The Saturday Club, established in 1855, was an informal monthly gathering in

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

, Massachusetts, of writers, scientists, philosophers, historians, and other notable thinkers of the mid-19th century.

Overview

The club began meeting informally at the Albion House in Boston.Mellow, James R. ''Nathaniel Hawthorne in His Times''. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1980: 539. Publishing agent and lawyer Horatio Woodman first suggested the gatherings among his friends for food and conversation.Gale, Robert L. ''A Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Companion''. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2003: 210. By 1856, the organization became more structured with a loose set of rules, with monthly meetings held over dinner at the Parker House. The Parker House served as their place of meeting for many years. It was a hotel built in 1854 by

Harvey D. Parker Harvey D. Parker (1805–1884), also known as H.D. Parker, was an hotelier in Boston, Massachusetts. He built the Parker House Hotel, Parker House, the first hotel in the United States "on the European Plan". Biography Parker was born in Temple, ...

. The gatherings led to the creation of the '' Atlantic Monthly'', to which many of the members contributed. The name was suggested by early member

Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. (; August 29, 1809 – October 7, 1894) was an American physician, poet, and polymath based in Boston. Grouped among the fireside poets, he was acclaimed by his peers as one of the best writers of the day. His most fa ...

The original members of the group included Woodman, Louis Agassiz,

Richard Henry Dana Jr. Richard Henry Dana Jr. (August 1, 1815 – January 6, 1882) was an American lawyer and politician from Massachusetts, a descendant of a colonial family, who gained renown as the author of the classic American memoir ''Two Years Before the Mast''. ...

, Judge Ebenezer Rockwood Hoar, Senator George Frisbee Hoar, and

James Russell Lowell James Russell Lowell (; February 22, 1819 – August 12, 1891) was an American Romantic poet, critic, editor, and diplomat. He is associated with the fireside poets, a group of New England writers who were among the first American poets that ...

. In the following years, membership was extended to Holmes,

Cornelius Conway Felton Cornelius Conway Felton (November 6, 1807 – February 26, 1862) was an American educator. He was regent of the Smithsonian Institution, as well as professor of Greek literature and president of Harvard University. Early life Felton was born in ...

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (February 27, 1807 – March 24, 1882) was an American poet and educator. His original works include " Paul Revere's Ride", '' The Song of Hiawatha'', and ''Evangeline''. He was the first American to completely tran ...

, and

William Hickling Prescott William Hickling Prescott (May 4, 1796 – January 28, 1859) was an American historian and Hispanist, who is widely recognized by historiographers to have been the first American scientific historian. Despite having serious visual impairm ...

. Other members included

Ralph Waldo Emerson Ralph Waldo Emerson (May 25, 1803April 27, 1882), who went by his middle name Waldo, was an American essayist, lecturer, philosopher, abolitionist, and poet who led the transcendentalist movement of the mid-19th century. He was seen as a champ ...

, Asa Gray,

John Lothrop Motley John Lothrop Motley (April 15, 1814 – May 29, 1877) was an American author and diplomat. As a popular historian, he is best known for his works on the Netherlands, the three volume work ''The Rise of the Dutch Republic'' and four volume ''His ...

Benjamin Peirce Benjamin Peirce (; April 4, 1809 – October 6, 1880) was an American mathematician who taught at Harvard University for approximately 50 years. He made contributions to celestial mechanics, statistics, number theory, algebra, and the philoso ...

Charles Sumner Charles Sumner (January 6, 1811March 11, 1874) was an American statesman and United States Senator from Massachusetts. As an academic lawyer and a powerful orator, Sumner was the leader of the anti-slavery forces in the state and a leader of th ...

, John Greenleaf Whittier, and others. Invitations to the group were considered a sort of affirmation of acceptance into Boston's high society. Ohio-native

William Dean Howells William Dean Howells (; March 1, 1837 – May 11, 1920) was an American realist novelist, literary critic, and playwright, nicknamed "The Dean of American Letters". He was particularly known for his tenure as editor of ''The Atlantic Monthly'', ...

was invited by

in 1860 and recalled in a memoir that it seemed like a rite of passage. Holmes joked that Howells's presence served as "something like the apostolic succession... the laying on of hands". A few years later, Howells was named editor of the '' Atlantic Monthly'', which published many of the works by members of the group.O'Connell, Shaun. ''Boston: Voices and Visions''. Amherst, MA: University of Massachusetts Press, 2010: 92. In 1884, Oliver Wendell Holmes published a poem titled "At the Saturday Club" in which he reminisced about the gatherings. By then, many of its members were dead. Ralph Waldo Emerson's son, Edward Waldo Emerson, published two books about the Saturday Club and its members in the early 20th century. A version of the Saturday Club still exists in Boston.

Gallery

File:Oliver Wendell Holmes - Portrait.jpg, Oliver Wendell Holmes File:Agassiz Louis 1807-1873.png, Louis Agassiz File:BenjaminPeirce5.jpg, Benjamin Peirce File:Sumner and Longfellow.jpg, Charles Sumner and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, 1863 File:Parkers Ballous1855.JPG, Parker's, School Street, Boston, 1855 File:Emerson seated.jpg, Ralph Waldo Emerson, ca.1872 File:Asa Gray, US botanist.jpg, Asa Gray File:John Lothrop Motley - Brady-Handy.jpg, John Lothrop Motley, ca.1860

References

{{reflist

External links

Guide to the Saturday Club Records
Massachusetts Historical Society
Omni Parker House Boston
at "Historic Hotels of America", National Trust for Historic Preservation
"At the Saturday Club"
by Oliver Wendell Holmes 1855 establishments in Massachusetts Cultural history of Boston Clubs and societies in Boston Philosophical societies in the United States 19th century in Boston

Overview

Gallery

Further reading

References

External links