Scope and arrangement
The Migs Woodside papers, dating from the 1960s to 2020, recount her professional work as an employee, consultant, and a nationally-recognized expert on substance abuse, as well as her experiences as wife of the CEO of a major corporation. The bulk of the papers, spanning the 1970s to the 1990s, detail her work as founder and president of the Children of Alcoholics Foundation and consultant to the U.S. Senate while carrying out her extensive duties as the wife of a CEO. The collection also documents her work as a board member, consultant and advocate to other organizations and committees, many of which focused on substance abuse. The papers include correspondence, annual reports, journal articles and program reports, shareholder meeting notes, photographs, brochures and flyers, workbooks, information packets, newsletters, seating charts, invitations, guest lists, menus, personal notes, audio and video recordings produced by the Children of Alcoholics Foundation, announcements, events, and interviews.
The collection is arranged into three Series: Children of Alcoholics Foundation; American Can Company; and Memberships and Affiliations.
While the collection is in three Series, Woodside's correspondence and roles as a consultant, professional, advocate, and wife of a CEO often overlap. Thus, some of Woodside's correspondence interrelate across the Series.
The Migs Woodside papers are arranged in three series:
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1980s-20022.08 linear feet (5 boxes). 78.8 megabytes (60 computer files)
This series, dating from the 1980s to 2002, comprises materials related to Woodside's work as the founder and president of the Children of Alcoholics Foundation (COAF). The bulk of the materials gives an account of Woodside's work at COAF from its founding in 1982 until its affiliation with Phoenix House in 1997, and documents all of the program and projects developed by the Children of Alcoholics Foundation.
As the president of COAF, Woodside gave interviews and speeches at conferences and events, published articles, and received queries from magazines and newspapers about alcohol abuse. The series reflects Woodside's promotion of COAF and its programs through published reports, event invitations and programs, workbooks, notes and slides from Woodside's speeches, brochures and flyers, information packets, and video recordings of public service announcements, training sessions, and interviews. One of COAF's programs, an art show titled "The Images Within: A Child's View of Parental Alcoholism," which featured hundreds of drawings by children and adult children of alcoholics, is well represented through photographs, evaluation forms, notes and feedback from children, COAF-created guides for teachers and leaders, resource lists, ephemera, as well as notes from the program's timelines and tasks.
Woodside also retained correspondence between herself and various corporate executives regarding sponsorship opportunities; notices from the COAF Board of Directors regarding her salary increases; personal media notes and tips for interviews; and annotated articles related to research on alcohol addiction.
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1971-19926.29 linear feet (17 boxes)
This series, spanning from 1971 to 1992, documents the work that Woodside undertook as the wife of William S. Woodside, CEO of the American Can Company (ACC), and her influence on the company's corporate culture and social relationships. Woodside played an integral role in relations with the company's Board of Directors as well as with affiliate organizations, senior executives' wives, company employees and their spouses, and customers worldwide. The Woodsides traveled extensively, and the materials in this series chronicle corporate trips to Venezuela, Mexico, Iran, Hong Kong, Korea, Japan, Israel, India, London, and other locations, where she arranged, hosted, and attended women's programs and events for executives' wives. Correspondence, itineraries, photographs, schedules, newsletters, seating charts, invitations, guest lists, menus, and personal biographical notes about various executives and their wives thoroughly document Woodside's work planning and hosting large social events for the wives and executives of the ACC, the ACC's international subsidiaries, and the company's business partners. Some of Woodside's social events featured in the series include holiday and retirement parties for ACC executives and employees; dinner parties in honor of "Sacred Circles: Two Thousand Years of North American Indian Art," an exhibition sponsored by the ACC; and dinners for visiting executives and their wives at the 21 Club.
The series also examines Woodside's role in making ACC's corporate culture more equitable and family-friendly, and her advocacy of the Equal Rights Amendment and women's roles in the workplace. Materials include notes, correspondence, questionnaires, and meeting minutes from ACC's 1980 Task Force on Women and the Workplace, a study on working conditions and salaries of women working at the company. The series features letters Woodside wrote to the executives of ACC and the National Food Processors Association and others urging them to refrain from holding conferences and meetings in states that had not ratified the Equal Rights Amendment. Of note is a letter from Phyllis Schlafly to William S. Woodside condemning ACC and threatening a boycott of the company's products due to the company's refusal to hold meetings in states that had not ratified the ERA, as well as a letter from Senator Birch Bayh to William S. Woodside supporting the Woodsides' position on the amendment.
Present in this series are materials related to the corporate management of American Can during William S. Woodside's tenure as president, CEO, and chairman, from 1977 to 1985. Under Woodside's leadership, American Can largely divested from the can business and acquired financial services and retail firms. During this pivotal time, Migs Woodside kept correspondence, schedules, itineraries, and ephemera from ACC shareholders' meetings, the formation of ACC's Asia Pacific Advisory Council, and international and national annual meetings of the European Can Association General Assembly and the National Food Processors Association. In 1987, ACC changed its name to Primerica Corporation.
William S. Woodside also played an outsized role in focusing the philanthropic work of the American Can Foundation on issues of hunger, nutrition, and pre-college and workforce readiness. The series documents the partnership that the American Can Foundation created with Martin Luther King, Jr. High School at Lincoln Center during the 1980s through photographs, reports, and speeches from an ACC annual meeting conducted at the high school. Also included are programs, correspondence, committee meeting minutes, reports, advertisements, flyers, and brochures from the "Sacred Circles" and "Lost and Found Traditions" art exhibitions sponsored by the ACC.
The series holds interviews, tributes, and correspondence related to William S. Woodside's work as the chairman and CEO of ACC. Migs Woodside preserved video and audio interviews from and tributes to William S. Woodside's upon and after his retirement from American Can.
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1960s-20201.71 linear feet (5 boxes)
This series, dating from the 1960s to 2020, chronicles Migs Woodside's work as a consultant, employee, member, or affiliate with various organizations.
Most of the series is composed of reports on matters of alcohol addiction and drug trafficking written by Migs Woodside for the United States Senate Subcommittee on the Constitution; the United States Senate Subcommittee to Investigate Juvenile Delinquency; the United States House of Representative Select Committee on Narcotics; various New York State agencies; Brown University Center for Alcohol Studies; the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism; and other entities. Woodside maintained correspondence, forms, photographs, a performance review, notes, newspaper clippings, and identification cards from her years at Phoenix House Foundation, Daytop Village, and the City of New York Addiction Services Agency. Also present in the series are Woodside's appointment letters from various government agencies, including advisory committees of the National Institute on Alcoholism and Alcohol Abuse (NIAAA) and the Consortium on the Genetics of Alcoholism (COGA).
In addition, the series contains meeting minutes, correspondence, schedules, and other materials related to events that Woodside attended in her role as corporate spouse. This includes conventions, conferences and social events for some of the many organizations at which William S. Woodside was pivotally involved, such as the Whitney Museum of American Art (where he was president from 1985-1990), the Canadian-American Committee, the James River Corporation Board of Directors, and the Jerusalem Foundation. She also retained correspondence, schedules, lists of attendees, menus, notes, brochures, and programs from various meetings and conferences they attended together.