Boston Branch of the American Association of University Women, 1886-

The American Association of University Women (AAUW) had its beginnings in Boston during the late 19th century as the Association of Collegiate Alumnae (ACA). Mrs. Emily Talbot and her daughter Marion, both residents of Boston, thought that college-educated women should join together in an organization which would be of service to the community and would further educational opportunities for women. This vision was shared with other college women in Boston, and on November 8, 1881, seventeen alumnae of eight colleges met at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and decided to organize formally. Those at the meeting included Marion Talbot, Alice Freeman (later Alice Freeman Palmer), Ellen Richards, Anna Eugenia Felicia Morgan, and Margaret Stratton. Notices sent to all New England and New York City alumnae of the colleges represented at the first gathering brought 66 women to Chauncy Hall School, Boston on January 14, 1882. As the Association for Collegiate Alumnae (ACA), the women adopted a constitution and elected officers. At the first post-organization meeting, held on March 11, 1882, first president Jennie Field Bashford described the Association's purpose: "The members have organized in order better to utilize their privileges in personal education and to perform their duty in respect to popular education." Local branches were soon formed; the first to be formally recognized was the Washington Branch in October 1884. In 1889, the Western Association of Collegiate Alumnae, which had been organization in Chicago a few years earlier, merged with the ACA. The Southern Association of College Women joined with the ACA in 1921 to form the AAUW. The archives of the Association are housed in the national headquarters in Washington, D.C.

The Boston Branch was established at a meeting held on October 2, 1886, when a constitution was adopted and officers were elected. The Branch first organized formal committees in 1890; they undertook such tasks as investigating conditions in the Boston public schools and in public laundries, surveying salaries of college-educated women, studying domestic management, aiding settlement work, and participating in war relief. Also in 1890, the Boston Branch organized the College Club for purely social purposes. Boston was one of six AAUW branches which in 1930 joined with two college clubs (unrelated to the College Club) to form the Massachusetts State Division of the AAUW (records of which are located in the Scheslinger Library; see MC 260 ). The Branch was not incorporated in Massachusetts, however, until August 1964. Active members have included Fannie Fern Andrews (see especially IVB.3 and 29), Abigail Eliot (see especially IVB.4, 5, 30), and Ellen Richards (see especially IID.11, IVB.2, IVB.6, IVB.9, IVB.11-13). For further information on the history and activities of the Branch, see IA.3.