Guide to the Exchangette Club of Sacramento Collection MC 99

Contributing Institution: Sacramento Public Library

Title: Exchangette Club of Sacramento Collection

Identifier/Call Number: MC 99

Physical Description: 1 Linear Feet

Date (inclusive): 1934 to 1947; 1954 to 1956

Abstract: The Exchangette Club of Sacramento was the women's auxiliary of the Sacramento Exchange Club. This collection is comprised of two scrapbooks documenting the activities of the Exchangette Club. The first scrapbook covers the years 1934 to 1937. The second covers the years 1954 to 1956. Items relating to the Exchangette Reunion Luncheon of 2010 are tucked inside the front cover of the first scrapbook.

Language of Material: English .

The Exchangette Club had its inaugural meeting on October 12, 1934. The social and charity club was initially organized by Ethel G. Katzenstein, first president of the club and wife of the then current president of the Sacramento Exchange Club, C.L. Katzenstein. The membership of the Exchangette Club was composed of wives of members of the Sacramento Exchange Club.

Members of the Exchangette Club met for luncheons and hosted social gatherings for themselves and for the members of the Sacramento Exchange Club. These social gatherings included dinner dances, teas, picnics, lectures on world events, bridge games, fashion shows, and variously themed parties. They also worked extensively with various charitable and service organizations.

The Sacramento Exchange Club was originally the Sacramento chapter of the Progressive Business Club, which was patterned along the same lines as the Rotary Club. They held their initial meeting on August 26, 1919 at the Sacramento Hotel with San Francisco attorney Victor L. Bentson—the National President of the Progressive Business Club—and eighty local business leaders in attendance.

Then, on August 11, 1922, the Progressive Business Club of Sacramento officially became the Sacramento Exchange Club, following the merger of their parent organization with the National Exchange Club, self-described as one of the oldest business luncheon clubs in America. The newly created Sacramento Exchange Club received their official charter at the Hotel Land in Sacramento in a meeting presided over by Lee H. Irvine, retiring National Secretary of the Progressive Business Club. As the Sacramento Exchange Club, the newly affiliated local club took its place in a national organization that was comprised of nearly 200 clubs in the United States and included President Warren G. Harding among its membership.

Charles A. Berkey is credited with founding the National Exchange Club. At his suggestion, the name "Exchange" was selected because the group wanted to exchange ideas and information with like-minded individuals about how better to serve their communities. The first local Exchange Club was founded in Detroit, MI on March 27, 1911, and the National Exchange Club was organized as a non-profit, educational organization in 1917.

[Identification of item], Exchangette Club of Sacramento Collection, MC 99, Sacramento Room, Sacramento Public Library, Sacramento, California.

Scrapbook No. 1. EXCHANGETTE CLUB 1934 – 1947. The scrapbook contains items originally glued in place, many of which are now loose. The items include club rosters, records of meeting notes and attendance, letters and cards, newspaper clippings, party invitations, program flyers, club bylaws, telegrams, and other ephemera. The contents begin with a letter dated October 12, 1934 from C.L. Katzenstein, president of the Sacramento Exchange Club, to the wives of the Exchangites congratulating them on forming the Exchangette Club, a thank-you letter dated December 10, 1934 from Ethel G. Katzenstein, president of the Exchangette Club, to the members of the Sacramento Exchange Club, and a list of members who attended the inaugural meeting of October 12, 1934. Other individual items of interest include a certificate of recognition from the United Service Organizations (USO) and an 8x10 photograph showing a meeting between the Sacramento and the Vallejo chapters of the Exchangettes. Pictured in newspaper clippings are Exchangette Club members Mrs. E. E. Noakes, Mrs. A. Bruce Asbury, Mrs. C. C. Anderson, Mrs. Harvey H. Holland, Mrs. C. L. Katzenstein, Mrs. Paul Ehorn, Mrs. Ed J. Newman, Mrs. Joseph H. Mendenhall, Mrs. Otto Rohwer, Mrs. Ross E. Pierce, Mrs. Lafe Sherman, Mrs. Melvin F. Yocum, Mrs. William L. Pearce, Mrs. Herbert G. Livingston, Mrs. Hamilton L. Hintz, Mrs. Clarence (Alice) Azevedo, Mrs. Frank J. Coyle, Mrs. Hamilton Hintz, Mrs. Edward Newman, Mrs. Louis R. Ogren, Mrs. Hank Schamun, Mrs. Harold DeWitts, Mrs. Med Nelson, Mrs. Frank Fowles, Mrs. Hal Brooks, and Mrs. Jack Orr; Vallejo Chapter Members Mrs. George Herbert, Mrs. Jack Byron, Mrs. John Fredericks, Mrs. Ralph Stillings; and Exchange Club members Albert Westlake, Richard Seely, and Clarence Dorman.

Scrapbook No. 2. EXCHANGETTE CLUB 1954 – 1956. The scrapbook contains items glued or taped in place, many of which are now loose. The items include club rosters, records of meeting notes and attendance, letters and cards, newspaper clippings, photographs, party invitations, program flyers, receipts, club bylaws, PEP-ETTE newsletters, PEP newsletters, golf course ephemera, California State Fair and Exposition ephemera, The Woman's Council Speaks newsletters, Herstle Jones' Nyack Lodge ephemera, a letter from KCCC-TV Channel 40 with photos of the Exchangettes' appearance on BREAKFAST WITH GENE, California Exchangite August 1955 issue, ephemera from the 31st Annual Convention of California State Exchange Clubs, ephemera and photographs from California State Fair & Exposition 1955, a letter from Flo Barton Smith of the Sacramento Bee, a brochure for Strawberry Lodge at Kyburz, and a Mercy Children's Hospital Junior Guild Presents "Holiday Tables on Parade" program. Letters, cards, ephemera, and certificates of appreciation from various charitable organizations are contained in the scrapbook; these organizations include National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis, Sacramento County Society for Crippled Children, Lincoln Christian Center, Youth Employment Organization, United Crusade, Easter Seal Appeal, United Service Organizations (USO), Mercy Children's Hospital Guild, Sacramento Tuberculosis and Health Association, California Junior Museum Guild, Sacramento Citizen's Traffic Safety Committee, The Salvation Army, Sacramento Symphony League, Women's Auxiliary to the Sacramento Society for Medical Improvement, and The Pilot Club of Sacramento. Pictured in photographs are Ethel Mackey, Mary Thomas, Claire Hammond, Celia La Fortune, Eddie Mount, Bea Hendren, Rose Akers, Ernie Akers, Allan Thomas, Web Robertson, Isabell Swan, Al Swan, Betty Lawrence, Doris Hattel, Mrs. Alan Thomas, Mrs. Hal La Fortune, Mrs. William Lancaster, Mrs. Jim Rushford, Mrs. Tom Heise, Mrs. Albert Greilich, Mrs. H.H. Hendren, Mrs. Les Van Doran, Mrs. Earl Casey, Mrs. Louis Parell, Mrs. Frank Coyle, Mrs. Richard Lawrence, Mrs. Albert Westlake, Mrs. Louis Ogren, Mr. and Mrs. Ernest Akers, and Mr. and Mrs. W.B. Lancaster. Pictured in newspaper clippings are Mrs. Hattel, Mrs. Howard C. Blandin, Mrs. Albert Swan, Mrs. Jack Hammond, Mrs. John Willison Allen (Marilyn Noakes), Ed Sweeney, Horace R. LaFortune, Mrs. Marvin Klein, Mrs. Herbert Reinl, Mrs. Belani Viau, Mrs. Allan Thomas, Mrs. Ralph Hertel, Mr. and Mrs. Ernest Akers, and Mr. and Mrs. W.B. Lancaster.

Items relating to the Exchangette Reunion Luncheon of 10 July 2010. These items are tucked inside the front cover of Scrapbook No. 1. They consist of two flyers announcing the Exchangette Reunion Luncheon and a list of members attending, which includes names, addresses, and phone numbers. The members attending were Norma Annigoni, Phyllis Bernard, Doris Boggs, Jan Capps, Helen D'Avis, Audine Eversden, Jeanne Hink, Jerry Johnson, Paulina Kolb, Ellen Phillips, Wilma Poulson, Dot Riley, Evelyn Sanderson, Marian Santaga, Catherine Scott, Susan Simpson, Carole Smith, Rose Smith, Betty Snow, and Christina Vilardi.

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