Association of Junior Leagues of America.

The Junior League was formed in New York in 1901 as the Junior League of the Settlement Movement. The league's founders, Mary Harriman and Nathalie Henderson, were motivated by a sense of social responsibility and the idea of trained women volunteers working for community improvement. Harriman and Henderson, with the advice of the prominent settlement leader, Mary Kingsbury Simkhovitch, and the cooperation of eighty of their contemporaries, founded the Junior League of the Settlement Movement in 1901. The group offered training and educational courses for members, volunteered in New York City settlements, and raised funds to support their activities. Over the succeeding two decades, Junior Leagues were formed in cities across the United States: in Boston in 1907; in Brooklyn, New York, and Portland, Oregon, in 1910; and in Baltimore, Philadelphia, and Chicago in 1912. Six of the seven existing Junior Leagues met in 1912 in New York City for their first conference. In 1921, representatives from thirty member leagues met at the annual Junior League conference in Montreal and called for a national body. The Association of Junior Leagues of America was founded at a special meeting in May of 1921. The association's responsibilities included uniting member leagues, promoting the formation of new leagues, publishing the league newsletter, facilitating the annual conference, and acting as a information clearinghouse. Dorothy Wilson Straight was elected first president of the national association.

The AJLA was governed by a board of directors elected from thirteen regional areas. Bound together by the constitution and bylaws of the national organization, the local leagues were essentially self-directing, and operated with a board of directors and a committee system. The AJLA provided a staff of trained professionals who advised local leagues and served a primarily advisory rather than supervisory function. It also organized annual conferences which were attended by representatives from each league.

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