Women's Organization for National Prohibition Reform (WONPR), Connecticut Division Financial Records
Collection
Call Number: LWL MSS 24
Scope and Contents
The Women's Organization for National Prohibition Reform (WONPR), Connecticut Division Financial Records hold correspondence, donation records and acknowledgements, invoices, receipts, account books, bank records, financial reports, and other documents related to the organization's activities in the state of Connecticut.
In her capacity as treasurer of the Connecticut Division of WONPR, Annie Burr Lewis was responsible for forwarding to the national office in New York all income collected statewide. In addition, she paid the bills for setting up and running the administrative office at 1109 Chapel Street, New Haven, and for events taking place around the state. The series holds invoices and receipts covering expenses for printing posters, handbills, and window cards, renting chairs and banners for meetings, and cash for paying the “sandwich men” hired to carry pro-repeal signs at rallies and election polls. Another income stream resulted from the sale of WONPR-branded merchandise—such as cigarette boxes and matchbox cases, scarves and ties, stickers, pins, playing cards, and thimbles—which the Connecticut division produced itself or purchased from the national office, and sold to members or at rallies; examples of WONPR smoking accessories are in the Lewises’ household objects collection.
Although the collection does not contain corporate minutes or program-related internal memoranda and correspondence, the division’s financial records do provide granular documentation of the workings of a state chapter of WONPR under the direction of president Margaret Bush Clement (1899-1993) of New Haven. The records range from receipts from the maintenance of typewriters in the New Haven office, to tabulations of individual members’ contributions, to files of attendance forms generated by the series of “chain lunches” the women held in their homes throughout the state to raise interest in, and money for, WONPR. Other financial records include ledgers, reports, and bank statements, as well as a binder holding bookkeeping course lessons, which Annie Lewis likely used to train herself to keep the books. Also present are four folders of correspondence, documents, and ephemera related to the work of the Connecticut division of The Crusaders, Inc., a men's anti-prohibition organization. Hartford resident Philip Hewes (1902-1998), treasurer of the Connecticut Crusaders, gave the material to Wilmarth Lewis in April 1976. With his gift Hewes included a printed silk "Repeal" necktie he had purchased from WONPR in the early 1930s, an example of the merchandise documented in Series II above.
In her capacity as treasurer of the Connecticut Division of WONPR, Annie Burr Lewis was responsible for forwarding to the national office in New York all income collected statewide. In addition, she paid the bills for setting up and running the administrative office at 1109 Chapel Street, New Haven, and for events taking place around the state. The series holds invoices and receipts covering expenses for printing posters, handbills, and window cards, renting chairs and banners for meetings, and cash for paying the “sandwich men” hired to carry pro-repeal signs at rallies and election polls. Another income stream resulted from the sale of WONPR-branded merchandise—such as cigarette boxes and matchbox cases, scarves and ties, stickers, pins, playing cards, and thimbles—which the Connecticut division produced itself or purchased from the national office, and sold to members or at rallies; examples of WONPR smoking accessories are in the Lewises’ household objects collection.
Although the collection does not contain corporate minutes or program-related internal memoranda and correspondence, the division’s financial records do provide granular documentation of the workings of a state chapter of WONPR under the direction of president Margaret Bush Clement (1899-1993) of New Haven. The records range from receipts from the maintenance of typewriters in the New Haven office, to tabulations of individual members’ contributions, to files of attendance forms generated by the series of “chain lunches” the women held in their homes throughout the state to raise interest in, and money for, WONPR. Other financial records include ledgers, reports, and bank statements, as well as a binder holding bookkeeping course lessons, which Annie Lewis likely used to train herself to keep the books. Also present are four folders of correspondence, documents, and ephemera related to the work of the Connecticut division of The Crusaders, Inc., a men's anti-prohibition organization. Hartford resident Philip Hewes (1902-1998), treasurer of the Connecticut Crusaders, gave the material to Wilmarth Lewis in April 1976. With his gift Hewes included a printed silk "Repeal" necktie he had purchased from WONPR in the early 1930s, an example of the merchandise documented in Series II above.
Dates
- 1930 - 1934
Creator
Language of Materials
In English.
Conditions Governing Access
This material is open for research.
Conditions Governing Use
The Women's Organization for National Prohibition Reform (WONPR), Connecticut Division Financial Records is the physical property of the Lewis Walpole Library, Yale University. Literary rights, including copyright, belong to the authors or their legal heirs and assigns. For further information, consult the W. S. Lewis Librarian/Executive Director.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Bequest of Wilmarth Sheldon Lewis (Yale 1918), 1979.
Arrangement
Organized into four series: I. Correspondence and Administrative Records, 1930-1933. II. Invoices and Receipts, 1930-1933. III. Accounts and Financial Reports, 1930-1934. IV. The Crusaders, Inc., 1930-1932.
Extent
9.4 Linear Feet (12 boxes + 2 broadsides)
Catalog Record
A record for this collection is available in Orbis, the Yale University Library catalog
Persistent URL
Overview
The Women's Organization for National Prohibition Reform (WONPR), Connecticut Division Financial Records hold correspondence, donation records and acknowledgements, invoices, receipts, account books, bank records, financial reports, and other documents related to the organization's activities in the state of Connecticut. Although the records do not contain corporate minutes or program-related internal memoranda and correspondence, the division's financial records do provide granular documentation of the workings of the Connecticut chapter.
Women's Organization for National Prohibition Reform (WONPR)
The Women's Organization for National Prohibition Reform (WONPR), founded in 1929 by Pauline Morton Sabin, had as its goal the repeal of the Eighteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which established the prohibition of alcoholic beverages by declaring as illegal the production, transport, and sale of alcohol. Formed partly in response to the political corruption and flourishing organized crime connected to Prohibition, and to the hypocrisy of politicians who publicly supported Prohibition but enjoyed alcohol in private, the non-partisan volunteer association claimed 300,000 members by spring 1931 and more than 1,000,000 when the amendment was repealed in December 1933. The organization was self-supporting through dues, contributions, and fund-raising events. Their repeal message was also spread by the WONPR speakers’ bureaus which sent members out to address audiences in women’s social clubs, professional and union meetings, public rallies, and other venues.
Annie Burr Auchincloss Lewis (1902-1959)
Annie Burr Auchincloss Lewis was born in Newport, Rhode Island, on July 22, 1902, the daughter of Emma Jennings Auchincloss and Hugh Dudley Auchincloss. She attended Miss Porter's School in Farmington, Connecticut, and married Wilmarth Sheldon Lewis in New York in 1928; the couple settled in Farmington where Annie Lewis became involved in many charitable and philanthropic activities. Among the groups with which she worked was the Women's Organization for National Prohibition Reform, where she served as treasurer for Connecticut. Annie Burr Lewis died in Hartford, Connecticut, on May 9, 1959.
- Account books
- Clement, Margaret Livingston Bush, 1899-1993
- Crusaders, Inc
- Financial records
- Hewes, Philip, 1902-1998
- Lewis, Annie Burr Auchincloss, 1902-1959
- Men -- Societies and clubs
- Neckties
- Panoramas
- Prohibition -- Societies, etc.
- Prohibition -- United States
- Schutz Group Photographers (Washington, D.C.)
- Tenschert Photo Co. (Washington, D.C.)
- United States. Constitution. 18th Amendment
- Women -- Societies and clubs
- Women political activists -- United States
- Women political activists -- United States
- Women's Organization for National Prohibition Reform
- Title
- Women's Organization for National Prohibition Reform (WONPR), Connecticut Division Financial Records
- Status
- Completed
- Author
- by Sandra Markham
- Date
- 2018
- Description rules
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
- Language of description note
- Finding aid written in English.
Part of the Lewis Walpole Library Repository
Contact:
154 Main Street
P.O. Box 1408
Farmington CT 06034-1408 US
860-677-2140
860-677-6369 (Fax)
walpole@yale.edu
154 Main Street
P.O. Box 1408
Farmington CT 06034-1408 US
860-677-2140
860-677-6369 (Fax)
walpole@yale.edu