The New England Women's Club (est. May 1868) of

Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

Massachusetts Massachusetts ( ; ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Maine to its east, Connecticut and Rhode ...

, was one of the two earliest

women's clubs The club movement is an American women's social movement that started in the mid-19th century and spread throughout the United States. It established the idea that women had a moral duty and responsibility to transform public policy. While wome ...

in the United States, having been founded a couple of months after Sorosis in New York City.''The Encyclopedia Americana: A Library of Universal Knowledge'', vol. 2, 1920, p. 466.Ella Giles Ruddy, ed
''The Mother of Clubs: Caroline M. Seymour Severance: An Estimate and an Appreciation''
Baumgardt Pub. Co., 1906 Enda Dow Cheney

History

Harriet Hanson Robinson, founder of the National Woman Suffrage Association of Massachusetts, and suffragist Caroline Severance worked with

Julia Ward Howe Julia Ward Howe ( ; May 27, 1819 – October 17, 1910) was an American author and poet, known for writing the "Battle Hymn of the Republic" as new lyrics to an existing song, and the original 1870 pacifist Mothers' Day Proclamation. She w ...

to organize the club. In 1868, "club rooms were first secured in ... the rear of the popular Tremont House. On May 30, 1868, the first meeting to introduce the New England Woman's Club to the public was held in Chickering Hall." The club incorporated in 1887; Sarah H. Bradford, Ednah Dow Littlehale Cheney, Lucy Goddard, Abby W. May, L. M. Peabody, Harriet M. Pittman, Harriet Winslow Sewall, and Kate Gannett Wells served as signatories. By 1893, some 340 members belonged to the club. Publisher and activist Josephine St. Pierre Ruffin was the first African-American woman to join the organization, when she joined in the mid-1890s. Although the club was run by and for women, men were allowed to join. A few men had attended the initial meeting, including

Ralph Waldo Emerson Ralph Waldo Emerson (May 25, 1803April 27, 1882), who went by his middle name Waldo, was an American essayist, lecturer, philosopher, minister, abolitionism, abolitionist, and poet who led the Transcendentalism, Transcendentalist movement of th ...

James Freeman Clarke James Freeman Clarke (April 4, 1810 – June 8, 1888) was an American minister, theologian and author. Biography Born in Hanover, New Hampshire, on April 4, 1810, James Freeman Clarke was the son of Samuel Clarke and Rebecca Parker Hull, though ...

, Octavius Brooks Frothingham,

Thomas Wentworth Higginson Thomas Wentworth Higginson (December 22, 1823May 9, 1911), who went by the name Wentworth, was an American Unitarianism, Unitarian minister, author, Abolitionism, abolitionist, politician, and soldier. He was active in abolitionism in the United ...

, and

Amos Bronson Alcott Amos Bronson Alcott (; November 29, 1799 – March 4, 1888) was an American teacher, writer, philosopher, and reformer. As an educator, Alcott pioneered new ways of interacting with young students, focusing on a conversational style, and av ...

. Of these, Emerson, Clarke, and Higginson all became members. At this time, in Boston, there existed a few other clubs for women, including "the Saturday Morning Club, the Brains Club and the Young Ladies Club, the members of which are in general high-toned persons, interested in intellectual and philanthropic matters." The goal of the New England Women's Club was to "provide a suitable place of meeting in Boston for the convenience of its members, and to promote social enjoyment and general improvement." Committees oversaw club activities with regard to "Art and Literature," "Discussions," "Education," and "Work." "Monday Teas" were held every week. In its first year, club members set about organizing a horticultural school. Lectures occurred frequently, given by both club members and invited speakers. Among the many lecturers in the club's first decades were:

Louis Agassiz Jean Louis Rodolphe Agassiz ( ; ) FRS (For) FRSE (May 28, 1807 – December 14, 1873) was a Swiss-born American biologist and geologist who is recognized as a scholar of Earth's natural history. Spending his early life in Switzerland, he recei ...

, Amos Bronson Alcott, George Thorndike Angell,

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'' a ...

, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Annie Adams Fields,

James T. Fields James Thomas Fields (December 31, 1817 – April 24, 1881) was an American publisher, editor, and poet. His business, Ticknor and Fields, was a notable publishing house in 19th century Boston. Biography Early life and family He was born in ...

William Lloyd Garrison William Lloyd Garrison (December , 1805 – May 24, 1879) was an Abolitionism in the United States, American abolitionist, journalist, and reformism (historical), social reformer. He is best known for his widely read anti-slavery newspaper ''The ...

Edward Everett Hale Edward Everett Hale (April 3, 1822 – June 10, 1909) was an American author, historian, and Unitarian minister, best known for his writings such as " The Man Without a Country", published in ''Atlantic Monthly'', in support of the Union ...

, Thomas Wentworth Higginson, Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.,

Henry James Henry James ( – ) was an American-British author. He is regarded as a key transitional figure between literary realism and literary modernism, and is considered by many to be among the greatest novelists in the English language. He was the ...

, and Mary Tyler Peabody Mann.

Buildings

1903 NewCenturyBuilding HuntingtonAve Boston

Around 1903, the club moved its headquarters from Park Street to the newly constructed New Century Building on

Huntington Avenue Huntington Avenue is a thoroughfare in the city of Boston, Massachusetts, beginning at Copley Square and continuing west through the Back Bay, Fenway, Longwood, and Mission Hill neighborhoods. It is signed as Massachusetts Route 9 (forme ...

, designed by architect Josephine Wright Chapman. In 1909, the club moved into the newly constructed Chauncy Hall Building at 585 Boylston Street, and it was there as late as 1922.

Notable members

* Ednah Dow Littlehale Cheney * Adelaide Avery Claflin *

Sarah Stoddard Eddy Sarah Stoddard Eddy (February 24, 1831 – February 24, 1904) was an American social reformer and clubwoman. Early life and education Sarah Stoddard was born in Hudson, New York, February 24, 1831. Her grandfather, Ashbel Stoddard, was among the ...

Harriet Ann Jacobs Harriet Jacobs (1813 or 1815 – March 7, 1897) was an African-American Abolitionism in the United States, abolitionist and writer whose autobiography, ''Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl'', published in 1861 under the pseudonym Linda Bre ...

* Rebecca Richardson Joslin * Mary Livermore *

Lucretia Mott Lucretia Mott (née Coffin; January 3, 1793 – November 11, 1880) was an American Quakers, Quaker, Abolitionism in the United States, abolitionist, women's rights activist, and social reformer. She had formed the idea of reforming the position ...

* Elizabeth Palmer Peabody * Harriet Hanson Robinson * Josephine St. Pierre Ruffin * Caroline Severance * Harriet Winslow Sewall *

Lucy Stone Lucy Stone (August 13, 1818 – October 18, 1893) was an American orator, Abolitionism in the United States, abolitionist and Suffrage, suffragist who was a vocal advocate for and organizer of promoting Women's rights, rights for women. In 1847, ...

.Julia A. Sprague
''History of the New England Women's Club from 1868 to 1893''
Boston: Lee & Shepard, 1894 Helen M. Winslow. "The Story of the Woman's Club Movement"
''New England Magazine''
July 1908.''Daily Inter Ocean'' (Chicago), April 20, 1889. * May Alden Ward *

Kate Gannett Wells Kate Gannett Wells (born Catherine Boott Gannett; April 6, 1838 – December 13, 1911) was an American writer and social reformer, and a prominent member of the Anti-suffragism, anti-suffragist movement in the United States. Wells served on the Ma ...

References

External links

* Harvard Universit
New England Women's Club. Records, 1843-1970: A Finding Aid
* Boston Athenaeum
Dickens party at the New England Woman’s Club
1905; photo by Elmer Chickering. "Group portrait taken at a party at which club members dressed in costume as characters from the novels of Charles Dickens. Handwritten key on verso identifies three of the members as Mrs. Julia Ward Howe, the hostess, who founded the club in 1868; Mrs. Daniel Lothrop dressed as Betsey Trotwood; and Mrs. Leo Hunter." Organizations based in Boston 1868 establishments in Massachusetts History of Boston 19th century in Boston Women's clubs in the United States History of women in Massachusetts Women in Boston {{Authority control

History

Buildings

Notable members

References

Further reading

External links