Collection UQFL438 - Women's Christian Temperance Union of Queensland Records

Identity area

Reference code

UQFL438

Title

Women's Christian Temperance Union of Queensland Records

Date(s)

  • 1886-2005 (Creation)

Level of description

Collection

Extent and medium

42 boxes, 2 parcels.

Context area

Name of creator

(1885-)

Administrative history

The first local branch of the WCTU was formed in Sydney in 1882. The movement did not begin to grow in Australia until 1885 when Mary Leavitt, the first world missionary of the American WCTU, toured the colonies and helped found ten new branches, five in Queensland alone. The following year the Queensland branches came together to establish the WCTUQ. Conservative in outlook, the Union’s primary mission was to promote total abstinence from alcohol, but it also campaigned on a range of other issues relating to the social position of women, most notably female suffrage, which it saw as beneficial to the entire community and as a means to further its own agenda through women’s power at the ballot box. The WCTUQ played a significant role in Queensland social reform politics throughout the 1890s and in the leadup to the winning of (white) female suffrage in Queensland in 1905. Although it remained in existence throughout the twentieth century, the era prior to WW1 marked the highpoint of the WCTUQ’s influence in Queensland.

Archival history

Collection previously titled as: Records, 1886-2005
Collection alternatively titled as: Women's Christian Temperance Union of Queensland Collection.

Immediate source of acquisition or transfer

Content and structure area

Scope and content

Minutes, correspondence, membership rolls, reports, leaflets, scrapbooks, photographs, ephemera created or collected by the Women's Christian Temperance Union of Queensland (WCTUQ).

Appraisal, destruction and scheduling

Accruals

System of arrangement

The intellectual arrangement and physical arrangement of this collection differ. Please check box listing at the end of the finding aid document.

Arranged into series in the PDF Finding aid:
Series A: Executive Minutes
Series B: Local Branch Minutes
Series C: State Convention Minutes and Roll Books, Organising Board Minutes
Series D: State and Union Correspondence and Affiliation Correspondence
Series E: Committee Account Books, Other Various Account Books and Account and Financial Statements
Series F: Other Committee Minutes, Reports and Other Material
Series G: Literature Resource Books
Series H: Miscellaneous Roll Books
Series I: Temperance Recitations and Dialogues
Series J: Scrapbooks and Newspaper Cuttings
Series K: Miscellaneous Material
Series L: Photographs

Conditions of access and use area

Conditions governing access

Unrestricted access.

Conditions governing reproduction

Copyright varies.

Language of material

  • English

Script of material

Language and script notes

Physical characteristics and technical requirements

Finding aids

Uploaded finding aid

Allied materials area

Existence and location of originals

Existence and location of copies

Related units of description

Related descriptions

Publication note

Material from this collection has been cited in:

Jordan D (2024) ‘The Men Are Asked to Leave: Coalescence and Women’s Autonomy, 1894’, in Australian Women’s Justice, Routledge, doi:10.4324/9781003384298-6.

Notes area

Alternative identifier(s)

Alma MMS ID

991009458259703131

Access points

Place access points

Genre access points

Description control area

Description identifier

Institution identifier

Rules and/or conventions used

Status

Migrated

Level of detail

Dates of creation revision deletion

Revised, Kymberley Doyle, 19-Aug-2024.
Migrated from LMS: April 2019, P.A.

Language(s)

Script(s)

Sources

Accession area