Ruth Hanna McCormick Simms holding up her hand clenched in a fist, standing on a stage in an auditorium. 1928. Chicago Daily News negatives collection. Chicago Historical Society. DN-0086594. bibliographic record

Of the women who have served in Congress, the Manuscript Division holds the papers of three: Illinois representative Ruth Hanna McCormick Simms; Connecticut representative Clare Boothe Luce; and Hawaii representative Patsy T. Mink.

The papers of Ruth Hanna McCormick Simms (1880-1944), part of the larger Hanna-McCormick Family collection (47,300 items; 1792-1985; bulk 1902-44) [catalog record], focus on her political activities, including her role as chair of the Women's National Executive Committee of the Republican Party, her service in the House of Representatives (1929-31), her unsuccessful Senate campaign in 1930, and her work as presidential campaign manager for Thomas E. Dewey in 1944. Her general correspondence files include a number of letters by Harriet Taylor Upton and others concerning efforts to mobilize women politically, a topic also addressed in many of Simms's speeches. Scrapbooks of newspaper clippings relate to her 1903 wedding to Medill McCormick, the women's suffrage campaign in 1914-15, her farm and personal affairs in 1925-27, and her involvement in congressional and presidential politics in the late 1920s and again in 1940. Less documentation exists on her ownership of a dairy farm designed to produce sanitary milk for invalids and children, her operation of two newspapers and a radio station, and her creation of a girls' school in New Mexico.

Clare Boothe Luce's scene description of her play The Women, ca. 1936. Manuscript Division. full item

An author and playwright, Clare Boothe Luce (1903-1987) [catalog record] served in Congress from 1943 to 1947 as a Republican representative from Connecticut. Six years later, she was appointed U.S. ambassador to Italy (1953-57), and in the 1970s and 1980s, she served on the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board. Her voluminous papers (460,000 items; 1862-1988; bulk 1930-87) document both her political career and her literary endeavors as an editor at Vanity Fair (1930-34), author of such Broadway hits as The Women (1936) and Kiss the Boys Good-bye (1938), adviser to her husband Henry Robinson Luce on publishing matters at Time Inc., World War II correspondent for Life magazine, and syndicated newspaper columnist (1948-86). The collection also reflects her personal life, her conversion to Roman Catholicism in 1946 and subsequent religious activities, and her advocacy of working women and greater public roles for women.

As a member of the House Military Affairs Committee, Luce received letters from women in the military, and her congressional and subject files reflect her interest in wartime economic and labor issues, including universal military service for men and women and the concerns of military nurses. Other files relate to child care programs, maternity and infant health care issues, women diplomats, and women in politics. Much to her dismay, Luce found herself heading a crusade against

Rep. Clare Boothe Luce visits Division. March 22, 1945. Western History/Genealogy Department, Denver Public Library. TMD-161. bibliographic record

the shortage of women's stockings in postwar America. She also became embroiled in the controversy that arose when the Daughters of the American Revolution refused to admit African Americans to Constitution Hall. Many of Luce's speeches while in Congress related to women, such as “The Role of American Women in Wartime” (1942) and “Equality of Women and Men” (1947).

Patsy T. Mink (1927-2002) [catalog record] was a vigorous and tireless advocate of women's rights, an early and vocal opponent to the Vietnam War, and a leader on issues involving education, the environment, welfare, and civil rights. She was the first woman of color and the first Asian American to serve in Congress when she was elected in 1964. She represented the people of Hawaii during two periods, the first from 1965 to 1977 and again from 1990 until her death in 2002. In between, she served in the Jimmy Carter administration as an assistant secretary of state for oceans and international, environmental, and scientific affairs (1977-78), was president of Americans for Democratic Action (1978-81), taught briefly at the University of Hawaii (1979-81), served on the Honolulu City Council (1983-87), and was an attorney in private practice (1987-90).

Patsy T. Mink, half-length portrait, facing right. [1972]. Prints and Photographs Division. LC-USZ62-115195. bibliographic record

Among her most significant achievements in Congress was her prime sponsorship of Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 prohibiting sex discrimination in federally funded educational institutions. Title IX opened the door to women's academic and athletic achievements, and Mink's contributions were recognized when Congress unanimously voted to rename Title IX the “Patsy Takemoto Mink Equal Opportunity in Education Act.” Vitally important in ensuring Title IX's success was the Women's Educational Equity Act, a companion law that Mink helped push through Congress. In the period between her congressional service, Mink was a major strategist and lobbyist for passage of the Civil Rights Restoration Act, which helped to restore the original intent of Title IX after the Supreme Court significantly limited the amendment's application. After returning to Congress, Mink actively worked to safeguard Title IX against increasing attacks.

A huge collection (935,000 items; bulk 1965-2002) of Mink's personal and congressional papers was donated to the Manuscript Division in 2003 by her family. The collection is not yet available for research use, but processing of the papers will begin shortly. Included are files from Mink's Washington, D.C., congressional office, Honolulu district office, and family residence covering her early law career, both her tenures in Congress, her work at the State Department, and her publication of the newsletter Public Reporter, a sunshine accountability sheet on Hawaii state legislators. The collection contains personal and professional correspondence, daily schedules, central legislative files, bills, issue mail, clippings, press releases, speeches, scrapbooks, and other papers covering a wide array of topics and concerns, especially Mink's interests in women's rights, child care, education, environmental issues, welfare, civil rights, freedom of information, Native Hawaiian issues, and local Hawaiian institutions and industries.

Although the division does not hold the corpus of their personal papers, several other women members of Congress are represented in division collections, although none by a substantial number of documents.

• Material on Jeannette Rankin (1880-1973) of Montana, the first woman elected to Congress, appears in the papers of Mary Church Terrell and the records of the National American Woman Suffrage Association, National Consumers' League, Suffragists Oral History Project collection, and Bancroft Library Oral History Collection.




Three women (including Senator Margaret Chase Smith) and two Boy Scouts with a truck of tin-ware collected for war use. 1941 July? Prints and Photographs Division. LC-USE6-D-010578. bibliographic record

• Information about Maine representative and senator Margaret Chase Smith (1897-1995) may be found in the papers of Florence Ellinwood Allen, William Rea Furlong, Katie Louchheim, Edgar Mowrer, and Charl Ormond Williams.



• Letters of California representative Helen Gahagan Douglas (1900-1980) are in the collections of Reinhold Niebuhr, Kermit Roosevelt, and Paul F. and Claire Ginsburg Sifton.



• A file on Ohio representative Frances Payne Bingham Bolton (1885-1977) is in the Records of the Society of Woman Geographers.



• Ruth Bryan Owen Rohde (1885-1954) correspondence may be found in the papers of Bess Furman and Laurence A. Steinhardt.



• New York congresswoman Bella Abzug (1920-1998) is represented in the Records of ERAmerica.



• The Former Members of Congress oral history collection contains the narratives of twelve women including Catherine May Bedell (b.1914), Reva Zilpha Beck Bosone (1895-1983), Marguerite Stitt Church (1892-1990), Emily Taft Douglas (b. 1899), Mary Elizabeth P. Farrington (1898-1984), Edith Green (1910-1987), Martha W. Griffiths (b. 1912), Julia Butler Hansen (1907-1988), Edna Flannery Kelly (b. 1906), Patsy T. Mink (1927-2002), Maurine Brown Neuberger (b. 1907), and Katherine Price Collier St. George (1894-1983).