BGuthrie Photos: DC -- Library of Congress -- Exhibit: Join In: Voluntary Associations in America

DC -- Library of Congress -- Exhibit: Join In: Voluntary Associations in America:

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Description of Pictures: Join In: Voluntary Associations in America
December 16, 2022–December 31, 2023
America has been called “a nation of joiners.” In their daily lives, in their communities, and in their work and play, Americans have long joined voluntary associations to connect with others, pursue shared goals, and spur social change. Join In: Voluntary Associations in America explores this impulse to join together for a common purpose through a selection of items from the Library of Congress collections representing organizations from across the nation and across time. The associations featured cover a vast range of interests and goals and include faith-based organizations and benevolent societies, chambers of commerce, professional associations and labor unions, voluntary emergency service providers, groups advocating social and political change, as well as clubs for service, sports, and hobbies.
These powerful impulses to join, while not unique to the United States, have been shaped in part by the nation’s geography and diversity. The history of voluntary associations reveals the aspirations Americans have had for themselves and their country. It also reflects American society’s exclusions, discriminations, and divisions. Throughout, Americans have shown a remarkable ability to use the tools of association building, self-organization, and self-governance to achieve their goals. The wide variety of organizations they have created, at times benefitting from government, show independence and enterprise critical to the social fabric of this country.
Join In: Voluntary Associations in America and related programming are made possible by funding secured by The Federalist Society, with additional funds provided by the American Bar Association, Standing Committee on the Library of Congress.

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Copyrights: All pictures were taken by amateur photographer Bruce Guthrie (me!) who retains copyright on them. Free for non-commercial use with attribution. See the [Creative Commons] definition of what this means. "Photos (c) Bruce Guthrie" is fine for attribution. (Commercial use folks including AI scrapers can of course contact me.) Feel free to use in publications and pages with attribution but you don't have permission to sell the photos themselves. A free copy of any printed publication using any photographs is requested. Descriptive text, if any, is from a mixture of sources, quite frequently from signs at the location or from official web sites; copyrights, if any, are retained by their original owners.

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Specific picture descriptions: Photos above with "i" icons next to the bracketed sequence numbers (e.g. "[1] ") are described as follows:
1. LCJOIN_221220_001.JPG: Join In: Voluntary Associations in America
2. LCJOIN_221220_010.JPG: Join In Voluntary Associations in America and related programming are made possible through generous support secured by The Federalist Society with additional funds provided by the American Bar Association Standing Committee on the Law Library of Congress
3. LCJOIN_221220_019.JPG: Voluntary Associations in America America has been called “a nation of joiners.” In their daily lives, in their communities, and in their work and play, Americans have long joined voluntary associations to connect with others, pursue shared goals, and spur social change. Join In: Voluntary Associations in America explores this impulse to join together for a common purpose through a selection of items from the Library of Congress collections representing organizations from across the nation and across time. The associations featured cover a vast range of interests and goals and include faith-based organizations and benevolent societies, chambers of commerce, professional associations and labor unions, voluntary emergency service providers, groups advocating social and political change, as well as clubs for service, sports, and hobbies. These powerful impulses to join, while not unique to the United States, have been shaped in part by the nation’s geography and diversity. The history of voluntary associations reveals the aspirations Americans have had for themselves and their country. It also reflects American society’s exclusions, discriminations, and divisions. Throughout, Americans have shown a remarkable ability to use the tools of association building, self-organization, and self-governance to achieve their goals. The wide variety of organizations they have created, at times benefitting from government, show independence and enterprise critical to the social fabric of this country.
4. LCJOIN_221220_029.JPG: A Nation of Joiners Throughout the history of this nation, the powerful impulses that drove people to unite and to pursue their aims in civic associations have changed and evolved. Some of the most prevalent motives for association of all kinds, such as commitments to political or faith-based action, became the contexts in which Americans created voluntary organizations that could advance their goals for shared purposes. Voluntary associations are by definition exclusive: forming a society within society is their source of unity and social strength. Generally, the lines that these groups drew to define who can belong and benefit have mirrored the history of gender, class, religious, ethnic, and most of all racial discrimination that is a pervasive part of American history. And as the nation became more diverse and strove to be more inclusive, some associations forcefully opposed those changes. Yet associations have also served as powerful instruments to right fundamental wrongs or obtain justice for those oppressed. Americans have worked to transform their lives and the lives of their communities with myriad associations, including those for fellowship, mutual aid and benevolence, professionalism, labor, emergency services, reform, and community building. Together these efforts suggest in broad strokes the potential that the people of this country have aspired to fulfill.
5. LCJOIN_221220_036.JPG: Fellowship In British America, fraternal organizations appeared in the mid-1700s. The colonists almost invariably organized their clubs in a way that excluded women, Native Americans, African Americans, and often members of other non-Protestant denominations. Various organizations over time, however, expanded their membership in selectively more inclusive ways. These associations created a space where White men of different Christian denominations and different social classes could meet and socialize. This mixing of social groups opened up possibilities for networking and leadership development that contributed to the gradual rise of a more democratic society. Likewise, members of excluded groups claimed the practice of creating associations, which has empowered and given collective voice to social minorities across the nation.
6. LCJOIN_221220_044.JPG: Strobridge & Company, lithographers. Washington as a Freemason, Commander of the American Army, 1775, President of the United States, 1789, Initiated, November 4th 1752, in Fredericksburg, Lodge No. 4, Virginia. Cincinnati, Ohio: J. H. Powers & Co., Fraternity Publishers, ca. 1870.
7. LCJOIN_221220_047.JPG: I Feed You All! Milwaukee, Wisconsin: American Oleograph Co., ca. 1875. The Grange The Order of the Patrons of Husbandry, also known as the Grange, was founded in 1867 by Oliver Hudson Kelley (1826–1913), a farmer and clerk at the U.S. Bureau of Agriculture. The Grange combined rituals and grades adapted from Freemasonry with a mission to offer courses on agricultural technology and innovation. It became a forum for grassroots political advocacy for farmers and their families. Unlike many other fraternal associations, women were guaranteed full membership and lodge rituals reserved some roles exclusively for them. Membership in the Grange grew to over 850,000 in its first ten years. In recent decades, the decline in the number of people engaged in farming has led to a dramatic decrease in active membership.
8. LCJOIN_221220_049.JPG: A. C. Golsh, photographer. African American Man, Member of the Grand United Order of Odd Fellows, between 1890 and 1900. Order of Odd Fellows and Grand United Order of Odd Fellows The Odd Fellows was founded in London in 1730 as a fraternal association that emphasized friendship among its members and used rituals and degrees similar to those found in Freemasonry. The organization came to the United States in 1819, when an immigrant from England, Thomas Wildey (1782–1861), founded Washington Lodge No. 1 in Baltimore. In the 1840s, membership split over race, resulting in the creation in 1843 of the exclusively White Order of Odd Fellows and the predominantly Black Grand United Order of Odd Fellows, led by Peter Ogden (d. 1852), an African American sailor from New York. Shown here is a member of the Grand United Order wearing the fraternal order’s collar and apron. Membership in all Odd Fellows lodges peaked in the early 1920s at more than 2.5 million members worldwide.
9. LCJOIN_221220_051.JPG: Will F. Dillon (dates unknown). The K. C. Drive (Knights of Columbus), [1918]. Knights of Columbus Responding to the rising prominence of fraternal associations in late nineteenth-century America, Michael J. McGivney (1850–1892), a Catholic priest in New Haven, founded the Knights of Columbus in 1882 as a service club for devout Catholic men. Originally conceived as a mutual aid society for the families of church members, it adopted an educational mission to develop a distinctly American Catholic identity and to promote Catholic values, charitable works, and American patriotism. This sheet music is representative of efforts to rally support for American involvement in World War I. Today the fraternity has approximately 1.7 million members.
10. LCJOIN_221220_054.JPG: Carol M. Highsmith (b. 1946), photographer. The Rotary International Float in the 124th Rose Parade in Pasadena, California, January 1, 2013. Rotary Club A first among secular service clubs in the twentieth century, the Rotary Club was formed in 1905 by Chicago lawyer Paul P. Harris (1868–1947) to establish fellowship among business community members. The name indicates the early practice of rotating meetings among members’ business locations. The Club’s iconic logo is a familiar presence in American communities, as seen on this parade float. The organization originally served to strengthen the community via local business activism but, over time, extended its efforts to humanitarian services. There are now more than 35,000 member clubs worldwide, comprising 1.2 million individuals. Women, first admitted in 1987, now make up 22 percent of the membership.
11. LCJOIN_221220_057.JPG: Carl D. Vandersloot (1898–1963), composer. The American Legion, 1920. The American Legion Chartered and incorporated by Congress in 1919 as a patriotic association to support veterans, service members, and their communities, the American Legion is the nation’s largest wartime veterans’ service organization. The Legion has focused on four basic areas that it refers to as “pillars”: veterans’ affairs and rehabilitation; national security; Americanism; and child welfare. Relying heavily on volunteerism, the organization has contributed to public policy achievements for veterans, with the G.I. Bill of 1944 among its many significant accomplishments. Today, the Legion has nearly two million members in more than 13,000 posts worldwide.
12. LCJOIN_221220_060.JPG: Freemasons. Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania. Ahiman Rezon Abridged and Digested. Philadelphia: Hall and Sellers, 1783. Freemasonry First appearing in London in 1717, Freemasonry is a men’s fraternal association that uses a system of rituals and initiations to teach an ethical code based on the dignity of all humankind. From the first known American lodge, founded in 1731, Freemasonry grew to influence the style and organization of many other fraternal associations. While its official teachings reflected the values of the European Enlightenment—egalitarianism, reason and religious tolerance—in practice, some early American lodges excluded African Americans and others. Today there are 1.1 million Freemasons in the United States, down from its historic peak of 4.3 million in 1959, with a worldwide membership of 6 million people.
13. LCJOIN_221220_062.JPG: Prince Hall (1748–1807). A Charge, Delivered to the African Lodge, June 24, 1797, at Menotomy. Boston: Printed by Benjamin Edes, 1797. Prince Hall Freemasonry Prince Hall, a leather worker, abolitionist, and Methodist lay minister, sought to open a Masonic lodge for Black men in America. After being rejected by Freemasonic lodges in Boston because of race, he requested a charter from the Premier Grand Lodge of England, which was granted September 29, 1784, with Hall installed as Worshipful Master. Prince Hall Freemasonry has historically advanced African American citizenship and education. Under influential figures such as Thurgood Marshall, Wiley Branton, and Amos T. Hall, Prince Hall Masons were actively involved in the African American Civil Rights Movement. Today, Prince Hall Freemasonry is the oldest African American fraternal organization, with an estimated 300,000 members in 4,500 lodges world-wide.
14. LCJOIN_221220_063.JPG: Freemasons. Prince Hall Grand Lodge of the District of Columbia. Directory of the Grand and Subordinate Lodges, F.A.A.M. of the District of Columbia, 1903–1905. Washington, ca. 1905
15. LCJOIN_221220_066.JPG: Order of the Eastern Star. Transactions of the Grand Chapter, Order of the Eastern Star, State of New York. New York: Masonic Publishing Company, 1871. Order of the Eastern Star The Order of the Eastern Star was founded as a women’s counterpart to Freemasonry with the earliest Grand Chapter established in Michigan in 1867. Robert Morris (1818–1888), an influential American Freemason, composed the organization’s lore in 1850, which used allegorical stories about female characters in the Bible to teach ethics. Membership was limited to those having family ties to a Master Mason and was closed to African Americans. This pamphlet records the proceedings of a convention of delegates to organize a Grand Chapter, held in New York City, on November 3, 1870. Their first annual meeting was in June of the following year. A parallel body for African Americans, the Prince Hall Order of the Eastern Star, was founded in 1874. Today, Eastern Star has approximately one million members with thousands of chapters in twenty countries.
16. LCJOIN_221220_068.JPG: Fourteenth Continental Congress of the National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution, April 17–22, 1905. Washington, D.C. 1905. Daughters of the American Revolution Amid the mass immigration and social change after the Civil War, a group of elite women created a society in 1890 to highlight their genealogical connection to the founding of the United States. The Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) sought to promote patriotic knowledge and engagement and to create a women’s association equal to such male counterparts as the Society of the Cincinnati. Although its focus on patriotic research and education remains unchanged, as does the documentation of descent required for membership, the DAR of today welcomes women of all races and ethnicities, undertakes an array of service activities, and makes its extensive archive, library, and museum collections accessible to both scholars and the general public.
17. LCJOIN_221220_070.JPG: Harris & Ewing, photographer. “American Legion Pays Tribute to One of Their Buddies at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, Washington, D.C.,” 1938.
18. LCJOIN_221220_083.JPG: Lending Hands, Joining Hands The desire to lend a hand to those less fortunate is one of the most persistent motivations leading Americans to join clubs and form associations. From the late eighteenth century onward, a variety of benevolent associations, many faith-based, arose to meet such needs as aiding the poor, protecting children, founding orphanages, and providing mutual assistance within diverse communities. The history of these associations reveals who Americans in different communities believed to be worthy of charity and who they believed was not. It also discloses the determination of marginalized communities to enable their own and others to combat poverty, privation, or discrimination. Over time, Americans have worked together to create a vast range of organizations whose efforts to ease the burden of those in need have become a major part of civil society in the country.
19. LCJOIN_221220_093.JPG: The Constitution and By-laws of the Orphan Asylum Society of the City of New-York, April, 1823. The Orphan Asylum Society of the City of New York By the early nineteenth century, middle- and upper-class White women found a space to form their own voluntary associations through which to practice leadership and participate in public life. One such association was the Orphan Asylum Society of the City of New York, founded in 1807 by Isabella Marshall Graham (1742–1814) and other elite New York women to rescue, shelter, and educate orphaned or abandoned children. Alexander Hamilton’s widow, Elizabeth Schuyler Hamilton (1757–1854), was among the Society’s founders and served as director in 1821. Now known as Graham Windham, this association still serves the New York’s needy children and families.
20. LCJOIN_221220_095.JPG: D.T. Valentine (1801–1869). Manual of the Corporation of the City of New York for 1852.
21. LCJOIN_221220_098.JPG: Mary Church Terrell (1863–1964). “What the National Association [of Colored Women] Has Meant to Colored Women” National Association of Colored Women’s Clubs Mary Church Terrell and other Black women leaders founded the National Association of Colored Women (NACW) in 1896. NACW became the largest federation of local Black women’s service clubs. Terrell served as its first president. The organization advocated for women’s rights as well as for the improvement and advancement of all African Americans though education, work, activism, and support of the health and welfare of the community. With its motto “Lifting as We Climb,” the National Association of Colored Women’s Clubs (as it is now known) is still active in thirty-two states.
22. LCJOIN_221220_103.JPG: Minutes of the Thirteenth Annual Meeting of the Edwardsville Baptist Association, [. . .] Madison County, Illinois, May 20, 21, 22, 1842. Edwardsville Baptist Association As a Christian denomination that rejected all forms of hierarchy beyond the individual congregation, Baptists linked multiple churches in local associations for mutual support and common goals. As was common practice, the association formed by three Baptist churches in Edwardsville, Illinois, in 1830 kept careful records. The minutes of its annual meeting in 1842, when it had grown to thirteen churches, include a plan to raise scholarship funds for ministerial training for poor young men throughout the state and a commitment to “aiding the daughters of Baptist preachers, and other indigent females, in obtaining . . . education.” Attention to practical charity has typified religious associations throughout the nation’s history.
23. LCJOIN_221220_104.JPG: “Local Committee on Arrangements of the Chicago and Northern District of Colored Women’s Clubs, Hostess to the National Association of Colored Women, 1924,” from the NACW 1924 Souvenir Program.
24. LCJOIN_221220_106.JPG: National Association of Colored Women’s Clubs, 1924.
25. LCJOIN_221220_108.JPG: Detroit Publishing Company. Remember the Poor: A Salvation Army Christmas Box, ca. 1903. Salvation Army In 1865, Methodist minister William Booth (1829–1912) and his wife Catherine (1829–1890) created the Christian Mission in London’s destitute East End to fight poverty and to raise interest in the Gospel. The association adopted military-style ranks and hierarchies. Later renamed the Salvation Army, it opened its first U.S. branch in 1880. During the Great Depression, the Salvation Army provided food and lodging for those in need and throughout both world wars its work with the armed forces was noteworthy, earning it recognition as a significant international charity organization. Today, with a presence in 131 countries, its extensive charitable efforts include running charity shops, operating shelters for the homeless, providing disaster relief, and furnishing humanitarian aid to developing countries.
26. LCJOIN_221220_112.JPG: The Jewish Immigrant, January 1909. New York: Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, 1909. Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society Following a wave of pogroms—violent anti-Jewish riots—that took place in the Russian Empire in 1881, a group of Jewish Americans in Manhattan organized the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (HIAS) to help Jewish refugees from Russia manage their arrival and adjustment to America. Its first efforts were providing immigrants with meals, transportation, jobs, and information. In the twentieth century, it grew to include worldwide resettlement efforts for Jewish people attempting to escape from Europe, Iran, and the Soviet Union. In the twenty-first century, HIAS has expanded to supply aid and relief to refugees of all religions, nationalities and ethnicities.
27. LCJOIN_221220_115.JPG: Marilynn K. Yee (b. 1950), photographer. Svetlana and Manashe Babayev with Their Children, Larisa, 8 years old, Zina, 7, and Oxsana, 4, at Rear, after Arriving Recently at Kennedy International Airport [from the Soviet Union], 1989.
28. LCJOIN_221220_119.JPG: Minutes of the Second Convention of the National Association of Colored Women . . .
29. LCJOIN_221220_121.JPG: The Jewish Immigration Bulletin, vol. 5, no. 7, July, 1915.
30. LCJOIN_221220_137.JPG: A Toolkit for Associations A Toolkit for Associations Americans adopted the organizational tools of early corporations to give structure and legal status to their associations. The English companies that began colonizing North America received authority from the Crown to create their internal governing structures and to enact laws for the colonies they founded. At that time, English law permitted few spaces in which people could associate in self-regulating communities. Generally designated as corporations, these associations included guilds, towns, and also certain favored trade ventures—groups of private citizens, which the Crown permitted to govern themselves so that they could achieve large-scale goals to benefit the state. These ventures exercised a powerful influence on colonists such as those who arrived on the Mayflower. Such efforts acquainted Americans with a variety of forms for organizing their collective efforts. Many familiar aspects of our own voluntary associations, such as boards of governors, constitutions, charters, by-laws, and elections—the basic building blocks of civic associations—have their roots in this early experience of governing on behalf of a home company. In this way, colonial experience contributed to American associations’ essential and enduring toolkit.
31. LCJOIN_221220_140.JPG: “Virginia Charter of 1606” in Ebenezer Hazard, Historical Collections: Consisting of State Papers and Other Authentic Documents, Intended as Materials for an History of the United States of America. Philadelphia: Printed by T. Dobson [1792–1794]. Governing By Company In 1606, King James I of England granted a charter to a group of investors to fund and operate a colony in Virginia. A charter is a formal, written grant of privileges, typically recognizing the right of a group to act as a body. The charter outlines the body’s purpose, financial structure, and its scope of activity. The Virginia Charter created the Virginia Company and established both a governing council in London and a subsidiary council in Virginia that made by-laws subject to review by the King. Government by corporation existed in other early colonies, such as Sagadahoc, Maine; Cuper’s Cove, Newfoundland; Bermuda; Plymouth; and Massachusetts-Bay.
32. LCJOIN_221220_142.JPG: Mourt’s Relation: A Relation or Journal of the Beginning and Proceedings of the English Plantation Settled at Plimouth in New England. London: Printed for John Bellamie, 1622. The Mayflower Compact The passengers on the Mayflower had received a patent (a permit to do business) authorizing them to establish a colony somewhere south of Long Island Sound. When they arrived at Cape Cod and found themselves without a warrant for their settlement, the men on board signed a “combination,” what became known as the Mayflower Compact. They bound themselves into a single company, a “civil body politic” that would function as a civil and economic unit until they could request a new patent for their colony. The original Compact is lost. Mourt’s Relation, an account of the early days of the colony, is the earliest surviving document containing its text.
33. LCJOIN_221220_147.JPG: “The Second Peirce Patent” in Ebenezer Hazard, Historical Collections: Consisting of State Papers and Other Authentic Documents, Intended as Materials for an History of the United States of America. Philadelphia: Printed by T. Dobson [1792–1794]. A Permit To Settle The Virginia Company devised a plan in 1617 to grant a patent—a permit to do business—to groups of settlers to create “particular plantations;” that is, colonies that were franchises subordinate to Jamestown. It was with such a patent that the people who settled Plymouth colony set out across the Atlantic Ocean. When the Mayflower returned to England, the settlers of Plymouth Plantation sent a request for a new patent that would replace the patent whose terms they violated by settling outside the territory assigned to them. They received a new patent, the Second Peirce Patent—granted to John Peirce, the head of the joint stock company that funded Plymouth Plantation—from the newly formed Council of New England on June 1, 1621.
34. LCJOIN_221220_150.JPG: “Massachusetts Charter of 1636” in The Charters of the British Colonies in America. London, Printed for J. Almon [1774?]. “One Bodie Politque and Corporate” In March of 1629, King Charles I granted a charter to a group of investors that called itself the New England Company. The charter incorporated the investors recognizing them as “one Bodie politique and corporate.” It set out the requirements for the new company’s governance, the election of governors and officers, and established the power to make laws subject to review by the King. Unlike most charters, which tied a corporation to a place, the Massachusetts Charter of 1629 omitted any requirement for the corporation to hold meetings in England. Seizing on the opportunity, the corporation elected to relocate to Massachusetts. The corporate identity of Massachusetts left a lasting impression on its inhabitants.
35. LCJOIN_221220_154.JPG: Detail of the “Mayflower Compact” from Governor William Bradford’s manuscript journal, written 1620–1647, the earliest surviving handwritten copy of the text. “A Civill Body Politick” The Mayflower Compact, here in this later manuscript, bears witness to an agreement by the Plymouth settlers to join together in a self-governing body, or in the language of the period, a “body politic.” That expression, “body politic,” referred to townships, professional guilds, institutions such as universities and hospitals and some for-profit corporations. As civil society grew in America in the following centuries, the law recognized a growing number of organizations, voluntary associations and others, as bodies politic.
36. LCJOIN_221220_165.JPG: Lending Hands, Joining Hands The desire to lend a hand to those less fortunate is one of the most persistent motivations leading Americans to join clubs and form associations. From the late eighteenth century onward, a variety of benevolent associations, many faith-based, arose to meet such needs as aiding the poor, protecting children, founding orphanages, and providing mutual assistance within diverse communities. The history of these associations reveals who Americans in different communities believed to be worthy of charity and who they believed was not. It also discloses the determination of marginalized communities to enable their own and others to combat poverty, privation, or discrimination. Over time, Americans have worked together to create a vast range of organizations whose efforts to ease the burden of those in need have become a major part of civil society in the country.
37. LCJOIN_221220_166.JPG: Jonas Dovydena (b. 1939), photographer. Wall mural in the predominantly Mexican American Little Village neighborhood, Chicago, Illinois, 1977.
38. LCJOIN_221220_168.JPG: Recruitment brochure for Movimiento Art�stico Chicano (MARCH), ca. 1975. El Movimiento Art�stico Chicano El Movimiento Art�stico Chicano (MARCH) was founded by Victor Sorell (b. 1944) and Jos� Gonzales (b. 1933) in Indiana in 1972, and later chartered in Chicago in 1975. The organization promoted Midwestern Latino artists, emphasizing their ties to community. It created a variety of exhibits in partnership with organizations such as the Mexican Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes. MARCH also held art workshops for urban Latino youth and supported the creation of socially-conscious and historically-themed murals in the Chicago area. It published this recruitment brochure, with the organization’s distinctive logo, and with assistance from the Illinois Arts Council, a quarterly journal titled Abrazo. The journal presented photos, arts, poems, and short stories.
39. LCJOIN_221220_170.JPG: Bill W. (William Griffith Wilson, 1895–1971). Alcoholics Anonymous: The Story of How More Than One Hundred Men Have Recovered from Alcoholism. First Edition. New York City: Works Publishing Co., 1939.
40. LCJOIN_221220_174.JPG: Bill W. (William Griffith Wilson, 1895–1971). Alcoholics Anonymous: The Story of How Many Thousands of Men and Women Have Recovered from Alcoholism. Ninth Edition. New York City: Works Publishing Co., 1946. Alcoholics Anonymous Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) was not the first anti-alcohol mutual-aid association, but its success is unique. In 1935, New York businessman William Griffith Wilson (“Bill W.”) and Ohio surgeon Robert H. Smith (“Dr. Bob,” 1879–1950) found their way to lasting sobriety through mutual support and reliance on a spiritual power greater than themselves. Electrified by this discovery, they were determined to share it with others, eventually creating a worldwide network that has freed millions from alcoholism through social anonymity, equality, personal honesty, spiritual trust, and intensive interpersonal support. Although organizational minimalism remains a key to its flexibility and strength, AA codifies its working principles in the eponymous publication known as the “Big Book,” first published in 1939. Its subtitle later changed to clarify that both women and men are welcomed.
41. LCJOIN_221220_175.JPG: American Heart Association. Quick & Easy Cookbook. First edition. New York: Times Books, 1995. American Heart Association Founded in 1925 by six cardiologists, the American Heart Association (AHA) is a non-profit organization dedicated to fighting heart disease and stroke and to strengthening the cardiovascular health community through research and charitable donations. Today, it has over 40 million volunteers and 2,800 employees. It is known for providing guidance to the American public on heart-healthy diet and lifestyle. AHA cookbooks have been found in American kitchens since they first appeared in 1973. The change in recipes in subsequent editions represents advances in the state of scientific research. The AHA’s annual meeting is a major conference for the presentation of medical research.
42. LCJOIN_221220_177.JPG: Rep. Frank W. Boykin (D.-Ala.) Rehearses in Washington, January 10, for Amateur Program to be Held by the American Heart Association, 1950.
43. LCJOIN_221220_179.JPG: New York City Mattachine Society Survey, January 1965.
44. LCJOIN_221220_182.JPG: The Ladder, A Lesbian Review, January 1966 (publication for Daughters of Bilitis). Mattachine Society and Daughters of Bilitis The Homophile Movement refers to the local, national and international social-political movement for gay and lesbian rights which emerged following World War II. The Mattachine Society (founded 1951) and the Daughters of Bilitis (DOB, founded 1955) were two of the most notable organizations representing the gay and lesbian communities during this period; both began in California and soon spread nationally. Published by DOB beginning in 1956, The Ladder became the first nationally distributed magazine aimed at lesbians. Lilli Vincenz (b. 1937), whose image appears on the January 1966 of its cover, also participated in the Mattachine Society as a member of the Washington, D.C., branch.
45. LCJOIN_221220_185.JPG: Original USET Board Meeting, 1970. From left: Jackson Isaac, Choctaw; Walter Johnson, Cherokee Principal Chief; Emmett York, Choctaw Chairman; Buffalo Tiger, Board Vice-Chairman and Miccosukee Chairman; Joe Dan Osceola, Board Chairman and Seminole President and Vice-Chairman; Johnson Catolster, Board Secretary, Cherokee; Betty Mae Jumper, Seminole Chairwoman; and Phillip Martin, Choctaw.
46. LCJOIN_221220_187.JPG: The USET Monthly Bulletin, January 1986. Newsletter. United South and Eastern Tribes The United South and Eastern Tribes, Inc. (USET) is an inter-tribal organization of thirty-three federally-recognized Tribal Nations. Founded in 1968, USET was the vision of its four founding tribal nations—Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians, Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida and Seminole Tribe of Florida. Its mission is to enable its member tribes, which are all east of the Mississippi River, to work together. The organization acts on behalf of its membership to create an improved quality of life for American Indians through increased health benefits, education, social services, housing, economic development, transportation, and justice opportunities. USET also promotes American Indian leadership to ensure the flourishing of its Tribal Nations.
47. LCJOIN_221220_189.JPG: USET: Cherokee, Miccosukee, Choctaw, Seminole; 40th, 1969–2009. Nashville, Tennessee: United South and Eastern Tribes, Inc. 2009.
48. LCJOIN_221220_209.JPG: Uniting at Work Americans began uniting to improve their working lives in the eighteenth and into the nineteenth centuries. In the decades before the Civil War, organizations emerged from efforts to raise levels of professional quality, standards, and practices on the one hand; and to protect and improve wages and working conditions on the other. Professional associations distributed information and educational opportunities among their members. They also sought to enhance their business prospects by conferring and controlling the prestige of membership. The trade union movement gained momentum as industrialization transformed the lives of working people in domains such as manufacturing and mining. Although relentless and sometimes violent opposition from employers dogged their victories with repeated defeats, unions and their influence continued to grow until their heyday in the decades after World War II, when their presence across huge sectors of the economy secured the establishment of a prosperous middle class.�The collective actions of both types of workplace associations helped obtain security, well-being, and a united sense of duty for vast numbers of Americans.
49. LCJOIN_221220_216.JPG: American Bar Association. Call for a Conference, Proceedings of Conference . . . Meeting of the Association, Officers, Members, etc. Philadelphia: Jackson Bros., 1878. American Bar Association In early America there were few associations for attorneys apart from membership in a colonial or state bar. A rare example appears in this agreement by a group of New York attorneys in 1756. By the late nineteenth century, lawyers in many states organized themselves in voluntary bar associations to advance the interests of the legal profession. In 1878, Simeon E. Baldwin (1840–1927), a Connecticut attorney, led the creation of a national bar association that could represent the entire American legal profession. Over the course of the next century, the American Bar Association (ABA) took a lead role in promoting a uniform code of ethics for judges and attorneys, in accrediting law schools, and controversially, in evaluating judicial nominations. Membership peaked in 1979 with half of all American attorneys belonging to the organization.
50. LCJOIN_221220_218.JPG: “Tunnels of the Pacific Railroad,” paper read before the Society, January 5, 1870, in American Society of Civil Engineers Transactions. Volume 1. New York: Published by the Society, 1872. American Society of Civil Engineers After a failed attempt to create a national organization to represent engineers in 1839 and then a stalled beginning in 1852, the American Society for Civil Engineers (ASCE) was revived in New York in 1867. Its purpose was to share information among its members through formal conferences and to raise and control the professional standards of the membership. In its first decades, it faced competition from organizations representing subfields of engineering, as well as local clubs that catered to the interests of tradesmen of a lower social class. The ASCE flourished in the twentieth century and became a leading force in the profession.
51. LCJOIN_221220_219.JPG: Articles of Agreement to Establish a Quarterly Meeting of the attornies [sic] in the City of New York [. . .], November 26, 1756.
52. LCJOIN_221220_222.JPG: Constitution and By-laws of the American Society of Civil Engineers. Organized November 5, 1852. 1870.
53. LCJOIN_221220_224.JPG: Amelia Earhart receiving the first gold medal from the SWG, New York, January 5, 1933. Society of Woman Geographers Excluded from membership in most professional organizations that promoted world exploration, geography, anthropology, and allied fields because of their sex, a small group of women founded the Society of Woman Geographers (SWG) in 1925. The SWG filled the need to exchange ideas and offer mutual encouragement among these professional women. Amelia Earhart, the famous female aviator, was elected to the SWG in 1931 and received the organization’s first gold medal in 1933. Later, anthropologist Margaret Mead (1901-1978) received the prestigious medal, which is still awarded today. As women gained entrance into a broader array of professions over the course of the twentieth century, SWG member occupations and scholarly output reflect changes in women’s career opportunities.
54. LCJOIN_221220_226.JPG: Amelia Earhart (1897–1939) to Harriet Adams (1892–1982) about her election to SWG, June 6, 1931.
55. LCJOIN_221220_229.JPG: Amelia Earhart coin.
56. LCJOIN_221220_235.JPG: Illustration accompanying “Tunnels of the Pacific Railroad,” in American Society of Civil Engineers Transactions. Volume 1. New York: Published by the Society, 1872.
57. LCJOIN_221220_238.JPG: Excerpt from abstract of speech by Margaret Mead to New York Group of Woman Geographers upon receiving the Society’s Gold Medal, February 23, 1942.
58. LCJOIN_221220_240.JPG: “Labor Day,” American Federationist (Official Magazine of the AFL), September 1915. American Federation of Labor The American Federation of Labor (AFL) was founded in 1886 in order to secure improved conditions and compensation for the members of its constituent craft unions. Despite his earlier criticism of organized labor, by 1912 the AFL had grown influential enough that Woodrow Wilson sought its political support in his bid for the presidency. As AFL’s secretary Frank Morrison noted in this letter, President Wilson’s first inaugural address directly spoke to labor and promised to “gradually eliminate from our present civilization the many inequalities and injustices which bear heavily upon many of our people.” Wilson later established the federal Department of Labor. Union membership more than tripled during his presidency.
59. LCJOIN_221220_243.JPG: Letter from Frank Morrison (1859–1949) to Woodrow Wilson (1856–1924), March 7, 1913.
60. LCJOIN_221220_245.JPG: Society of Woman Geographers brochure showing Deborah Atwood with SWG flag at Mt. Kilimanjaro, 2009.
61. LCJOIN_221220_268.JPG: Emergency! Colonial and later state governments had few resources to assist victims of catastrophic events. In the face of emergency, people were obliged to take action together for the common good. As early as the middle of the eighteenth century, Americans created volunteer services so that their communities could be prepared in the event of disaster. Working alongside government, Americans have developed an extraordinary range of voluntary groups dedicated to providing relief and assistance to people facing the consequence of war and natural disasters.
62. LCJOIN_221220_271.JPG: Robert Scot (ca. 1744–1823), engraver. The Pennsylvania Hospital, between 1782 and 1793. Early Hospitals (Pennsylvania Hospital) Influenced by the successes of volunteer hospitals in England, Benjamin Franklin, Dr. Thomas Bond (1712–1784), and several members of the Philadelphia elite devised a plan to create a hospital that would treat the colony’s poor and incapacitated free of charge. The result of their efforts, the Pennsylvania Hospital, was established in 1751 and was one of the first hospitals in America. Its founders secured funding from the Penn family, from the colonial legislature, and from private donations, the largest of which Franklin made himself. It offered free treatment to the poor as well as pioneering efforts in the care of the mentally ill. In the 1990s, it became part of the University of Pennsylvania Health System.
63. LCJOIN_221220_273.JPG: E. (Edward) Mack (1826–1882), composer. “The Sanitary Fair Grand March.” Philadelphia, 1864. U.S. Sanitary Commission Established in 1861, the United States Sanitary Commission (USSC), a civilian relief organization authorized by the U.S. government, helped to centralize the collection and efficient distribution of cash and in-kind donations from the Northern public during the Civil War. USSC activities ultimately included advising U.S. military medical authorities on proper sanitation practices in hospitals and camps, providing nurses and medical supplies, distributing food and other necessities to servicemen, and publishing useful information for the public. Many USSC branches held regional “sanitary fairs” that raised funds and increased support for the Union war effort. The most notable item auctioned at a fair was Abraham Lincoln’s donated manuscript copy of the final Emancipation Proclamation.
64. LCJOIN_221220_275.JPG: Currier & Ives. This Certifies that . . . Is a Member of . . . Company; No. . . . Fire Department. New York: Published by Currier & Ives, ca. 1877. Volunteer Firefighters Soon after firefighting equipment was introduced in the British colonies in 1731, men such as Benjamin Franklin—here writing in the Pennsylvania Gazette—sought to organize fire companies. Equipment at the time consisted of hand pumps, each filled and operated by companies of thirty to fifty young men. By the mid-nineteenth century, as equipment improved, businesses wanted standardized protection and so urban firefighters became paid professionals. The introduction of mechanized equipment permitted suburban and rural areas to develop volunteer fire companies, and even today seventy-five percent of firefighters are volunteers.
65. LCJOIN_221220_285.JPG: The American National Red Cross. Terms of Membership, n.d. American National Red Cross Clara Barton (1821–1912), famous for her accomplishments as a nurse during the Civil War, founded the American Association of the Red Cross on May 21, 1881, in Washington, D.C., after learning of the International Red Cross while visiting Europe. A group of Barton’s acquaintances and allies signed articles of incorporation, including U.S. Representative William Laurence (1819–1899), Barton’s nephew Stephen E. Barton (1849–1929), and reformer Frederick Douglass (1818–1895) in his role as Recorder of Deeds for the District. One of the original goals of the American National Red Cross—“to organize a system of National Relief and apply the same as mitigating the sufferings caused by war, pestilence, famine, and other calamities,” —still inspires Red Cross volunteers today.
66. LCJOIN_221220_289.JPG: Richard Avedon (1923–2004), photographer. Red Cross Volunteer Dottie Brier, 2001.
67. LCJOIN_221220_292.JPG: Benjamin Franklin (1706–1790). “On Protection of Towns from Fire,” Pennsylvania Gazette, February 4, 1735.
68. LCJOIN_221220_294.JPG: Massachusetts Charitable Fire Society. Sir. A Society Has Lately Been Instituted in This Town, the First Object of which is to Afford Relief to Those Who Suffer by Fire. . . . Boston, May 15, 1794.
69. LCJOIN_221220_296.JPG: Continuation of the Account of the Pennsylvania Hospital. Philadelphia: B. Franklin and D. Hall, 1761.
70. LCJOIN_221220_298.JPG: “Diagram of a Scheme for the Administration of the U.S. Sanitary Commission in the Form of an Orrery,” September 26, 1863.
71. LCJOIN_221220_301.JPG: Isaac N. Arnold (1815–1884) to Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865), Tuesday, October 13, 1863 (requests original draft of Emancipation Proclamation for benefit of North-Western Sanitary Fair).
72. LCJOIN_221220_303.JPG: American National Red Cross. Articles of Incorporation, 1881.
73. LCJOIN_221220_324.JPG: Changing America Some of the most consequential associations in American history were created with the aim of achieving fundamental change in our society. While the moral and social views of their membership varied, their sense of mission became a powerful engine for organizing members across the nation. Through time, Americans have created large, intricate networks of organizations dedicated to such social reforms as establishing racial and economic equity, addressing crises of morality and education, and meeting challenges to civil or religious liberties. Others fervently fought or sought to reverse change, regarding it as an unwelcome challenge to a social order based on exclusion. Whether making incremental or sweeping changes, impassioned Americans standing together have continually rewoven parts of the nation’s social fabric.
74. LCJOIN_221220_326.JPG: Boston Temperance Association. Constitution of the Boston Temperance Association, Adopted March 1839. Boston, 1839. American Temperance Society Founded in Boston in 1826 but national in scope, the American Temperance Society (ATS) brought together state and local temperance groups formed during a period of intense religious revival and social reform. Thousands joined temperance societies and used “moral suasion” to persuade potential adherents to abstain from alcohol and practice self-discipline. Membership in a temperance society required signing an abstinence pledge, which often included language or imagery related to protecting home and family life. By the 1850s the temperance movement successfully combined individual conversions, political pressure, and legislative measures.
75. LCJOIN_221220_337.JPG: Thomas Sinclair (approximately 1805–1881), lithographer. This is to Certify that ... Was Duly Elected a Member of the Above Society on the . . . Day of . . . 184-, . . A Certificate of Membership for Temperance Societies. Philadelphia: Published by James Porter, ca. 1841.
76. LCJOIN_221220_347.JPG: Frederick Douglass (1820–1895). “What the Black Man Wants,” speech delivered at the annual meeting of the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society at Boston, 1865.
77. LCJOIN_221220_350.JPG: The Slave’s Friend, Volume 2. New York: American Anti-Slavery Society, 1836–[38] American Anti-Slavery Society In 1833, sixty abolitionist leaders met in Philadelphia to create a national organization to bring about the immediate emancipation of enslaved persons. The American Anti-Slavery Society (AASS) produced such publications as The Slave’s Friend, a monthly pamphlet for children; issued broadsides; sponsored public lectures; and encouraged civil disobedience and boycotts of cotton and other products of slave labor. In 1841, Frederick Douglass joined AASS and often traveled and made speeches on its behalf. He delivered “What the Black Man Wants” at the annual meeting of the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society in 1865, just days before the end of the Civil War. AASS was dissolved in 1870, five years after the 13th Amendment abolishing slavery was ratified.
78. LCJOIN_221220_355.JPG: Letter from Frances Willard (1839–1898) to “My Dear Sister and Friend [Clara Barton]” regarding “saloon influences” on college students, February 15, 1898. Woman’s Christian Temperance Union The Woman’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU), founded in 1874, had become the largest women’s organization in the United States by the late nineteenth century. Frances Willard, president of the WCTU from 1879 until her death in 1898, issued a “Do Everything” appeal to women across the country. Local unions supported the temperance-related causes they believed most benefitted their communities, including women’s suffrage, prison reform, children’s temperance unions, public kindergartens, health and hygiene, homelessness, and unemployment. Even after the success of national prohibition and its later repeal in 1933, the WCTU persisted as an organization throughout the twentieth century and still has active members today.
79. LCJOIN_221220_359.JPG: Twenty-second Annual Convention of the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union of the State of New York. Rochester, New York, 1895.
80. LCJOIN_221220_361.JPG: Jane Addams (1860–1935). Twenty Years at Hull-House, with Autobiographical Notes. New York: Macmillan, 1912 (Carrie Chapman Catt’s copy). Settlement Houses/Hull-House Former schoolmates Jane Addams and Ellen Gates Starr co-founded the Hull-House settlement in Chicago in 1889 and made it into a center for Progressive Era activism. Hull-House was one of hundreds of settlement houses and neighborhood agencies that affiliated with the National Federation of Settlements in 1911. Serving primarily the urban-ethnic and immigrant poor and African Americans on a segregated basis, settlement houses functioned as community centers. They offered a wide range of cultural and social services—including day care; fresh-air programs; open-air schools; kindergartens; urban gardening; language, literacy, and citizenship classes; job training; lending libraries and art galleries; theater and music performances; playgrounds and gymnasiums—and promoted the causes of maternal and child health, trade union and industrial worker’s rights, consumer safety, factory regulations, and traditional arts and crafts.
81. LCJOIN_221220_366.JPG: Slave Market of America. New York: American Anti-Slavery Society, 1836.
82. LCJOIN_221220_378.JPG: Lewis Wickes Hine (1874–1940), photographer. Jane Addams of Hull House, Chicago, Ill., ca. 1913.
83. LCJOIN_221220_381.JPG: Bain News Service, publisher. Ellen Gates Starr [(1859–1940)], ca. 1915–1917.
84. LCJOIN_221220_386.JPG: Charles P. Schwartz 1886–1975). Lessons in Citizenship for Naturalization. Chicago: Hull-House, [191–].
85. LCJOIN_221220_396.JPG: Portrait of Mrs. Lovell White, founder, vice-president, and de facto president of the California Federation of Women’s Clubs. Reproduction. California Federation of Women’s Clubs Local women’s clubs, linked through state and national networks, galvanized middle- and upper-class women’s efforts to claim a place in civic life. The California Federation of Women’s Clubs (CFWC), founded in 1900, was one of many women’s associations throughout the country that fought to preserve places of outstanding natural beauty. Its publication Club Life documents its activities. In 1903, Laura Lyon White (1839–1916), know as Mrs. Lovell White, leader of the CFWC, organized a national petition that collected 1,400,000 signatures to preserve California’s Calaveras Grove, a stand of the largest redwoods in existence. President Theodore Roosevelt commended it to Congress in the first Presidential Special Message responding to an association of women.
86. LCJOIN_221220_399.JPG: R. P. Slater, photographer. Niagara Movement Founders, 1905 (from left to right) front row, Henry L. Baily; of Washington, D.C., Clement G. Morgan of Massachusetts, W.H.H. Hart of Washington, D.C., and B.S. Smith of Kansas; middle row, Frederick L. McGhee of Minnesota, Norris Bumstead Herndon, son of Alonzo Herndon, J. Max Barber of Illinois, W.E.B. Du Bois of Alanta, Georgia, and Robert Bonner of Massachusetts; back row, H.A. Thompson of New York, Alonzo F. Herndon of Georgia, John Hope of Georgia, and an unidentified man, possibly James R.L. Diggs. Niagara Movement In 1905, a group of African American men met at Niagara Falls to formulate a program seeking full rights for Blacks and to discuss alternatives to Booker T. Washington’s (1856–1915) racially conciliatory policies. They were led by activist, historian, and sociologist W.E.B. Du Bois (1868–1963) and William Monroe Trotter (1892–1934), a journalist and businessman. The platform they developed included demands for free speech and free press, the right to vote, equal civil rights, and educational and economic opportunity. Washington’s supporters sought to undermine the Niagara Movement, which countered by issuing this pamphlet designed to enlist male college students and recent graduates. Although the Niagarites met several times, they did not have the funds to implement their program. The NAACP later adopted most of their platform.
87. LCJOIN_221220_401.JPG: National Congress of American Indians. Program from an NCAI poetry reading in Phoenix, Arizona on September 24, 1986. National Congress of American Indians Founded in 1944 by representatives from fifty Native American tribes and tribal associations, the National Congress of American Indians (NCAI) adopted a mission to secure Native American sovereign rights, to protect cultural property and religious rights, to seek beneficial services and programs, and to educate the public about American Indian peoples and interests. Today, NCAI continues to support an extremely broad range of charities, policy innovation, advocacy and cooperation among tribal governments, as well as youth activities and cultural events, such as the poetry readings promoted in this program.
88. LCJOIN_221220_405.JPG: Betty Friedan (1921–2006), President of the National Organization for Women, Tells Reporters in the New York State Assembly Lobby of the Group’s Intention to “Put Sex into Section I of the New York Constitution,” 1967. National Organization for Women In 1966, angered by the refusal of federal Civil Rights policymakers to address sex discrimination in the workplace, a group of twenty-eight women including activists Betty Friedan (1921-2006) and Pauli Murray (1910–1985) met in Washington, D.C., to explore ways to strengthen the fight. The National Organization for Women (NOW) was the result. Founded “to take action to bring women into full participation in the mainstream of American society now,” NOW currently has hundreds of chapters and thousands of members across the nation. Through grassroots activism and highly visible mass marches and demonstrations, NOW is an active voice for myriad feminist causes, including women’s legal equality, reproductive rights, economic justice, and protection from sex- and gender-based violence.
89. LCJOIN_221220_407.JPG: Bettye Lane (1930–2012), photographer. ERA March, 1979.
90. LCJOIN_221220_408.JPG: Cover of Club Life, March 1904. (An Official Organ of California Federation of Women’s Clubs and California International Sunshine Society). San Francisco, The Clubwomen’s Guild, 1902–1906.
91. LCJOIN_221220_413.JPG: An Open Letter to College Men—The Meaning of the Niagara Movement and the Junior Niagara Movement, 1909.
92. LCJOIN_221220_415.JPG: NAACP. Platform of the National Negro Committee, 1909. National Association for the Advancement of Colored People In response to a race riot in Springfield, Illinois, an interracial group including veterans of the Niagara Movement met in 1909 to form what became the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). As codified in its founding documents, the NAACP’s goals were the abolition of segregation, discrimination, disenfranchisement, and racial violence, particularly lynching. It pursued its mission through such tactics as legal action, lobbying, peaceful protest, and publicity. Membership declined by the end of the twentieth century, but has subsequently bounced back to more than 2,200 active chapters and a half million members worldwide. Today the NAACP continues to focus on such issues as protecting voting rights, combatting employment inequality, education, health care, and criminal-justice reform.
93. LCJOIN_221220_418.JPG: Constitution and By-Laws of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, 1911.
94. LCJOIN_221220_420.JPG: National Congress of American Indians. Cultural Conservation Report of February 1986. National Congress of American Indians. Cultural Conservation Report of February 1986.
95. LCJOIN_221220_439.JPG: Building Communities Americans organize together in a variety of community, local, and nationwide associations whose most important contributions include creating an opportunity for connection among neighbors. These organizations can seem inconspicuous because they are so close to people’s daily lives. Their history is the story of countless individuals throughout the nation taking the time to grow and sustain forums for meeting the basic human need for neighborly connection, often while fostering local businesses and skills of good citizenship, and shaping the social and cultural forces that influence their children.
96. LCJOIN_221220_441.JPG: The First Board of Managers of the National Congress of Mothers: Helen Lewis, Letitia G. Stevenson, Alice M. Birney, Phoebe A. Hearst, Mrs. William L. Wilson, Frances Benjamin Johnston, Clara B. Finley, Mrs. James H. McGill, Helen Birney, Cora E. Fuller, Mary Louisa Butler and Harriet McLellan, ca. 1905. The National Parent Teacher Association The National Parent Teacher Association is the largest volunteer child advocacy organization in the U.S., with a network of millions of families, students, teachers, administrators, and business and community leaders—all dedicated to the educational success of children and the promotion of family engagement in schools. It was created in 1970 with the merger of two older associations: the National Congress of Parents and Teachers (founded in 1897) and the National Congress of Colored Parents and Teachers (founded in 1926). Continuing today with fifty-two state branches, its advocacy and legislative efforts have led to such improvements as the creation of kindergarten classes, mandatory immunization, and arts in education.
97. LCJOIN_221220_443.JPG: Carol Highsmith, photographer. Prize Winners in the Gourd Family Inside the 4-H Pavilion at the Annual Iowa State Fair in the Capital City of Des Moines, 2016. 4-H Beginning in Clark County, Iowa, in 1902, young people’s agricultural clubs developed across the Midwest, driven by concern that more should be done to integrate agricultural education into public schooling and ensure that agricultural innovation reached rural youth. In 1914, the Department of Agriculture’s Cooperative Extension Service organized these clubs into a national network under the leadership of county agricultural agents. Joining “Head, Heart, Hands, and Health,” 4-H has flourished through clubs and camps, long since expanding to engage urban and suburban youth in hands-on learning and fellowship. Music has been an essential club activity, strengthening the bonds among the millions of 4-H members for more than a century.
98. LCJOIN_221220_446.JPG: Southside Varsity Band Concert, High School Auditorium, Rockville Centre Benefit Students Loan Fund. New York: WPA Federal Art Project, Dis. 4, [1938].
99. LCJOIN_221220_448.JPG: Girl Scout sash and insignia pins, ca. 1964. Girl Scouts of the U.S.A Influenced by a Scottish organization called Girl Guides, Juliette Gordon Low (1860–1927) founded the first American branch of the group in 1912 in Savannah, Georgia. The organization became the Girl Scouts in 1913, with Low serving as its first president. Emphasizing inclusiveness, the outdoors, self-reliance, and service, the organization soon became a worldwide movement for girls. The first Girl Scout handbook in 1912 listed a total of twenty-seven proficiency badges, similar to those that appear on this sash displayed here, which included first aid, cooking, and camping, among others. Today, there are approximately 2.5 million girl and adult members worldwide.
100. LCJOIN_221220_450.JPG: Carol M. Highsmith (b. 1946), photographer. Headquarters Building of the Latino Chamber of Commerce in Pueblo, Colorado, 2015. Chambers of Commerce As early as 1768, Americans established chambers of commerce to look after the interests of the business community. Today, there are roughly 4,000 such organizations with professional staff at local, regional, state, and national levels. In recent decades, many minority communities across the nation have found their interests best served by separate chambers of commerce. The Latino community in Pueblo, Colorado, formed its own chamber of commerce in 1979. Beginning with 35 members, the association has grown to welcome 1,000 members and now serves them with workshops, seminars, networking opportunities, and scholarships.
101. LCJOIN_221220_453.JPG: Harris & Ewing, photographer. Girl Scouts, Troop #1 (Mrs. Juliette Low, Founder, right; Elenore Putsske, center; Evaline Glance, second from right), 1917.
102. LCJOIN_221220_455.JPG: Gerry Serotta, former Executive Director of the Interfaith Council of Metropolitan Washington (center), gathers with Jewish, Christian, and Muslim leaders in front of Masjid Muhammad Mosque to protest the restriction of immigration from several majority Muslim countries (the “Muslim ban”), 2016. Interfaith Council of Metropolitan Washington The Interfaith Council of Metropolitan Washington (IFC), was established in 1978 to recognize and join people of diverse faiths in an inclusive community. Over the years, IFC has helped to found the National Capital Area Food Bank and the Coalition for Homeless and Housing Organizations, among many other major efforts in the greater Washington region. Members of the organization include adherents to the Bah�’�, Buddhist, Latter-day Saints, Hindu, Jain, Jewish, Muslim, Protestant, Roman Catholic, Sikh, and Zoroastrian faiths.
103. LCJOIN_221220_458.JPG: Minnesota Sings. Cooperative Recreation Service, Inc., 1962.
104. LCJOIN_221220_460.JPG: Boy Scout Week—Nation Wide Campaign for 1,000,000 Associate Members. New York, June 2, 1919. Boy Scouts of America The Boys Scouts of America (BSA), founded in 1910 by Chicago publisher W. D. Boyce (1858-1929) was modeled on Robert Baden-Powell’s (1857-1941) Boy Scouts in Great Britain. The organization aimed to develop good citizenship, chivalrous behavior, and skill in outdoor activities in boys ages eleven to fifteen. In 1919, President Woodrow Wilson proclaimed June 8–14 as “Boy Scout Week.” He wrote this circular to parents nationwide, urging them to engage their sons in the program. In 1935, BSA established a new program for older boys called Senior Scouts, as set forth in this handbook. Today, 1.1 million boys and girls and 493,000 adult volunteers participate in BSA in 253 local councils across the nation.
105. LCJOIN_221220_483.JPG: Scouting Award Square Knot. Patch Scouts for Equality In 1978, The Boy Scouts of America (BSA) implemented a blanket ban on openly gay members and leaders, a restriction that BSA enforced for decades. Scouts for Equality was founded in 2012 to increase public awareness of BSA’s discriminatory practices and to urge BSA leaders to end the ban as quickly as possible. In 2013, the BSA voted to end the ban on gay youth in scouting and in 2015 lifted its prohibition of gay adults as leaders. Scouts for Equality created this unofficial patch, the “Inclusive Scouting Award,” to be worn by Scouts to show solidarity with LGBTQ+ people in scouting.
106. LCJOIN_221220_490.JPG: Boy Scouts of America. Adventuring for Senior Scouts. Boy Scouts of America, 1938.
107. LCJOIN_221220_492.JPG: Girl Scout Handbook. New York: Girl Scouts, Inc., 1933.
108. LCJOIN_221220_496.JPG: McKenney Hills/Carroll Knolls Civic Association News, Silver Spring, Maryland. Vol.12, Issue 1, Summer/Fall 2019. Neighborhood Civic Associations Neighborhood associations, also referred to as civic associations, date back to the 1920s. However, not until the 1970s was there a groundswell of these organizations across the country to address issues that affect local communities. Unlike homeowners associations, they are purely voluntary. The McKenney Hills–Carroll Knolls Civic Association was founded in 1992. Like many similar organizations, it offers a collective voice to express neighborhood concerns to the county jurisdiction, provides information on community events, and creates a stronger sense of neighborhood cohesion through social events and community service.
109. LCJOIN_221220_498.JPG: The Holy Bible: Containing the Old Testament and the New. Translated into the Indian Language. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Samuel Green and Marmaduke Johnson, 1663. W�pan�ak Language Reclamation Project The W�pan�ak Language Reclamation Project (WLRP) began in 1993 under the direction of Jessie Littledoe Baird (b. 1963), a linguist of Algonquian languages. This collaborative effort among the tribes of the Wampanoag Nation reclaims and revitalizes the Wampanoag language once spoken in eastern Massachusetts. Although not spoken for more than a century, the language has survived through hundreds of documents. One important resource in recovering the language is this translation of the Bible published by Puritan missionary John Eliot. Among the many programs launched by WLRP are the Mukayuhsak Weekaw (the Children’s House), a language immersion school for young children; free language classes for the Wampanoag community; and a dictionary.
110. LCJOIN_221220_501.JPG: Brochure for Wampanoag Language Reclamation Project, ca. 2018.
111. LCJOIN_221220_519.JPG: Richard Mather (1596–1669). Church-government and Church-covenant Discussed; . . . London, Printed by R. O. and G. D. for B. Allen, 1643. A Collective Statement of Purpose As English society separated from the Catholic Church, some groups, notably the Puritans, argued that individual congregations, rather than church hierarchies, were the correct source of spiritual authority. By the second half of the sixteenth century, many Puritan groups expressed this idea by creating a covenant, or a formal statement of intent to become a self-governing spiritual community. In the seventeenth century, pamphlets such as this one by Richard Mather record debates about the legitimacy of the practice then widespread in New England. This doctrine helped to spread among Americans the practice of self-organizing for common goals.
112. LCJOIN_221220_524.JPG: Cotton Mather (1663–1728). Bonifacius. An Essay upon the Good, That It Is to Be Devised and Designed, by Those Who Desire to Answer the Great End of Life, and to Do Good While They Live. Boston in New England: Printed by B. Green, 1710. Building the Social Network Massachusetts Congregationalist minister and author Cotton Mather wrote in his publication Bonifacius that Christians should always be seeking ways to do good. One of his suggestions was that people ought to gather in neighborhood associations that might keep up with the needs of people in their communities and find ways that they can support neighbors who are struggling. Benjamin Franklin, one of the important association builders of early America, said that this essay “gave me a turn of thinking that had an influence on some of the principal future events of my life.”
113. LCJOIN_221220_531.JPG: New Plymouth Colony. “Indians,” The Book of the General Laws of the Inhabitants of the Jurisdiction of New-Plimouth. Boston in New-England: Printed by Samuel Green, 1685. Native American Laws in Plymouth The inhabitants of Plymouth Colony sought to coexist with Native Americans in the earliest years of settlement, but the colony’s vision of coexistence grew to presuppose that the English had the right to exercise exclusive sovereignty over the territory they shared, employing coercive tactics to impose the colony’s religion and laws on all its inhabitants. In these laws, enacted by the Plymouth General Council, and appearing in this 1685 compilation of the laws of New Plymouth Colony, colonial authorities outlaw native religious observances, impose corporal punishment for the laws’ infringement, and seek to establish Christian oversight over all Native American public life.
114. LCJOIN_221220_545.JPG: Making Associations in Early America Making Associations in Early America As colonial Americans began to build associations, many benefitted from an emerging group of legal practices that included elections for officers, standard language for their associations’ charters and acts of incorporation, as well as rough templates for their constitutions and by-laws. They were able to share and borrow internal structures, offices, and standards for membership, as well as to imitate and develop one another’s methods of publishing their organizations’ work in periodical literature. Benjamin Franklin, like many of his time, made use of the tools that were beginning to characterize what Alexis de Tocqueville called an American “science of association.” Franklin was one of the most energetic builders of associations in colonial America, playing a founding role in the American Philosophical Society, the Library Company of Philadelphia, the University of Pennsylvania, and the Pennsylvania Hospital, as well as Philadelphia’s first fire department and its first homeowners’ insurance company. He also played a major role in promoting Freemasonry in Philadelphia and late in life became president of the Pennsylvania Abolition Society. The tools for association that Franklin used became increasingly widespread as the number and variety of civic associations increased from the late eighteenth century onward.
115. LCJOIN_221220_549.JPG: Benjamin Franklin (1706–1790). The Life of Dr. Benjamin Franklin Written by Himself. Third American edition. New York: Printed and sold by T. and J. Swords, 1794. Junto, the Spirit of Organization Benjamin Franklin penned his autobiography in the last decades of his life. A classic of the genre, it became the quintessential narrative of a self-made man finding success in the context of American colonial society. In it, Franklin describes his efforts at self-improvement, including his founding in 1727, at the age of twenty-one, of the Junto, or the Leather Apron Club. This group of twenty-one young men in his city of Philadelphia met to debate, share ideas, and assist in each other’s business interests. The Junto led to the creation of the Philadelphia Library Company and the Union Fire Company.
116. LCJOIN_221220_553.JPG: University of Pennsylvania. Additional Charter of the College, Academy, and Charity-School of Philadelphia, in Pennsylvania. Philadelphia: Printed by B. Franklin, and D. Hall, 1755. University of Pennsylvania, Obtaining a Charter Benjamin Franklin first circulated an essay in support of his plan to create an institution of higher education in Philadelphia in 1749. With the support of a number of Philadelphia’s leading citizens, Franklin opened an academic secondary school and a charity school. The governor and proprietors of the colony incorporated them in 1753. Two years later, the College of Philadelphia received its charter, creating the institution that later became the University of Pennsylvania. The charter named the organization, granted it the power to own land, and outlined the scope of its mission. A confirmatory charter of June 16, 1755, added the power to appoint a provost and professors.
117. LCJOIN_221220_558.JPG: Library Company of Philadelphia. The Charter, Laws, and Catalogue of Books, of the Library Company of Philadelphia. Philadelphia: Printed by B. Franklin and D. Hall, 1764 . Making the Rules for a Library Benjamin Franklin first proposed the creation of a subscription library in Philadelphia to fellow members of the Junto in 1731. He planned that each subscriber would pay forty shillings to join the library and a yearly contribution of ten shillings for the purchase of new books. Franklin wrote up the by-laws and asked an attorney to draft articles of agreement, essentially a contract to form the basis of the group’s activities. The Library Company printed and circulated these, as well as its catalog and charter, to its members. Today, the Library Company remains a vital center for research on the history of early America. It is one of a handful of associations that Franklin created that still exists today.
118. LCJOIN_221220_565.JPG: Transactions of the American Philosophical Society. Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society. Volume 1, 1771. Advancing Knowledge with Periodical Literature Benjamin Franklin created the American Philosophical Society (APS) to foster a community in which scientifically-inclined intellectuals from across the colonies could share ideas and discoveries. Although founded in 1743, it did not become active until 1767. By 1771, it began publishing the Transactions of the American Philosophical Society. Issued five times a year, the publication included reports of recent administrative actions and articles mostly on scientific topics. Its purpose was to publicize members’ discoveries and to keep its geographically far-flung membership apprised of its activities. Today, membership in this highly prestigious organization is by election only, and the publication continues to feature important scholarship.
119. LCJOIN_221220_571.JPG: Laws Enacted in the Second Sitting of the Seventh General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania [. . .]. An Act Incorporating the Presbyterian Congregation of Newtown in the County of Bucks. [Philadelphia]: Hall and Sellers, [1783]. Incorporating Churches Churches also drew on available tools for making associations. During the first decades of independence, many church communities, such as the Presbyterian Congregation of Newtown, Pennsylvania sought formal incorporation from state authorities. This gave the church rights similar to those of private business corporations, public utilities, and voluntary associations, among which for example was the ability to own and convey property. Typically, churches asked the state legislature to approve an act of incorporation, which stated the churches’ trustees, purpose, rights, and requirements in detail. In the 1790s, some states enacted general incorporation laws for religious organizations so that churches could organize without a special act by the legislature.
120. LCJOIN_221220_580.JPG: Tocqueville, A View from Outside Tocqueville, A View from Outside Almost two centuries ago, Alexis de Tocqueville, a French nobleman and astute observer of American society, was struck that people in the United States had a remarkable tendency to organize themselves in pursuit of shared goals. In his book Democracy in America, Tocqueville wrote, “Americans of all ages constantly unite. Not only do they have commercial and industrial associations, in which all take part, but they also have a thousand other kinds: religious, moral, grave, futile, very general and very particular, immense and very small.” Tocqueville visited the United States during 1831 and 1832 and observed that those he encountered were living through a time of rapid change, when populations were moving and building new communities, transportation and the postal service were improving, and political party organization was expanding. Influenced by these changes, Americans continued to develop their tools for association-making to meet the diversity of their goals. Americans created associations of all sizes, interests, and complexities, from small clubs with little internal order to vast national networks with structures that imitated the relationship between state and federal governments. Writing for a French audience, Tocqueville argued that citizens in a democracy rely on associations to bring them into shared concerns with their neighbors and to empower them with a voice to influence public opinion. Association-making, he claimed, was the “mother science” in a democratic society, the piece of social know-how that makes a democracy flourish.
121. LCJOIN_221220_591.JPG: Alexis de Tocqueville (1805–1859). De la d�mocratie en Am�rique. Paris: Librairie de Charles Gosselin, 1835, 1840. Democracy in America Following a period of travel in the United States during 1830–1831, Alexis de Tocqueville, a young French aristocrat, wrote his reflections on American politics and society. His book, Democracy in America, was meant to expose the success of the American political system and way of life to a French audience experiencing the difficult transition to democracy. In the first part of the book, published in 1835, Tocqueville addressed the political history of the United States and its constitutional order. In the second part, completed in 1840, he presented broader reflections on American mores and social life. His chapters touching on civic associations revealed Tocqueville’s nuanced understanding of the relationship between Americans’ habits of association and their democracy. “In democratic countries the science of association is the mother science; the progress of all the others depends on the progress of that one.”
122. LCJOIN_221220_598.JPG: Francis Bowen (1811–1890), ed. Alexis de Tocqueville (1805–1859). Democracy in America, translated by Henry Reeve (1813–1895). Second edition. Cambridge [Mass.] Sever and Francis, 1863. Tocqueville in English Democracy in America was first translated into English by Henry Reeve, a friend of Tocqueville. The author criticized Reeve for the liberties he took with the text, including a tendency to downplay positive evaluations of democracy. Reeve, for instance, omitted Tocqueville’s chapter on civic associations. American philosopher Francis Bowen amended the translation in 1862, restoring that chapter. A variety of English language editions followed, as Tocqueville’s work settled into its status as a classic of political thought—a touchstone for reflection on American society and the habits of a people who for Tocqueville balanced democratic individualism with the practice of joining together to pursue common aims.
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