The Organization
The National League of American Pen Women, a 501 (c)(3), not-for-profit, promotes development of the creative talents of professional women in the arts. It consists of more than 200 local branches throughout the United States and in Panama. In addition to local branches, the League also includes State Associations.
Membership in The League is comprised of Active, Associate, International Affiliate and Honorary members engaged in creative work in one or more of the three comprehensive membership classifications: Letters, Art and Music.
The League offers its members association with other creative professional women through workshops, discussion groups and lectures related to the creative process. In addition there are writing and poetry contests, art exhibitions (both juried and judged), and music composition competitions conducted at local branch, state and national levels of the organization.
National History
The National League of American Pen Women was founded in 1897. Realizing a need for an organization that would include women of the press, Marian Longfellow O'Donohue, niece of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, decided to create such an organization. Along with Margaret Sullivan Burke and Anna Sanborne Hamilton, she made plans for "bringing together women journalists, authors and illustrators for mutual benefits and the strength that comes of union."
On June 26, 1897, the three women brought together 17 writers, novelists, newspaperwomen, a teacher, a poet and an artist for the first meeting. Alice R. Morgan, an illustrator for New York publishers, designed the League insignia, the owl, symbolic of wisdom, placed in a triangle formed by a red pen, a blue pencil and a white brush, colors of the American flag.
The first National Convention was held in Washington, DC. in April 1921, and the 300 women in attendance were received by President and Mrs. Warren G Harding. Mrs. Harding was a distinguished member of The League, as was Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt.
The official League headquarters is the Pen Arts Building, built in 1895 and part of the Dupont Historical District in Washington, DC. This 20-room mansion was purchased by The League in 1951 and was entered on the National Register of Historical Sites in 1978.