Scope and Content Note
The collection of Charlotte Everett Hopkins (1851-1935) relating to the National Civic Federation, Woman's Department, District of Columbia Section spans the years 1900-1926 with the bulk of the material dating from 1910-1918. The collection includes correspondence, bulletins, circulars, reports, clippings, and printed matter. The material represents Hopkins's work as chairman of the Woman's Department of the National Civic Federation, District of Columbia Section.
The bulk of the collection is correspondence, both incoming and outgoing, with members of the Woman's Department including Gertrude Beeks, Nannie Helen Burroughs, and Maude A. K. Wetmore. Other notable correspondents include Steven B. Ayres, Leonidas Carstarphen Dyer, Jacob H. Gallinger, Natalie Harris Hammond, Thomas Jesse Jones, and Ruth Hanna McCormick Simms. Notable organizational correspondents include the Alley Improvement Association, Washington D.C.; Associated Charities of the District of Columbia; Colored Settlement Association (Washington, D.C.); Council of National Defense (Washington, D.C.) Woman's Committee; National American Woman Suffrage Association; National Committee on Prison Labor, New York, N.Y.; and the National Surgical Dressings Committee, Washington, D.C.
A subject file includes circulars, minutes, and reports from the Council of National Defense and the National Civic Federation. Authors include Carrie Chapman Catt and Anna Howard Shaw from the Woman's Committee of the Council of National Defense (Washington, D.C.). This file also contains reports from various committees covering health education efforts, veteran support services, and the physical condition and safety of jails, schools, hospitals, and workplaces.
Miscellany files in the collection include clippings, invitations, notes, and educational pamphlets.
Although many of the correspondents are prominent, much of the correspondence itself is not extensive. Portions of the correspondence are in fragments or lack pages. There are only a few papers relating to the Ellen Wilson Memorial Homes project. The strength of the collection lies in the report material for municipal reform efforts in the areas of war relief, housing, garbage collection, health, diet, pure milk, juvenile delinquency, playgrounds, and working conditions of District citizens.