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Finding aid of the Philomathean Club Records
MSS 295  
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Collection Details
 
Table of contents What's This?
  • Descriptive Summary
  • Access
  • Publication Rights
  • Preferred Citation
  • Biography / Administrative History
  • Scope and Content of Collection
  • Indexing Terms

  • Descriptive Summary

    Title: Philomathean Club records
    Dates: 1899-2002
    Collection number: MSS 295
    Creator: Philomathean Club
    Collection Size: 12 linear feet
    Repository: University of the Pacific. Library. Holt-Atherton Dept. of Special Collections
    Stockton, California 95211
    Abstract: The collection contains four principal elements: yearbooks, scrapbooks, minute books, and financial records.
    Physical location: For current information on the location of these materials, please consult the library's online catalog.
    Languages: Languages represented in the collection: English

    Access

    Collection open for research.

    Publication Rights

    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 by the researcher.

    Preferred Citation

    Philomathean Club records. MSS 295. Holt-Atherton Department of Special Collections, University of the Pacific Library.

    Biography / Administrative History

    The Philomathean Reading Club, a women's club of Stockton, California, was organized November 17, 1893. Its object was "the cultivation of literary taste and the promotion of study." When membership had grown to about 300, the Club established a Philomathean Building Association for the purpose of raising funds for a club building (1910). By the following year, the Club had raised enough money to acquire a lot at Hunter and Acacia streets and to hire W.E. Wood and Son to build a clubhouse on the site. The first meeting in the completed clubhouse took place on February 9, 1912. The two-story building contained an upstairs lecture hall/ballroom and downstairs kitchen and meeting rooms.
    In 1982 the club voted to be excluded from the Magnolia Historical District so that the membership could continue to exercise control over their building. Subsequently, as a result of several break-ins, expensive building repairs, and a decline in membership, the Philomatheans relinquished their historic clubhouse to the City of Stockton (2001).

    Scope and Content of Collection

    The collection contains four principal elements: yearbooks, scrapbooks, minute books, and financial records. There are also a number of miscellaneous items of interest, including: a list of gifts received by the club (1912-1982), some records of the Girls' Auxiliary (1965-1971), records of the Annual Card Party (1964-1996) and the Corresponding Secretary's lists of correspondents (1955-1964).

    Indexing Terms

    The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the library's online public access catalog.
    Women - Societies and clubs - San Joaquin County (Calif.).