Title: Kaukauna Women's Club Records
Inclusive Dates: 1894-1977

Creator:

• Kaukauna Women's Club (Kaukauna, Wis.)

Call Number: Green Bay Mss 72

Quantity: 3.6 c.f. (9 archives boxes)

Repository:

Housed at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay Archives and Area Research Center; owned by the Wisconsin Historical Society, Division of Library, Archives, and Museum Collections

Archival Locations:

COLLECTION MAY BE STORED OFF-SITE: see catalog entry to request materials and for additional information.

UW-Green Bay Cofrin Library / Green Bay Area Research Ctr. (Map)

Abstract:

Records of the Kaukauna affiliate of the Wisconsin Federation of Women's Clubs, including minutes, yearbooks, financial records, scrapbooks, and publications which document their community health projects, promotion of a public library, and other activities; and records of its predecessor, the Mutual Improvement and Literary Society of South Kaukauna.

Language: English

URL to cite for this finding aid: http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/wiarchives.uw-whs-gb0072

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The Kaukauna Woman's Club, founded in 1897, was one of the five earliest member clubs of the Eighth District of the Wisconsin Federation of Women's Clubs (WFWC). The club evolved from the Mutual Improvement and Literary Society of South Kaukauna, which was organized on December 5, 1894, and which held its final meeting on February 27, 1896. On September 7, 1897, a meeting was held to organize another literary improvement club, which adopted the name “The Woman's Club.” The club's purpose, as stated in its constitution of February 25, 1898, was “to promote the intellectual development of its members, to engender among them a spirit of social harmony and mutual helpfulness and to work for the establishment of a public library in the city.” Club members petitioned the Kaukauna Common Council to support their efforts, and secured a Carnegie grant for construction of a library. In 1905 the president of the club laid the cornerstone of the Kaukauna Public Library.

While participating in the special activities and charities of the WFWC, such as promotion of the fine arts and conservation, the other major efforts of the Kaukauna Woman's Club were in the area of community health. Among its programs, the club hired the first city nurse (1920); purchased scales for weighing school children (1920); began a child welfare clinic in the schools (1921), and as a result of the medical tests, initiated and sponsored for many years the school milk program; started a free dental clinic (1921), which was carried on for 23 years; raised money for a dental chair; and provided free toothbrushes for needy children. In addition, the club began a tuberculosis clinic for high school students; started diphtheria education and immunization programs (1930); sponsored whooping cough inoculation clinics; furnished a bed at St. Elizabeth Hospital, Appleton, and donated 800 dollars to provide a room at Kaukauna Community Hospital. The club furnished magazine subscriptions and rehabilitation and craft supplies for patients at Riverview Sanatorium, contributed 200 dollars to the city ambulance drive in 1942, and awarded two nursing scholarships in 1943.

On September 9, 1947, the club celebrated its Golden Jubilee. Thirty years later, “because the members could no longer carry on the work of the organization in its areas of service,” they voted unanimously on August 16, 1977, to disband the Kaukauna Woman's Club.

The records present a comprehensive history of the club's activities. Minutes of regular and executive board meetings include reports, roll call and dues records, and detail the club's activities; in particular, they reveal its contributions to community health programs. The earliest volume contains the records of the Mutual Improvement and Literary Society, 1894-1896. Club Yearbooks include lists of officers, meeting schedules, and programs. The Press Scrapbooks contain newspaper clippings, programs, and notes, while the printed constitution and by-laws of Kaukauna Woman's Club, printed articles of incorporation and by-laws of WFWC, convention programs, and a public library report compose the Publications series. A typewritten history compiled in 1977 by the club's last president, and a certificate of membership in the General Federation of Women's Clubs, January 1, 1910, are present in the Miscellany file.

Also housed in the Area Research Center at Green Bay are the records of the Wisconsin Federation of Women's Clubs-8th District.

Acquisition Information

Presented by Mrs. Gordon Merritt, Kaukauna, Wisconsin, 1977. Accession Number: M77-457

Processing Information

Processed by Menzi Behrnd, October 25, 1978.

	Minutes
Box   1	1894-1906, 1920-1922, 1925-1931
Box   2 Folder   1-4	1931-1954
Box   3 Folder   1-2	1954-1977
Box   3 Folder   3-6	Yearbooks, 1901-1977
Box   4 Folder   1-2	Cash Books, 1902-1916, 1937-1959
	Press Scrapbooks
Box   4 Folder   3-4	1946-1949, 1958-1959
Box   5	1937-1940
Box   6	1940-1946
Box   7	1949-1956
Box   8	1956-1958, 1959-1962
Box   9 Folder   1	Publications, 1934-1954
Box   9 Folder   2	Miscellany, 1910, 1977