Finding Aids to the Library’s Manuscript Collections

These finding aids or guides provide detailed information about the contents of the collections that they describe. Currently available are guides to records of women’s organizations and civil rights organizations.

New finding aids will be added as they become available. Many collection descriptions will include images of selected items found in that collection. The full text of each finding aid is available as a PDF file.

Women's Organizations

Avondale Mothers’ Council. Records, 1928-1997 (PDF 27KB)
Ms. Coll. 133 (5 boxes). Avondale Mother’s Council was a women’s social and service organization located in the southern part of the county. Activities included lectures on topics chiefly related to home life, fund raising for various charitable purposes, war relief, etc. Includes minutes, scrapbooks, anniversary materials and photographs. Please click on each thumbnail for a larger view.

Chester County Children’s Aid Society. Records, 1883-1957 (PDF 32KB)
Ms. Coll. 128 (16 boxes). Begun as a private women’s organization working with Chester County Directors of the Poor to place children at need into private foster care in lieu of Chester County establishing a county orphanage. Precursor of current County’s Dept. of Children, Youth and Families. Includes minutes, reports, correspondence, scrapbooks, membership, financial and legal records, as well as reports, etc. documenting the work of the Society’s many local branches throughout the county. Please click on each thumbnail for a larger view.

Chester County Federation of Women’s Clubs. Records, 1922-1977 (PDF 23KB)
Ms. Coll. 136 (2 boxes). The county branch of the larger PA Federation of Women’s Clubs, the local chapter brought local clubwomen together and helped coordinate activities and political agendas for its members. Includes minutes, reports and other papers, primarily from the 1930s thru 1960s. Please click on each thumbnail for a larger view.

Chester County League of Women Voters. Records, 1919-1999 (PDF 57KB)
Ms. Coll. 130 (21 boxes). Records of three branches of the League in Chester County (Chester County League of Women Voters, League of Women Voters of the West Chester Area, Southern Chester County League of Women Voters.) Documents local growth of the League from advent of women’s enfranchisement in the early 20th c. to involvement in the civil rights era of the 1960s and early 1970s. Locally the League became involved with various social issues, including substandard housing in West Chester. Records (1919-2000), include minutes, reports, scrapbooks, correspondence, publications, etc.. Please click on each thumbnail for a larger view.

New Century Club of West Chester. Records, 1893-1994 (PDF 43KB)
Ms. Coll. 127 (31 boxes). Established in 1893, the women who formed the New Century Club built much of its early activity around education through current events classes and lectures on the most pressing topics of the day, then became increasingly ctive in areas of social concern (public health, free kindergarten, etc.) and politics. Includes minutes, reports, financial records, correspondence, photographs, yearbooks, membership records, scrapbooks, etc.. Please click on each thumbnail for a larger view.

Soroptimist Clubs of West Chester, Southern Chester County, Oxford, and affiliated Venture Clubs. Records, 1939-1993 (PDF 115KB)
Ms. Coll. 137 (28 boxes). The Soroptimist Club of West Chester began in 1934 as a women’s volunteer service club (Soroptimist International is the parent organization). The local club provided scholarships, sent children to summer camps and generally participated in many local projects of a civic or welfare nature. Includes minutes, reports, correspondence, financial records, publications, clippings and scrapbooks, photographs, club history and 50th anniversary materials, etc.. Please click on each thumbnail for a larger view.

Civil Rights Organizations

United Political Action Committee of Chester County (UPAC). Records, 1958-1996 (PDF 65KB)
Ms. Coll. 143 (10 boxes). Formed in 1966 by a group of local African American residents as a direct response to continuing segregation and racial discrimination in the county, UPAC worked with other local civil rights groups and activists, including activist and West Chester native Bayard Rustin, the West Chester Branch of the NAACP, and the Human Relations Council in fighting against discrimination and for fair employment. UPAC was a plaintiff in the racial discrimination case against Lukens Steel (Goodman vs. Lukens Steel, 1973) and participated in the successful 1986 legal challenge to West Chester's use of at-large elections in determining voter representation on Borough Council. Includes legal documents, correspondence, photographs, news releases, memos, clippings, scrapbooks, biographical information on members, etc.. Please click on each thumbnail for a larger view.

West Chester Branch of the NAACP. Records, 1981-1987 (PDF 13KB)
Ms. Coll. 145 (2 boxes). The bulk of the records in this collection document the organization's work with UPAC (see Ms. Coll. 143) in the West Chester ward case and the West Chester School District case involving three African American dministrators. Includes minutes, correspondence, publications, legal documents, programs, etc.. Please click on each thumbnail for a larger view.