DFWC Constitutions, 1907-1963

The Dayton Federation of Women's Clubs (DFWC) is a collaboration group that brings together the various women's clubs around Dayton to cooperate and to be more effective as women's clubs. These clubs help and promote each other. In this collection are various materials about the DFWC's activities and events, their membership as well as materials about their connection to the OFWC and the GFWC. The records within the Dayton Federation of Women's Clubs collection are divided into five different series.

Series I, Administrative Records, contains the DFWC’s original 1907 constitution and its revised 1963 version, the organization’s annual reports from 1910 to 1928. Other records in this series include a centennial history of the organization,copies of the 1978 and 1985 standing rules, as well as original meeting minutes for 1907-1930 and from 1979 through 1981. Please note that the early minutes (1907-1930) are fragile and can be difficult to read due to evidence of water damage. Researchers are requested to use the digital files of the early minutes (1907-1930) to reduce handling of the originals. This series also has the awards given to the DFWC from various sources. The Scholarship Loan Fund is a big part of the DWFC and this series has the scholarship bank records and receipts as well as some correspondence all dating 1982-1997.

Series II, Programs, contains the DFWC yearly programs from 1933 to 1977. It also contains correspondence concerning several of the DFWC's most important projects - the Marie J. Kumler Memorial School in 1927, the 33rd Annual GFWC Convention in 1929 and the group's work with the OFWC's Division of the Blind in the mid-1960s. This material is interesting because it documents two of the group's earliest projects.

Series III, Membership, consists of the Dayton Federation of Women's Club yearly directories from 1931 to 1987 and member club's booklets for 1929 to 1988. This series documents the changing membership of the DFWC.

Series IV, Scrapbooks, includes scrapbooks, for 1967-1969, 1977-1979, 1981-1982, 1982-1983 and 1948-1949 and 1986-1988. These mainly consist of information about the club's yearly doings for these spans and include programs, photographs, and newspaper clippings.

Series V, Publications and News Clippings, consists of published books about the OFWC as well as copies of the GFWC magazine, The Buckeye, from 1928 to 1971. This series also contains several book publications dealing with the various Federations of Women's Clubs. Along with these books, this series has the DFWC newsletters from 1986-1999 and newspaper clippings from 1950-1988 about the DFWC, OFWC and the GFWC. There are some gaps in the dates for the clippings. There is an article from Ladies Home Journal from 1917 that documents the early years of the DFWC.