Finding Aid for the Severance Club Records, 1909-1982 (Collection number 1394)

Processed by Manuscripts Division staff; machine-readable finding aid created by Caroline Cubé
UCLA Library Special Collections
Room A1713, Charles E. Young Research Library
Box 951575
Los Angeles, CA, 90095-1575
(310) 825-4988
spec-coll@library.ucla.edu
© 2004
The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved.


Title: Severance Club records
Collection number: 1394
Contributing Institution: UCLA Library Special Collections
Language of Material: English
Physical Description: 8 boxes (4 linear ft.)
Date: 1909-1992
Abstract: The Severance Club of Los Angeles was a cultural conversation group founded in 1906. The club met regularly on the second and fourth Fridays of each month. The meetings generally began with a presentation from a speaker followed by discussion. The collection contains correspondence, meeting notices, membership lists, and other printed materials related to the activities of the Severance Club.
Physical location: Stored off-site at SRLF. Advance notice is required for access to the collection. Please contact the UCLA Library, Department of Special Collections Reference Desk for paging information.
Creator: Severance Club

Restrictions on Access

Open for research. STORED OFF-SITE AT SRLF. Advance notice is required for access to the collection. Please contact UCLA Library Special Collections for paging information.

Restrictions on Use and Reproduction

Property rights to the physical object belong to the UCLA Library, Department of Special Collections. Literary rights, including copyright, are retained by the creators and their heirs. It is the responsibility of the researcher to determine who holds the copyright and pursue the copyright owner or his or her heir for permission to publish where The UC Regents do not hold the copyright.

Provenance/Source of Acquisition

  • Boxes 1-7 of the Severance Club records were donated in 2004 by Esther Schou, who was second Vice-President of the club (1974-78) and also its archivist (1984-1993).
  • Box 8 was donated in 2011 by Nancy Coleman, the daughter of Severance Club members.

Scope and Content

Collection contains correspondence, meeting notices, membership lists, and other printed materials related to the activities of the Severance Club. Includes a reel-to-reel recording of a memorial for Harold Hadley Story, 1963.

Biography/History

The Severance Club of Los Angeles was a cultural conversation group founded in 1906; it was named in honor of Caroline M. Severance (1820-1914), a reformer and women's club pioneer; the club's first president was John Randolph Haynes, Los Angeles physician, civic leader, and benefactor of the Haynes Foundation; the club met regularly on the second and fourth Fridays of each month; the club's meetings generally began with a presentation from a speaker followed by discussion.

Biographical Narrative

The Severance Club of Los Angeles was founded on June 22, 1906, and has met on the second and fourth Friday of each month ever since. The Club was named in honor of Caroline M. Severance, 1820-1914. In Boston, Mrs. Severance founded the first women's club in the United States (1868), and in Los Angeles, the Friday Morning Club (1891), the first Unitarian Church, and the first kindergarten.
Membership of the Club is by invitation. The meetings open generally with a talk by a qualified speaker, and the speech is followed by discussion among the members.
These records of the Club were donated by Mrs. Esther Schou, Second Vice-President of the Club from 1974 to 1978, and at present its archivist. For more information on the early years of the Club, consult additional related materials in Collection 995, box 5, folder 1 (Harold Hadley Story papers).

Preferred Citation

[Identification of item], Severance Club Records (Collection 1394). Department of Special Collections, Charles E. Young Research Library, University of California, Los Angeles.

UCLA Catalog Record ID

UCLA Catalog Record ID: 2976834 

Indexing Terms

The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the library's online public access catalog.

Subjects

Severance Club--Archives.
Clubs--California--Los Angeles--Archival resources.

Related Material

Harold Hadley Story Papers (Collection 995). Available at UCLA Library Special Collections.

Box 1, Folder 1

Record book of the Severance Club, containing lists of members' names and dues paid. ca. 1909-1942.

Box 1, Folder 2

Art Seidenbaum clipping on Severance Club. 1963.

Box 1, Folder 2

Bylaws, correspondence on nomination and statement of duties of officers. 1969-1976.

Box 1, Folder 2

Discussion of Club in paper submitted by sister Jean Martin on Dr. F. Percival Gerson, prominent member of the Club.

Physical Description: (Photocopy, pp.71-84)
Box 1, Folder 2

Notes on meetings. 1962-1963.

Box 1, Folder 2

Severance Club statement of purpose and history.

Physical Description: (Typescript with manuscript corrections)
Box 1, Folder 3-5

Pages from various account books. 1916-1946, n.d.

Physical Description: (Photocopies)
Box 1, Folder 6

Manuscript and typed notes on meetings. 1967-1978.

Box 1, Folder 7

Announcements of Club meetings, annotated by Esther Schou with names of those attending.

Physical Description: (Copies)
Box 1, Folder 8

Announcements of meetings. 1974-1980.

Box 2, Folder 1-2

Postcard invitations to meetings. 1964-1975.

Box 2, Folder 3

Notecards with names of speakers. 1969-1976.

Box 2, Folder 4

Correspondence on membership. 1980.

Box 2, Folder 4

Membership lists. 1969, 1970, 1977, and n.d.

Box 2, Folder 4

Notes on new members to be submitted by sponsors.

Box 2, Folder 4

Statement of policy and procedures on new members.

Box 2, Folder 5

Correspondence about talks to be given to meetings, and notes on speakers. 1962-1978.

Box 2, Folder 5

Talks given to the Severance Club. 1977-1983.

Physical Description: (Photocopies)
Box 3, Folder 1

Background material for talks brought by speakers.

Box 3, Folder 2-4

Publications containing material on speakers, clippings about members. ca. 1970-1977.

Box 3, Folder 5

Obituaries and death notices of members. ca. 1960-1980.

Box 3, Folder 6

Letters of condolence. 1969-1982.

Box 3, Folder 7

Letter to Dr. Briggs electing first President Emeritus.

Physical Description: (Copy)
Box 3, Folder 7

Correspondence with Paul Jordan Smith on plaque to be presented to him by the Club. 1970.

Box 3, Folder 7

Letter of Mrs. Howard Ellison providing summary of his career.

Box 4, Folder 1

Writings of Jonathan Irving Sherman. 1952-1979.

Physical Description: (Bound volume)

Scope and Contents note

Jonathan Irving Sherman is the son of Irving and Jacqueline Sherman, prominent members of the Club. Compiled and published by Irving and Jacqueline Sherman in 1982.

Immediate Source of Acquisition note

Given by Mrs. Hans J. Fybel, daughter of Alfred Niedermann, November 1986.
Box 4, Folder 2

Book: Hellas: [a tribute to classical Greece], edited by Hugh Joseph Chisholm. New York: J.J. Augustin. [1943].

Physical Description: Inscribed July 23, 1945 to Alfred Niedermann, Treasurer of the Severance Club.
Box 4, Folder 3

2 letters, Theodore Percival Gerson to Alfred Niedermann. May 1, 1939; January 23, 1940.

Box 5-6

Additions [No further description available]. May 1991.

Box 7, Folder 1

Bits and pieces written by T. Perceval Gerson.

Box 7, Folder 2

Programs. 1988-1990.

Box 7, Folder 3

Programs and clippings. ca. 1988-1990.

Physical Description: (Programs are annotated)
Box 7, Folder 4

Memorial for Harold Hadley Story. July 16, 1963.

Physical Description: (Reel-to-reel recording)
Box 7, Folder 5

Membership roster. 1970s-1980s.

Physical Description: (Small loose-leaf notebook)
Box 8

Administrative documents and ephemera. ca. 1989-1992

Scope and Content

Contains monthly meeting notices, lists of memebers, Severence Club stationary, and meeting minutes.