Annie Webb was born in Manchester, England, on May 5, 1861. Unable to attend university due to her sex, she received training as a teacher at a boarding school. She came to the U.S. in the early 1880s and found a job teaching at Miss Sarah Porter's School in Farmington, Connecticut. She married Edward Porritt, a political historian and journalist, in 1891. The couple had four children, Philip, Longshaw, Mary, and Marjory. Annie supported the family through teaching during the 1890s while she and her husband co-authored a history of the House of Commons. In 1901 and 1902, the family lived in England and South Africa, returning to the U.S. in 1903 and settling in Hartford, Connecticut.

Annie Porritt published articles in Outlook, the Independent, the Yale Review, American Historical Reviews, Political Science Quarterly, Forum, and many English journals. From 1910 to 1913 she was Secretary of the Connecticut Woman Suffrage Association and spoke frequently in public for women's suffrage. She was the author of many articles, pamphlets, and books, including Causes of the Revolt of the Women in England (1912), The Militant Suffrage Movement in England (1912), The Political Duties of Mothers (1912), and Votes and Babies (1912). With her husband, she was co-author of The Unreformed House of Commons (1903). Porritt also chaired the Birth Control Review editorial board and wrote articles for it; was Secretary of the American Birth Control League in the early 1920s to 1932; and founder of the Connecticut League for Birth Control. She died in a car accident in August 1932.

The Annie Gertrude Webb Porritt Papers consist of 1.75 linear feet and primarily relate to the various organizations of which she was a member. Types of materials include correspondence, Porritt's published and unpublished writings, minutes; bulletins, printed materials such as pamphlets and brochures, newsletters, notes, and conference materials.

The bulk of the papers date from 1916 to 1932. They focus on the central topics of birth control and women's suffrage, including historical sketches of both movements; materials related to Porritt's position as secretary of the American Birth Control League and as vice-president of the Hartford League of Women Voters, circa 1920s to 1932; and articles on birth control and suffrage for the Birth Control Review. Other topics include files on the Society of Friends, the Joint Committee on Delinquent Women, and lectures on social problems and parliamentary law. Notable correspondents include Alice Stone Blackwell, Mary Ware Dennett, Stella Hanau, Margaret Sanger, and Anna Howard Shaw.

This collection is organized into four series:

• I. BIOGRAPHICAL MATERIALS (1910-1976)
• II. WRITINGS (1910-1921)
• III. ORGANIZATION FILES (1906-87)
• IV. SUBJECT FILES (1898-1933)