Scope and Content Note
The records of the Woman's Party Corporation span the years 1918-1998, with the bulk of the material concentrated between 1970 and 1996. Many of the records relate to litigation between the Woman's Party Corporation and its parent organization, the National Woman's Party (NWP), a suffrage and women's rights organization created by Alice Paul in 1916. In 1977, the NWP created the Woman's Party Corporation as a 501(c) organization, to collect tax-deductible contributions to finance the party's educational activities, including maintenance of the historic Sewall-Belmont house museum, the party's headquarters in Washington, D.C. In 1992, an Internal Revenue Service investigation revealed that the tax-exempt corporation was providing funds to the National Woman's Party without proof the money was being used for educational purposes rather than lobbying activities. At the same time, the party's executive board attempted to dissolve the corporation and appropriate its assets. The corporation filed suit in the District of Columbia Superior Court, and the party responded with a countersuit claiming breach of fiduciary responsibility. In 1997 the litigants reached an out-of-court settlement by which the corporation was dissolved and the party ceased its decades-long lobbying activities and became a nonprofit, nonpolitical, educational organization eligible for 501(c) status. Records in the addition document more broadly the work of the corporation. They include board of directors meetings, tax and financial records, personnel matters, the maintenance and renovation of the Sewall-Belmont House as well as relations with the National Park Service and the Marjorie Cook Foundation.
The corporation's records are arranged in four series: National Woman's Party Files, Woman's Party Corporation v. National Woman's Party, Miscellany and 2022 Addition.
The National Woman's Party Files contain photocopied material obtained during the discovery process of the lawsuit, including the organization's bylaws and incorporation documents, correspondence, convention material, financial records, membership data, minutes, and publicity.
The Woman's Party Corporation v. National Woman's Party series includes affidavits, background information, complaints, depositions, exhibits, interrogatories, motions, pleadings, and other legal documents relating to the case. Some of the background material contains the organizational records of the Woman's Party Corporation. Negotiations regarding the settlement agreement are also documented.
Miscellany contains depositions and other material from several lawsuits related to the Woman's Party Corporation v. National Woman's Party suit.
The records in the 2022 Addition were received in 2020 as part of the National Woman's Party final gifts to the Library as the party was dissolved. The series more broadly documents the activities of the Woman's Party Corporation and is organized into six subseries: Administrative and Financial Records, Chronological File, Legal File, Sewall-Belmont House, Subject File, and Oversize.