Title and statement of responsibility area
Title proper
General material designation
Parallel title
Other title information
Title statements of responsibility
Title notes
Level of description
Repository
Reference code
Edition area
Edition statement
Edition statement of responsibility
Class of material specific details area
Statement of scale (cartographic)
Statement of projection (cartographic)
Statement of coordinates (cartographic)
Statement of scale (architectural)
Issuing jurisdiction and denomination (philatelic)
Dates of creation area
Date(s)
-
1927-1993 (Creation)
Physical description area
Physical description
19 v. of textual records and graphic material
Publisher's series area
Title proper of publisher's series
Parallel titles of publisher's series
Other title information of publisher's series
Statement of responsibility relating to publisher's series
Numbering within publisher's series
Note on publisher's series
Archival description area
Name of creator
Administrative history
The Classic Women’s Institute, based in Stratford, Ontario, held its first meeting on September 14, 1927. The first president was Miss Elizabeth Quinlan. The first secretary was Mrs. Earl Vernor. The Institute disbanded and held its final meeting on April 8, 1993. The first Women’s Institute in Ontario was established in 1897 by Adelaide Hunter Hoodless in Stoney Creek. Farmers’ Institutes had been established in Ontario in the 1890s to educate men about agricultural practices. The Women’s Institutes focussed on home economics and cultural activities. In 1919, the Federated Women’s Institutes of Canada was formed at a meeting of provincial representatives as a co-ordinating body. The Federated Women’s Institutes of Ontario was founded the same year. The Ontario government created an Institutes Branch in the Department of Agriculture in 1894 to supervise and regulate the Farmers Institutes. By 1920, the Farmers’ Institutes had disbanded and the branch concerned itself with directing Women’s Institutes. It was called the Women’s Institute branch, the Home Economics Branch and the Rural Organizations and Services Branch at different periods in its history. The Branch offered course in home economics in partnership with the institutes. It also supported the activities of the Federated Women’s Institutes of Ontario. In 1925, the Federated Women’s Institutes of Ontario established a standing committee for historical research and current events. In the mid-1930s, the wife of Lord Tweedsmuir, Governor General of Canada from 1935-1940, suggested that all Women’s Institutes create local history books. These became known as the Tweedsmuir histories.
Custodial history
The records of the Classic Women’s Institute were generally in the possession of the secretary of the Institute until they were donated to the Stratford-Perth Archives.
Scope and content
Fonds consists of records of the Classic Women’s Institute including minute books and scrapbooks. Material in the scrapbooks includes programmes, photographs and newspaper clippings. Fonds also includes the Classic Women’s Institute Tweedsmuir Histories. Fonds is comprised of the following series: 1. Minutes 2. Tweedsmuir Histories 3. Scrapbooks
Notes area
Physical condition
Immediate source of acquisition
Records were donated to the Stratford-Perth Archives by members of the Classic Women’s Institute.
Arrangement
Language of material
Script of material
Location of originals
Availability of other formats
Restrictions on access
Open
Terms governing use, reproduction, and publication
Copyright held by creator. These materials cannot be published without permission of the copyright holder.
Finding aids
None