Call Number: 1988.018
Extent: 1.25 Linear feet, in three manuscript boxes.
The Women’s Exchange of Brooklyn records date from 1863 to 1964 (bulk 1920 to 1949) and measure 1.25 linear feet. Materials in the collection include correspondence, reports, financial statements, minutes, clippings, ephemera, and a constitution. The collection documents the work of the Women’s Exchange in providing a marketplace for members, decisions related to its business affairs, activities and community service planned by members, and the administration of the sewing school. Names of members are recorded in meeting minutes, as well as the sewing school’s graduation lists.
The collection is arranged in four series: Minutes; Finances, reports, and legal documents; Correspondence; and Public relations, development, and ephemera.
The Women’s Exchange of Brooklyn was founded in 1854 as the Brooklyn Female Employment Society. Like its predecessors in other U.S. and European cities, the Society was a labor cooperative that furnished employment to women whose circumstances–whether physical or economic–impelled them to work from home. The Exchange instructed women in hand crafts and provided a marketplace for selling their work. In 1923, the Exchange merged with the Brooklyn Decorative Art Society and Women’s Exchange to become The Needlework Society and Exchange of Brooklyn. The current name was adopted 1936. In its early days, the Women’s Exchange established sewing schools to train women in sewing skills and techniques. Later, the Exchange opened a storefront in Brooklyn Heights to sell hand-crafted wares on consignment, including knitted goods, children’s apparel, baked goods, and handmade toys. The Women’s Exchange of Brooklyn remains, as of 2011, the oldest continuously-operating member of the Federation of Women’s Exchanges in the United States. Its storefront is located at 55 Pierrepont Street in Brooklyn Heights.
Names:
- Brooklyn Female Employment Society
- Needlework Society and Exchange
- Woman’s Work Exchange and Decorative Art Society (Brooklyn, New York, N.Y.)
- Women’s Exchange of Brooklyn
Places:
- Brooklyn Heights (New York, N.Y.)
Subjects:
- Decorative arts
- Needleworkers — New York (State) — Kings County
- Women — Employment — New York (State) — Kings County
- Women — Societies and clubs
Types of material:
- Administrative records
- Annual reports
- Correspondence
- Minutes
- Printed ephemera
- Reports