History:
In 1901, Mary Harriman , a 19-year old New York City debutante with a social conscience, founded the first Junior League. Moved by the suffering she saw around her, Harriman mobilized a group of 80 other young women - hence the name, Junior League - to work to improve the squalid conditions in which immigrants were living on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. Mary Harriman's vision for improving communities by using the energy and commitment of trained volunteers caught on. The second Junior League was started in Boston, MA in 1907 and was soon followed by the founding of the Brooklyn, NY Junior League in 1910. The rest is history.

During the 1910's the Junior Leagues shifted their focus from settlement house work to social, health and educational issues that affected the community at large. The Junior League of Brooklyn successfully petitioned the Board of Education to provide free lunches in city schools. During World War I, the San Francisco Junior League formed a motor delivery service that served as a model for the nationwide Red Cross Motor Corps.

In 1921, the Association was formed to provide professional support to the Leagues. During the 1920's the Junior League of Chicago pioneered children's theater and the idea was taken up by more than 100 Leagues across the country.

Junior Leagues responded to the Depression during the 1930's by opening nutrition centers and milk stations. They operated baby clinics, day nurseries for working mothers, birth control clinics and training schools for nurses. Junior Leagues also established volunteer bureaus to recruit, train and place much-needed volunteers in the community.

During World War II, Junior League members played a major role in the war effort by chairing hundreds of war-related organizations in virtually every city where Junior Leagues operated.

In the 1950's nearly 150 Junior Leagues were involved in remedial reading centers, diagnostic testing programs and programs for gifted and challenged children. Leagues collaborated in the development of educational television and were among the first to promote quality programming for children. In 1952, the Mexico City League created a comprehensive, internationally recognized center for the blind. By the end of the decade, Junior Leagues were involved in over 300 arts projects and multiple partnerships in many cities to establish children's museums.

During the 1960's many Junior Leagues added environmental issues to their agendas. The Junior League of Toledo produced the educational film, Fate of a River, a report on the devastating effects of water pollution. Leagues also established programs addressing the education, housing, social services and employment needs of urban residents.

Throughout the 1970's the Association expanded its participation in public affairs issues, especially in the areas of child health and juvenile justice. In 1973 almost 200 Leagues worked with the National Commission on Crime and Delinquency and the US Justice Department on a four year program that sought to improve the criminal justice system.

During the 1980's Junior Leagues gained recognition for advocacy efforts to improve the nation's child welfare system. Leagues helped gain passage of the first federal legislation to address domestic violence. Leagues also developed a campaign that actively and comprehensively tackles the impact of alcohol abuse on women. The campaign, Woman to Woman, involved over 100 League communities.

In 1989, the Association was presented with the prestigious US President's Volunteer Action Award.

In the early 1990's 230 Leagues participated in a public awareness campaign to encourage early childhood immunization called Don't Wait to Vaccinate. At the end of the decade, the Leagues prepare to launch a public awareness campaign on domestic violence.

In 2000, with nearly 200,000 members in Canada, Great Britain, Mexico and the U.S., the 296 Junior Leagues of the Association of Junior Leagues International begin to plan for the Centennial celebration in 2001 of the Junior League movement.