Adams, Wilhelmina Papers (Additions)

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Creator

Adams, Wilhelmina F. (Wilhelmina Ferris), d. 1987.

Location

Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books Division

Extent

• 4 lin. ft.

Access Restrictions

Membership application forms of the National Associationof Negro Business and Professional Women's Clubs restricted.

Scope/Contents Notes

The Wilhelmina F. Adams Papers (Additions) consist principally of her files chronicling her work as a civic leader primarily with New York Democratic club activities,the National Association of Negro Business and Professional Women's Clubs (NANBPWC) and the National Council of Negro Women. These files contain correspondence, newsletters, programs, brochures, minutes of meetings, official memoranda, reports, invitations, andnews clippings. Files of the NANBPWC also include membership records, directories of officers, handouts, annual conference programs, and the constitution. Scrapbooks of the NANBPWC document annual events such as contests, parties and conferences from 1968-1972, and contain programs, invitations, certificates, handmade illustrations, newsletters, correspondence, and news clippings.

Files from various Democratic clubs concern election campaigns and a variety of political issues. The Tioga Democratic Club and United Democratic Club are representedin Adams' files. Among the many other organizations included in this collection are: Aeolian Ladies of Charity,Friends of Liberian Youth, Harlem Hospital Chaplaincy Committee, Manhattan Borough Community Planning Board, National Association for the Advancement of Colored People,Order of Eastern Star, United Negro College Fund, and Women's City Club of New York.

Personal papers include miscellaneous personal and business correspondence, address books and calendars she maintained, programs and marriage and death notices.

Biographical/Historical Note

Wilhelmina F. Adams was a political and civil rights activist for African Americans and women in New York City. She was the first African American woman to be elected adelegate to the Democratic National Convention (1944) and was also the first African American woman to be elected co-leader of the current 17th Assembly District. Adams was active in numerous organizations, including being a life member and president of the National Council of Negro Women from 1952-1954, the National Association of Businessand Professional Women and its New York Chapter, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People,and the New York Urban League. She was the founder and president of the Aeolian Ladies of Charity, an organization devoted to assisting the aged at Christmas and other seasons of the year, president of the Utopia Neighborhood Club which was concerned with small children,and was active in the Friends of the Northside Center which was a child guidance center aimed at preventing delinquency and maladjustment. Adams' love of music and the arts was also manifested in her membership in arts organizations. Her year of birth is uncertain; she was born between 1900 and 1910.

Controlled Access Terms

• Adams, Wilhelmina F. (Wilhelmina Ferris), d. 1987.
• Aeolian Ladies of Charity.
• Friends of Liberian Youth.
• Harlem Hospital Center. Chaplaincy Committee.
• Manhattan (New York, N.Y.). Community Planning Board.
• National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.
• Democratic Party (N.Y.)
• National Association of Negro Business and Professional Women's Clubs.
• National Council of Negro Women.
• Order of the Eastern Star.
• United Negro College Fund.
• Women's City Club of New York.
• Tioga Democratic Club (New York, N.Y.)
• United Democratic Club (New York (N.Y.)
• Women -- Political activity -- New York (State) -- New York.
• African American women -- New York (State) -- New York -- Political activity.
• African American women -- New York (State) -- New York -- Societies and clubs.
• African Americans -- New York (State) -- New York -- Societies, etc.
• African Americans -- New York (State) -- New York -- Economic conditions.
• African Americans -- New York (State) -- New York -- Charities.
• Hospitals -- New York (State) -- New York.
• Clubs -- New York (State) -- New York.
• Harlem (New York, N.Y.)
• New York (N.Y.) -- Social conditions.
• New York (N.Y.) -- Politics and government -- 1898-1951.
• Scrapbooks.

Additional Creator Name

• Schomburg NEH Automated Access to Special Collections Project.