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Friday Morning Club Records
mssFMC
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Table of contents
Contributing Institution:
The Huntington Library
Title: Friday Morning Club records
Creator:
Friday Morning Club (Los Angeles, Calif.)
Identifier/Call Number: mssFMC
Physical Description:
45 Linear Feet
(54 boxes and 108 volumes)
Date (inclusive): 1770-2012
Date (bulk): 1890-1990
Abstract: Records and papers belonging to the Friday Morning Club, a women's club in Los Angeles, California, from their beginning in
1891 to their dissolution in 2012.
Language of Material: Materials are in English.
Open to qualified researchers by prior application through the Reader Services Department. For more information, contact Reader
Services.
The Huntington Library does not require that researchers request permission to quote from or publish images of this material,
nor does it charge fees for such activities. The responsibility for identifying the copyright holder, if there is one, and
obtaining necessary permissions rests with the researcher.
[Identification of item]. Friday Morning Club records, The Huntington Library, San Marino, California.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
The collection is made up of several gifts: Burnham Estate in July 1937; Florence Kreider in the 1950s; The Friday Morning
Club in September 1985; and Virginia T. DeZell, last president of the club, in January 2007, and December 2012.
The Friday Morning Club was founded in 1891 by Caroline Severance, Los Angeles suffragist, reformer, and social activist.
Caroline Severance and a group of women met at the Hollenbeck Hotel on April 16, 1891 to form a women's club and decided upon
the name Friday Morning Club. Caroline Severance would become the club's first president, a position she held until 1894.
After moving their meetings to various hotels for several years, the club broke ground on their own clubhouse in September
1899, on Figueroa Street in Los Angeles; it opened in 1900. The club had committees on art, science, literature, home economics,
and many others. They also focused much of their work and efforts in philanthropy, volunteering, and the betterment and beautification
of Los Angeles. By 1906, the club had over 1,000 members. In 1923 the club re-built a new, bigger clubhouse on the same site.
In the 1970s, they sold the building but continued to meet. Due to a steadily declining membership, the club dissolved in
2012.
The Friday Morning Club records consists of materials created by the Club and its members, dating from the year the club started
in 1891 to is closure in 2012. These records document the activities of the club such as: philanthropy and charity work; finances;
fundraising; ; the various work of the club's committees on science, art, and other topics; the construction of their clubhouses
in Los Angeles; and the meeting minutes of both regular meetings and the board. The collection is comprised of subject files,
financial and business records, membership applications and cards, manuscripts and essays, and clippings (1770-2012); publications
printed by the Friday Morning Club, including their monthly newsletter, and publications printed by other clubs (1850-1993);
photograph albums, scrapbooks, and meeting minutes (1891-2012); photographs, certificates, awards, and some objects that belonged
to the club, including the bronze plaque that hung at the clubhouse (1890-2000). The collection contains material by and
about several prominent members and suffragettes, including Susan B. Anthony, Sarah Bixby Smith, Jessie Benton Frémont, Margaret
Collier Graham, Olive Percival, Idah Strobridge, Louise Watkins, Charlotte LeMoyne Wills, and the club's founder Caroline
Severance. The collection also contains material about other clubs, including the California Federation of Women's Clubs and
California Women of the Golden West.
Processed by Brooke M. Black from December 2019 to March 2020.
Organized in the following series: I. Subjecy files; II. Publications; III. Albums and bound volumes; IV. Photographs, certificates,
awards, and objects.
During processing in 2020, 4 linear feet of out of scope material, which included some modern financial records and duplicates
of publications, were deaccessioned.
Huntington Library also has a portrait of Caroline Severance. Plate reads: Portrait of Caroline M. Severance. Founder Friday
Morning Club 1891. Painted by Orpha Klinker. Frame hand-carved by Rosemary Dokay. Tag reads: Portrait: 1042, Caroline Severance,
Acc: 1990.6014.01, Loan The Friday Morning Club.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Feminists -- United States
Suffragists -- United States
Women -- Legal status, laws, etc.
Women -- Societies and clubs
Women -- Suffrage -- United States -- History -- 19th century -- Sources
Women -- Suffrage -- United States -- History -- 20th century -- Sources
Women in charitable work -- California -- Los Angeles (Calif.)
Women philanthropists -- California -- Los Angeles (Calif.)
Women volunteers in social service -- California -- Los Angeles (Calif.)
Womens' rights -- United States
Los Angeles (Calif.) -- History -- 19th century
Los Angeles (Calif.) -- History -- 20th century
Los Angeles (Calif.) -- Social life and customs -- 19th century
Los Angeles (Calif.) -- Social life and customs -- 20th century
Business records -- California -- 20th century
Clippings (information artifacts)
Financial records -- California -- 20th century
Letters (correspondence) -- United States -- 19th century
Letters (correspondence) -- United States -- 20th century
Manuscripts -- California -- 19th century
Manuscripts -- California -- 20th century
Minute books -- California -- 19th century
Minute books -- California -- 20th century
Newsletters -- California -- 20th century
Photographs -- California -- 19th century
Photographs -- California -- 20th century
Scrapbooks -- California -- 20th century
Anthony, Susan B. (Susan Brownell), 1820-1906
Bixby Smith, Sarah, 1871-1935
Frémont, Jessie Benton, 1824-1902
Graham, Margaret Collier, 1850-1910
Percival, Olive, 1869-1945
Severance, Caroline M. Seymour (Caroline Maria Seymour), 1820-1914
Strobridge, Idah Meacham, 1855-1932
Watkins, Louise Ward, 1890-1974
Wills, Charlotte LeMoyne
California Federation of Women's Clubs