Local History Collections

(Description ID: 607478)

Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Library & Museums

Wide Awake Workers (W.A.W.)

LH - 459

Introduction

Agency History

Scope and Content

Inventory

Introduction

This collection was donated to the Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Library and Museums in 2023.

Agency History

The Wide Awake Workers (W.A.W.) club of Sandusky, Ohio formed in 1903 as a women’s social and relief organization.  It operated until at least the 1950s.  Primary activities of the club included collecting funds from members to donate to needy community organizations or fellow-members; providing meals, flowers, and social visits for ailing club members; and conducting monthly business and social meetings.  Monthly meetings were held at rotating locations, generally the home of a club member, and would last for a full day in winter months, and a half-day during busier times of year.  Typical meeting agendas would include roll call, reading the previous meeting’s minutes, conducting club business, participating in group handicrafts (quilting or other sewing activities), listening to planned entertainment (readings and recitations or musical performances), and often lavish meals.  Membership was by invitation only, the size of the club growing from its original 17 members to stay at around two dozen enrollees throughout the span covered by the collection. 

The name of the club does not appear to be connected to the “Wide-Awakes” who were part of the Republican Party’s efforts in winning the 1860 Election, nor did the Sandusky group seem to be affiliated with similarly-named clubs of “Wide-Awakes” or other “Wide-Awake Workers” who donated funds to the Christian Women’s Board of Missions throughout the late 1800s and early 1900s.  Rather, they chose their name, as a commemorative anniversary poem stated, to be “’Wide Awake’ to things to be done / They were ‘workers’ but still had plenty of fun.”

Scope and Content

This collection includes two meeting minute-books and one membership roll-book, the bulk of information spanning the years 1903-1909 and 1919-1946.  Various secretaries and membership clerks kept the books throughout the course of the club’s existence, so minutes of monthly meetings were kept with varying degrees of detail.  Many entries across both the “Meeting Minutes” and “Secretary’s Book” record location of the meeting, agenda items, individuals who provided entertainment, types of food served, amounts of donations, and handicrafts performed by the group.  The “Attendance Roll / Treasurer’s Book” lists club members and their attendance at monthly meetings for each year between 1919 and 1946, along with records of dues payments.  Loose items found in the collection include two items of poetry written for club anniversaries, thank you notes from recipients of club charitable funds, and a 1953 newspaper article describing the club’s 50^th anniversary in 1953. 

Inventory

Ac. 6121

Box 1

Folder 1: W.A.W. Meeting Minutes, 1903-1909

Folder 2: W.A.W. Secretary’s Book, 1925-1935

Folder 3: W.A.W. Attendance Roll / Treasurer’s Book, 1919-1946

Loose items (5)