"Let the people know, make the people care and help the people act" was the motto adopted by the 38 women who founded the League of Women Voters of Rensselaer County (LWVRC) in October 1939. The first president of the LWVRC was Beulah Bailey Thull (1891-1975), who was one of Governor Franklin D. Roosevelt's speechwriters at the time. In addition to helping establish the Rensselaer County League, Thull helped establish the Women's Legislative Forum and the Civil Service Employees Association (CSEA) (serving as the latter's first president). Thull did not finish out her term with the LWVRC and was replaced by Catherine Benson. Though she was not originally from New York, Benson became an important leader in the early years of the LWVRC and in the New York State suffrage movement. World War I interrupted Benson's plans to become a doctor and instead she enrolled in Bellevue Hospital's nurses training course in New York City. By the time she became a nurse, the war ended. She married a doctor who set up a practice in Troy, NY. During the 1940s and 1950s, Benson became the Director of Nurses at Leonard Hospital in Troy.

A month after its founding, the LWVRC drafted a letter to Mr. Raymond T. Neitzel, President of Troy's Chamber of Commerce, stating that "the League has but one purpose - 'Better Government.'" At the time of the LWVRC's founding, the Troy Chamber of Commerce called for a survey of Troy's budget. The LWVRC saw an opportunity for political involvement at the local level and took it. The letter to Neitzel resulted in a luncheon hosted by the LWVRC, whereby the Mayor of Troy "appointed a citizens committee to sit in with him on the preparation of the budget." There were 30 people on the committee including the LWVRC's president. The LWVRC produced a résumé of Troy's budget and of the comparative cost of government in Troy, along with a chart showing the necessary factors of a good budget. "This is the first time that such a thing had ever happened in Troy as the budget was usually a secret chamber act." Thus began the LWVRC's non-partisan involvement in local government.

By 1944, the LWVRC began plans to expand both its membership and scope of activities. It did this by establishing a headquarters and developing committees, including finance, public relations, programming, research, government, foreign relations, and training. In the same year, the LWVRC formed a coalition with the Business and Professional Women's Club, the YWCA, and the Junior League, creating the Women's Joint Education Committee. "Its purpose was to secure an enlarged Board of Education in Troy with one or more women members, with the hope of improving the school system." The committee quickly learned the ins and outs of the politics of education, suggesting areas for change and/or expansion. As a result, the LWVRC found a niche in public education. In December of 1955, Trojans, Know Your Schools, was published. It "presented concise, non-partisan information concerning the public schools of the Troy District." As a result of the publication, board of education meetings were opened to the public. Know Your Schools involved a survey of the school boards, finances, and teachers. The first decade of the LWVRC was marked a success. The chapter began the Know Your County series and had a regular monthly radio program on WTRY.

The LWVRC's activities expanded in the 1950s. Know Your Town became one of the main local projects, surveying county departments and chronicling the county's history for its citizens. The state League published a similar booklet for New York State, entitled Know Your State. Know Your Town was published in 1950 and gained a great deal of accolades (see clippings in Series 1, Box 1, Folder 18). 1950 was also the first year the LWVRC published election guides, which provided information to citizens about candidates and amendments that were up for a vote in upcoming government and school elections. The LWVRC then expanded its scope by speaking out about national and international issues. In 1953, the LWVRC participated in United Nations Day and in 1954 it came out against the Bricker Amendment, which would "define and limit the President's treaty-making powers." The LWVRC believed that such an amendment was "an impediment to the proper conduct of foreign affairs, a disguised isolationist effort to reverse and prevent cooperation in international issues, a violation of the expressed convictions of the framers of the Constitution, and an expression of distrust of both the President and the Senate." On state matters, the LWVRC pressed New York Governor Thomas E. Dewey to pass legislation for permanent personal registration, which, to the organization's dismay, Dewey vetoed in 1955. The latter part of the 1950s saw the League involved in conservation, court reform, county probation, world trade, charter reform, municipal government, equal pay for equal work, improvement of the primary and electoral systems, regulation of child labor laws, urban renewal and the implications of Sputnik. This did not replace past agenda items like the Troy school budget or permanent personal registration. The LWVRC merely continued to expand its scope on various levels.

The prosopography of the LWVRC at the end of the decade was typical of many women's groups in the country. The median age of the members was 45, 43 for the presidents. 50% of the members were college graduates. 82% of the members were married, with a median family income of $10,000. Only 6% of the membership had incomes below $5000.

In the 1960s, the LWVRC continued to publish its Bulletin, Facts for Voters, and Voters Guides. Also civil rights began to affect the LWVRC's activities in the second half of the decade. However, the documents do not suggest any major activity within the Civil Rights Movement or Women's Rights Movement per se. According to the LWVRC's 1964 Annual Report, the League of Women Voters of Rensselaer County members participated in an NAACP survey (survey of what is unclear). In addition, two members served on different committees of the Troy Area Committee for Human Rights in order to prepare voters service materials about local elections for inner-city voters. LWVRC members also conducted a follow-up study of sub-standard rural and urban housing with a slide show that was shown to the community.

In 1965, the LWVRC ran the "Voters Mailbag" column of the Troy Record. That same year, the local LWVRC took on a national item project - development of human resources - in order to parallel the national League's agenda. Development of Human Resources explored the problems of the poor, automation, employment and education. Out of this project, the LWVRC published Up the Ladder (see Series 2) and Day Care: Community Challenge and Responsibility (see Series 2). Up the Ladder was partially subsidized by the United Way and thus distributed to their participating social agencies. Day Care: Community Challenge and Responsibility was the result of a Community Day Care Conference, which featured panel discussions by day care providers, educators and public officials. As a result, the County Day Care Council was established and Day Care, a citizens' guide for setting up day care centers, was published.

In the early 1970s, the LWVRC was diligently fundraising, working on the county and city charters, land use and health care and perfecting their regular agenda items such as voter registration and school initiatives. Its members were very supportive of school lunch programs in Troy city schools. They also added the Know Your Schools column of the Times Record. They continued their concern on national and international levels. For example, the LWVRC supported "a fair and thorough impeachment inquiry of President Nixon by the House Judiciary Committee." In addition, members supported the Equal Rights Amendment, which was eventually defeated. The LWVRC was also beginning to deal with the issue of allowing men into the organization as full voting members. The issue was contentious on a national level, but the Rensselaer County chapter appeared to be more flexible about the issue.

By 1979, the League of Women Voters of Rensselaer County celebrated its 40th anniversary. It encouraged informed voter participation via publications like "Facts for Voters," "Newcomers Flyers," and "Civic Information Sheets." The LWVRC organized Meet the Candidates forums and high school voter registration drives. In a period of 40 years, the LWVRC lobbied the state legislature for improved election laws and sponsored monthly luncheon lectures on issues such as property tax assessment, urban crisis, women and the law and the family court system. Finally, it was consistently active in evaluations of county and city charters in Rensselaer County.

In the 1980s, the LWVRC moved into newer, sometimes more controversial issues. Reapportionment of the county legislature, women and the law, and reproductive rights were some of the newer concerns the LWVRC tackled. The LWVRC also became an integral supporter of the "Bottle Bill" of the early 1980s. In 1983, the organization agreed to store its papers and publications at the Troy Public Library. It received a $4200 grant from the Howard and Bush Foundation in order to prepare "an historical repository of LWVRC papers at the Troy Public Library." At the same time, the LWVRC helped form the Inter-League Organization (ILO) in order to create a coalition of the five local Leagues in the Capital region.

The more recent records are not as complete. However the LWVRC has not wavered in its traditional goals of nonpartisan, educational information for citizens of the Capital region. In 1992, A Citizens' Guide to Governments in Rensselaer County was published under the auspices of the Tema Bellinson Memorial Fund. The publication described the governmental functions for each of the 21 municipal governments of the county (see Series 2). The LWVRC's involvement in welfare issues focused on the needs of children via the Healthy Kids Program with Samaritan Hospital (1994), Bureau of Youth Services and Human Services contracts (1995). Children at risk became a National Junior League focus item in the late 1990s. Members also grew concerned about criminal justice reform and lobbying reform.

The League of Women Voters of Rensselaer County continued to fall in line with the national League by adopting another item agenda the mid 1990s - "Making Democracy Work" (see Series 6, Box 1, Folder 33 and Box 2, Folders 4, 6, and 8). Activities have concentrated on outreach and involvement of the under-served communities in the county, distributing voter education materials, and election information to state agencies such as WIC, day cares, youth programs, food pantries, public housing authorities, and private agencies like the YWCA, TRIP, and Unity House. Two multi-session community meetings of LWVRC members and representatives from these groups have been held to discuss ways to increase voter participation.