ARCHIVE: Martha Jefferson Democratic Club of Gloversville, NY.
Martha Jefferson Democratic Club
of Gloversville, NY
1918-1928
[Roosevelt, Eleanor]. Martha Jefferson Democratic Club. Correspondence Archive, 1918-1928.
An archive of approximately 75 letters, pamphlets, cards, and excerpts of printed material documenting the efforts of the Martha Jefferson Democratic Club of Gloversville, NY in the period 1918-1928.
The correspondence in the collection can be broken down as follows:
5 Eleanor Roosevelt TLS, secretarially signed; on Democratic State Committee Women’s Division letterhead, which lists Roosevelt as the Chairman of the Finance Committee.
Approx. 35 TLS, 5 ALS, 10 TL (unsigned, some with emendations), 3 cards, and 1 telegram; most addressed to Mrs. E.J. Mueller-Moore, then Secretary of the Martha Jefferson Democratic Club of Gloversville, from various board members (male and female) of the Democratic State Committee of New York and the Democratic National Committee. Nearly all letters are on the letterhead of the Democratic State Committee Women’s Division, the Women’s National Democratic Club, the Fulton County Democratic Committee, the Democratic National Committee, or the Martha Jefferson Democratic Club, and a few original envelopes are intact and have been included.
Notable correspondents include Eleanor Roosevelt, then Chairman of the Finance Committee for the Women’s Division of the Democratic State Committee in New York; Caroline O’Day (Mrs. Daniel O’Day) Chairman of the New York State Delegation at the Democratic National Convention in 1924; Minnie Fischer Cunningham, then Executive Secretary of the Women’s National Democratic Club; and Emily Newell Blair, First Vice President of the Democratic National Committee in 1924.
Additional material:
2 pamphlets advertising two different lecture series promoting “practical psychology.”
1 pamphlet issued by the State of New York detailing Article 17, “Special Provisions for the Year Nineteen Hundred and Eighteen,” which covers all aspects of registering women voters.
Blank membership card for the National Congress of Mothers, an organization founded to promote better parenthood, reach out to neglected children, and create a stronger alliance between parents and teachers.
Handwritten tally of votes for President and other cabinet positions (on a large sheet of very worn paper, with several creases and small tears).
Typed memorandum and agenda outlines from various meetings of the Club.
Several pages with miscellaneous handwritten notes, n.d.
1 file of related news clippings.
After gaining the constitutional right to vote in 1920 with the passage of the nineteenth amendment, women in urban areas, and especially former suffragists, quickly became involved in the political scene, forming all-female clubs to help women to get involved in elections at the local, state, and national level. One such organization, The Martha Jefferson Democratic Club (MJDC), located in Fulton County, New York corresponded on a regular basis with other Democratic groups and the majority of the letters here are from 1924 and 1928, the second and third presidential election years in which women could vote. The summer months, leading up to the Democratic National Convention those years, were especially chaotic, as the fractured Democratic Party scrambled to choose their candidate, but despite defeat in both elections, organizations such as the Martha Washington Democratic Club remained steadfast in their mission and continued their efforts to generate enthusiasm for the Democrats, especially among the newly enfranchised female population. One undated letter from the Democratic Women’s Luncheon Club in Philadelphia speaks to the mission of groups like the MJDC:
If Democratic women everywhere will organize and encourage small groups of people to read and discuss these addresses, the result will be a wave of understanding of those principles, wherein lies as we believe the welfare of America
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