Consumers' League of Kentucky Records
, 1901-1951 (Bulk: 1901-1941)
2 boxes, microfilm (1 linear ft.)
Collection number: MS 323
Collection number: MS 323
Terms of Access and Use:
The records are open for research according to the regulations of the Sophia Smith Collection without any additional restrictions.
The copyright owner of this collection is unknown. It is the responsibility of the researcher to identify and satisfy the holders of all copyrights. Permission to publish reproductions or quotations beyond "fair use" must also be obtained from the Sophia Smith Collection as owners of the physical property.
The Consumers' League of Kentucky was organized in Louisville on January 31, 1901 with the goal of using their power as consumers to improve wages and working conditions for women and children. The state organization was affiliated with the National Consumers' League, founded eleven years earlier. Ann Ainslie Halleck was the League's first president and served in that post until 1930 when Anna Hubbuch Settle succeeded her, serving until 1944. The League sought to remedy poor working and living conditions by addressing laborers' health and education, by influencing public opinion, and by introducing and supporting favorable legislation. The League also observed and verified the state's enforcement of labor laws, in particular through its support for the establishment of factory inspection offices, the reorganization of the state labor department, and the work of the Department of Industrial Relations. The League wrote its own model industrial sanitation code, founded a vocational school in Louisville, and consistently supported industrial education.
Some of the League's most important work included the establishment of a vocational school; campaigns for early Christmas shopping and shorter shopping hours; and helping to legislate compulsory education, the ten hour law for women, and the minimum wage law. The League also undertook its own investigations into the living and working conditions of women laborers. The Consumer's League of Kentucky also was involved in state and national committees. Representatives from the League served on the Advisory Board of the Commissioner of Agriculture, reorganized the State Department of Labor and were the first women labor inspectors. During World War I, Ainslie Halleck served on the Council of National Defense's Committee of Women in Industry. During the Great Depression the League also had representatives on the Women's Division of the National Recovery Project and participated in the creation of the Social Security Program. In the 1930's and 1940's, the League fought against the Equal Rights Amendment both locally and nationally.
The Consumers' League of Kentucky Records cover the period from 1901 to 1951. Types of material include histories and reports, printed materials, correspondence, and minutes. The records of the Consumers League of Kentucky consist of 1 linear foot of correspondence, memoranda, minutes, reports, reference material, and histories. The minutes reflect the overall activities of the League during its first forty years of existence as it worked to inform public opinion and lobbied for legislation. Child labor, compulsory education, working conditions, minimum wage, and social security were among the state legislative topics that the League addressed. The majority of the correspondence, generated by President Anna H. Settle, deals with the League's work in supporting Kentucky's minimum wage law (1938-41).
This collection is organized into two series:
The records are open for research according to the regulations of the Sophia Smith Collection without any additional restrictions.
The copyright owner of this collection is unknown. It is the responsibility of the researcher to identify and satisfy the holders of all copyrights. Permission to publish reproductions or quotations beyond "fair use" must also be obtained from the Sophia Smith Collection as owners of the physical property.
Please use the following format when citing materials from this collection:
Consumers' League of Kentucky Records, Sophia Smith Collection, Smith College, Northampton, Mass.
This collection is also available on microfilm; in Sophia Smith Collection and through interlibrary loan.
The records were assembled and sent to the Sophia Smith Collection, Smith College, in 1967 by Marguerite Marsh of Louisville, a League member, treasurer (1919-21), and executive secretary (1922-23).
Reprocessed in 2002 by Jessica Petocz, student assistant.