Scope and Content Note
The Society of Woman Geographers (SWG) was founded in 1925 by four friends -- Gertrude Emerson Sen, Marguerite Harrison, Blair Niles, and Gertrude Mathews Shelby -- to bring together women actively interested in geography, world exploration, anthropology, and allied disciplines. Analogous to the Explorers Club, which did not admit women until 1981, the SWG provided a forum for its members to exchange knowledge, recognize excellence, and offer mutual encouragement. Chapters were organized in New York and Washington, now the group's headquarters, and later in Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Florida, and New England. At-large and corresponding members have resided throughout the United States and in more than fifty countries around the world.
Membership in SWG is gained by election following a process of nomination and evaluation. Active members are those who have conducted research and fieldwork, are recognized authorities in their disciplines, and have contributed to the world's knowledge through their publications, films, photographs, or artistic works. Associate members are similarly well-traveled women whose interests and activities are compatible with those of active members, but who do not fulfill all requirements of active membership. More than one thousand women have become members since the SWG's inception.
United by their common interest in geography, SWG members have pursued widely divergent careers. Many members have been primarily known as geographers (Edna Fay Campbell, Elina González Acha de Correa Morales, Elsie May Grosvenor, Helen B. Smith, Helen M. Strong), or have worked in the closely related fields of anthropology and ethnology (Mabel Cook Cole, Frances Densmore, Theodora Kroeber, Mary D. Leakey, Margaret Mead). Many others, however, have been explorers, mountain climbers, and big-game hunters (Delia J. Akeley, Mary Hastings Bradley, Muriel Agnes Eleanora Talbot Brown, Sally Clark, Hettie Dyhrenfurth, Marie Ahnighito Peary, Annie Peck) or environmentalists (Rachel Carson, Marjorie Stoneman Douglas). SWG's members have also included aviators (Louise Arner Boyd, Amelia Earhart); artists (Berta N. Briggs, Sally Clark, Lucille Sinclair Douglass); archaeologists (Margaret Alice Murray, Esther Boise Van Deman); novelists (Bettina Peter Lum Crowe, Alice Tisdale Hobart, Margaret Landon); journalists, photographers, and broadcasters (Ruby A. Black, Margaret Bourke-White, Dickey Chapelle, May Craig, Laura Gilpin, Ella Fullmore Harllee, Rose Wilder Lane); specialists in public health medicine and family planning (Marion Crary Ingersoll, Mary Lee Mills); librarians and archivists (Virginia Haviland, Irene Aloha Wright); and historian Mary Ritter Beard, First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, and member of Congress Frances Payne Bingham Bolton.
Both Part I (1910-1987) and Part II (1927-1998) of the SWG records consist of inactive membership files. Each part is arranged alphabetically by name of member. The files typically contain original nomination/application forms; correspondence pertaining to membership status, dues, and current activities; printed material, newspaper articles, obituary notices and memorial tributes; and occasionally photographs. Each year members were asked to complete a summary of their research activities, travel, and fieldwork for publication in the society's bulletin. These sheets, sometimes supplemented by curriculum vitae, document the activities and accomplishments of lesser-known women. Conversely, since some of the society's more illustrious members, such as Amelia Earhart, Eleanor Roosevelt, Rachel Carson, Pearl S. Buck, and Margaret Mead, tended to be "more...honored member[s] than...particularly contributing one[s] -- except through reflected glory," (1) their files generally contain only routine material. No file for SWG founding member Blair Niles is present in the collection.
The SWG's emphasis on "personal association and interchange of ideas among members rather than on organizational activities" (2) suggests that the most significant records are the membership files. Administrative files and financial records have not been retained by the society, but much information about the organization's founding and operations can be gleaned from the files of members who served on the executive council or as officers of one of the regional chapters. Especially useful in this regard are files for Harriet Chalmers Adams, Dorothy M. Andrews, Mary Hastings Bradley, Berta N. Briggs, Edna Fay Campbell, Frances Carpenter, Mabel Cook Cole, Florence Page Jaques, Muna Lee, Mary A. Nourse, Elizabeth Fagg Olds, Marie Ahnighito Peary, Isabelle F. Story, and Helen M. Strong, as well as those for Elizabeth Derr Davisson, Nordis Adelheid Felland, Florence de L. Lowther, Reba Forbes Morse, Ruth Crosby Noble, Helen Damrosch Tee-Van, Mildred G. Uhrbrock and Mary Vander Pyl (New York); and Mary McRae Colby and Alice Foster (Chicago). Other records retained by the SWG include the files of current members, taped oral history interviews, and a separate photographic file. Mimeographed separation sheets present in some members' files refer to photographic images remaining in SWG custody.
SWG's members were professionally active and published widely in their respective fields. Information about members' careers or literary output is included in the annual summaries and curriculum vitae found in the collection, supplemented by publications of other professional associations, subject indexes and bibliographies appropriate to the field of specialization, and indexes to popular periodicals.
1. Elizabeth Fagg Olds to Megan Murray, November 12, 1982 (Murray file).
2. Ibid.