ProclaimHer: Winter 2003

ProclaimHer lady silhouette

Newsletter of the Boston's Women's Heritage Trail (BWHT) -- Winter 2003

BWHT Board Members at the NEWC Lecture. Back row: Marie Turley, Mary Smoyer, Michelle Jenney, Sylvia McDowell, Liane Curtis. Front row: Susan Wilson, Julie Crockford

     On December 19, 2002, the Bostonian Society presented the first New England Women’s Club Memorial Lecture, Boston’s Women’s Clubs Igniting National Change, by Karen Blair. This lecture included formal recognition of the decision by the15 remaining members of the New England Women’s Club (NEWC) to disband and direct the income from their endowment to fund a new initiative around women’s history programming at the Bostonian Society. Their decision ensures that the legacy of the NEWC will continue to effect change for years to come.

      After remarks by Richard Wiggin, Executive Director of the Bostonian Society, Marie Turley, Executive Director of the Boston Women’s Commission, and Kathy Jacobs, Curator of Manuscripts at the Schlesinger Library, Karen Blair, Professor, Central Washington University and author of The Clubwoman As Feminist, lectured on the NEWC.

      Blair gave a thoughtful and entertaining history of NEWC. Founded in 1868 and meeting monthly well into the 1970’s, the NEWC, led by its first President Julia Ward Howe, as well as Ednah Dow Cheney and Caroline Severance, started a phenomenon which changed America. The NEWC women were extraordinary women who were determined to defy the notion that women’s sphere was in the home.

     With their goals of self-improvement and effecting change on public issues, they advocated for dress reform, encouraged Harvard to open its annex for women Radcliffe College, founded the School of Horticulture, advocated for women to be members of and vote for members of the Boston School Committee, and helped found the Women’s Educational and Industrial Union. Their list of projects was endless, and they traveled nationally, sharing and networking across the country.

     In 1873, they founded the Association for the Advancement of Women, which annually sponsored 25 women who traveled west to speak about women’s rights and inspire other women to found a club of their own. They visited not only the largest cities, but also the tiniest towns. By 1900 women’s clubs had sprung up across the country and moved into the political arena, transforming their towns in a million small ways. Blair concluded by saying that the NEWC had started a network of women who taught the world we are all responsible for curing society’s ills. They made enormous headway and we are indebted to them.

      The Boston Women’s Heritage Trail is inspired by the tradition of the New England Women’s Club and Marker placed by NEWC at the base of the tree they planted to honor Julia Ward Howe, Photo by Susan Wilson

Marker placed by NEWC at the base of the tree they planted to honor Julia Ward Howe, Photo by Susan Wilson

excited about the prospect of working with the Bostonian Society in the upcoming year to design women’s programming around the new Boston Women’s Memorial. We were also excited to learn that the NEWC had planted a tree in honor of Julia Ward Howe adjacent to the site of the Memorial, so four women will now be honored at this special site!