Milford New Century Club records

The Milford New Century Club Archives consist of material from 1900 to 2005, comprising minute books, club histories, awards, correspondence, annual programs, bylaws, photographs, membership lists, receipts, bank statements, scrapbooks, speeches, a ballot box, a plaque, and an embossing tool. The collection came to the University of Delaware in 2006 from the Milford New Century Club.

The first series contains the meeting minutes of the general meetings and the board of directors. Though the records of the first twelve years are missing, the remaining books offer a complete overview of the general meetings from 1911 through 1968. These minutes record the names of club members and officers, the organization of the meetings, the yearly and weekly themes, speakers, and club concerns. Club members took on both local and national concerns with lectures and projects relating to traffic safety and support of local schools and to suffrage, war relief, and current events. The club connected with other women’s organizations through reciprocity days and by sending delegates to the conventions of the Delaware State Federation of Women’s Clubs (DSFWC) and the General Federation of Women’s Clubs (GFWC). The meeting minutes reveal both continuity – particularly in the purpose of the club – and change over time – such as the number of meetings held per year. Membership details include the process of electing new members and the qualifications of membership.

The board of directors meeting minutes cover 1929 to 1966 with a two year gap before 1950, and include business details associated with the running of the club.

Series two incorporates club histories, yearly programs, correspondents, legal documents and financial documents into the administrative papers. The year range is sporadic covering 1900 to 2005 with gaps particularly in the last three decades of the twentieth century. As with the meeting minutes these papers are useful in constructing the history of the club especially in reference to the activities. Booklets are included with multiple editions of the constitution and bylaws from 1911 to 1949, allowing for a comparison of the revisions made throughout that time period. Important details on membership including – the process of becoming a member, names of the charter members and names of the presidents, and a list of members and dues paid (1967-1976) – can be found within the collection of administrative papers. Series two also includes an early photograph of the clubhouse.

Series three consists of club scrapbooks, which include much of the same information as the meeting minutes from 1932 to 1968 with gaps between: 1943 and 1946, 1950 and 1955, and 1958 and 1964. The 1948 to 1950 scrapbook in the archives is a bound copy of the original. The early scrapbooks of the 1930s include weekly newspaper columns on the activities of the club, printed in the Milford newspaper. Each scrapbook covers one or two club years (a year ran from October through April), and incorporates mostly newspaper clippings. Event and yearly programs, invitations for reciprocity meetings, photographs, and various other pieces of ephemera were used in putting together the scrapbooks. Besides the Milford New Century Club, two scrapbooks document the DSFWC between 1964-1966, the years in which Mrs. Jonathan Willis, Jr., member of the Milford New Century Club and daughter-in-law of the founder, served as the president of the DSFWC. The largest of the two, entitled “Status of Delaware Women,” records the current officers and articles of interest on each of the women’s clubs of Delaware belonging to the DSFWC, as well as articles on successful women of Delaware. The final Scrapbook documents the “Delaware High School Student International Aware” from the DSFW.

Series four includes three artifacts – a plaque for the club from the General Federation of Women’s Clubs, a seal embosser, and a ballot box with white and black marbles. References to the use of the ballot box can be found in the general meeting minutes of the 1950s.