Opening the Pocket Doors: The Women’s Committee of the Long Island Historical Society

To celebrate Women's History Month, this week's photo takes us back to 1968 for a fashion show presented by the Women's Committee of the Long Island History Society (LIHS). The Women’s Committee formed in 1959 to further the objectives of LIHS through fundraising and planning social events. Its creation was spearheaded by Maud E. Dillard, who served as its president from 1959 to 1964. Following her term, she remained actively involved with the committee until her death in 1977.

In addition to supporting the activities of LIHS, the Women’s Committee also facilitated the Children’s History Room (CHR) program. The goal of this program was to teach school children 17th century Long Island history through the use of maps, photographs, and household objects in use at that time. The Women’s Committee selected teachers for the CHR, coordinated school visits, and developed their own lessons. Each year, hundreds of public and private schools attended lectures provided by CHR educators. In 1975 alone, over 2000 children visited the CHR from schools in Brooklyn and Manhattan ([Report from the Chairman of the Children’s History Room], May 20, 1975). Most of the proceeds generated from Women’s Committee events –  including tea parties, exhibitions, benefits, and tours of historical sites – went to support the CHR. 

After nearly 20 years of operation, the Women’s Committee -- and the Children’s History Room -- were shut down due to financial hardship, staffing difficulties, and cutbacks in public school budgets that led to a lack of buses to transport children to LIHS. Attendance rates to the Children’s History Room also dropped as a result of the LIHS staff strike of 1976. Out of the 219 invitations sent to Brooklyn public schools that year, none came during the month of the strike because “public school teachers wouldn’t cross a picket line” ([Children’s History Room Report, 1976-1977], 1977). At the final meeting of the Executive Board of the Committee, members concluded that their “efforts could be better channeled and more money raised by working in new directions”([Executive Board Meeting Minutes], October 27, 1978). As a result, the committee’s resources, space, and efforts were transferred to the gift shop, which members considered a more profitable venture. 

Despite its dissolution, the Women's Committee's desire to educate Brooklyn’s youth would live on with the development of the education department in the 1980s under the institution's new name, the Brooklyn Historical Society (BHS). The education department at BHS annually served over 14,000 students, teachers, and senior citizens through a range of programs designed to inspire an active appreciation and engagement with history.

The Brooklyn Historical Society Institutional Archive Project is generously funded by the Leon Levy Foundation.

Interested in seeing more photos from CBH’s collections? Visit our online image gallery, which includes a selection of our images, or the digital collections portal at Brooklyn Public Library. We look forward to inviting you to CBH in the future to research in our entire collection of images, archives, maps, and special collections. In the meantime, please visit our resources page to search our collections. Questions? Our reference staff is available to help with your research! You can reach us at cbhreference@bklynlibrary.org.