Summary Information
Women's Overseas Service League. Madison Unit: Records
1926-1943
- Women's Overseas Service League. Madison Unit
Mss 215
0.8 c.f. (2 archives boxes)
Wisconsin Historical Society (Map)
Fragmentary records of the Madison, Wisconsin Unit of the Women's Overseas Service League, a group organized to promote the welfare of women who had served overseas during World War I. Included is correspondence, minutes, and reports of the Madison Unit, and materials from the national organization and the regional Sixth Corps Area. These records were collected by Maude Webster Middleton primarily during her terms as president (1926-1928) and secretary (1942) of the Madison Unit and as service chairman (1928) of the Sixth Corps Area.
English
http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/wiarchives.uw-whs-mss00215 ↑ Bookmark this ↑
Biography/History
The Women's Overseas Service League was founded in Philadelphia in May 1921 to unite women who had served overseas with the American Expeditionary Forces during World War I. The purposes of the League included maintaining friendships, aiding patriotic projects of various kinds, working for the welfare of men in the armed services and their families, assisting men and especially women who had served overseas, and promoting friendship between the United States and her allies.
One of the most important activities of the League was financial and medical relief to women who had served with the AEF and were not eligible for regular government benefits, including the construction and operation of homes for domiciliary care in Miami, Florida, and Dayton, Ohio. The League endorsed the bills creating the WAC and making it an integral part of the Army. It supported the George Washington Bicentennial Celebration, the work of the Red Cross, and the National Disabled Women's fund drives. It maintained a corps of trained hostesses to see to the social welfare of those at the summer Civilian Military Training Camps like Camp McCoy, Wisconsin. At the beginning of World War II the League supplied a Rolling Kitchen to feed civilians in England.
The national league was divided into corps areas following United States Army district lines. The Wisconsin Unit, organized in 1923, formed part of the Sixth Corps Area with Illinois, Michigan, and Missouri. This unit later became known as the Milwaukee Unit. A unit was formed in Madison in April 1926, by Mrs. Maude Webster Middleton. It was always a small unit, having no more than eight to ten members and consequently was more social than service oriented. Mrs. Middleton served as president (1926-1928) and secretary (1942) of the Madison Unit and as service chairman (1928) of the Sixth Corps Area.
Scope and Content Note
The collection contains the records of the Madison Unit of the Women's Overseas Service League as preserved by Mrs. Middleton. It is a fragmentary record of the activities of the Unit (1926-1943) and the national organization (1921-1943), stemming principally from the periods in which Mrs. Middleton held office in the organization. The records are divided into three series and within each series are arranged by type of record, then chronologically.
The NATIONAL ORGANIZATION records are comprised of the constitution, bylaws, application forms, minutes of the National Executive Board, annual reports, publicity material, letters from various national committees to the Madison Unit and from national headquarters about annual conventions and matters of general interest, and a few copies of the official newsletter “Carry On” and some bulletins pertaining to it.
The SIXTH CORPS AREA records include materials such as conference announcements and agenda, letters to the Madison Unit, and the correspondence of the Service Chairman, principally from 1928-1929, when Mrs. Middleton served in that capacity.
The MADISON UNIT records are very fragmentary, and include minutes, a secretary's book, treasurer's reports, service reports, membership lists, forms documenting the war service records of some members, and general correspondence to the Unit from other units and from various citizens and groups in Madison.
Administrative/Restriction Information
Presented by Dr. William S. Middleton, Madison, Wisconsin, August 4, 1969. Accession Number: M69-246
Processed by Sister Mary de Guzman Mulvany (1972 summer class) and Elizabeth Maule, March 14, 1974.
Contents List
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Series: National Organization
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Records
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Box
1
Folder
1
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Constitution, by-laws, manual of procedures, application forms
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Box
1
Folder
2
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Minutes of the National Executive Board, 1931-1943
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Box
1
Folder
3
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Annual Reports, 1932-1934
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Box
1
Folder
4
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Publicity materials, undated
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Correspondence to Madison Unit
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Box
1
Folder
5
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From National Headquarters - General, 1928-1943
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Box
1
Folder
6
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From National Headquarters - Conventions, 1929, 1931-1934, 1939, 1941, 1943, 1944
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Box
1
Folder
7
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From National Legislative Committee, 1931-1940
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Box
1
Folder
8
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From National Membership Committee, 1929-1940
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Box
1
Folder
9
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From National Nominating Committee, 1933, 1934, 1937, 1943
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Box
1
Folder
10
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From National Rules and Amendments Committee, 1932-1943
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Box
1
Folder
11
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From National Service Committee, 1932-1945
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Box
1
Folder
12
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From the editor of “Carry On,” the official newsletter, 1928-1940
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Box
1
Folder
13
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From other National Committees: International Relations, National Relief, Investigation of possible W.O.S.L. home, Patriotic, Publicity, Rehabilitation, Ways and Means, 1932-1940
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Series: Sixth Corps Area
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Box
2
Folder
1
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Material relating to conferences, 1940-1941
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Box
2
Folder
2
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Correspondence, principally of Mrs. Middleton as service chairman of the Sixth Corps Area, 1920-1929, undated
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Box
2
Folder
3
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Correspondence to Madison Unit, 1932-1945
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Series: Madison Unit
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Box
2
Folder
4
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Minutes, 1926-1945
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Box
2
Folder
5
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Record book of secretary, 1927-1929
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Box
2
Folder
6
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Treasurer's reports, 1927, 1940-1944
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Box
2
Folder
7
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Unit service reports, 1931-1933, 1941-1942
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Box
2
Folder
8
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Membership lists and information, 1925, 1928, 1931, 1932, 1936, 1938, 1941, undated
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Box
2
Folder
9
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General correspondence, 1926-1943, undated
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Box
2
Folder
10
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Correspondence with other local units, 1932-1942, undated
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