Sophia Smith Collection. All rights reserved.
YWCA Land Service Poster, 1918
Forms part of the YWCA of the U.S.A. Records--
NOTE: For the most part, the Microfilmed Records and the Original Format Records do not duplicate each other and both should be consulted. This description covers materials in both formats. See the
This Series is divided into three Subseries:
When the U.S. entered World War I, the YWCA joined the "Committee of Eleven" organizations that banded together as the United War Work Campaign, Inc., to raise and distribute funds to aid war relief efforts at home and abroad. (Though the group originally included eleven organizations, that number eventually settled at seven, including the American Library Association, YMCA, YWCA, National Catholic War Council, Knights of Columbus, Jewish Welfare Board, Salvation Army, and War Camp Community Service.)
As the only women's organization in the Campaign, the YWCA's charge was to meet the special needs of women and girls affected by the war. The YWCA raised money, recruited war workers, expanded its existing work in places which already had YWCAs and constructed new facilities in other places, such as camps and bases where soldiers were mobilized and centers where young women were mobilized for agricultural, industrial, and government work.
The War Work Council established Industrial War Service Centers or "blue triangle" houses in the U.S. and Foyers des Allees in France where women working in war industries could meet, get good food, relax, entertain guests and participate in wholesome recreation. It also built Hostess Houses where servicemen could visit with their wives, mothers, and friends. Work in these centers continued through the period of active conflict, and the following influenza epidemic and demobilization.
Due to the perceived inappropriateness of white women providing recreational services for Black servicemen and industrial women, the YWCA established separate "colored" Industrial Service Centers and Hostess Houses. The was "made evident the deplorable lack of facilities for recreation and amusement" of African-American women and girls who were entering industry in large numbers. In response, the National Association facilitated a substantial expansion of the number of "Colored" Associations and Branches in cities. This dramatic increase of staff and program for African-Americans, was directed from the national office by Eva Bowles and the War Work Council's Colored Work Committee. A national staff which had consisted of two Black secretaries in 1917, grew to thirteen in 1919. At the local level, the number of "Colored" Branches increased from sixteen to forty-nine and secretaries from nine to ninety-nine.
World War I precipitated a significant increase in both the size and complexity of the national program of "Work with Foreign-Born Women." The war changed American attitudes toward its immigrant population, suddenly making "every foreign home a place of dread and fear and suspicion." (Edith Terry Bremer, Report to War Work Council, 17 October 1917)
Noting that the effects of the war were even more severe for foreign-born women, what had been essentially a northeastern U.S. operation, was nationalized. Multi-lingual secretaries were hired for Port Work, meeting immigrant women at points of intake on the east and west coasts. Staff of a new International Information and Service Bureau translated all kinds of technical materials and wrote speeches and information sheets in a variety of languages "upon all matters for which they are needing help." Other secretaries did Emergency Field work to help speed the opening of new International Institutes for young women of all nationalities. A Bureau was established to help in locating refugee relatives in Europe and the YWCA provided "home service" for the families of enlisted men. To facilitate all this new work and reconstruction work in Europe, the YWCA established training programs for foreign community workers and reconstruction volunteers.
Other War Work Council Committees coordinated programs to find housing for women workers who had left home to work at camps and in industry, for women agricultural workers, and for matching volunteer workers with jobs. The Committee on Organization and Extension of Regular Work analyzed where special war work could connected with the regular city work. Staff specialists in topics such as Recreation and Pageantry and Drama, helped Community Associations develop classes and activities for relaxation during uncertain times.
The YWCA's Bureau of Social Morality, formed in 1913, was a corps of women medical doctors trained to give sex education lectures. Concerned in particular about young women in the communities adjacent to army camps, the YWCA recruited and trained many more speakers who delivered over 2,000 lectures in 1917-18. During reconstruction, the YWCA enlarged the Bureau's mission to include lectures on general health topics, such as nutrition and hygiene, and rechristened it the Bureau of Social Education.
The U.S. YWCA did similar work overseas during the war in Belgium, Czechoslovakia, France, Italy, the Near East, Poland, Romania, and Russia. War workers established centers "to help keep women fit for their work" by providing opportunities for rest, relaxation, and a good meal at a reasonable price. A special group of "Polish Gray Samaritans" served as nurses' aides for Polish soldiers fighting in France. Once the war was over the focus of the work shifted to reconstruction and aid for refugees. The "Polish Grays" concentrated their efforts in Poland.
After the Armistice, the Continuation Committee (1919-22) and the Post-Continuation Committee (1921-22) kept much of the work begun by the War Work Council going using War Fund money.
The rapid expansion of the War Work significantly changed the YWCA. It experienced what was described as fifteen years' growth in two. Many new Community Associations and Branches were formed and the existing emphasis of the work in many Associations changed, particularly in response to the influx of Industrial Club members. With the new members came increased expectations of "democratic control of Association policies and program." At the national level, the rapid increase put a huge emphasis on recruitment and training of staff, greatly increased the use of publications to "interpret" the Association, and dramatically broadened its program, both in size and scope. Sustaining such an organization proved impossible once the war was over.
Records related to the World War I era work include minutes, reports, and other records of the War Work Council and its many committees; files on the Hostess House program and on individual Hostess Houses; publications; texts of lectures given at a training course for volunteer workers in September 1917; organization files; and various small collections of correspondence, memorabilia, and scrapbooks donated to the National Board Archives by war workers.
The War Work had such a major impact on the work of YWCA that the records are central to understanding the growth and development of the organization. The wide-ranging effects can be seen in the kinds of work the Association did, its techniques, processes, policies, and even its size.
[see
The Microfilmed Records are much more extensive than those that survive in original format. Unfortunately, reel 152 of the microfilm (Woman's Movement in Labor - World War I, A- Hostess Houses, Fort Benjamin, Indiana) was lost prior to transfer to the Sophia Smith Collection and most of the records on that reel were discarded after filming.
World War I records can be found on the microfilm under:
[see Original Format Records folder list]
The Minutes and Reports and a small selection of Subject File records were not discarded after microfilming and can be examined in original format. Other materials are only available on the microfilm.
Correspondence, memorabilia, and scrapbooks donated to the YWCA Archives by war workers are only available in original format. They are filed in the Miscellaneous section at the end of the Subseries. The Original Format Records are arranged as follows:
The Original Format Records are arranged as follows:
Minutes and reports of all other departments and the National Board contain additional information about the War Work.
Extensive coverage of the World War I work is in
Records about the sale of properties acquired for War Work can be found in
The World War I work was documented extensively in photographs. These can be found in
Some information about World War I properties, Centers, and Hostess Houses can be found in the Local Associations Files on the Microfilm. See
Personal Papers of
As had been the case in World War I, the YWCA joined with other organizations to raise money and coordinate "civilian war service projects." Six agencies, the Child Welfare League, Family Welfare Association, National Institute of Immigrant Welfare, National Organization of Public Health Nursing, National Urban League, and YWCA, formed American War-Community Services, Inc. (AW-CS). to provide services to workers in war industries and to civilians left behind. AW-CS presented a combined appeal to War Chests and took responsibility for disbursing funding to member agencies for approved war service projects. After the war, the AW-CS agencies formed a new organization with similar aims called "United Community Defense Services." [see Subseries C. Defense Services]
The YWCA also joined the YMCA, National Catholic Community Service, Salvation Army, National Traveler's Aid Association, and Jewish Welfare Board to form the United Service Organizations, Inc. (USO), "to serve those affected by the war." The type of work done by the YWCA was similar to its work during World War I, including rest and relaxation centers and services for women workers, servicemen, and war wives.
The National Association also worked with its membership to "mobilize woman power for community service" and raised funds for its World Emergency and War Victims Fund to aid war relief overseas.
When the U.S. Government ordered the evacuation of all Japanese-Americans from coastal areas, the YWCA monitored the situation closely, looking for opportunities to help the hundreds of its members who were affected by the relocations. After years of working on "social integration" in Japanese-American communities, it was "accepted as a matter of course that the YWCA would go wherever they went."
After initial resistance on the part of the government to having private social agencies operating in the relocation centers, the National Association worked with its interned Japanese-American staff and members to establish YWCAs in the relocation centers. Here the YWCA set up counseling, recreation, group activities, educational opportunities, and service work for the young women interned there.
In addition to direct assistance in the Relocation Centers, the YWCA worked to sway public opinion, and pressure the government to provide decent care and protection of people and their property. It also advocated for hearing boards which would allow Japanese-Americans to establish loyalty thereby creating a mechanism for release from internment and for citizens' rights legislation. After the war, the National Association provided "factual and interpretive" information to Community Associations to urge them to assist in Japanese-American resettlement.
This Subseries contains general historical materials (including a 1945 dissertation, "The Nisei in Denver, Colorado: A Study of Personality Adjustment and Disorganization" by Dorothy Takechi, a YWCA staff member who worked in the Granada Relocation Center); committee records, clippings, correspondence, minutes and reports, subject and organization files.
The Japanese Evacuee Project records include illuminating reports by Japanese-American YWCA staff and members, visitation reports by other YWCA staff, and such things as literary magazines, newsletters, and conference reports produced by Relocation Center internees.
Records of the YWCA's USO activities are described in Subseries C below because the YWCA's affiliation with the USO continued for many years after the war.
[see
The Microfilmed Records are more extensive than those that survive in original format. They include minutes, reports, publications, organizations files, and subject files. They can be found on the microfilm under:
[see Original Format Records Folder List]
The Minutes and Reports and a substantial selection of Subject File records (primarily records of the Japanese Evacuee Project) were not discarded after microfilming, other materials are only available on the microfilm.
World War II USO records are described in the Subseries C. Defense Services below, because the YWCA's affiliation with USO continued for many years after the war.
Because it was the "representative and executive" committee of the National Association, the National Board's minutes should also be consulted. See
After World War II, the YWCA continued its activities "on behalf of men and women of the Armed Forces and their families, and workers in defense industries." A fundraising brochure titled "National Defense and the YWCA" cites the outbreak of war in Korea in the summer of 1950 as the point at which "it became evident…that the U.S. would for many years be forced to maintain a large army." The YWCA's part in this effort consisted of continued participation in the USO, involvement in the successor organization to American War-Community Services, the United Community Defense Services (UCDS), and the United Defense Fund. The National Association established a Defense Services Department in 1950 to coordinate these efforts.
UCDS, was formed in the fall of 1950 to "assist in the development of essential health and welfare services to people in communities which are unable to cope adequately with defense-created needs." The YWCA was one of fifteen participating agencies working to help new residents in rapidly growing cities and towns adjacent to defense industries. The aim was to fill gaps in services for a relatively brief period until the cities and towns were able to do so.
Formed during World War II, United Service Organizations, Inc., (USO), was a cooperative national program of morale, recreation, and religious work for men in the armed forces and for men and women in defense industries. It was an effort to "provide such activities, facilities, and leadership as will recreate in the community near the camp or industrial center the best of normal life and influence that prevails in the communities from which the men come." It was also a united campaign to raise funds for financing the program.
By the late 1950s, UCDS had disbanded and the YWCA's Defense Services Department became the USO Division.
By the mid 1970s, the USO's founding agencies began to express concern that the "central structure [of the USO] had grown at the expense of agency participation" and that they no longer had meaningful involvement in the organization. When the USO cut all funding to defray the costs of participation as of January 1, 1977, most of the member agencies, including the YWCA, voted to withdraw from the organization.
This Subseries contains general historical materials, minutes, reports, publications, and conference files. The reports tend to have useful source materials attached as exhibits. The bulk of the records relate to USO work, 1940-77.
[see
The Microfilm has early records of USO activities in the Subject Files under War Work, World War II and a few later items under U.S.O.
[see Original Format Records Folder List]
The Original Format Records contain a small amount of general information about UCDS and some general historical information on the YWCA's overall Defense Services activities, but are primarily records of YWCA participation in USO.
Records related to advocacy to end race discrimination in the armed forces and forced relocation and resettlement of Japanese-Americans are in
There are additional USO files in the Organizations files in
Photographs of Defense Services work are in
Because it was the "representative and executive" committee of the National Association, the National Board's minutes should also be consulted. See
The Sophia Smith Collection holds personal papers of a number of YWCA women who worked closely with the USO, these include:
Additional Records of the YWCA's USO work are in the Social Welfare History Archives at the University of Minnesota.
The records are open to research according to the regulations of the Sophia Smith Collection without any additional restrictions.
Access to audiovisual materials may first require production of research copies.
The YWCA of the USA retains copyright ownership of the records, but has authorized the Sophia Smith Collection to grant permission to publish reproductions or quotations from the records on its behalf.
Copyright to materials authored by persons other than YWCA staff may be owned by those individuals or their heirs or assigns. It is the responsibility of the researcher to identify and satisfy the holders of all copyrights for permission to publish reproductions or quotations beyond "fair use."
Please use the following format when citing materials from this collection:
YWCA of the U.S.A. Records, Sophia Smith Collection, Smith College, Northampton, Mass.
A copy of the microfilmed records of the YWCA of the U.S.A. Records is available to borrow from the William Allan Neilson Library at Smith College via Interlibrary Loan.
The YWCA of the U.S.A. donated a portion of its records to the Sophia Smith Collection in 1964 and the remainder in 2002 and 2003.
Processed by Maida Goodwin, Amy Hague, Kara McClurken, Amanda Izzo, 2008 FY 07-08
The YWCA of the USA Records are arranged as follows:
This Record group forms part of the
This is the Contents List for the Original Format Records only. The reel lists for the
[see also Kentucky]
[Pennsylvania, see Ohio]
[see also Kentucky]
[see also Jerome]
[DO NOT USE--use photocopies in box 720]