Guide to the Santa Cruz Business and Professional Women's Club Records
Processed by UCSC OAC Unit.
The University Library
Special Collections and Archives
University Library
University of California, Santa Cruz
Santa Cruz, California, 95064
Email: specoll@library.ucsc.edu
URL: http://library.ucsc.edu/speccoll/
© 2003
The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved.
Note
Area, Interdisciplinary, and Ethnic Studies--Women's Studies
Social Sciences--Sociology--Social Movements
Guide to the Santa Cruz Business and Professional Women's Club Records
Collection number: MS 159
The University Library
Special Collections and Archives
University of California, Santa Cruz
Santa Cruz, California
Contact Information:
- Special Collections and Archives
- University Library
- University of California, Santa Cruz
- Santa Cruz, California, 95064
- Email: specoll@library.ucsc.edu
- URL: http://library.ucsc.edu/speccoll/
- Processed by:
- UCSC OAC Unit
- Date Completed:
- October 2003
- Encoded by:
- UCSC OAC Unit
© 2003 The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved.
Descriptive Summary
Title: Santa Cruz Business and Professional Women's Club Records,
Date (inclusive): 1919-1985
Collection number: MS 159
Creator:
Santa Cruz Business and Professional Women's Club
Extent:
2 document boxes, 12 flats
14 linear ft.
Repository:
University of California, Santa Cruz. University Library.
Special Collections and Archives
Santa Cruz, California 95064
Abstract: This collection includes the business papers, correspondence, minutes, scrapbooks and artifacts of the Santa Cruz BPW.
Physical location: Stored offsite at NRLF: Advance notice is required for access to the papers.
Language:
English.
Administrative Information
Access
Collection open for research. Use of the scrapbooks is limited due to the fragile physical condition of the items.
Publication Rights
Property rights reside with the University of California. Literary rights are retained by the creators of the records and
their heirs. For permission to publish or to reproduce the material, please contact the Head of Special Collections and Archives.
Preferred Citation
Santa Cruz Business and Professional Women's Club Records, 1919-1985. MS 159. Special Collections and Archives, University
Library, University of
California, Santa Cruz.
Acquisition Information
Gift of Santa Cruz Business and Professional Women's Club in 2002
Organizational History
In every decade since its founding, the Business & Professional Women/USA has been actively involved in key issues that affect
women, starting with helping women gain the right to vote in 1920. The organization then continued to grow by opposing laws
that denied jobs to married women in the '30s, supporting women in the Armed Forces in the '40s, working for civil rights
in the '50s and '60s, and influencing landmark legislation (including Title IX) in the '70s, Retirement Equity in the '80s,
and Family Medical Leave in the '90s. Today the BPW/USA is in a position to lead a public policy charge to achieve workplace
equity and work-life balance, while promoting equity for all women in the workplace through advocacy, education and information.
With its 30,000 members in 1600 local organizations represented in every congressional district in the country, BPW/USA is
the leading advocate on work-life balance and workplace equity issues. Local BPW organizations provide members with professinal
development programs, networking, participation in grassroots activism, and opportunities to support scholarships for disadvantaged
women.
The Santa Cruz Business & Professional Women's Club, organized in 1928, is the oldest and largest club in the area. In fact
the Santa Cruz Club organized the area's other two clubs; the San Lorenzo Valley BPWC in 1944 and the Socaptos (Soquel, Capitola,
Aptos) BPWC in 1948. Earlier it had helped form the Watsonville BPWC.
Since it's beginning, the Santa Cruz BPW has taken an active role in civic affairs. Some examples include lobbying successfully
to prevent an admission fee to Big Basin State Park, furnishing the first room in the Civic Auditorium when it was built,
spearheading the Santa Cruz city "Birthday parties" and also introducing the Small Business Clinic in California.
With an eye to the future, the Santa Cruz BPW purchased it's first clubhouse. This clubhouse was, however, destroyed in the
floods of the late 1950s. With re-development funds, insurance money, and a bit of fund raising, a new piece of land was bought.
There the Club built a new clubhouse in the early 1960s. This clubhouse served as a source of income for the local chapter
and provided a meeting place for many of Santa Cruz's various women's organizations, from the SCBPW themselves to the Native
Daughters of the Golden West and the Soroptimists. However, in 2000 the current membership of the Santa Cruz Business & Professional
Women's Club decided they no longer needed a private clubhouse and sold the property in order to benefit one of the club's
favorite causes, education. With the proceeds of the sale, the Santa Cruz Business & Professional Women's Club members gave
a gift of $200,000 to the University of California, Santa Cruz to endow an annual Leadership Opportunity Award (LOA) scholarship
in the club's name. This gift will enable UCSC to provide $10,000 each year to a female student selected to receive a LOA
scholarship.
Scope and Contents Note
This collection consists of Santa Cruz Business and Professional Women club's business papers, correspondence, minutes, scrapbooks,
photographs and artifacts. The early business records, 1930-1949 were lost and the scrapbooks damaged when the clubhouse was
flooded in the late 1950's. The scrapbooks consist mainly of newspaper clippings documenting the activities of the BPW, and
miscellaneous ephemera collected by the members.
Arrangement
The material is organized into 5 series: Business Papers & Minutes; Scrapbooks; Publications; Photographs; Artifacts.
Indexing Terms
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in
the library's online public access catalog.
Subjects
Women in business--California
Clubs--California--Santa Cruz
Women--California--Societies, etc.
Collection Contents
Business Papers & Minutes, 1950-84
Physical Description:
34 folders
Scope and Content Note
This series contains the business papers of the club, mostly pertaining the purchase and construction of the clubhouse after
the 1958 flood and the club minutes.
Arrangement
The material is arranged chronologically.
Box-folder 1:1
Papers of Incorporation, 1950-51
Box-folder 1:2
Santa Cruz Land Title Co. Bill of Sale, Grant Deed for 126 Plymouth St. clubhouse, 1959
Box-folder 1:3
U.S. Treasury Department & Internal Revenue Service, 1965
Box-folder 1:4
Agreement for clubhouse construction - Milton Macken, 1966
Box-folder 1:5
California Franchise Tax Board, 1970
Box-folder 1:10-15, 17-22, 24-25; 2:1-9
Box-folder 1:10
Membership Committee Report 1954-55
Box-folder 1:11
State Convention Program, 1956
Box-folder 1:12
Western Regional Conference, Summary of Proceedings, 1957
Scrapbooks, 1930-1980s
Physical Description:
9 folders, 10 flats
Scope and Content Note
This series contains loose items from the scrapbooks and the club scrapbooks.
The early scrapbooks have been water damaged. All of them are brittle due to the basic nature of the scrapbook materials.
Use of this material is limited.
Arrangement
The material is arranged first by size, then chronological order.
Box-folder 1:6-10,16,20-21,23
Box-folder 1:9
Copy of scrapbook pages, 1953-55
Publications, 1945-49
Physical Description:
2 folders
Scope and Content Note
This series contains miscellaneous issues of the official publications of the state and national clubs.
Arrangement
The material is arranged by title.
Box-folder 2:10
California Woman, Feb.1945 - Feb.1949
Box-folder 2:11
Independent Woman, April 1949
Photographs, 1930-1960s
Physical Description:
3 folders
Scope and Content Note
This series contains the loose photos. Most of these photographs are unidentified.
Arrangement
The photos are arranged by size.
Artifacts, 1919-1980s
Physical Description:
2 flats
Scope and Content Note
This series contains the club artifacts.
Arrangement
The material is arranged by size.
Box-folder 13
Contributor's plaque & Key for 2nd Annual Conference, Peninsula District, Calif. Federation of BPW clubs, April 24-25,1954
Box-folder 14
Case containing brass plaque for 126 Plymouth St. clubhouse, "Call to Order" bell with hammer, misc. gravels 1919-1984
