The EAPECW had its genesis in 1910 when Amy Morris Homans, director of physical training at Wellesley College, called together women directors of physical training and heads of athletic associations in New England Colleges for an informal meeting. After four years of these gatherings, in 1915 the group officially formed as the Association of Directors of Physical Education for College Women to "discuss the problems of organization and administration of departments of physical education in colleges, and by definite cooperation, study, experiment, and research work, broaden the scope and increase the usefulness of such departments." At this time, physical education was a relatively new addition to the college curriculum and these women met to share ideas and information and collaboratively establish policies for the emerging discipline and its professionals. Membership was limited to directors of physical education in four-year accredited colleges and universities with appropriate facilities for physical education.

At annual meetings, papers and reports were presented and roundtable discussions held on a wide variety of topics to do with the administration of college departments and curriculum; status, pay, benefits, and retirement programs for physical education faculty; and various aspects of hygiene and physical and mental health including anthropometric testing of college students.

Margaret Paulding, Eastern Association
for Physical Education of College
Women Merit Award winner, 1970.

Similar associations were formed in the midwest and the west and in 1923 the regional groups voted to affiliate as the National Association of Directors of Physical Education for Women in Colleges and Universities. The EAPECW became known as the Eastern Society of that Association.

In 1941, directors of physical education in selected junior colleges were admitted to membership in the association. Physical education faculty and staff who were not department directors were permitted to join as associate members in 1946 and as full voting members in 1948. The name of the organization was changed to Eastern Association for Physical Education of College Women at that time.

With the expansion of its membership, the EAPECW entered a second stage. Now part of an established profession, the Association ran conferences that focused less on departmental organization and more on the latest trends in physical education. The Association ran a speakers bureau and job referral service through its Personnel Committee and wrote a promotional brochure to interest high school students in the profession.

The 1960s and 1970s brought many changes to physical education. Women's participation came to be considered appropriate in an ever-expanding array of sports, college physical education requirements were abandoned along with many other academic requirements, men's and women's physical education departments merged, athletics (particularly intercollegiate athletics) saw increased emphasis in the curriculum, and the passage of Title IX set the stage for full participation of women in college athletics. All of these changes meant not only many more options for women in sport, but many more organizations for women physical educators. As physical educators became more specialized, their interests and energy shifted toward more specialized organizations and EAPECW's membership declined.

After lengthy discussion and study, as well as a needs assessment survey by a professional consulting firm, the EAPECW voted to dissolve at its June 1992 meeting "in order to preserve the history and integrity of EAPECW...rather than let it fade to insignificance."

As its legacy, the EAPECW established an endowment to support the Margaret Paulding Lecture Series. The Paulding lecture is given each year at the convention of the Eastern District Association (EDA) of the American Alliance for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance (AAHPERD) by a woman in higher education who has made a strong contribution to the physical education profession.

The records of the EAPECW provide substantial information about the establishment and development of physical education as a profession and as an academic discipline through most of the twentieth century.

The records consist of 13 linear feet of correspondence; minutes; reports; publications; programs; membership, committee, and officer lists; memorabilia; photographs and other papers relating to the history and activities of the organization. They date from circa 1910 to 1995 with the bulk of the materials from the period between the late 1950s and 1992 when the Association voted to disband. Significant information about the organization's early years is available in the records of meetings and conferences (in Series VIII), in the files on membership eligibility (in Series V), in files of some committees (in Series VI--see especially Expectancy Standards Commmittee, Research and Studies Committee, and Test Committee), and in newsletters (in Series X). Much more detailed information about the organization's prime years and its gradual decline is available throughout the records. The decision to disband is chronicled primarily in the records of the Executive Board (Series III).

Related materials can be found in the Sophia Smith Collection in the records of the Eastern Association of Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (EAIAW), the Massachusetts Association of Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (MAIAW), the Physical Education Collection, and in the Smith College Archives in the Dorothy Sears Ainsworth Papers, the Senda Berenson Papers, and in the Records of the Smith College Department of Physical Education.

This collection is organized into nine series:

• I. Historical Materials and Memorabilia
• II. Administration
• III. Executive Board
• IV. Financial Records
• V. Membership Records
• VI. Committee Records
• VII. Programs
• IX. Affiliations
• X. Publications
• Oversize Materials