The Society of Women Engineers (SWE) is an international not-for-profit educational and service organization. Founded in 1950 and headquartered in the United States, the Society of Women Engineers is a major advocate for women in engineering and technology. SWE has over 40,000 members in nearly 100 professional sections, 300 collegiate sections, and 60 global affiliate groups throughout the world. Antecedents The SWE archives contain a series of letters from the Elsie Eaves Papers (bequeathed to the Society), which document the origins of the Society in the early 20th century. In 1919, a group of women at the University of Colorado helped establish a small community of women with an engineering or science background, called the American Society of Women Engineers and Architects. While this organization was only recognized within the campus community, it set the foundation for the development of the international Society of Women Engineers. This group included Lou Alta Melton, Hilda Counts, and Elsie Eaves. These women wrote letters to engineering schools across the nation asking for information on female engineering students and graduates. They received responses from 139 women throughout 23 universities. They also received many negative responses from schools that did not admit women into their engineering programs. From the University of North Carolina, Thorndike Saville, Associate Professor of Sanitary Engineering wrote: "I would state that we have not now, have never had, and do not expect to have in the near future, any women students registered in our engineering department." Some responses were generally supportive of women in engineering, but not of a separate society in particular. North Carolina State University's Dean Blake R Van Leer felt differently and encouraged future SWE president Katharine Stinson to be one of the first women to enroll and his daughter Maryly would later open a branch. Many of the women contacted as a result of the inquiries wrote about their support for such an organization. Besides the Hazel Quick letter from Michigan, there was a reply from Alice Goff, expressing her support of the idea of a society for women in engineering and architecture: "Undoubtedly an organization of such a nature would be of great benefit to all members, especially to those just entering the profession." The women in Michigan organized a group in 1914 called the T-Square Society. Although it was not clear if this group was a business, honorary, or social organization, it was proposed as