Constitutional documents.

The papers in this collection cover the period 1922 to 2000 with the bulk of the collection dating from the 1950s to the mid 1990s. The collection includes minutes, correspondence, annual reports and other administrative papers, clippings, biographical notes, publications, conference papers, photographs and oral histories. While most of the papers relate to the activities of the Auckland Branch, there are also papers which reflect the Branch’s relationship with other NZFUW branches and the IFUW.

The records which make up this collection were donated to the University of Auckland in 2000 and in 2002. They are part of a larger body of archival material collected over time by the Auckland Branch including a Memorial Book, MSS & Archives E-21, which was entrusted to the University Library for safe keeping in 1959, and a smaller collection of records MSS & Archives A-279 donated to the University in 1984. The material in this collection overlaps chronologically with the records in MSS & Archives A-279 and interested researchers should consult both collections.

For many years the Auckland Branch Executive Committee included the position of Branch Archivist. The Archivist was responsible for the care of the Branch archives and producing collated copies of meeting minutes, and annual reports. The Archivist also collected booklets, publications and newspaper clippings to document the history of the Branch.

Much of the material collected by the Archivist came from individual Branch members. As such, the collection embodies the role of individual members’ in the Federation as much as it is an official record of the organisation’s activities.

At times the wealth of material collected by the Branch archivist was difficult to arrange neatly into discrete series. Furthermore, the fact that different Branch members had provided the archivist with similar material meant the unsorted collection often included duplicate material. In some cases it these duplicates were disposed of but in other cases it was more appropriate to retain the duplicate material and record the name of member who had donated the material recorded in the item title.