Women's Educational and Industrial Union
In 1877, Dr. Harriet Clisby, one of America's first female physicians, established the Women's Educational and Industrial Union (WEIU) in response to social problems facing Boston in the late 19th century.
Two WEIU Research Department studies related to immigrant women in Boston are among the holdings of the Arthur and Elizabeth Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America, Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, Harvard University.
Materials digitized for the Immigration to the US collection
Institutional Records
Women's Educational and Industrial Union (Boston, Mass.) Dept. of Research. Research Department reports and studies, 1895-1930 (inclusive). Records, 1877-1980. Folders 48-49.
- 48. Immigrants—Protection—Service and WEIU studies, as source of supply
in domestic work, ca. 1905. - 49. Immigration—Protection—Immigrant women and girls in Boston, ca. 1905.
Full Collection Citation
Women's Educational and Industrial Union (Boston, Mass.). Records, 1877–1980 (inclusive). Arthur and Elizabeth Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America, Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, Harvard University.
Electronic Finding Aid
Women's Educational and Industrial Union (Boston, Mass.). Records, 1894–1955: A Finding Aid (B-8)
Other Resources
- Louise Marion Bosworth (1881–1982), OCP Women Working collection. Biography of WEIU researcher with links to digitized correspondence and more than 1,000 pages of Living Wage Survey Questionnaires from 1907 to 1909, all held by the Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, Harvard University.
- Women's Educational and Industrial Union, OCP Women Working, 1800-1930 collection, with links to digitized copies of 18 additional folders of the institutional records of the WEIU Research Department.
The manuscript and archival materials selected for Immigration to the US can be used for research, for the creation of class projects, or to provide a deeper context for exploring topics documented in published works. In some cases the items are drawn from larger collections at Harvard. Most of the digitized selections from collections contain a range of materials providing a broader context for understanding the subject.
