This series contains materials not directly associated with the other series in the collection and applies more generally to the organization as a whole. This includes materials on the history of the WEA and the 1877 charter, lectures sponsored by the association, its involvement in the founding of the Chemical Laboratory for Women at MIT and the Annisquam Seaside Laboratory (the forerunner of the Marine Biological Laboratory at Woods Hole), the possibilities for the formation and degree programs of Simmons College, and the 50th anniversary meeting in 1921.

The Chemical Laboratory for Women at MIT, originally the brainchild of Ellen Swallow Richards (MIT's first female graduate and faculty member), was opened in Oct. 1876 at the request of the Woman's Education Association to the governors of MIT and with money raised by them. Professor John M. Ordway was in charge. The laboratory was fitted out at the south end of the gymnasium and later moved to a new building on Boylston Street. The lab closed in 1883 when MIT began accepting women into the regular course program.

The Annisquam Seaside Laboratory was begun as a partnership between the Woman's Education Association and the Boston Society of Natural History. Alpheus Hyatt (1838-1902), the curator of the society, served as the director of the laboratory, which opened in 1882 as a site for summer marine biology studies for both women and men. In 1888, the Annisquam Laboratory was (by vote) absorbed into what is now the Marine Biological Laboratory at Woods Hole, and another monetary donation from the WEA helped continue the work there.

The binder of materials marking the 50th anniversary of the WEA in 1921 contains mainly items related to the history of the organization. These materials were not arranged in the binder but merely held together by it, so they have been placed roughly in the order of the outline of the 50th anniversary program (in folder 12 of this box). The anniversary celebrated the many achievements of the association over time, and the papers in the binder cover such topics as the history of the WEA, the founding of Radcliffe, the Chemical Laboratory, the Annisquam Laboratory, the Household Aid Company, fellowships, and the Library Committee's work.

The WEA's meeting records consist of twelve volumes of meeting minutes. The first volume begins in 1871 with the Committee on the Better Education of Women, the early group of women gathered by Melusina Fay Peirce and Charlotte F. Buck Brooks, who came together in Dec. 1871 with the idea of forming an organization for improving the education of women. In early Jan. 1872, they voted to call themselves the Woman's Education Association, and the first meeting for public attendance was held on 16 Jan. 1872 at Wesleyan Hall on Bromfield Street in Boston. The group voted to disband at the recommendation of the Executive Committee in Nov. 1928, and the last meeting was held on 17 Jan. 1929.

This series contains twelve volumes of meeting minutes of the Executive Committee.

This series consists of meeting record volumes and loose papers created by various committees, including the Aesthetic Education Committee (museums and art appreciation), Domestic Economy Committee (mainly devoted to the Household Aid Company, which organized a local domestic help workforce), Fellowship Committee (scholarships for women in higher education), Industrial Education Committee (to institute and improve home economics teaching in the public schools), Moral and Physical Education Committee, Nursery School Committee, and Science Lessons Committee (to improve science education both in the schools and in the wider community through public lectures).

This series contains eight volumes of meeting records, two volumes of treasurer's records, and other volumes of the Library Committee, which sponsored "traveling libraries" of books and pictorial materials to assist small local libraries of limited means across the state. In 1900, the committee began publishing a list of "new books recommended for purchase" for small libraries. The Library Committee also supplied books for clergymen and prisons and foreign language books for school work. In 1894, the Library Committee was instrumental in establishing the defunct West Church in Boston as a branch library of the Boston Public Library system. The Library Committee carried on some of its work after the dissolution of the WEA until 1935.

This series consists of two boxes of printed annual reports of the WEA outlining the organization's activities, as well as additional printed material.