Franklin Co., N.Y.) Minute Books (Mss. 2010.102).
Information about related materials is available at http://guides.swem.wm.edu/content.php?pid=87496
Subjects and Indexing Terms
- Clubs--United States--Minutes
- Ledgers (Accounting)
- Letters (correspondence)
- Minutes
- Printed ephemera
- Publications
- Temperance--History--19th century
- Temperance--History--20th century
- Woman's National Christian Temperance Union
Physical Characteristics or Technical Requirements:
The fragile nature of this material may limit handling.
Container List
This series contains official organizational records of the Fort Smith, Arkansas, chapter of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union. Included here are minute books, financial ledgers, and loose meeting minutes and newspaper clippings that seem to have been saved intentionally with the record books. A few of the minute books have missing covers or fragile binding, but the contents are otherwise in good condition.
- Mixed Materials Box: 1 Folder: 1 id93014
Minute book1882 January-1891 JanuaryScope and Contents
WCTU printed "President's Circular" (June 1888) tucked into front cover.
- Mixed Materials Box: 1 Folder: 2 id93015
Minute book1902 January-1906 November
- Mixed Materials Box: 1 Folder: 3 id93016
Minute book1909 October-1912 NovemberScope and Contents
Front cover completely missing. Meetings often held twice a month. List of officers and members in the back.
- Mixed Materials Box: 1 Folder: 4 id93017
Minute book1912 November-1915 JuneScope and Contents
List of officers, members, dues and pledges collected.
- Mixed Materials Box: 1 Folder: 5 id93018
Minute book1915 July-1917 MarchScope and Contents
Mrs. Yadon is the Recording Secretary until elected president in 1916 when job passes to Mrs. Holland.
- Mixed Materials Box: 1 Folder: 6 id93019
Minute book1917 August-1919 JulyScope and Contents
At the back of the book are lists of members, dues collected by the group, and families with sons in the war. Newspaper clippings about WCTU meetings or activities are pasted into the book. Also pasted into books are personal notes to the President and the chapter, letters from politicians and printed materials.
- Mixed Materials Box: 1 Folder: 7 id93020
Minute book1919 October-1922 JulyScope and Contents
A WCTU Treasurer's Book that has been adapted into the Secretary's Book. Basically a scrapbook, with membership rolls and meeting minutes but also newspaper clippings and printed materials pasted into various pages. Includes several loose notes and clippings that have been tucked into the book.
- Mixed Materials Box: 1 Folder: 8 id93021
Meeting minutes1882-1922
- Mixed Materials Box: 2 Folder: 1 id93023
Newspaper clippings from minute bookcirca 1919-1922
- Mixed Materials Box: 2 Folder: 2 id93024
Treasurer's book1918-1921Scope and Contents
Begins with membership rolls and dues paid, then moves into other expenses and income.
- Mixed Materials Box: 2 Folder: 3 id93025
Treasurer's book1922-1924Scope and Contents
Begins with an extended members section, organized alphabetically by last name, mostly for 1922 and 1923. Then, it details expenses and income A few letters have been tucked into the book, generally about money owed to or from the chapter.
- Mixed Materials Box: 2 Folder: 4 id93026
Treasurer's book1925-1932Scope and Contents
Monies paid and taken in; membership roll in the back.
The correspondence series is divided into two distinct sections. Administrative correspondence includes notes and letters pertaining to the business of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union, from details about conventions to legislators' thoughts on various aspects of the temperance campaign. In a different vein, many of the personal letters to the Fort Smith chapter are thank-you notes for the women's acts of kindness and sympathy.
- Mixed Materials Box: 2 Folder: 5 id93028
Administrative correspondence1907-1927Scope and Contents
Letters to and from Mrs. F. M. Long, Corresponding Secretary of a local chapter of WCTU, Fort-Smith, Ark. Letters: from Mrs. Emily H. Thompson of Little Rock, asking Mrs. Long to send report about her Union's work on Anti-Narcotics before the Convention and from Jamie Carr Pittman giving instructions about the content of Mrs. Long's report for the state convention, to be held Oct. 24-28 in Jonesboro.
- Mixed Materials Box: 2 Folder: 6 id93029
Personal letters to the chapter1907-1960
This collection also contains a number of printed materials from the end of the nineteenth century through the middle of the twentieth century. The series includes pamphlets published by the various national departments of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union as well as one handbill announcing a national prohibition rally in Fort Smith. Additionally, one can find here dozens of devotionals written mostly by Mrs. J. R. Collins for the Union's Arkansas White Ribboner in the 1950s.
- Mixed Materials Box: 2 Folder: 7 id93031
Printed W. C. T. U. materials1888-1934 and Undated
- Mixed Materials Box: 2 Folder: 8 id93032
National prohibition rally pamphletcirca 1919
- Mixed Materials Box: 2 Folder: 9 id93033
Devotionals1955-1957 and Undated
Among the religious ephemera are Bible verses, business cards supporting the Christian temperance movement, and stickers advertising the Woman's Christian Temperance Union such as "What you see with your eyes and hear with your ears proves that the thing most responsible for sucking money away from useful business, destroying efficiency, filling divorce courts and jails, and smearing highways with human blood, is drink." The series also includes ephemera printed by the Union, such as a card to pledge abstention from alcohol and a "Matchless Book" outlining the dangers of tobacco and marijuana.
- Mixed Materials Box: 2 Folder: 10 id93035
Religious ephemeraUndated