Some people think of the Women's Institute of just jam and Jerusalem. But as the WI celebrates its 100th anniversary, a new book has been published which offers an insight into the history and politics behind the famous British organisation. Mavis Curtis' book, The WI: A Centenary History, has studied the suffragists who made the WI one of the most important movements for women in the 20th century. Scroll down for video . A member of the WI demonstrates how to bottle fruit to an eager group of students . While many think of the WI as a place where older ladies go to make jam, sing Jerusalem and learn skills like flower arranging and sewing, it has actually been behind some of the biggest social changes in British history. The first WI meeting in the UK was held in Anglesey, north Wales, on September 16, 1915 as a way to encourage women to become more involved in producing food during the First World War. But it went on to spearhead campaigns to improve living conditions and the environment, tackle unemployment, get free family planning, more nursery education for children and even world peace. The movement grew rapidly and now has 212,000 members in about 6,600 groups. They have raised many millions of pounds for charity over the last century. It gave bored middle-class women an outlet for their organisational skills and the opportunity to practice public speaking while providing working-class countrywomen with  the chance to see more of the wider world around them. Trish Stewart (left) of Rylstone and District  WI came up with the idea of posing naked for a calendar to raise money for charity. Right, Judith Connolly, of the same WI, also strikes a pose . Even the Queen Mother was a member of the WI. Mrs Curtis started researching her book after moving to rural Oxfordshire in 2004 and joining the local WI. After writing an article about WI banners, she became interested in the movement and interviewed people from WI groups around the country, collecting stories and nostalgic photographs. The black and white pictures capture classic images associated with the WI, including a young Queen Mother watching a chair caning demonstration, a group preparing fruit for jam making and women waving off a horse and cart after a course on caravanning. Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, a member of the WI, watches a chair caning demonstration in 1938 . Lady Denham, chair of the first WI, and, right, the new book marking 100 years of the organisation . The book covers the very beginnings of the movement right through to modern women like the Calendar Girls making their mark. 'It's not always easy to discover what women have achieved,' said Mrs Curtis. 'In the 19th and into the 20th century, women's influence was often exercised through the men in their lives and women's groups have had a similarly low profile.' She said she was surprised to discover the real political movement behind the organisation. The first organisers were ex-suffragists who felt that now women had the vote, they needed an education to give them the confidence to make their mark on the world that was opening up to them. Women collect fruit and vegetables ready to make chutney during the war . Eleanor Roosevelt, wife of the American president Franklyn D Roosevelt, talks to a member of Barham WI in 1942 . She said: 'When I started looking into it I was surprised that a lot of the people who started the WI were suffragists. 'They gave the WI a political twist, using it to educate women in citizenship, give them a new role in society, and that really grabbed me. 'It was about valuing women's work in the home and because it valued the work they did, they could take time away from the home to increase their skills. 'It improved their lives and opened them up to the outside world.' Her book explores key figures in the movement, like Lady Denman, the WI's first formidable chairman and her vice-chairman Grace Hadow, as well as pivotal changing points, like when the Welfare State was introduced. 'The WI had been trying to influence politics all through the 1920s and 30s. They were working all the time to improve living conditions and battle deprivation. 'But the introduction of the Welfare State took those goals away from them - they were no longer needed to do things like raise money for the local hospital. 'So they began looking at the environment and started the Keep Britain Tidy campaign. They worked with other groups to improve the world.' The WI reached its peak in the 1980s when it had more than 9,000 groups around the country, although it was viewed by the general public as being old-fashioned and insignificant. Members of Malton WI set up their market stall in the 1940s . A WI working party making fur coats from rabbit skins for the people of Russia in 1944 . In 1999 a group of women from Rylstone and District WI in North Yorkshire changed that when they turned a personal tragedy into a collective triumph. They produced a nude calendar of some of the members to raise money for a sofa at the hospital where one of the member's husbands was being treated for leukaemia. Their success was completely unprecedented and their 'alternative WI calendar' went on to raise £3 million for Leukaemia and Lymphoma Research. The 'Calendar Girls' spawned a successful film and play and inspired other groups, sports teams and organisations to make their own nude charity calendars. Mrs Curtis said: 'The Calendar Girls rejuvenated everything. They overturned the idea of the WI as an old fashioned collection of elderly ladies who made jam and sang Jerusalem. 'After that the WI got more young groups. There has been a renewed interest in the organisation.' The WI still promotes the home skills it taught when it first started - holding lectures, demonstrations and workshops on all sorts of activities. The end of a caravan course at Denman College in 1948 . A group prepares fruit for jam making . Spindle-spinning wool gathered from the hedges in East Kent during the Second World War . 'I've just done Somerset patchwork for the first time and soon I'll be learning how to paint blown eggs,' added Mrs Curtis. 'It's such fun and it's so out of the norm of what I usually do.' However, the WI also still tackles bigger issues too - violence against women, the environment, health and justice. 'It's a really nice organisation, everyone looks after one another. 'But they're very modest, they're not very good at telling people outside the organisation how much they do. 'I think it has to work on what it's always worked on - valuing women for who they are. 'I think one of the newer, younger members I spoke to summed it up perfectly. 'She said "it's really nice to feel part of a body of women of all ages who have contributed so much to improving life for women". We want that to carry on.' The book is available from Amberley Publishing and is priced at £20.
The WI set up to encourage food production during First World War . Queen Mother was once a member of the organisation . Campaigned for massive social changes to improve lives for women . The WI: A Centenary History marks 100 years since the group launched .