National Council On Household Employment Records

Administrative records of the National Council On Household Employment consist of minutes (1934-1942); financial records (1935-1939); membership files (1935-1939); legal documents, including model legal documents drafted by the Committee; and promotional literature about the group.

General correspondence (carbons and originals, 1928-1942) is chiefly of Lucy P. Carner (chairman of the Committee, executive, Industrial Department of the National Board, Y.W.C.A.); Mary Anderson (director, Women's Bureau, U.S. Department of Labor); Louise Stanley (chief, Bureau of Human Nutrition and Home Economics, U.S. Department of Agriculture); Amey E. Watson; Hildegard Kneeland (secretary of the Committee, Bureau of Home Economics); Anetta Dieckman (secretary, Industrial Department of Y.W.C.A.); Frank Dekker Watson (Central Committee on Household Occupations); Dorothy P. Wells (National Board, Y.W.C.A.); William P. Hill (industrial secretary, Urban League of Pittsburgh, Pa.); Mildred Taylor (Business and Industrial Department, Y.W.C.A.); Helen E. Featherstone (instructor, Frank Wiggens Trade School); Bernice Foley (industrial secretary, Y.W.C.A.); Benjamin R. Andrews (professor of Household Employment, Teachers College, Columbia University); Bertha Nienburg (assistant director, Women's Bureau, U.S. Department of Labor); Emma H. Gunther; Hazel Kyrk (associate professor, Department of Home Economics, University of Chicago); and occasional letters from the U.S. Work Projects Administration, U.S. Department of Labor (Public Employment Bureaus), National Recovery Administration, and Federal Emergency Relief Administration.

The correspondence deals with the financial situation of the National Committee; conference planning, routine administrative matters; work and problems of the Committee; the future of the National Committee; a suggested institute on labor relationships in the home to involve leading women's colleges; proposals for a voluntary agreement between employers and employees; proposals for a union or code of standardization; training of household employees; tests on general household work; reports from various states on their household employment situation and training; and personnel problems involved in household management. Additionally, the correspondence contains several letters to Eleanor Roosevelt concerning her possible chairmanship of the National Council and her subsequent refusal. Also, occasional letters from John B. Andrews (executive secretary, American Association for Labor Legislation); Frances Perkins (secretary of labor); and Anna Laylor Burdick (agent, Industrial Education, U.S. Department of Interior).

The subject files in this collection (1895-1942) document activities of a wide spectrum of organizations acting on behalf of household workers in the United States and abroad. These files include organizing literature for a domestic workers' union (1937), scripts for plays regarding household employment (1942-1943), photographs of household employees in training, notes and lectures for a course in household employment, survey data on household employment, data on various employee training courses, sample contracts, etc.

Publications (1908-1941, bulk 1935-1941) in these papers include excerpts, reprints, clippings, and writings in typescript on a wide variety of germane topics including race relations in domestic service.