Information
Sheet
R Missouri Pacific Women’s Club of Poplar
Bluff, Missouri.
433 Scrapbooks, ca. 1946‑1990.
Four
folders, photocopies and photographs.
These are scrapbooks of the Missouri
Pacific Women’s Club of Poplar Bluff in Butler
County, Missouri. The club was composed of the relatives of
Missouri Pacific Railroad employees.
The scrapbooks contain newspaper clippings, photographs, minutes of
meetings, and miscellaneous material concerning the club’s activities.
The Missouri Pacific Women’s Club of
Poplar Bluff was organized in 1937. The
first meetings were held at the Y.M.C.A. building in Poplar Bluff, which was a popular meeting
spot for railroadmen off the job or between trains. Membership in the club was open to all female
family members of Missouri Pacific employees as well as women employed by the
railroad company. The objectives of the
club were to promote loyalty and good will toward the railroad, and to look
after the welfare of retirees and others in the Missouri Pacific community. The railroad cooperated with the club in
various ways such as printing annual yearbooks and providing transportation
for visits between clubs at various Missouri Pacific locations. The relationship with the railroad ended
when the Missouri Pacific was purchased by the Union Pacific in 1987. The club continues to meet at Poplar Bluff to the
present (1991).
The monthly meetings of the Poplar Bluff club were
primarily social in nature, but usually featured presentations or talks on
civic matters, current events and travel.
The club also sponsored annual dinners for retired railroaders, and
beauty contests in conjunction with the Missouri Pacific Booster Club. The Women’s Club also was involved in
charitable work at Poplar Bluff, supporting through
donations the United Fund, the Child
Concern Center,
the Cancer Fund and the United Gospel Rescue Mission.
The scrapbook “histories” of the club
largely consist of newspaper clippings and photographs. The volumes are arranged more or less chronologically,
but there is some overlapping in dates.
The earliest items are photographs of beauty contests and of the tenth
anniversary of the club, 1946‑1947.
There are also early views featuring African-American employees of the
railroad. Twenty‑five selected
photographs from the scrapbooks have been copied on 35mm black and white
film. The negatives are filed in Folder
1. The scrapbook in Folder 2 covers the
period 1957‑1990, and includes minutes of meetings from June 1984 through
December 1990. The scrapbooks in Folders
3‑4 are oversized and are filed separately. They include materials for 1959‑1968
and 1974‑1989.
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