Contemporary Club (Philadelphia, Pa.) records
Collection 1981
1886-1952, undated (Bulk 1886-1932)(3.0 Linear feet ; 8 boxes)
Table of Contents
Summary Information
- Repository
- The Historical Society of Pennsylvania
- Creator
- Contemporary Club (Philadelphia, Pa.)
- Creator - Collector
- Oakley, Thorton, 1881-1953.
- Title
- Contemporary Club (Philadelphia, Pa.) records
- ID
- 1981
- Date
- 1886-1952, undated (Bulk 1886-1932)
- Extent
- 3.0 Linear feet ; 8 boxes
- Author
- Finding aid prepared by Cary Hutto.
- Sponsor
- Processing made possible by a generous donation from Carol A. Ingald.
- Language
- English
- Mixed materials [Box]
- 1-8
- Abstract
- The Contemporary Club was organized in 1886 to hold discussions on outstanding questions of the day and to present scholarly papers by public figures. Membership was open to men and women, most of whom were distinguished in the academic, artistic, and literary worlds of Philadelphia. Correspondence dating from 1886 to 1952 makes up the bulk of the papers. It includes outgoing correspondence of club presidents, incoming correspondence of individuals invited to speak, and miscellaneous correspondence to Thornton Oakley and other club officers. Among the other papers are executive committee minutes (1894-1919), photographs, year books, lists of members and historical sketches, and other miscellaneous items.
Preferred citation
[Indicate cited item or series here], Contemporary Club (Philadelphia, Pa.) records (Collection 1981), The Historical Society of Pennsylvania.
Background note
In October 1886, three local men -- George M. Gould, Horace Traubel, and S. Burns Weston -- met to discuss the formation of a social and literary club in Philadelphia. On November 3, 1886, the first meeting of the yet-to-be-named Contemporary Club was held at the Philadelphia Ethical Society. In addition to the three founding members, the meeting was also attended by the reverends J. H. Clifford and N. A. Haskill. At that first meeting, the group came to terms over a few basic rules. The club would be open to both men and women of any profession, and meetings were to be held monthly during the winter "season" of November to April.
Word of the new club quickly spread, and at its second meeting in December 1886, attendance quadrupled from five to twenty. This time the group met at the New Century Club, and the members discussed a paper by Reverence Clifford titled "The New Conditions of Intellectual Fellowship." At the group's third meeting in January 1887, club officers were named, with Dr. Daniel G. Brinton being elected president, and a draft constitution was drawn up. The club also formalized itself with a title: the Contemporary Club.
Throughout the late ninteenth century, the club grew in popularity and boasted a couple hundred members at the turn of the twentieth century. Each month, the Contemporary Club hosted speakers, some of whom came with or developed notable careers, such as poet Walt Whitman, Arctic explorer Robert E. Peary, and Woodrow Wilson, then a professor at Princeton University. The group also met in several different locations during its formative years. In addition to the New Century Club, the Contemporary Club met at the Union League, the Bellevue Hotel, and enjoyed extended stays at the Haseltine Art Galleries at 1416-18 Chestnut Street, and the Philadelphia Art Club, whose building was once located at 220 South Broad Street.
Although the club had allowed women from the start, it wasn't until the twentieth century that the club elected its first female president: Agnes Repplier, a popular Philadelphia essayist, in 1904. Later women presidents included women's rights activist Sarah Yorke Stevenson (1914), artist Violet Oakley (1925), education advocate Lucy Wilson (1935), and Katherine McBride (1950), then president of Bryn Mawr College.
The club remained quite active through World War II. But after the war, membership apparently began to dwindle, and the club met with financial hardship. These factors may have contributed to the club ceasing operations sometime in the early 1950s.
Scope and content note
The records of the Contemporary Club of Philadelphia are housed in eight boxes and span from the club's formation in 1886 to 1952, around the time of its demise. The records are almost purely administrative. Outside of some clippings pertaining to the club's executives and its members, there are no personal materials in the collection.
Comprising the first two boxes (Boxes 1-2) are outgoing letters from the club's presidents. They are arranged in folders chronologically, starting with the club's first president, Daniel G. Brinton (1886-1888, 1890), and ending with its last president, Dr. Percy R. Stockman (1951). There are no materials in this section from two of the club's presidents: Joseph S. Harris (1903) and Edward M. Twitmyer (1950). Some of the folders also contain photographs of the individual presidents. The amount of correspondence per author varies widely -- some only have a few letters, while others have several dozen. The contents of the letters generally pertain to club matters, such as finances, membership, and speakers. Researchers may also find the occasional outgoing letter from a president in his or her folder.
Following the president's correspondence are two boxes of correspondence from people who were invited to speak before the Contemporary Club (Boxes 3-4). These letters have been grouped into folders alphabetically by speaker's last names. (Individual correspondents have been listed in the inventory of this guide and written on the folders.) This group of letters dates from 1887 to 1948 and consists mostly of replies to invitations, though some do inquire about club membership generally. There are also some letters from speakers concerning local accommodations.
Also in Box 4 as well as the first few folders of Box 5 are papers of club secretaries Sophia Wells Royce [Mrs. Talcott] Williams and William K. Huff, and club presidents S. Burns Weston and Thorton Oakley. The remainder of papers in Box 5 concern members and consist of applications and nominations, rules and regulations, ballots, remarks, clippings, and other miscellaneous items.
This collection contains a number of printed materials, including some of the club's annual reports. The reports date consecutively from 1890 to 1904 (Box 6, Folders 6-13) and from 1909 to 1912 (Box 1, folders 1-2). Other printed matter includes items authored by club members or presented by club members or guests, such as Railroads and the Public by Joseph D. Potts (1892) (Box 7, Folder 3), The Next Step in Christianity by S. D. McConnell (undated) (Box 7, Folder 8), and New Theories of Constitutional Construction by Thomas Raeburn White (undated) (Box 7, Folder 9).
The final box of the collection (Box 8) contains three volumes of handwritten meeting minutes from 1899 to 1919.
Administrative Information
Publication Information
The Historical Society of Pennsylvania ; 2015.
1300 Locust StreetPhiladelphia, PA, 19107
215-732-6200
Restrictions
The collection is open for research.
Provenance
These papers were collected by Thornton Oakley, a Philadelphia artist, muralist, and officer of the club, 1933-1941.
Gift of Mrs. Lansdale Oakley Humphreys, 1972.
Controlled Access Headings
Geographic Name(s)
- Philadelphia (Pa.)--Social life and customs--19th century.
- Philadelphia (Pa.)--Social life and customs--20th century.
Personal Name(s)
- Huff, William Kistler, 1888-
- Weston, S. Burns (Samuel Burns), 1855-1936
- Williams, Sophia Wells Rayce, 1850-1928.
Subject(s)
- Clubs--Pennsylvania--Philadelphia.
- Lectures and lecturing--Pennsylvania--Philadelphia.
List of presidents
1886-1888 - Dr. Daniel G. Brinton
1889 - Dr. James MacAlister
1890 - Dr. Daniel G. Brinton
1891 - Mr. C. Stuart Patterson
1892 - Rev. H. L. Wayland, D.D.
1893 - Dr. Harrison Allen
1894 - Rev. S. D. McConnell, D.D.
1895 - Prof. Edmund J. James
1896 - Hon. Robert N. Willson
1897-1998 - Hon. W. W. Wiltbank
1899 - Prof. John Bach McMaster
1900 - Dr. William H. Klapp
1901 - Mr. Richard L. Ashhurst
1902 - Hon. John B. McPherson
1903 - Mr. Joseph S. Harris
1904 - Miss Agnes Repplier
1905 - Mr. Charles E. Dana
1906 - Miss Agnes Repplier
1907 - Dr. George McClellan
1908 - Mr. Francis A. Lewis
1909 - Dr. W. W. Keen
1910 - Dr. S. Burns Weston
1911 - Mr. H. LaBarre Jayne
1912 - Hon. Roland S. Morris
1913 - Dr. Morris Jastrow, Jr.
1914 - Mrs. Cornelius Stevenson
1915 - Mr. Harrison S. Morris
1916 - Dr. Felix E. Schelling
1917 - Mr. Francis A. Lewis
1918 - Mrs. Edward Coates
1919 - Mr. Russell Duane
1920 - Prof. Edward P. Cheney
1921 - Hon. Roland S. Morris
1922 - Dr. R. Tait McKenzie
1923 - Mr. Henry G. Bryant
1924 - Mr. Ellis Ames Ballard
1925 - Ms. Violet Oakley
1926 - Hon. William B. Linn
1927-1928 - Dr. Frank Aydelotte
1929-1930 - Rev. Frederick R. Griffin, D.D.
1931 - Dr. Richard M. Gummere
1932 - Dean Herbert F. Goodrich
1933-1934 - J. A. MacCallum
1935 - Lucy L. W. Wilson
1936 - L. P. Lichtenberger
1937-1940 - Thornton Oakley
1941-1942 - Thomas Raeburn White
1943-1944 - William E. Lingelbach
1945-1946 - George Emerson Barnes
1947-1948 - Francis S. Philbrick
1949 - Katherine McBride
1950 - Dr. Edward M. Twitmyer
1951 - Dr. Percy R. Stockman
Collection Inventory
| Box | Folder | |||
|
President's correspondence - Daniel G. Brinton 1887-1895, 1937 |
1 | 1 | ||
|
|
||||
|
President's correspondence - James MacAlister 1888-1889, 1900, 1903 |
1 | 2 | ||
|
|
||||
|
President's correspondence - C. Stuart Patterson 1889 |
1 | 3 | ||
|
|
||||
|
President's correspondence - H. L. Wayland 1892-1896 |
1 | 4 | ||
|
|
||||
|
President's correspondence - Harrison Allen 1887, 1893-1894 |
1 | 5 | ||
|
|
||||
|
President's correspondence - S. D. McConnell 1888, 1890-1895 |
1 | 6 | ||
|
|
||||
|
President's correspondence - Edmund J. James 1895-1896 |
1 | 7 | ||
|
|
||||
|
President's correspondence - Robert N. Wilson 1896-1897 |
1 | 8 | ||
|
|
||||
|
President's correspondence - W. W. Wiltbank 1888, 1895-1902 |
1 | 9 | ||
|
|
||||
|
President's correspondence - John B. McMaster 1887-1888, 1896, 1899-1903 |
1 | 10 | ||
|
|
||||
|
President's correspondence - William H. Klapp 1887, 1896-1900 |
1 | 11 | ||
|
|
||||
|
President's correspondence - Richard L. Ashhurst 1901 |
1 | 12 | ||
|
|
||||
|
President's correspondence - John B. MacPherson 1901-1902 |
1 | 13 | ||
|
|
||||
|
President's correspondence - Agnes Repplier 1889, 1891, 1894-1899, 1900-1907, 1912-1913, 1935, 1946 |
1 | 14 | ||
|
|
||||
|
President's correspondence - Charles E. Dana 1895-1896 |
1 | 15 | ||
|
|
||||
|
President's correspondence - George McClellan 1906, 1908 |
1 | 16 | ||
|
|
||||
|
President's correspondence - Francis A. Lewis 1908-1919, 1920 |
1 | 17 | ||
|
|
||||
|
President's correspondence - W. W. Keen 1887, 1903 |
1 | 18 | ||
|
|
||||
|
President's correspondence - S. Burns Weston 1900-1903, 1919, 1931, 1938 |
1 | 19 | ||
|
|
||||
|
President's correspondence - H. LaBarre Jayne 1897, 1900-1903, 1906, 1911 |
1 | 20 | ||
|
|
||||
|
President's correspondence - Roland S. Morris 1908-1913, 1923, 1925, 1928, 1935, 1945 |
1 | 21 | ||
|
|
||||
|
President's correspondence - Morris Jastrow Jr. 1891, 1893, 1895-1899, 1902, 1906-1907, 1910, 1919 |
1 | 22 | ||
|
|
||||
|
President's correspondence - Harrison S. Morris 1888-1889, 1893-1896, 1900-1908, 1915, 1924, 1948 |
1 | 23 | ||
|
|
||||
|
President's correspondence - Sara M. [Mrs. Cornelius] Stevenson 1891, 1893, 1896, 1898, 1900, 1903, 1907 |
1 | 24 | ||
|
|
||||
|
President's correspondence - Felix E. Schelling 1893-1899, 1900, 1905, 1908, 1917, 1921, 1931, 1946 |
1 | 25 | ||
|
|
||||
|
President's correspondence - Edward H. Coats 1895, 1901, 1905, 1907 |
2 | 1 | ||
|
|
||||
|
President's correspondence - Russell Duane 1893, 1898, 1901-1902, 1907, 1909, 1920-1922, 1928, 1935 |
2 | 2 | ||
|
|
||||
|
President's correspondence - Edward P. Cheney 1889, 1895, 1902, 1917, 1920, 1923, 1935 |
2 | 3 | ||
|
|
||||
|
President's correspondence - R. Tait McKenzie 1913, 1933, 1944, 1950 |
2 | 4 | ||
|
|
||||
|
President's correspondence - Henry G. Bryant 1894, 1898-1899, 1900, 1902, 1905, 1921 |
2 | 5 | ||
|
|
||||
|
President's correspondence - Ellis Ames Ballard 1924 |
2 | 6 | ||
|
|
||||
|
President's correspondence - Violet Oakley 1907, 1926 |
2 | 7 | ||
|
|
||||
|
President's correspondence - William B. Linn 1919, 1925-1930, 1947-1948 |
2 | 8 | ||
|
|
||||
|
President's correspondence - Frank Aydelotte 1923, 1927-1928, 1931, 1948 |
2 | 9 | ||
|
|
||||
|
President's correspondence - Frederick R. Griffin 1917, 1935-1936, 1942-1948 |
2 | 10 | ||
|
|
||||
|
President's correspondence - Richard M. Gummere 1923, 1926, 1934, 1937, 1948 |
2 | 11 | ||
|
|
||||
|
President's correspondence - Herbert F. Goodrich 1932-1934, 1948 |
2 | 12 | ||
|
|
||||
|
President's correspondence - J. A. MacCallum 1933-1935, 1945 |
2 | 13 | ||
|
|
||||
|
President's correspondence - Lucy L. W. Wilson 1896, 1900 |
2 | 14 | ||
|
|
||||
|
President's correspondence - J. P. Lichtenberger 1948, 1953 |
2 | 15 | ||
|
|
||||
|
President's correspondence - Thornton Oakley 1906, 1937-1943, 1950 |
2 | 16 | ||
|
|
||||
|
President's correspondence - Thomas Raeburn White 1926, 1947, 1952 |
2 | 17 | ||
|
|
||||
|
President's correspondence - William E. Lingelbach 1944-1948 |
2 | 18 | ||
|
|
||||
|
President's correspondence - George Emerson Barnes 1940, 1947-1949 |
2 | 19 | ||
|
|
||||
|
President's correspondence - Francis S. Philbrick 1947-1948 |
2 | 20 | ||
|
|
||||
|
President's correspondence - Katherine McBride 1950, 1952 |
2 | 21 | ||
|
|
||||
|
President's correspondence - Dr. Percy R. Stockman 1951 |
2 | 22 | ||
|
|
||||
|
Incoming correspondence, A-Bo 1892-1932, undated List of authors
|
3 | 1 | ||
|
|
||||
|
Incoming correspondence, Br-Da 1888-1941, undated List of authors
|
3 | 2 | ||
|
|
||||
|
Incoming correspondence, De-He 1888-1928, undated List of authors
|
3 | 3 | ||
|
|
||||
|
Incoming correspondence, Hi-Lo 1890-1948, undated List of authors
|
3 | 4 | ||
|
|
||||
|
Incoming correspondence, Ma-Pea 1887-1940, undated List of authors
|
3 | 5 | ||
|
|
||||
|
Incoming correspondence, Pen-Sm 1889-1928, undated List of authors
|
3 | 6 | ||
|
|
||||
|
Incoming correspondence, St-Tr 1889-1925, undated List of authors
|
4 | 1 | ||
|
|
||||
|
Incoming correspondence, Tu-Wh 1887-1926, undated List of authors
|
4 | 2 | ||
|
|
||||
|
Incoming correspondence, Wi-Z 1887-1914, undated List of authors
|
4 | 3 | ||
|
|
||||
|
Sophia Wells Royce [Mrs. Talcott] Williams incoming correspondence 1887-1901, undated |
4 | 4 | ||
|
|
||||
|
S. Burns Weston incoming correspondence 1897-1935, undated |
4 | 5-7 | ||
|
|
||||
|
William K. Huff incoming correspondence 1928-1941 |
4 | 8 | ||
|
|
||||
|
Thorton Oakley incoming correspondence 1937-1951 |
5 | 1-3 | ||
|
|
||||
|
Nominations and membership 1886-1897, undated |
5 | 4 | ||
|
|
||||
|
Club regulations and member lists 1887-1888 |
5 | 5 | ||
|
|
||||
|
Membership applications 1899-1912, undated |
5 | 6 | ||
|
|
||||
|
Ballots for raising membership fees undated |
5 | 7 | ||
|
|
||||
|
Remarks by members 16 January 1939 |
5 | 8 | ||
|
|
||||
|
Clippings and articles concerning club members 1938-1941, undated |
5 | 9 | ||
|
|
||||
|
Tickets, invitations, miscellaneous printed matter 1886-1901 |
5 | 10 | ||
|
|
||||
|
Reply cards 1887-1902, undated |
6 | 1 | ||
|
|
||||
|
Club endowment fund 1936-1939 |
6 | 2 | ||
|
|
||||
|
Checks 1918-1932 |
6 | 3 | ||
|
|
||||
|
Attendance cards 1937 |
6 | 4 | ||
|
|
||||
|
First draft of Contemporary Club constitution undated |
6 | 5 | ||
|
|
||||
|
Constitution, list of members, historical sketches 1890-1904 |
6 | 6-13 | ||
|
|
||||
|
Constitution, list of members, historical sketches 1909, 1912 |
7 | 1-2 | ||
|
|
||||
|
Railroads and the Public by Joseph D. Potts 1892 |
7 | 3 | ||
|
|
||||
|
Temple Law Quarterly, v. 2, no. 2 January 1928 |
7 | 4 | ||
|
|
||||
|
A History of 46 Years 1932 |
7 | 5 | ||
|
|
||||
|
Constitution of the Contemporary Club of Philadelphia 1938 |
7 | 6 | ||
|
|
||||
|
Limits of Record Search and Therefore of Notice, Parts I, II, III [Reprints] December 1944, March 1945, June 1945 |
7 | 7 | ||
|
|
||||
|
The Next Step in Christianity by S. D. McConnell undated |
7 | 8 | ||
|
|
||||
|
New Theories of Constitutional Construction by Thomas Raeburn White undated |
7 | 9 | ||
|
|
||||
|
"What Does the Artist Want?" 1952 |
7 | 10 | ||
|
|
||||
|
Miscellaneous 1940, undated |
7 | 11 | ||
|
|
||||
|
Photographs undated |
7 | 12 | ||
|
|
||||
| Box | Volume | |||
|
Meeting minutes (volumes) 1899-1919 |
8 | 1-3 | ||
|
|
||||