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Yardley Civic Club records
Notifications
Held at: Yardley Historical Association [Contact Us]46 West Afton Avenue, Yardley, PA, 19067
This is a finding aid. It is a description of archival material held at the Yardley Historical Association. Unless otherwise noted, the materials described below are physically available in their reading room, and not digitally available through the web.
Overview and metadata sections
The Civic Club of Yardley (Bucks County, Pa.) was organized in 1915 by a group of 30 women; its purpose was to "form a better Yardley." Mrs. A.J. Cadwallader served as its first president. The Club joined the Bucks County Federation of Women's Clubs in 1920 and the General Federation of Women's Clubs (GFWC) in 1926. Gardening and flower arrangements were of particular interest to the group. As its membership increased, the Club formed several committees, including the Girl Scouts and Brownies, Hospitality, Friendship, Fine Arts, Garden, Project, and Home Life Department. The Club was involved in multiple projects for which they acted as volunteers and/or raised funds for the upkeep and maintenance of buildings and organizations. For example, they served lunches to Yardley School students, assisting with the upkeep of the Community Center, raised money and donated equipment to the local hospital, and helped secure funds for the Yardley Library Company. They also created a scholarship that was given to a local girl.
A Yardley Junior Civic Club was created in 1940; it merged with the Senior Club in 1956. After the merger, the Junior Club became the driving force behind the Club's activities, taking over many of the main responsibilities from the aging Senior Club members. One of the Club's primary forms of raising money under the direction of the Junior Club became making and selling cookbooks.
The Yardley Civic Club appears to have disbanded in the last 20th century.
Bibliography:
"Memoirs of the Yardley Civic Club." 50th anniversary booklet (1965) found in collection.
The collection primarily consists of administrative records, membership booklets/yearbooks, and scrapbooks with some financial records, correspondence, and ephemera. It includes the following: Minute book, 1937-1947, and minutes, 1915-1938 (1930-1937 includes attendance), 1951-1952; membership booklets/yearbooks, 1916-1956; correspondence, 1915-1938, and other scattered correspondence and financial records; Constitution and bylaws, 1921; bylaws; histories and anniversary booklets; printed materials from parent organizations; ephemera; clippings; and blank postcards. The scrapbooks, which include photographs, clippings, and ephemera, span the following years: 1921-1937, 1948-1951, 1956-1957, 1959-1963. There are also copies of clippings from older scrapbooks, 1915-1937. Also included in the collection is a framed membership list of signatures of the Club's charter members, 1915.
Gift of Yardley Library; gift of Rev. and Mrs. Thomas Everist.
Summary descriptive information on this collection was compiled in 2012-2014 as part of a project conducted by the Historical Society of Pennsylvania to make better known and more accessible the largely hidden collections of small, primarily volunteer run repositories in the Philadelphia area. The Hidden Collections Initiative for Pennsylvania Small Archival Repositories (HCI-PSAR) was funded by a grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
This is a preliminary finding aid. No physical processing, rehousing, reorganizing, or folder listing was accomplished during the HCI-PSAR project.
In some cases, more detailed inventories or finding aids may be available on-site at the repository where this collection is held; please contact Yardley Historical Association directly for more information.
Organization
- Bucks County Federation of Women's Clubs
- Civic Club of Yardley (Pa.)
- Junior Civic Club of Yardley (Pa.)
Subject
Place
- Publisher
- Yardley Historical Association
- Finding Aid Author
- Finding aid prepared by Celia Caust-Ellenbogen and Faith Charlton through the Historical Society of Pennsylvania's Hidden Collections Initiative for Pennsylvania Small Archival Repositories
- Sponsor
- This preliminary finding aid was created as part of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania's Hidden Collections Initiative for Pennsylvania Small Archival Repositories. The HCI-PSAR project was made possible by a grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
- Access Restrictions
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Contact Yardley Historical Association for information about accessing this collection.