Violet McDougall Pollard was Virginia’s Democratic National Committeewoman from 1940-1968. She was a delegate to every Democratic national convention from 1936-1968, and served on the platform committee at the 1952, 1956, 1960, and 1964 conventions. The Democratic Party series reflects her party activities in two subseries, National Politics and Virginia Politics. There is considerable overlap of topics between the subseries; National Politics also includes information on state campaigns and fund-raising, while the State Politics folders often include Virginians’ views on national matters. The series as a whole documents women’s activities and networking in the Democratic Party at the national, state, and local levels.   The National Politics subseries is arranged chronologically, with a small group of subject folders at the end. (Note that items may be filed in folders from later years because of Pollard’s habit of bundling together sequences of related correspondence and filing them as a group). The materials are primarily publications and correspondence that were sent out to all national committeewomen. Personal correspondence in the subseries is often not substantive, consisting of “It was so nice to see you,” or “I won’t be able to attend but please assign my proxy to ------.” The subseries provides a good picture of official party activities for women, and documents Pollard’s networking with other Democratic women, but not a comprehensive view of opinions and policymaking within the party. The Democratic National Committeman for Virginia for many years was E. R. Combs of Richmond. Since he and Pollard both lived in the same city, there is no correspondence between them, although there are indications that they worked very closely together. In 1948, G. Fred Switzer of Harrisonburg became Virginia’s Committeeman, and he and Pollard corresponded frequently and exchanged copies of their correspondence with other Virginia Democrats as well. The files after 1948 thus contain more discussion of issues and comments on Party officials. A major topic in the subseries is Virginia Democrats’ dissatisfaction with the national leadership over the issues of civil rights and integration. Substantive correspondence has been particularly noted in the folder descriptions. Additional correspondence on national activities and issues can be found in the Virginia Politics subseries, and in the folders of individual correspondents in Series I.   The Virginia Politics subseries is grouped into State Politics (arranged chronologically), state subject folders, Democratic Woman’s Club of Richmond (arranged chronologically), and some material on Young Democrats. Like the National Politics subseries, the Virginia Politics subseries contains publications and official mailings concerning party activities for women. However, the State Politics folders have a much higher proportion of substantive, personal correspondence to official mass mailings than do the National Politics folders. Pollard’s correspondence with other Virginia women contain comments on events and issues much more frequently than her friendly notes to and from Democratic women outside the state. The Democratic Woman’s Club files document women’s activities at the local level, in Richmond.