Archive of theLeague of Women Voters
About the Collection
Records of the League of Women Voters include board meeting minutes, newsletters, membership directories, correspondence, news clippings, publications and administrative documents. Some records have been digitized and are searchable in full online. Records that have not been digitized are available to browse in-person at the History Center’s Research Center.
For a full list and description of the League collections at the History Center, including those that have not yet been digitized, click here.
How to Search the Online Collection
The League archives are housed online as part of the History Center’s web collections database, the CatalogIT Hub. Temporarily, the archives are also available below on our website where you can search or download them as PDF files (soon that capability will be added to the CatalogIT Hub).
Local League records and publications date from 1926. The records are arranged in chronological order within each category. Many League documents were lost in a basement flood in the mid 90s. Some gaps have been filled from the files of individual league members.
Description of the Organization: The League of Women Voters, a nonpartisan grassroots membership organization, works to protect and expand voting rights and ensure everyone is represented in our democracy. The League empowers voters and defends democracy through advocacy, education, and litigation at the local, state, and national levels.
History of the Organization: After women won the right to vote in 1920 with the passage of the 20th Amendment to the US Constitution, the League of Women Voters of Lake Forest was founded in 1926 and the League of Women Voters of Lake Bluff in 1930. Early emphasis in both Leagues was placed on women’s participation in government, including get-out-the-vote campaigns and support for state legislation allowing women to serve on juries. The two local Leagues often cooperated to offer programs. The Leagues merged in 1989 to form the League of Women Voters of Lake Forest/Lake Bluff.
Records and Publications of the Organization: Records and publications of the League of Women Voters of Lake Forest/Lake Bluff Area are collected at the History Center of Lake Forest-Lake Bluff and at the Lake Bluff History Museum. Records and publications of the League of Women Voters of the United States (LWVUS) are collected at the US Library of Congress, Manuscript Division. Records and publications of the League of Women Voters of Illinois (LWVIL) are collected at the University of Illinois Chicago, Special Collections (Richard J. Daley) Library. Records and publications of the League of Women Voters of Lake County are maintained by that League and will be collected at the Bess Bower Dunn Museum of Lake County.
Minutes - League of Women Voters
The collection of minutes for the League of Women Voters starts in 1930 for the Lake Forest League. There is a gap between 1958 and 1962. For the Lake Bluff League, the collection starts in 1978. Then in 1989 two organizations merged.
How to Search
- Click on the link for the years of the League Minutes you would like to review. From here, you can scroll through the document or download the PDF file to your own device by using the down arrow icon at the upper right.
- You can also search the document from here by pressing (at the same time) the CTRL key plus the F key on your keyboard (the “Find” command). This should bring up a search box near the top of your screen – you can type into this box and search the document by any keyword you like (a topic like “school board”; a last name like “Hixon,” etc.). It will find and highlight any instances of this keyword in the document. You can navigate between them using the arrows to the right of the search box.