The Colonial Dames of America (CDA) is an American organization comprising women who descend from one or more ancestors who lived in
British North America between 1607 and 1775, and who aided the colonies in public office, in military service, or in another acceptable capacity. The CDA is listed as an approved lineage society with the
Hereditary Society Community of the United States of America.
The organization was founded in 1890, shortly before the founding of two similar societies,
The National Society of the Colonial Dames of America and the
Daughters of the American Revolution. In April 1890, Mrs. John King Van Rensselaer (Maria Denning Van Rensselaer), Mrs. John Lyon Gardiner, and Mrs. Archibald Gracie King decided to found a patriotic society of women descended from Colonial ancestry.[1]
Edith Allen Phelps, twice president of the Oklahoma Library Association, the first professional in the Library Science field in the Oklahoma City system[2]