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Faculty Wives Club Records

 Collection
Collection ID: RG 36-7A

Scope and Contents

The collection includes handbooks, monthly newsletters, scrapbooks, and other material related to the Old Dominion University Faculty Wives Club. Included in the scrapbooks are additional handbooks and Furbelows publications, photographs, song books, event programs, invitations, minutes, and obituaries, along with various newspaper articles relevant to either the club or a member of the club. Additionally, there are flyers and mailers for various social engagements. The organization is currently known as the Old Dominion University Monarch Community Alliance.

Dates

  • 1964-1986, undated

Creator

Extent

2.40 Linear Feet

Conditions Governing Access

Open to researchers without restrictions.

Conditions Governing Use

Before publishing quotations or excerpts from any materials, permission must be obtained from Special Collections and University Archives, and the holder of the copyright, if not Old Dominion University Libraries.

Biographical or Historical Information

Founded in 1950 by Virginia Rice Webb, the Faculty Wives Club served as a source of socialization for the original sixteen to twenty members. Meetings were held on Friday evenings because it was the only night the women knew they could depend on their husbands to take care of the children. Each woman would bring a dime in order to purchase refreshments. As the membership of the club grew, it quickly adapted to the needs of its members, developing interest groups such as bowling and bridge clubs, holding social events, as well as creating bylaws and handbooks as a way to govern this newly developing organization. As a young organization, the Faculty Wives Club aimed to serve the interests ODU community acting as a connector between the University and the surrounding cities of Norfolk and Virginia Beach. Town and Gown is one of the most prominent Norfolk organizations to work with the Faculty Wives Club. As a matter of fact, the Town and Gown organization developed out of the Faculty Wives Club. During the 1960s, the club began publishing a monthly newsletter, entitled Furbelows. This name, also used as the name of the club, means a showy piece of ornamentation or a loose flowing part of a garment. While the collection does not give specific details as to why the name was chosen for the title of their newsletter, one could assume word play came into account. The idea of describing themselves as an ornate group of educated women socializing together seems fitting. The Faculty Wives club was a service organization in addition to a social club. One of their philanthropic activities was the Recording Service for Center for the visually impaired located in Perry Library. The objective of this project was to provide tape recordings of books for the blind or visually impaired students attending the University. By 1979, numbers and the direction of the club began to change, thus turning the Faculty Wives Club into the new ODU Women’s Association. It was at this point in time that the group began to incorporate interest groups around women’s awareness. It was also at this time that the Women’s Association opened their membership to include female faculty members. Previous stipulations limited membership to wives of faculty and staff.  In 1990, the organization became the ODU Faculty Wives and Friends, and in 1998 a comma was added after the word Faculty to include members who teach at the university. The organization changed its name in the fall of 2015 to the Old Dominion University Monarch Community Alliance.

Note written by Sonia Yaco

Language of Materials

English

Abstract

This collection contains handbooks, flyers and scrapbooks of the Faculty Wives Club and Women's Association, a social and service club for wives of ODU faculty and staff. The organization is currently known as the Old Dominion University Monarch Community Alliance.

Source of Acquisition

Gift of Faculty Wives Club

Method of Acquisition

Gift.

Title
A Guide to the Faculty Wives Club Records
Author
Sonia Yaco
Date
04/14/2014
Description rules
Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Language of description
English
Script of description
Latin
Language of description note
Finding aid written in English.

Repository Details

Part of the ODU University Archives Repository

Contact:
3000 Perry Library
4427 Hampton Blvd.
Norfolk VA 23529 US
757-683-5350