MS 123 League of Women Voters Papers

Scope and Content

The records within the Dayton Area League of Women Voters Collection falls naturally into six series: (1) Administrative Records; (2) Newsletters; (3) Local Issues and Programs; (4) State Issues and Programs; (5) National Issues and Programs; and (6) International Issues.

Series 1 contains the Minute Record for the Dayton Area League since its inception in May of 1920 through 1970. Within the Minute Record are also various Committee reports, a monthly financial statement, and up until 1931, annual reports. Starting in 1932, Minutes of the Annual Meeting and Annual Reports are kept separately; and this record runs through 1971. Also contained in Series 1 are annual reports to the State and National League (1954-1965) and league Membership lists (1935-37 and 1945-57).

Series 2 has copies of the Leagues newsletters, The Dayton Women Citizen (1926-1956) and The Dayton Voter (1957-1970). These newsletters contain announcements of League events, discussions of current political issues, information on local candidates, and various items of interest to League members and area voters. This series provides a fairly complete, chronological records of League activities and highlights the major issues and programs studied by the Dayton Area League during the years 1926-1970. Series 3 consist of various files covering local issues studied by League Members. Included are studies on local tax issues in Dayton and Kettering, county government revision, voting and local elections, studies of several local school districts, welfare, model cities, municipal courts, Dayton charter revision, zoning studies, children's issues and others. Also included in this series are Local Programs Books which outline a yearly plan of action, pin pointing issues that the Dayton Area League will concern itself with for a given year. The files in this series are limited to county, municipal, and school district issues and the span dates are 1927-1985.

State Issues and Programs, Series 4, contains information from studies on such subjects as Ohio Constitutional Revision, State Finances, State Courts, Education and Civil Service. State Program books are also included, and the span dates for this series are 1932-1979.

Series 5 and 6, National Issues and International Issues respectively, contain League studies on civil rights, atomic energy, water resources, taxation, Electoral College reform, Congressional reform, foreign policy, UNESCO, Chinese-America relations, mutual security, and international trade. Span dates for Series 5, National Issues, are 1923-1978, and Series 6, International Issues, are 1951-1971.

Series 7 contains the Voter Guides. These are annual newsprint publications which give detailed information about state and local political issues, candidates biographies and position statements and other voters information. They are typically published and distributed several weeks before elections, usually in October. The series goes from April 1945 to November 1981.
It is on microfilm and is filed as MFM-29.

The League of Women Voters was founded in 1920, the year American women were granted the right to vote by the passage of the 19th Amendment. It was an outgrowth of the movement for woman suffrage, and was first organized to provide a forum for newly-enfranchised women to study the political issues of the day and become well-informed, active participants in government.

The League has since grown into a nationwide organization of some 160,000 members and works to promote political responsibility on the part of all citizens. It is non-partisan and does not support or oppose political parties or candidates, but seeks to help voters by supplying factual and background information, believing that "an informed citizenry is essential to good government." The League does take stands on public issues, however, after conducting extensive studies and reaching a consensus of the membership. Members of the local Leagues work on the same national issues, the choice being made at a biennial convention, all local leagues within a state consider the same state issues, and each local league chooses its own program. The Dayton Area League of Women Voters was organized in May of 1920 and has enjoyed an unbroken record of active participation in local, state, national and international issues and politics since that time.

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