Altrusa International, Atlanta Club records

Founded in Nashville in 1917 as a women's civic organization where business and professional women could meet and exchange ideas, Altrusa developed into an altruistic group. Led by Mamie L. Bass, Altrusa was established as a classified service organization. It quickly grew into a chain of national clubs, and became international in 1935.

On March 23, 1938, the Altrusa Club of Atlanta was organized. Its Presidents have included Louise Vaughn (1938-1940), Laurie K. Guy (1940-1942), Eleanor Kellow (1943), Mary Kate Duskin, (1955-1957), Cassie Dollar (1966-1967), Marian Styron (1967-1969) and Margaret Windsor (1971-1972). The Atlanta Club is part of Altrusa's District III which includes South Carolina, North Carolina, Florida and Georgia. Officers are elected at the club and district level during the annual conferences and conventions, and work with committee chairs throughout the year.

The club actively participated in a variety of ways to assist the community. It implemented programs such as the American Women's Volunteer Service Program, which entertained service men from Lawson General Hospital, and a vocational guidance series for women workers of the Bell Bomber plant. It also adopted the Irving Thomas Home for middle-aged women.

Early accomplishments for the Atlanta Club include a $1,000 contribution for nursing schools in 1946; the organization and teaching of regular classes at the Georgia Training School for Girls at Adamsville from 1949-1953; establishment of a revolving scholarship fund in 1953, which gave financial aid to a number of female students; and the creation of an annual Vocational Clinic for the Mature Woman from (1956-1965). In the 1960s and 1970s, the Atlanta club conducted career clinics at the Atlanta Girls' Club, worked once a month with recreation and social activities at Friendship House, created Villa International as temporary housing for newly arrived immigrants to Atlanta, designed and remodeled rooms at the Atlanta Women's Mission and assisted with Hillside Cottages, a treatment oriented center for emotionally disturbed children. In the late 1970s Altrusa officially adopted literacy as ongoing service.

In the 1980s and 1990s, with its increasingly global outlook, Altrusa International, Inc. expanded its projects beyond literacy and education. In 1989, Altrusa adopted a resolution to promote environmental concerns and in 1997, the Altrusa Foundation adopted Camp Safe Haven for abandoned children with HIV/AIDS.