History
The first Junior League, the Junior League for the Promotion of the Settlement Movement (now the Junior League of the City of New York, Inc. also called the New York Junior League) was founded in 1901 in New York City by Mary Harriman, daughter of railroad executive Edward H. Harriman. Inspired by a lecture on settlement movements that chronicled the works of social reformers such as Lillian Wald and Jane Addams, Mary organized others to become involved in settlement work. The organization's first project was working at the College Settlement on Rivington Street in New York City’s Lower East Side. The League was soon emulated, and by 1921, 30 Leagues joined to form the national association.
In 1921, after serving as New York city's Junior League president from 1907–1910 Dorothy Payne Whitney became the first president of the Association of Junior Leagues International Inc., operating as the umbrella organization for all Junior Leagues worldwide. There are currently 293 Leagues in Canada, the United States, Mexico and the UK. The first League outside the United States was in Montreal, Canada.
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“In the history of the United States, there is no continuity at all. You can cut through it anywhere and nothing on this side of the cut has anything to do with anything on the other side.”
—Henry Brooks Adams (1838–1918)