Use Restrictions

There are no restrictions.

Access Restrictions

Collection is open to research.

Preferred Citation

The Roberta Wellford collection of Women's Rights ephemera, Collection # M 86, Special Collections and Archives, James Branch Cabell Library, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA.

Biographical / Historical

Roberta Wellford was a charter member, secretary, and director of the Equal Suffrage League of Virginia and worked to push the organization of the Virginia League of Women Voters (VLWV) in the 1920s. She participated in the World War I war effort. She did work with the YMCA for troops in Paris and in Germany. As a member of the VLWV, she actively promoted public education in Virginia and supported the League of Nations and the World Court. Wellford was a member of the Daughters of the Confederacy, the Woman's Club, and the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. She was active in the preservation of Virginia antiquities, the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, the Virginia Historical Society, and the Valentine Museum. Wellford was born in 1873, in Greenville, South Carolina and was the daughter of Maj. Philip Alexander Wellford C.S.A. and Belle Street Wellford. She died on December 28, 1956 in Richmond and is buried in Hollywood Cemetery. (Richmond Times Dispatch, 29 December 1956; Richmond News Leader, 28 December 1956)

Scope and Contents

This collection compiled by Roberta Wellford consists of 53 items of women's suffrage and civil rights ephemera from the early 20th century. Included in this assortment are 2 copies of an address by Carrie Chapman Catt before the League of Women Voters (1920); National League of Women Voters (NLWV) pamphlets, booklets, and notes from the 1921, 1922, 1923 conventions, and 4 copies of organization by-laws (n.d.); a NLWV booklet: "A Record of Four Years...1920-1924"; 2 copies of a booklet entitled "The Eight-Hour Day for Women" (1915), and 1 organization bulletin (1918) from the National Women's Trade Union League.

Arrangement

Collection is arranged alphabetically.

Subjects and Indexing Terms

• National League of Women Voters (U.S.)
• Suffragists -- Archives -- Virginia
• Wellford, Roberta, 1873-1956
• Women -- Suffrage -- United States.
• Women -- Suffrage -- Virginia.