Lilian Sharpley papers
Scope and Contents
The Lilian Sharpley Papers consist of .5 linear ft. and are primarily related to her research on the history of the YWCA's work with business and professional women. Types of materials include research notes, an oral history, photographs, and writings.
Sharpley's research on the history of the business and professional work includes an unfinished typescript history, correspondence, notes on conversations with Business and Professional program participants, copies of pertinent documents from the YWCA records, and an audiotaped oral history with Elsie West of the Business and Professional Council.
The Papers also contain a microfilm copy of Sharpley's 1944 thesis "Married Women at Work" and research notes on the unionization of national YWCA staff.
Dates of Materials
- 1923-1984
Creator
- Sharpley, Lilian (Person)
Language of Materials
English
Conditions Governing Access
The papers are open to research according to the regulations of the Sophia Smith Collection, except for the oral history. Please refer to it directly for more information on restrictions.
Conditions Governing Use
Copyright ownership of Lilian Sharpley's writings is unknown. Copyright to materials authored by persons other than Lilian Sharpley may be owned by those individuals or their heirs or assigns. For reproductions of materials that are governed by fair use as defined under U. S. Copyright Law, no permission to cite or publish is required. Researchers are responsible for determining who may hold materials' copyrights and obtaining approval from them. Researchers do not need anything further from Smith College Special Collections to move forward with their use.
Biographical / Historical
Lilian Sharpley was born on March 22, 1901 to Arthur Croft and Thomas "Tommie" Stone Sharpley. After attending the Alabama Girls Technical Institute and College for Women (now the University of Montevallo) for two years, Sharpley transferred to Auburn University in Birmingham, Alabama, as a junior in 1921. Sharpley first joined the Young Women's Christian Association at Auburn, serving as the University YWCA's president in her senior year (1922-23).
Sharpley took a job as Business and Professional program Secretary at the Baltimore, Maryland, YWCA from January 1933 through fall 1936, then moved to the national YWCA Business and Professional program staff. Between 1936 and 1944, Sharpley worked on a masters degree at Columbia while continuing her job, often part time, for the YWCA. She completed her M.A. in political science in 1944, writing her thesis on "Married Women at Work."
After World War II, the YWCA reduced and eventually eliminated its "constitutent group" work, including the Business and Professional program. Sharpley stayed with the YWCA, working as Executive Director of the Uptown Branch of the New York City YWCA (1947-49), then returning to the national staff in the Young Adult Program (1949-51). After a four-month stint as a women's affairs specialist in Germany in the summer of 1951, Sharpley returned to the national YWCA staff in Leadership Services (1952-54). She was Executive Director of the Baltimore YWCA from 1951-58.
Lilian Sharpley died in October of 1983. She is buried in Oak Hill Cemetery in Jefferson, Alabama.
Extent
0.438 linear feet (1 container)
Abstract
YWCA worker. The Lilian Sharpley Papers are primarily related to her research on the history of the YWCA's work with business and professional women. Types of materials include research files, photographs, and writings. Her research on the history of the business and professional work includes an unfinished typescript history, correspondence, notes on conversations with Business and Professional program participants, copies of pertinent documents from the YWCA records, and an audiotaped oral history with Elsie West of the Business and Professional Council. The Papers also contain a microfilm copy of Sharpley's 1944 thesis "Married Women at Work" and research notes on the unionization of national YWCA staff.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
The Lilian Sharpley Papers came to the Sophia Smith Collection with the Records of the YWCA of the U.S.A. in 2002. They were donated to the YWCA by Sharpley's friend Norma Sims in 1985.
Processing Information
Processed by Maida Goodwin, 2009
- Businesswomen -- United States -- 20th century
- Labor -- United States -- 20th century
- Labor movement
- Microforms
- Oral histories
- Research
- Sharpley, Lilian
- Theses
- Women -- Employment -- United States
- Writings
- Young Women's Christian associations
- Young Women’s Christian Association of the U.S.A.
- photographs
- Title
- Lilian Sharpley papers
- Subtitle
- Finding Aid
- Author
- Finding aid prepared by Maidia Goodwin.
- Date
- 2009
- Description rules
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
- Language of description
- English
- Script of description
- Latin
- Sponsor
- Processing of the Lilian Sharpley Papers was made possible by the generous support of the National Historical Records and Publications Commission
Revision Statements
- 07/26/2017: This resource was modified by the ArchivesSpace Preprocessor developed by the Harvard Library (https://github.com/harvard-library/archivesspace-preprocessor)
- 2017-07-26T17:48:18-04:00: This record was migrated from InMagic DB Textworks to ArchivesSpace.
- 2021-08-10: Added web access, access, and use notes to the oral history.
Repository Details
Part of the Sophia Smith Collection of Women's History Repository
