Catt, Carrie Chapman GENERAL CORRESPONDENCE Radcliffe College [*Radcliffe College*] Nov 13, 1944 Mr. W. K. Jordan, President Radcliffe College Cambridge, Massachusetts Dear Mr. President, The suffrage movement has been a long time on the way and nowhere are those documents to be found which, together, would tell the whole story of its progress. After the suffrage was won, in the National Suffrage Headquarters, the letters, literature, and records were searched for historical material by states and that material was offered first to each state, to be placed in deposit with whatever authority seemed most interested in making careful use of it. All the more important material was disposed of in this way. The oldest literature was carefully classified and placed in libraries. Our best collection went to the Congressional Library. Some years after this was done, several colleges suddenly came forth with new proposals of gathering research material for their libraries and some expected to be the only college that would make such a proposal, but the best material had already gone to the suffrage workers in various states. Northwestern University, of Evanston, Illinois, Swarthmore College, of Philadelphia, the Iowa Historical Society and several state historical societies have collections of some importance. There is nowhere a collection of enough material to invite a satisfactory research of the history of the movement or events which are not well known and in the possession of many libraries. The National Association attempted to gather, by its own means, valuable material and place it where students interested could find it. What a college could do usefully would be to catalogue the material already placed in various libraries, so that if, at any time, any person should really desire to make a thoroughgoing research into the causes which brought the movement into existence and led it forward, it could be found. I had hoped that the Congressional Library would take this lead, as that would be the most convenient place to which such students might be invited. You suggest that I might give a thousand dollars toward the endowment of the gathering of further research material for Radcliffe. If I had a thousand dollars to give, I would much prefer to give it to this plan of cataloguing all the material, with indication of where each item could be found. When the movement began and where are questions not yet answered. I am hoping some college woman will write a thesis on that subject some day, but not before most of the material is to be found in one place. Yours very truly, CCC:hr Transcribed and reviewed by volunteers participating in the By The People project at crowd.loc.gov.