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Finding aid of the Art Center Wives Club
RG 18
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Table of contents
Title: Art Center Wives Club
Dates: 1956-1977
Collection number: RG 18
Creator:
Art Center Wives Club
Collection Size:
.5 linear foot
1 box
Repository:
Art Center College of Design (Pasadena, Calif.)
Pasadena, California 91103
Abstract: Founded in 1956, the Art Center Wives Club was sponsored by Art Center to serve as a social and support group for the wives
of the college’s male students. This collection consists of newsletters, minutes, correspondence, photographs, and other
materials which document the planning activities, events and meetings of the Art Center Wives Club.
Physical location: Art Center Archives
Languages:
Languages represented in the collection:
English
No restrictions. Collection is open for research by appointment.
All requests for permission to publish, reproduce, or quote from materials in this collection must be submitted to Art Center
College of Design Archives.
Art Center Wives club. RG 18. Art Center College of Design Archives. Pasadena, California.
Founded in 1956, the Art Center Wives Club was sponsored by Art Center to serve as a social and support group for the wives
of the college's male students. With monthly meetings, the group had guest speakers, played bridge, and shared news of jobs
and available apartments. After it had become well established, the Art Center Wives Club sponsored dances, picnics, and
talent shows, and volunteered time to a variety of community organizations. The group tried to make new students' wives welcome
and often had a part in student orientation. In the mid 1960s the club organized and printed a cookbook, as well as put on
a skit parodying the trials of new students and their wives. The group printed another cookbook in 1974. For most of the
organization's approximate twenty-year history, it printed a monthly newsletter, The Breadwinners Review. The group's liaison
with the school was Mildred Heredeen. It is not clear when the club ceased to exist.
Scope and Content of Collection
Newsletters, minutes, correspondence, photographs, and other materials document the planning activities, events and meetings
of the Art Center Wives Club. More than one half of the records is the club newsletters (1956-1971, 1977), which provide
rich information regarding the club and its members. Often the newsletter included annual schedules, membership lists, and
synopsis of meeting minutes. The second largest group of material is minutes (1963-1967, 1971, 1977), but it is not as complete
a series as the newsletters, and mostly mirrors what can be found in the newsletters. Correspondence includes letters to
the general membership, thank you notes, and invitations to Art Center Wives Club events such as the new student reception
and an Annual Student Faculty party. Guidelines and suggestions for how to run meetings, program schedules, and questionnaires
sent to the members, all provide additional insight into the club's activities and concerns. A play script (ca. 1966) written
by a club member and performed for new students, is a humorous look at the wives' view of their husbands' experiences at Art
Center. Two photographs also document the women working on the play. All photographs have been removed to the photograph
collection.
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in
the library's online public access catalog.
Art Center School (Los Angeles, Calif.)
Art Center College of Design (Pasadena, Calif.)
Art Center School (Los Angeles, Calif.)--Societies and clubs
Art Center College of Design (Pasadena, Calif.)--Societies and clubs
Cookery
Women--Societies and clubs
29 photographs removed to photograph archives.