Rotary Club of Wilmington (Delaware) records
Creation: 1914-1981Abstract
Established in 1915, the Rotary Club of Wilmington was dedicated to community service, and one of its most important functions was to provide educational support. Their records consist primarily of minutes, newsletters, and documentation on the club's student loan and scholarship programs.
Dates
- Creation: 1914-1981
Creator
- Rotary Club of Wilmington, Delaware (Organization)
Extent
5 Linear Feet
Historical Note
the Rotary Club of Wilmington was dedicated to community service, and one of its most important functions was to provide educational support. The Rotary Club of Wilmington, Delaware (RCW) was formed at a meeting of nineteen businessmen at the Hotel du Pont on December 3, 1914, and formally chartered on April 1, 1915. RCW is the 148th Rotary Club. The first Rotary Club was founded in Chicago in 1905. RCW drew its members from the small and medium-sized businesses of the city, in addition to several of the larger, multi-generational family firms. Holding weekly social luncheons, RCW was dedicated to community service, one of its most important functions was to provide educational support.
The Boy's Committee existed as early as 1920 to keep boys in grammar and high school, instead of working. The Student Loan Fund was established in 1923 and made its first college loans in the following year. It was succeeded by the Student Scholarship Fund in 1974.
Scope and Content
The records of the Rotary Club of Wilmington, Delaware consist of its constitution and by-laws, board minutes (1914-1918), committee minutes (1925-1981), membership directories, weekly newsletter, club histories, and copies of the Rotary song. The collection gives a profile of social activities among Wilmington business community members over a span of nearly seventy years.
Weekly newsletters give accounts of activities of the members and of guest speakers who addressed the weekly luncheon meetings. Of particular interest are records of RCW's student loan and scholarship programs from the 1920s onward. For later years, these consist of application forms, profiles of the recipients, and in some cases, loan collection notices.
Access restrictions
This collection is open for research.
Language of Materials
English
Subjects
Finding Aid & Administrative Information
- Title:
- Rotary Club of Wilmington (Delaware) records
- Description rules:
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
- Language of description:
- English
- Script of description:
- Latin
Repository Details
Repository Details
Part of the Manuscripts and Archives Repository
