American Association of University Women. Massachusetts State Division.

The American Association of University Women (AAUW) was founded in 1921 through the merger of the Association of Collegiate Alumnae and the Southern Association of College Women. Its basic goal was to further women's education and career opportunities. On May 10, 1930, the Massachusetts State Division (MSD) was formally established in Natick. By 2009, the MSD included fourteen branches.

From the description of Additional records of the American Association of University Women, Massachusetts State Division, 1921-2007 (inclusive). (Harvard University). WorldCat record id: 589158630

In 1881, Mrs. Emily Fairbanks Talbot (wife of Dr. I. Tisdale Talbot, dean of the Boston University School of Medicine) introduced her daughter, Marion (a graduate of Boston University), to Alice Hayes (a graduate of Vassar College). Mrs. Talbot suggested forming an organization of women graduates that could help one another put their higher education to use socially and professionally. Marion and Alice recruited the help of Ellen Richards, a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and also a Vassar graduate. They met in November at MIT, along with seventeen other women graduates, to discuss the organization of "an association of women college graduates with headquarters at Boston." Graduates represented eight institutions: Boston University, the Universities of Michigan and Wisconsin, Cornell, Oberlin, Smith, Vassar, and Wellesley. The group mailed notices to alumnae of the eight institutions proposing an organizational meeting, and on January 14, 1882, sixty-five women attended a meeting held at Chauncy Hall School in Boston. They adopted a constitution, creating the nation's first organization of university women, the Association of Collegiate Alumnae (ACA). Membership eligibility was determined on an institutional, rather than a personal, basis. In October 1889, the Western Association of Collegiate Alumnae (organized in 1883) merged with ACA, incorporating its international alliance, later to become part of the International Federation of University Women (IFUW), and fellowship fund into the association. With the merger of the Southern Association of College Women (SACW), organized in 1903) in April 1921, the two organizations became the American Association of University Women (AAUW), comprised of 16,000 members.

In 1884, the ACA constitution was amended to allow for the formation of separate units known as branches, to carry out the work of the Association in local communities. In 1884, Washington, D.C., became the first organized branch, followed by New York City, Philadelphia, and Boston in 1886. On May 10, 1930, the Massachusetts State Division (MSD) was formally established in Natick by representatives of the following branches: Boston, Connecticut Valley, Fall River, Gardner, Lowell, and Worcester as well as the College Club of New Bedford. By 2009, the MSD included fourteen branches (listed in order of forming): Boston, Worcester, North Shore, Taunton, Attleboro, Melrose-Wakefield, Bedford-Lexington, Foxborough, Cape Cod, Canton, Hingham, Merrimack Valley, Newburyport, and Danvers-Topsfield. Since its inception, the MSD has been active in legislative affairs, international relations, scientific research, support of the fine arts, and offering fellowships as means of providing opportunities for women to obtain a college education. Massachusetts state members have sponsored eight fellowships through the Educational Foundation Program (EFP). The MSD has also been active in supporting education and teachers (notably, early challenges of legislation that prohibited women from continuing their teaching careers after marriage), legal and economic rights of women (such as supporting equal pay for equal work), promoting qualified women for public office, and endorsing the use of mass media. (The MSD played a vital role in enabling Boston Channel 2 to get its start and was an active donor to its PBS fundraisers up through the 1990s). The MSD has also hosted three AAUW National Conventions in Boston: the 50th anniversary in 1931, the 75th anniversary in 1957, and the centennial in 1981.

In March 1986, four Massachusetts repositories signed an agreement to collect jointly the archives of the MSD and its branches. The Schlesinger Library continues to collect the records of the State Division and branches in Middlesex, Norfolk, and Suffolk counties. The Essex Institute in Salem (now part of the Phillips Library, Peabody Essex Museum) collects records of branches in Essex County; the Sophia Smith Collection, Smith College, branch records from Berkshire, Franklin, Hampden, Hampshire and Worcester counties; and the Wheaton College Archives, branch records from Barnstable, Bristol, Dukes, Nantucket, and Plymouth counties. Related material can be found in the following collections: Association of Collegiate Alumnae, records, 1919-1921 ( B/A849 ); American Association of University Women, North Atlantic Section, records, 1916-1938 ( B/A512b ); American Association of University Women, Massachusetts State Division Records, 1930-1976 ( MC 260 ); American Association of University Women, Boston Branch Records, 1886-1978 ( MC 271 ). See also audiotapes ( T-358 ) of the national AAUW convention in Chicago, 1969.

From the guide to the Additional records of the American Association of University Women, Massachusetts State Division, 1921-2007, (Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute)