Island women's group donates archives to CSI

STATEN ISLAND ADVANCE
Monday, March 31, 2003

Business and Professional Women's records document 70 years of the mundane and extraordinary

The Business and Professional Women of Staten Island purchased Addressograph supplies in 1937 for $3.59.

In 1941, the women criticized the Civil Service Commission for putting women in a lower classification than men for city jobs.

In 1942, the group fought for high school girls who were being discriminated against in pre-flight courses.

A card party in 1976 netted a profit of $581.16.

These items from the Business and Professional Women's archives were donated to the College of Staten Island this month.

The Staten Island chapter of Business and Professional Women was founded in 1936 with 55 members.

The records contain information on everything from down-to-the-cent details of routine mailings to battles for equality during the last 70 years. A collection of photographs was part of the donation.

Together, they provide a rare look into the lives of women activists in the 20th century.

"There's a kind of hole in the historiography," said Catherine Lavender, a CSI history professor who specializes in women's history in the 20th century.

There's much written about women before they obtained the right to vote in 1920 and much about them after 1960, but not in the 40 years in between, she said.

"What was kind of exciting about these papers is, this is the exact period," Ms. Lavender said.

Obtaining the archives was almost accidental. One of her graduate students, Maryann Kosovych, happens to be a member of the Business and Professional Women.

PROFESSOR STUNNED
Ms. Kosovych began working on a research paper about a year ago and the organization offered to provide the records to help her. She pitched the idea to her professor, who was stunned.

"I said 'Oh my gosh! I'd love for you to do that,'" Ms. Lavender recalled.

She later asked the group to make the donation and the records were presented to the college's Archives and Special Collections  earlier this month, which is Women's History Month.

The national celebration of Women's History Month has been taking place since 1987, when Congress issued a resolution at the request of the National Women's History Project. Congress has been issuing the resolution every year since, and the president issues an annual proclamation.

Some portions of the Business and Professional Women's records are in excellent condition. Others are yellowed with age, held together by rusting paper clips, or have water stains.

Too often, records of long-time Island organizations are stored in someone's basement or thrown out without any thought to the historical value they have, said James Kaser, coordinator of the Archives and Special Collections.

Kaser said he hoped other organizations and businesses would consider donating their records to the school. The college has a vision of becoming a repository for the documents and items containing the Island's history, he said.

WW II EFFECTS
The effect of World War II on women's roles is one of the items that caught Kaser's attention when he was evaluating the collection.

A post World War II document reads as follows: "Then the war was over -- at long last -- and women who held responsible jobs during the war realized that they would have to take concerted action to keep the gains they had made."

The collection is a "skeleton" that must be combined with records from other groups and oral histories from long-time members, Kaser said. The documents will be inventoried and put in acid free paper for preservation, he said.

The following are a few of the highlights: