Historical note
Scope and Contents
Acquisition
Conditions Governing Access
Conditions Governing Use
Preferred Citation
Separated Materials
Language of Material:
English
Contributing Institution:
USC Libraries Special Collections
Title: Ruskin Art Club records
creator:
Ruskin Art Club
creator:
Witmer, Helen
Identifier/Call Number: 6083
Physical Description:
29.26 Linear Feet
34 boxes
Date (inclusive): 1879-2003
Abstract: The Ruskin Art Club was founded October 12, 1888, and is the oldest women's club in Los Angeles. Its original purpose was
to study the technique and history of engraving and etching, inspired by founding member Mary E. Boyce's own collection of
prints and extensive library of books on art. The Club's main activity were the annual courses of study in the history of
art, architecture, or archaeology. These consisted of lectures delivered by the members to the membership at the monthly
Wednesday morning meetings. Programs were printed and distributed amongst the membership and were, in effect, syllabi, including
a weekly schedule of specialized topics, the names of the members who would research and present on these topics, and the
schedule of the presentations. The records document the Club's activities, with especial emphasis on the annual courses of
study as preserved in the minutes and programs.
Container: 1-4, 8, 10-13
Container: 5-7, 9, 14, 20, 21
Container: 15-17, 27, 29-33
Container: 18, 19, 22, 28
Container: 23-25
Container: 26, 34
Historical note
The Ruskin Art Club was founded October 12, 1888, and is the oldest women's club in Los Angeles. The founding members of
the Club were Mary E. Boyce, Fanny Brainerd, Dora Haynes, Lora Hubbel, and Mary Widney. Its original purpose was to study
the technique and history of engraving and etching, inspired by founding member Mary E. Boyce's own collection of prints and
extensive library of books on art. The name "Ruskin Art Club" was chosen by the original members at its first meeting, and
is significant, as it signaled both an embrace of English art critic John Ruskin's philosophies about the Arts and Crafts
movement, and the rights of women. The Club’s activities were designed by its members to give more meaning to their lives
than Victorian society ascribed to them. Through "the earnest study of masterful works of art,” the club’s members would become
sensitized to beauty in an increasingly mechanized society, and the club would make art available to a wider audience and
thus elevate society's values as a whole. In addition, the appellation "Club" had great significance in 1880s Los Angeles,
in which clubs were exclusively the domain of men.
The Club’s main activity was the annual course of study in the history of art, architecture, or archaeology. These courses
of study, selected by the president, ran for 8 months every year. They consisted of lectures delivered by the members to
the membership at the monthly Wednesday morning meetings. Programs were printed and distributed amongst the membership and
were, in effect, syllabi, including a weekly schedule of specialized topics, the names of the members who would research and
present on these topics, and the schedule of the presentations.
In April 1890, the Club sponsored the first public art exhibition in Los Angeles when it had the entire engraving exhibit
from the 1889 Paris Universal Exposition sent to them on loan. The success of this exhibit resulted in a rapid growth in membership
to the point where the members imposed a maximum membership of 100 women. The membership also soon outgrew its original meeting
location, Mary Boyce’s drawing room, and began meeting in various locations around the city, including the Hamburger Department
Store, and the Bella Union, Nadau, and Hollenbeck hotels. In the 1920s, the Club moved into its permanent home at 8th and
Plymouth. Originally built by the Congregational Church Extension Society as a Sunday School Room and Parish House, the club
occupied the building as its club house and headquarters until 2014, when it was sold.
The Club was an influential presence in Los Angeles and across the nation. Many of Los Angeles’s influential clubs were founded
with Ruskin members in attendance, including the Friday Morning Club and the Ebell Club. The Ruskin also developed a longstanding
relationship with another of Los Angeles’s important institutions, the Southwest Museum, and in particular with its curator,
Hector Alliot. Alliot made his first address to the Club in 1905, and continued to work with them until his death in 1919,
particularly in the design of the annual courses of study. In 1889, Mary Boyce attended a meeting of women’s clubs in the
United States that resulted in the formation of the General Federation of Women’s Clubs, with the Ruskin as one of the original
60 founding members.
Membership began to wane during the Depression, and in the 1960s, the Board of Directors amended the by-laws to permit men
to join.
In 1988, the Ruskin Art Club celebrated its centennial, an event recognized in a number of official city commendations. In
the aftermath of that celebration, however, a period of crisis ensued: many members, mindful of the organization’s dwindling
numbers and a societal climate in which club membership was in general decline, proposed to sell the clubhouse and regroup
as a more informal, home-based association. The move was defeated by a single vote – Margaret Clausen’s, who, then, found
herself faced with resuscitating the Ruskin Art Club without many of the older members.
In the 1990s, a new generation emerged: Jim Burns helped to develop a “Music in Mansions” concert series; composer Alfred
Carlson, a student of Arnold Schoenberg, became Ruskin Art Club composer-in-residence; weaver Estelle Carlson launched a popular
series of textile exhibitions; choral conductor and silent-movie musician Robert Mitchell performed regularly and the club
sponsored a series of weekly luncheon programs. The club also organized summer concerts at the historic Southwest Museum in
the Arroyo Seco. In 1997, local historian Joseph Ryan delivered the first “Ruskin” lecture on the history of the club, later
published as a monograph, and led the ultimately successful campaign to designate the Ruskin Art Club headquarters as an official
Los Angeles historical monument.
As the new century dawned, Gabriel Meyer, the Ruskin Art Club’s first male president, steered the club back to its earliest
roots in the ideals of John Ruskin and in association with other historic California arts and crafts-oriented institutions:
the Judson Studios in Highland Park, the Gamble House in Pasadena, the California Art Club, the Huntington Library and the
Southwest Museum. In addition, the club sought to organize itself more effectively for the future by shifting its legal status
from a members-only organization to a non-profit public arts corporation. New younger members also spearheaded a host of new
programs at the clubhouse in the first decade of the new century: chamber concerts, the “Jazz at the Ruskin” series, annual
“Ruskin” Lectures, a symposium honoring the fiftieth anniversary of the death of Arnold Schoenberg, readers’ theater presentations,
“Ruskin” study groups, a monthly poetry series in collaboration with Pasadena-based Red Hen Press, a “Modern Masters” literary
series designed by the club’s literary programs director, Elena Karina Byrne, and a series of Saturday literary workshops
led by local and nationally recognized writers.
However, by 2008, and the celebration of the 120th anniversary of the founding of the Ruskin Art Club, the physical condition
of the nearly 90-year-old clubhouse was increasingly inhibiting the club’s mission and its ability to mount programs. In late
2013, the board of directors made the painful and difficult decision to sell the organization’s historic mid-Wilshire property,
entrusting its fate to a talented restoration architect and to a new future as a private residence – albeit one that remains
a Los Angeles cultural and historic monument. This move allowed the Ruskin Art Club, in its 125th year, to return to its
original mission – not to manage property, however historic – but to advance the cause of Ruskin’s thought in the 21st century
and to develop ways to support writers, artists, musicians, architects, and thinkers who espouse Ruskin’s values in Southern
California.
[Sources: Joseph Ryan, “The Ruskin Art Club: A History” (Los Angeles: Ruskin Art Club), c. 1997); Gabriel Meyer, President
of the Ruskin Art Club, October 2014]
Scope and Contents
The Ruskin Art Club records consist of meeting minutes, programs, adminstrative and financial records, clippings, some correspondence,
photographs, and ephemera, created and collected by the members of the Club, 1891-2003. The records describe in detail the
activities of the Club, which were in the area of art education for its membership. Of particular importance are the minutes
and programs, which describe in detail the lectures delivered to the membership by the membership, and formed the core activity
of the Club. Also included are some papers created and collected by Helen Witmer, president of the Club during the 1950s
and 60s.
Acquisition
Gift of Ruskin Art Club, April 3, 2014.
Conditions Governing Access
Advance notice required for access.
Conditions Governing Use
All requests for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the Manuscripts Librarian.
Permission for publication is given on behalf of Special Collections as the owner of the physical items and is not intended
to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which must also be obtained.
Preferred Citation
[Box/folder no. or item name], Ruskin Art Club records, Collection no. 6083, Special Collections, USC Libraries, University
of Southern California
Separated Materials
The donation included some books from the Club's library. These have been cataloged separately.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Art -- Study and teaching -- California -- Los Angeles -- Archival resources
Women -- California -- Los Angeles -- Societies and clubs -- History -- Archival resources
Women -- California -- Los Angeles -- History -- Archival resources
Los Angeles (Calif.) -- History -- Archival resources
Los Angeles (Calif.) -- Social life and customs -- Archival resources
Correspondence
Clippings
Ledgers (account books)
Minutes
Programs (documents)
Periodicals
Ruskin Art Club
Witmer, Helen
Ruskin Art Club -- Archives
Dearden, James A. -- Correspondence
Gnosspelius, Barbara C. -- Correspondence
Witmer, Helen -- Archives
Ruskin, John -- Archives