The League of Women Voters is a national, non-partisan and grassroots organization striving to expand voting rights and get all people mobilized to vote. The League was founded shortly after the passage of the nineteenth amendment granting women the vote.
In 1921, the Women’s Suffrage League of Maryland affiliated with the recently formed League of Women Voters of the United States. The non-partisan organization has, throughout its history, focused on a number of causes helping to shape American history. In particular, the League has been interested in elections and voting, women’s rights, education, child labor, collective bargaining, food and drug legislation, housing, the Poll Tax, civil rights, and the Equal Rights Amendment. In addition to these concerns, the local Leagues have been interested in local issues, including redistricting and reapportionment, state taxes and expenditures, the Maryland constitution, and state and local election laws, balanced local development, improvement of health services, and the establishment of juvenile correctional facilities, busing, urban planning and zoning, transportation, housing, public health, public safety, voter services, and environmental quality.
These records cover the years 1910 to 2014. Records include correspondence, memoranda, reports, minutes, newsletters, printed material, and newspaper clippings. The collection consists of minutes, annual reports, correspondence, publications, and newspaper clippings. Major topics represented in the files include busing, planning and zoning, transportation, housing, public health, public safety, charter government, voter services, and reapportionment. There is also material related to the League’s withdrawal from sponsorship of the 1988 presidential debate.
Explore the Maryland League of Women Voters collection finding aid
Explore the Prince George’s County League of Women Voters collection finding aid
Visit the current gallery exhibition Get Out the Vote: Suffrage and Disenfranchisement in America to learn more about the League of Women Voters and voting rights in America.
On display now through December 2022. Gallery open Monday – Friday 10am – 4pm.
What is a finding aid?
A finding aid is a description of the contents of a collection, similar to a table of contents you would find in a book. A collection’s contents are often grouped logically and describe the group of items within each folder. You rarely find descriptions of the individual items within collections. Finding aids also contain information about the size and scope of collections. Additional contextual information may also be included.
Much of this text was adapted from the finding aids in UMD Libraries’ Archival Collections.
Special Collections & University Archives 