AAUW Buffalo Branch
Buffalo Branch History
OUR HISTORY
A Rich History
THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION OF UNIVERSITY WOMEN
A Legacy of Education, Equity and Opportunity
AAUW, the American Association of University Women, was founded in 1881 and has quite a history!
EXPLORE OUR HISTORY
AAUW History Resources
Explore the history of AAUW and the Buffalo Branch through these historical resources.
The Buffalo Branch history presentation was presented at our membership social on July 13, 2026. We also have several documents which give us the history of AAUW in general and the Buffalo Branch in particular.
Please note: Many of the documents linked below are scanned 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!
HISTORICAL ARCHIVE
Buffalo Branch History Through the Years
1890s – 1930s
- There were several mentions of the “Western New York” branch in the early ACA (Association of Collegiate Alumnae) papers.
- Marion Talbot included information about the Buffalo Branch in her overall history of AAUW in 1931. The entire book is available on Open Library.
1950s – 1960s
- “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 the 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 from 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 brief summaries of branch activities from 1960–64 and 1978–80: view summary or view additional copy.
1970s – 1990s
- The program from the 85th anniversary celebration in 1975 also had a small writeup by Olga Lindberg.
- We’ve uncovered “Family Life in Early Buffalo”, outlining some early Buffalo history, written by Olga Lindberg in March 1975.
- 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.
- Valerie Harlan Bozarth compiled much information, including the branch history, in the Centennial celebration program in 1990.
- Ruthe Sicherman wrote a history of the book sale in the 1990s.
- Judy Weidemann and Janet Vine compiled a book of stories from the first 60 years of the book sale.
2000s – Today
- Judy Weidemann produced a summary of the first 114 years of the branch in 2004.
- View the 125th anniversary video produced by member Kate Collins and her students for the 2015 AAUW-NYS Convention. Thanks, Kate!
- In December 2020, some of the members updated the readers’ theater programs of earlier years. Read the readers’ theater script.