Buffalo Branch History

The history of AAUW is summarized on the national website. We also have several documents which give us the history of AAUW in general and the Buffalo Branch in particular Other information is available on the AAUW-NYS website history page. Please note – many of the documents linked below are scanned in from old copies. If you have a clearer version of one of these documents, please contact us. We would love to post better quality material!

  • There were several mentions of the “Western New York” branch in the early ACA (Association of Collegiate Alumnae) papers.
  • Marion Talbot had included information about the Buffalo Branch in her overall history of AAUW in 1931. The entire book is available on “Open Library”.
  • “Achievement On The March” was a play written to help celebrate the first sixty years of the Buffalo Branch in 1950.
  • An outline of Buffalo AAUW history was written in 1950, presumably covering the years 1882-1950. The document actually ends with 1944-46 biennium. There is also a second document with the same name, but it ends in 1928 – there are some differences in the text..
  • In 1952, E. Grace Gould (who had been branch president 1948-1950) wrote a summary of AAUW’s history to that point.
  • In 1964 or thereabouts, someone wrote a membership-recruitment speech which covers much of the history up to that point.
  • Olga Lindberg wrote a play “From Carriage Block to Launching Pad” for the 75th anniversary celebration in 1965.
  • There are a couple of very brief summaries of branch activities from 1960-64 and 1978-80.
  • A group of women – Ruthe Sicherman, Lucille Peterson, Lois Dabney,and Carolyn Iadovito updated the “Carriage Block” play, resulting in “Reflections: Ninety Years of Buffalo Branch AAUW” in 1980.
  • The program from the 85th anniversary celebration in 1975 also had a small writeup by Olga Lindberg.
  • Valerie Harlan Bozarth compiled much information, including the branch history, in the Centennial celebration program-1990.
  • Ruthe Sicherman wrote a history of the booksale in the 1990’s.
  • Judy Weidemann produced a summary of the first 114 years of the branch in 2004
  • We’ve uncovered “Family Life in Early Buffalo“, outlining some early Buffalo history, written by Olga Lindberg in March, 1975
  • Judy Weidemann and Janet Vine compiled a book of stories from the first 60 years of the book sale.
  • See the video produced by member Kate Collins and her students to celebrate our 125th anniversary as a branch at the 2015 AAUW-NYS Convention. Thanks, Kate! Click HERE to view it!
  • In December 2020 some of the members updated the readers’ theater programs of earlier years. It may be viewed HERE.

We have also posted lists of our Buffalo Branch presidents and our Achievement Award winners.

We also have available many of our branch newsletters, reaching back into the mid-1980’s, which can make for fascinating reading!