From Altruism to Activism: The Contributions of Literary Clubs to Arkansas Public Libraries,...

From Altruism to Activism: The Contributions of Literary Clubs to Arkansas PublicLibraries, 1885-1935Author(s): Marilyn MartinSource: The Arkansas Historical Quarterly, Vol. 55, No. 1 (Spring, 1996), pp. 64-94Published by: Arkansas Historical AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/40027849 .

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From Altruism to Activism:

The Contributions of Literary Clubs to Arkansas Public

Libraries, 1885-1935

MARILYN MARTIN

"WE'RE GOING TO ORGANIZE A CLUB- a women's literary club. We're going to meet around at each other's houses and tell each other what we think of Milton and Shakespeare." Her father nodded. "Well, that's harmless; it ought to keep you out of mischief." "Harmless?" [queried her mother.] "I don't know. ... It sounds like Woman's Rights to me."1

In 1898 twenty-five women in Morrilton, Arkansas, banded together and established the Pathfinder Club. It was one of hundreds of literary clubs organized in the United States in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries by women striving to improve themselves through self-education.2 Article two of the Pathfinder's constitution set forth the objective of a "united

Marilyn Martin is dean of library services at Rowan College in Glassboro, New Jersey. This paper won the Arkansas Women's History Institute's Susie Pryor Award in 1995.

1 Helen Hooven Santmyer," And Ladies of the Club" (New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1982), 25, as paraphrased in Theodora Penny Martin, The Sound of Our Own Voices: Women 's

Study Clubs 1860-1910 (Boston: Beacon Press, 1987), 34. ^storians refer to the clubs variously as literary, cultural, or study clubs. For the purposes

of this paper, the term literary club will be used. For in-depth analysis of the literary club

movement, see Martin, Sound of Our Voices. The women's club movement in general is Covered in Karen J. Blair, The Clubwoman as Feminist: True Womanhood Redefined 1868-1914 (New York: Holmes & Meier, 1980), and Anne Firor Scott, Natural Allies: Women's Associations in American History (Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1992).

THE ARKANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY VOL. LV, NO. 1, SPRING 1996



CONTRIBUTIONS OF LITERARY CLUBS 65

effort towards peace, charity, equity, and a higher civilization." The club's first effort toward that higher civilization was the founding of a public library. The nucleus of the library collection was a set of The World's Best Literature, which the club purchased for its study meetings. The ladies called it a circulating library, for "it circulated from house to house according to the person whose lot it was to be librarian."3

The founding of the Morrilton Public Library was a typical project for a literaiy club in the late nineteenth century. Although the clubs began as study groups designed to improve the minds of their members through education, the women soon diverted their energies from self-improvement to community improvement. As early as 1933 the American Library Association estimated that 75 percent of all public libraries in the United States were founded by women's clubs.4 Although historians have seldom acknowledged this signal accomplishment, "women's organizations may well have been as influential in the development of public libraries as Andrew Carnegie."5

Like other social agencies, libraries are reflective of changes within a culture.6 Thus Anne Firor Scott has proposed that "the close study of the early days of many public libraries will throw new light on the tremendous social change represented by ... the development of women's organizations and the movement of women into public political activity."7 The history of Arkansas libraries founded by literary clubs supports Scott's proposal.

3"Sixty Years of Pathfmding," Morrilton Pathfinder Club, MC 598, Special Collections

Division, University of Arkansas Libraries, Fayetteville. Hereafter cited as Morrilton Pathfinder Club.

"•SophonisbaP. Breckinridge, Women in the Twentieth Century: A Study of their Political, Social and Economic Activities (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1933; New York: Arno, 1972), 93.

5Kay Ann Cassell and Kathleen Weibel, "Public Library Response to Women and Their

Changing Roles," RQ 20 (Fall 1980): 71. This belief is intrinsic to the history of public libraries. See Arnold K. Borden, "The

Sociological Beginnings of the Library Movement," Library Quarterly 1 (193 1): 278-82; Jesse H. Shera, "The Literature of American Library History," Library Quarterly 15 (January 1 945): 1-24; Lowell Martin, "The American Public Library as a Social Institution," in American

Library Philosophy: An Anthology, ed. Barbara McCrimmon (Hamden, Connecticut:

Shoestring Press, 1975), 88-105; Frank Woodford, "Second Thoughts on Writing Library History," Journal of Library History 1, no. 1 (1966): 34-^11; Phyllis Dain, "Ambivalence and Paradox: The Social Bonds of the Public Library ," Library Journal 100 (February 1, 1975): 261-266.

7Anne Firor Scott, "Women and Libraries," Journal of Library History 21 (Spring 1986): 404.



66 ARKANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

Through voluntary associations such as literary clubs, women not only established libraries, but also played a vital role in die wide-ranging reforms of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries that came to be known as the Progressive Era.8 "Regardless of perspective, anyone who asks by what means nineteenth-century women who carved out a public role exercised social power quickly discovers that almost the whole answer (once one has left the family and the church) lies in the realm of the voluntary association.9" Universal education, regulation of child labor, prison reform, prohibition, and equal rights for women were among the era's social issues.

Historians have offered various explanations for the wave of civic reforms that swept the country during these years. One of the most widely accepted explanations, the organizational thesis, was that Americans engaged in a "search for order in an age disrupted by industrialization, urbanization, and immigration."10 Others attribute the zeal of reformers to "status anxiety," a need to control the growing working class by making them conform to middle- class values.11 This social control theory has been called the dark side of the Progressive Era. Altruism motivated many women's clubs, according to Anne Firor Scott and Theodora Penny Martin. "That part of the Progressive movement that focused on practical improvement of community life, was, by and large, women's work."12 In order to provide community services, women participated in the political process and learned to be effective in this milieu. They moved "quickly and efficiently from philosophy to philanthropy and rarefy looked back."13 In a similar vein, Karen Blair suggests that the "reality of feminism" accounted for many reforms: "Attesting to the feminist origins of Progressive reforms, women's concern for social services and civic

^or a thorough discussion of the Progressive Era in the South, see William A. Link, The Paradox of Southern Progressivism, 1880-1930 (University of North Carolina Press, 1992), and Dewey W. Grantham, Southern Progressivism: The Reconciliation of Progress and Tradition (Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1983).

9Anne Firor Scott, "On Seeing and Not Seeing: A Case of Historical Invisibility "Journal of American History 71 (June 1984): 9.

!0RobertH Wiebe, The Search for Order, 1877-1920 (New York: Hill and Wang, 1967), 7. See also John Whiteclay Chambers, The Tyranny of Change: American in the Progressive Era, 1900-1917 (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1980).

"See, for example, Richard Hofstadter, "The Progressive Impulse," chap. 2 in The Age of Reform (New York: Random House, 1955).

l2Scott, "On Seeing and Not Seeing," 15. "Martin, Women 's Study Clubs, 4.




improvements on the part of the government preceded the Progressive era by decades."14 Regardless of the motives attributed to clubwomen, the evidence leaves little doubt that the library projects of literary clubs often served as a

beginning step toward subsequent civic and political action that augured change far beyond that occasioned by the establishment of a public library.

Arkansas clubs were particularly active in founding public libraries. Between 1880 and 1935, the heyday of the southern literary clubs, Arkansas clubs established twenty-eight libraries. (See Appendix A). In the 1880s and 1890s alone, clubs established libraries in Arkadelphia, Crawfordsville, Fort Smith, Harrison, Helena, Little Rock, Malvern, Mena, Morrilton, Searcy, and Van Buren.

The literaiy clubwomen responsible for so many Arkansas libraries were

predominantly middle-class, middle-aged, white women.15 They were usually educated, married homemakers and mothers. Often the most visible link

among club members, outside of race and gender, was economic status, and a

major determinant of economic status was marital status. One member of the Morrilton Pathfinder Club recalled that when the club president called a town

meeting, the men responded generously: "The Butcher, the Baker, the Candlestick Maker, the Lawyer, Doctors, Merchants, Contractors, Carpenters were there to lend their support and they pledged themselves with the Pathfinders to support the movement for a Library with work and money."16 They supported the movement because they were married to the club members.

Helena's clubwomen were typical. The first president of the Woman's

Library Association was Sally Alexander Sanders, a schoolteacher arrested

during the Civil War for trying to smuggle boots to Confederate soldiers. She

14Blair, Clubwoman as Feminist, 105. "Black women's clubs in Arkansas were numerous enough to organize the Colored

Women's Federated Clubs (CWFC)in 1898; however, no documentation has been uncovered to suggest that any of the black clubs founded libraries. Frances Mitchell Ross (in "The New Woman as Club Woman and Social Activist in Turn of the Century Arkansas," Arkansas Historical Quarterly 50 [Winter 1991]: 326) points out that the white Arkansas Federation of Women's Clubs and the CWFC often had similar interests and sometimes worked toward the same goals, but at other times pursued their own agendas. Reflecting interests similar to the white literary clubs, the Little Rock branch of the CWFC planned a reading room for members in 1898. For an overview of the black women's club movement at the national level, see Emma L. Fields, "The Women's Club Movement in the United States, 1877-1900," (Ph.D. diss., Howard University, 1948), chap. 4, "Origins and Activities of the National Association of Colored Women."

l6"History of the Library," 1932, Morrilton Pathfinder Club.




was the wife of Matthew T. Sanders, a prominent attorney who was elected

county judge in 1878 and was editor of the Helena Clarion for two years. Club secretary was Mrs. Charles R. Coolidge, wife of the local mercantile store owner. The Coolidges had nine children and one of the "handsomest residences in the city." Emma Rice Pillow, an active clubwoman in Helena and in the state federation, was educated at St. Maryfs School in Raleigh, North Carolina. The daughter of a physician, she married the town's sheriff, who owned three thousand acres of prime cotton farm land.17 These women "had the time, money, and ambition. . . . For a library to stay in a place like Helena we had to have women like that."18

Women joined literary clubs for a variety of reasons - the primary one

being self-improvement through continuing education. Club names and mottoes often signified their dedication to education. The Brinkley Round Table Literary Club, Harrison Woman's Book Club, Van Buren Woman's

Literary Club, and Rogers Woman's Study Club chose names descriptive of their intent. "Let knowledge grow; Let life be enriched" was the motto of the Junior Fortnightly Club of Benton. "No day without a line" denoted the Siloam

Springs Nesika Fortnightly Club's interest in all things literary, while

"knowledge is the treasure to which study is the key" was the guiding principal of the Culture Club of Fordyce. Members of Monticello's Sorosis Club believed that "An investment in knowledge pays the best interest."

Self-education came about through programs of study which varied widely among clubs. The Morrilton Pathfinders studied Shakespeare every year, but also explored other topics such as "House Keeping in the 20th Century," "House Decorations," "School Sanitation," "Temperance," "Cooperation of Home and School," and "Kindergarten."19 The Woman's Library Association of Arkadelphia also indulged in a variety of topics including "How to be

Happy at Home," "How to Spend a Month's Vacation at Moderate Cost," and "The Spirit of Liberty in the Province of Lorraine Under Spanish Rule."20

11 Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Eastern Arkansas (Chicago: Goodspeed

Publishing , 1890; Easley, South Carolina: Southern Historical Press, 1978), 766, 792. T>avid Taylor, quoting Dale Kirkman, president of the Helena Library Board in 1985, in

"Ladies of the Club: An Arkansas Story," Wilson Library Bulletin 59 (January 1985): 325.

""History of the Library," Morrilton Pathfinder Club.

20Minutes, April 5, June 2, 1904; January 9, October 3, 1905, Woman's Library Association of Arkadelphia, Arkadelphia Public Library, Arkadelphia, Arkansas. Hereafter cited as Woman's Library Association of Arkadelphia.




Mrs. DeVilbiss of the Harrison Woman's Book Club "gave an excellent article on Civic Improvement. While she was observing what Harrison lacks, she inspired at least one of the members present with the wish that Mrs. DeVilbiss could be elected Mayor, Queen of our city with absolute powers."21 The Harrison club also received reports on "The Tragedy of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette and the Mystery of the Dauphin," and "The French Revolution and Revolutionary Ideas."

An advocate of literary clubs' educational mission wrote: "Club-women are being trained to broader and higher thinking, to be more perfectly educated, to have not only the knowledge gained from books, but the ability to utilize all information which can be gathered from any source. This is the kind of

training necessary to help solve the world's problems."22 Contrary to this noble declaration, perusal of some printed programs of club meetings suggests a

preoccupation with parliamentary procedures and a predilection toward somewhat esoteric and frivolous programming. In 1913 the Stuttgart Woman's Club presented programs on "My Summer Vacation" from the Go Aways with a response entitled "Sighs" from the Stay at Homes, belying the club historian's assertion that "through the years club yearbooks show the programs to have been exceedingly classical and definitely high-brow."23

Despite their educational and character-building aspects, club meetings were not necessarily somber events. Members incorporated socializing and entertainment into their programs. One Stuttgart woman remembered that

"through the years our social activities have left many pleasant memories. Club members had time for luncheons, teas, and parties for husbands."24 The Harrison Woman's Book Club was a particularly social group. At one meeting, after completion of the program, the members were "called from labor to refreshment and around Mrs. Mitchell's hospitable table the cares and duties of wide awake club women sat lightly upon us. Our hostess certainly could not

"Minutes, October 1, 1902, Woman's Book Club of Harrison, Manuscript Collection 775, Special Collections Division, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville. Hereafter cited as Woman's Book Club of Harrison.

Nettie J. Bailey, "The Significance of the Woman's Club Movement," Harper's Bazaar, March 1905,204-205.

^Joanne Swafford, comp., Arkansas Federation of Women's Clubs: History 1986 (Fort Smith, Arkansas: Federation, 1986), unpaged.

"Ibid.




complain that we did not do full justice to the oyster pates, charlotte russe cream cake, fruit cake, coffee, and chocolate."25

Musical presentations were popular and clubs regularly included instrumental and vocal numbers in their programs. "Resolved, That the World is Growing Better" was the subject debated by members of Mena's Woman's Literaiy Club at a meeting in February 1926. The debate was presented in two sessions, with a ukelele quintette singing "My Ukelele Lady" during intermission. The affirmative team demonstrated the Charleston, averring "that it must be true the world was growing better, else our young people could not have the physical endurance necessary to dance the Charleston." In rebuttal the opposing team performed the minuet "by way of demonstrating the superior amusements and pastimes of the 'good old days.'"26

In addition to education and socialization, women also joined literary clubs for acceptance, a sense of belonging. The clubs were much akin to sororities in that they served as support groups where women found sisterhood and succor. Women were intensely loyal to their clubs, and membership was often a family affair with sisters, aunts, and cousins belonging to the same club. Daughters also commonly joined the club to which their mothers belonged. The Crump family provided four members of the Women's Book Club of Harrison- Josephine Crump and three daughters, Mintie, Josie, and Lulu, who was a founding member in 1900.27

Since club membership was usually restrictive, joining was a means to better oneself socially. Membership was limited because meetings were held in the space available in members' homes and because there was a strong element of elitism in literaiy clubs. Entry into a club was usually by invitation and often based on a husband's occupation or economic status. Candidates' backgrounds were screened, resulting in a membership that was almost always exclusively Anglo-Saxon Protestant. The membership process in the Women's Book Club of Harrison was typical. A committee accepted names of prospective initiates from members and decided by "feeling the pulse of the club" which names should be presented for a vote by the general membership. "This little matter of red tape was kept in the family, as it was meant as a safeguard to the peace and prosperity of the club." The club secretary dutifully

"Minutes, February 19, 1902, Woman's Book Club of Harrison.

2**Literary Club Meeting," Mena Star, February 19, 1926. 27Patrieia A Frank, "The Woman's Book Club of Harrison," Ozark Historical Review 20

(Spring 1991): 13.



CONTRIBUTIONS OF LITERARY CLUBS 7 1

recorded that among the members were women from "some of our oldest and best families."28

Finally, women joined literary clubs not only to improve themselves, but to improve their communities. Literary clubs were part of a larger women's movement afoot in turn-of-the-century America. As more women found time to turn their attention outside the home, they discovered a plethora of groups competing for their support: suffragists, temperance advocates, consumer

leagues, and civic organizations.29 Women chose literary clubs because these

organizations were non-threatening, to themselves, their families, and their fellow citizens. The club movement neither carried the feminist stigma attached to the suffrage movement nor provoked the confrontations sometimes occasioned by the temperance movement. A charter member of the Morrilton Pathfinders explained:

We must remember that Woman's suffrage was not yet in vogue, and few women felt that they could engage in activities that may cause the male gender to feel neglected or that their wives were losing their

femininity. We can well imagine that there were a few faint hearts, when in the fall of '97 a group began to discuss ways and means to

organize a cultural club, that would in no way detract from home and

wifehood, but would indeed, improve it.30

Ostensibly organized as study groups, clubs were from their geneses involved in community improvement as exemplified by the founding of public libraries. Altruism was a keystone of the club movement from its inception. Desiring to expand their influence beyond the sphere of homemaking and child

rearing, women found literary clubs to be safe vehicles for community improvement.31 A literary club member could in good faith venture outside the home in order to extend the virtues of the home to society at large - and still

28Ibid., 7. ^or a discussion of the "domestic revolution" that gave middle-class women the time for

involvement in voluntary organizations, see Eleanor Flexner, Century of Struggle: the Woman's

Rights Movement in the United States (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1959), and Anne Firor Scott, Making the Invisible Woman Visible (Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1984).

30"Sixty Years of Pathfmding," Morrilton Pathfinder Club. 31 For the definitive treatment of this dichotomy between childrearing in the home and

women's reform activity known as "social motherhood," see Molly Ladd-Taylor, Mother-Work:

Women, Child Welfare, and the State, 1890-1930 (Urbana: University of Dlinois Press, 1994).




remain a lady. This was extremely important because clubwomen saw

themselves, first and foremost, as homemakers, with club activities always ancillary to home and family. Clubs typically met in the afternoons September through May, when children were in school. At a meeting of the Harrison Woman's Book Club in April 1900, "general discussion followed on the outlook of the Woman's Public Libraiy. So interesting was this subject that the

meeting did not adjourn until lengthening shadows gave warning that Woman's Clubs must not infringe on Woman's duties at Home."32

The desire to extend their influence beyond the home and improve their communities soon overcame any trepidations the fainthearted may have

harbored, according to a fearless Morrilton Pathfinder:

This was the last years of the Gay Nineties. ... It certainly was the

day of bedecked hats and long flowing dresses with trains, and as we had no paved streets or side walks it was no uncommon sight to see a club member with her hands full of papers and books and holding a lace parasol with a small cloud of dust following her as her trailing skirts brushed the pathway. What did that matter to us? We had work to do!33

And work they did! Arkansas communities offered relatively few civic, cultural, and educational amenities in the Gay Nineties and early years of the twentieth century. Women's clubs had numerous options available when

searching for worthy causes to which they might devote their time, talents, and resources. Projects and causes ranging from parks, sanitation systems, kindergartens, and city beautification to woman's suffrage, temperance, children's rights, and housing reform vied for their attention. Yet many clubs chose to make a public library their first and perhaps their primary project.

A pragmatic reason motivated many literary clubs to found libraries: members desired access to books for personal or club-assigned reading. Women's clubs routinely collected books to support their function as study groups. The Blytheville Woman's Club was typical of a club that started a

library collection for its members, as did the Fort Smith Fortnightly Club, Searcy's Phoenix Club, and the Round Table Literary Club of Brinkley. The evolution of these collections into public library collections is not surprising.

32Minutes, April 7, 1901, Harrison Woman's Book Club. 33"History of the Library," Morrilton Pathfinder Club.




A literary club achieved two objectives by such action; it simultaneously satisfied members' reading needs and offered educational opportunities to the

community at large. The dual purpose was succinctly put by the president of the Fort Smith Library Association, who said the public library had been

organized "to benefit others as well as ourselves."34 Another prime motivating factor was children's education. Members of the

Benton Junior Fortnightly Club, many of whom were schoolteachers, noted that children had no place to go to read after school and promptly established a public library. The Morrilton Pathfinders contributed many children's books to their collection, trying "always to keep up with the parallel reading for the school children."35 Members of the Fort Smith Fortnightly Club were concerned that local school pupils needed reading material other than their textbooks and housed their library in the Belle Grove School Building for easy access by students.

Other clubs were motivated by civic pride and a need to improve their communities, for a public library marked a community as progressive. At the annual banquet of the Fort Smith Library Association in 1898, the Honorable J. B. McDonough said that "the building of a public library will result in

placing Fort Smith where it deserves to be - among the cultural cities of our

country."36 A "mother^ of the Woman's Literary Club of Mena wrote in honor of the club's twenty-seventh anniversary that "we planned to build a large, up- to-date library which would be located for greater patronage and the admiration of passing strangers."37

Sometimes the library served more than one purpose, engendering a

special kind of civic pride and community appreciation. According to a 1903

newspaper article, the Arkadelphia Public library was a

typical building of learning, as to style of structure and from its outward appearance can so be designated by all passersby. It is large

^'Annual Report of the President," December, 1892, Fort Smith Fortnightly Club, MC

775, Special Collections Division, University of Arkansas Libraries. Hereafter cited as Fort Smith Fortnightly Club.

""History of the Library," 1932, Morrilton Pathfinder Club.

36Vivian Wood, "Fortnightly Study Club," Journal of the Fort Smith Historical Society 13 (April 1989): 24.

37AiiraM Green, "For the Mena Woman's Literary Club," 1923, Mena Woman's Literary Club, MC 794, Special Collections Division, University of Arkansas. Hereafter cited as Mena Woman's Literary Club.




and commodious, having had one large reading room in the center, two smaller rooms on either side, one for the keeping of the library books and the other for a waiting room for the wives and daughters of the farmers who come to our city to trade. The latter room is fitted

up with water closets, wash stands, etc., and in every way is made comfortable.38

Helena's Public Library was known as Library Hall, and part of it was rented for entertainments. It became famous "for the well conducted dances of the Young Men's Cotillion Club, bazaars, benefit concerts, and plays, even once serving as a skating rink. ... By the turn of the century the library was

functioning as Helena's country club, city club, and civic center, all in one, a home for religious services, school classes, an art studio and all manner of social groups."39 Members of the Woman's Library Association of Helena felt it was important to make their mark on the local landscape. The public library was for many years painted a vibrant pink, and "Its French mansard roof and

paired gable dormers stood out amidst the Greek revival and Victorian structures of the town's financial district, providing advertisement for a

building owned by women and meant for the enrichment of the mind, not the

pockets."40 The belief that libraries were an inherent public good proved yet another

compelling reason to provide one for each community. A prevailing attitude held that libraries improved the cultural, social, and educational conditions of a community by radiating a civilizing effect. This attitude was particularly strong among the members of Fort Smith's Fortnightly Library Association, leading Judge Isaac Parker to comment in his address to the association's first annual meeting in 1891, "A good book in a Library is like a good citizen in the

community."41 At the third annual meeting, the president promised that "As

long as the Fortnightly Club is back of it the library will be a living feature in the educational and literary life of our city, and should that ever cease to exist it will still go on as a necessary factor in the continued expansion of the intellectual growth of this community."42 According to local minister, A. J.

38"A Triumphant Occasion " Arkadelphia Index, December 3, 1910. 39Ladd-Taylor, Mother-Work, 325. ^id. 41Minutes, December 7, 1891, Fort Smith Fortnightly Club. 42Annual Report, December 7, 1893, Fort Smith Fortnightly Club.




Nelson, the Fortnightly Library was "among the silent forces that are molding the best minds of our young city."43 Members of Fort Smith's Fortnightly Club

were not just library conscious, they were civic minded to the extent they went on record to deplore the manner in which the daily newspaper featured crimes with such disgusting detail it rendered the news unfit for family reading. Another strong objection was voiced over the Fatty Arbuckle film, and an added resolution was recorded

objecting with force to the book Three Weeks which was being displayed so boldly by the book store. Another strong vote was cast to make known their objection to having a public laundry built on North 8th Street.44

Within this attitude are overtones of a less than beneficent motive attributed to some Progressive Era reformers - social control.45 The women's club movement was not untouched by this taint. Some historians contend that clubwomen patronized the lower classes by providing them with the "proper" kinds of reading materials; thus libraries became a means of indoctrinating the lower classes into the mores of the middle class.46 And indeed some clubs

might be held suspect. The Fort Smith Fortnightly Study Club appointed a

43Mrs. M. A. Hickcn and Mrs. K. K. Kimmons, report prepared for the box deposited in the cornerstone of the Carnegie Library, 1907, Fort Smith Fortnightly Club.

"Wood, fortnightly Study Club," 24.

45Dee Garrison, in Apostles of Culture: The Public Librarian and American Society, 1876-1920 (New York: Free Press, 1979) and Michael Harris, in "The Purpose of the American Public Library: A Revisionist Interpretation of History," Library Journal 98

(September 15, 1973): 2509-2514, convincingly argue the social control theory as related to the public library movement.

46 Scott expands on this theme when she notes that some historians have argued that educational reforms [and public libraries were educational in purpose] were efforts to control the lower classes by inculcating "the virtues of industry, punctuality, and self-control, which would make them peaceful citizens and good factory workers." (Making the Invisible Woman

Visible, 285). On the surface this argument appears inapplicable to Arkansas since the state had

relatively few foreign immigrants and factory workers at this time and since the charge of social control was usually leveled at reformers in large cities where the fear of the failure of democracy due to the ignorance of the "unwashed masses" was very real. However, there was clear class bias on the part of Arkansas urban middle classes regarding the "common folk," and the idea of "uplift" was prevalent.




committee to examine each book for its value and acceptance prior to placement on the library shelves. A number of the books were rejected and discarded by the committee. Surely the Fortnightly club was not the only club to engage in such practices. An article in the Bentonville paper suggests the extent of this attitude at the turn of the centuiy. Titled "What a Public Library Does For a Town," the article noted that a "library minimizes the sale and reading of vicious literature in the community, thus promoting mental and moral health."47

Social acceptability was yet another reason for choosing a library project. Just as literary clubs were safe organizations for a lady to join, a library was an acceptable project for a club to undertake. No enlightened husband would criticize his wife for joining a literary club to improve herself intellectually, and no community could criticize a literary club for providing library services to its citizens. Although clubs may have founded libraries for different reasons - children, civic pride, or public good - most of the clubs went about the business of founding in remarkably similar ways. Several clubs organized for the express purpose of establishing community libraries, and though they may have engaged in varied educational and civic projects, their efforts focused on libraries. The 1903-1904 report of the Arkansas Federation of Women's Clubs (AFWC), to which most literary clubs belonged, cautioned that "Arkansas will contain libraries only by constant effort, so the clubs must be up and doing, and watch and work and 'nag' if necessary."48 Several clubs were ahead of the federation.

When Mrs. W. C. Ratcliffe of Little Rock first called for a state federation of women's clubs in 1897, the Arkadelphia Library Club sent a delegation which was "so impressed with a talk by Mrs. J. B. Pillow about the newly formed library at Helena that they returned home determined to organize a similar facility there."49 The Arkadelphia club patterned their plan of action on that of Arkansas's oldest library association. On February 25, 1888, the forty members of the Pacaha Club of Helena formed the Women's Library Association and in 1891 constructed the state's first town library building . Later that same year Fort Smith's Fortnightly Club "resolved to promote

47"What a Public Library Does For a Town," Bentonville Sun, December 1 2, 1 89 1 .

48Arkansas Federation of Women's Clubs, Yearbook 1903-1904, Report of the Library Committee, 11, collection A-54, Archives and Special Collections, University of Arkansas at Little Rock Library. Hereafter cited as AFWC collection.

49Ark&dc\phm Southern Standard, September 1, 1966, 1.




literature and education by the creation and maintenance of a public library, and for that purpose formed itself into an association called the Fortnightly Library Association."50 A Mena clubwoman recalled that

In 1897, when Mena was yet in her swaddling clothes, twelve women met at the home of Mrs. E. M. Green, now of California, their objective being to organize a club to promote and improve social conditions in the growing town. At die close of the meeting the Woman's Literary Club of Mena had sprung into being. At once social life made rapid strides, but the club began to feel an unrest because there were other things that should be done along the lines of civic improvement and after earnest thought and discussion, it was decided that a public library was Mena's most crying need, and that the club would undertake the starting and upkeep of a public library as their work.51

Library collections typically began as donations or as accumulations of books that supported the club's function as a literary or study group. These collections usually circulated on a subscription basis, and most of them formed the cores of subsequent town libraries. Searcy's Phoenix Club provided its

study bodes for circulation and charged one dollar annually to use the library. During 1897 the Arkadelphia Woman's Library Association successfully solicited book donations from the public to initiate their collection. The

president of Mena's Woman's Literary Club held a garden party at her home in the spring of 1900 to benefit the library, and each guest was asked to bring a book. The result was "Forty valuable books, the nucleus of our well filled

libraiy of today."52 A charter member of the Stuttgart Woman's Club recalls that their "book shower was a great success, many people arriving with armloads of books. . . . Although not too many of the donated books were of

great value to the library they did begin to fill up the shelves."53 Not all collections possessed such dubious value. The Morrilton

Pathfinders owned the state's most valuable collection which they acquired in a somewhat unusual fashion. William Porter, an engraver, world traveler, and

50Minutes, September 28, 1891, Fort Smith Fortnightly Club.

"MenaStar, March 3, 1926. 52Ibid. 53

Stuttgart Standard, September 5, 1974.



If S 3 sl|

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1 1

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rare book collector, settled in his later years in Ozone in Johnson County. He built a log cabin to house his incredible collection, which included numerous first editions, erne 1616 imprint, a 1784 edition of Johnson's Dictionary of the English Language, a first edition of Sales's translation of Al Koran, and a 1697 volume containing the complete works of Edmund Spenser. One particularly interesting item was a set of six large volumes of reproductions of paintings in the Louvre printed by order of Napoleon Bonaparte in 1809, of which only one other complete set existed. A few pages were stained, and according to local lore, "It was supposed that the set once belonged to a royal family who lived in a castle by the sea and that the salt water splashed through a window of the castle on the books."54

Generous to a fault, Porter found himself in financial difficulty and offered to sell his collection to W. S. Cazort of Morrilton. Cazort bought and promptly lent the collection to the Morrilton Pathfinder's library because he had no place to house it. He finally sold the books to the club for $750 with the understanding that the collection would be kept intact as Porter had requested.55 Shortly after the sale, Porter visited his collection: "He entered the library one day, a pathetic figure clad in overalls. When he saw his precious volumes on the shelves he extended his arms toward them, 'my children,' he cried. Then Porter and the librarian together wept because fate had decreed that he should forever part with the books." 56

Once committed to the endeavor, clubs did not abandon their "children," but assumed responsibility for the library's continued upkeep. Most funding resulted from hard work, innovation, and creativity. The clubs held book showers, bake sales, bridge parties, oyster suppers, spelling bees, colonial teas, bazaars, quilting bees, and skating rink evenings. They presented plays, lectures, musicals, baby shows, masquerades, old fiddlers' contests, waxwork exhibits, talent shows, and womanless weddings. In many cases, financial support continued for years while clubwomen worked toward tax support for libraries.

According to a member of the Camden New Century Club, "Every possible channel of raising money was explored No source of income was

54Gladys McNeil, "History of the Library in Arkansas," M.A. thesis, University of Mississippi, 1957, p. 18.

55An Agreement between W. S. Cazort and the Pathfinders Club of Morrilton, Ark., 1916, Morrilton Pathfinder Club.

"McNeil, 15.




left untried" The Camden Club sponsored an annual tag day, when attractive

girls stood on street corners all day and sold tags. "In 1929 when the income of the library was at a very low ebb, the Club even rented the side of the

building to a local theater for advertising purposes, in order to help keep the

library open."57 In 1923 members of the Blytheville Woman's Club offered their services

as cotton pickers when "several planters, sympathetic with the library cause, volunteered to donate a portion of the cotton picked [the women] hitched a wagon to a small truck in 'hayride style' to set out on their cotton picking expedition. But not before reading a notice given each volunteer stating 'Bloomers permitted but rouge or lip stick not allowed.'"58

In 1897 the Arkadelphia Woman's Library Association conducted a sale of donated silver pieces, china, and linen at Pannell's store and gave a turkey supper, which raised $98. One member exulted:

John D. Rockefeller in his palmiest moments does not feel half so rich. We spent nearly the entire sum in books, including a good many works pertaining to French history which we studied that year ... the

question of furnishings arose and many were the debates, not as to what we should buy, but as to how little we could get along with. The

expenditures were finally limited to a $1 1 ingrain rug, some window shades, a $10 bookcase, and an unpainted table for the use of the librarian. The demand for seats was met by requesting each member to bring her own chair.59

The Woman's Literary Club of Mena proved both persuasive and inventive in their fund-raising efforts. The editor of the local newspaper "kindly placed said paper at the disposal of the club for a day. It was accepted and an editorial staff was appointed by the president. The result was an eight- page paper that netted the club over $200. The drug stores, appreciating the

untiring efforts and courage manifested by the club, placed their soda fountains at their disposal for a day. . . . two women on the day appointed

57"Fifty Years of Camden Library History," Ouachita County Historical Quarterly 5 (March 1974): 1,3.

Maureen King, "A History of the Blytheville Library," brochure printed by the Friends of the Blytheville Public Library, April 4, 1976.

"Arkadelphia Index, April 11, 1908.




officiated at each drug store as hostess from 2 until 6, two more from 7 until 10."60 The Mena club also enjoyed some corporate support. The city was the main division point of the Kansas City Southern railroad, and "officials of the road, realizing what a good library would mean to its employees, contributed each month S7.50."61 This realization may have been prompted by the fact that the wife of the chief engineer was the club's first president.

The Fort Smith Fortnightly Library Association conducted campaigns to sell subscriptions, but unlike other clubs, the members adamantly opposed "entertainments" as a form of fund-raising. The president's 1893 report stated that entertainments were not in harmony with the association's intent to be an influence for intellectual growth and advancement. She further admonished that the time and energy spent on entertainments would be more profitably spent on recruiting new [paying] members for the Association. The one exception to this policy would be lectures by "men of known ability and readings."62

According to a historian of the Stuttgart Woman's Club, "early club members seem to have had a real talent for securing donations when the situation became desperate At the November [1922] meeting Mrs. M. C. Burns and Freudenberg were appointed to secure us a load of wood for the libraiy by any honorable means at their command besides paying cash for it."63

In her first annual report, the secretary of Helena's Woman's Libraiy Association exhorted members to take pride in the library, because "It was originated by women, has been controlled and directed by women, and has flourished wonderfully Our efforts have provided the gentlemen with an occasion to help."64 The ladies of Helena provided many opportunities for the

gentlemen to help. Calling on husbands and friends, they convinced "several

public spirited men to unite in the donating of a lot for the library."65 Shortly afterwards the city's fraternal lodges had to vacate their rooms in the Jefferson School, and the Women's Library Association proposed leasing rooms in a new libraiy building to the lodges if their members would support a bond issue

mMena Star, March 3, 1926. "Ibid. ^Annual Report of the President of the Fortnightly Library Association, 1 893, Fort Smith

Fortnightly Club.

^Stuttgart Standard, Septembers, 1975.

"Taylor, La</u?.y of the Club, 325.

"McNeil, "History of the Library in Arkansas," 7.




to raise fluids for construction. The men agreed, and in September 1891 Arkansas's first town library building was completed at a cost of six thousand dollars.

Like their counterparts in Helena, Morrilton gentlemen also found "occasion to help." When the Pathfinder Club purchased the old Presbyterian Church in March 1914 to house its library collection, "the men of the town, now having become used to club wives, fell right in line and helped put up shelves, donated lumber and made themselves generally useful by subscribing money to pay the insurance."66

As with patterns of purpose, collections, and funding, patterns of staffing libraries exhibited great uniformity from club to club. The majority of the libraries were staffed on a volunteer basis by club members. After their library had been open for two years, the president of Fort Smith's Fortnightly Club observed that "Even now it is a matter of surprise to some that the library is always open on time and conducted in a systematic and business like manner."67 Most clubs assigned members to work particular days each week or each month. Members of the Stuttgart Woman's Club took turns staffing the library in alphabetical order. This system soon proved insufficient, for "After a few months there was a notation that errors were being made, books had been lost and a fine of 50 cents was levied against members who missed taking their turns."68

The Arkadelphia Library Association kept the library open on Mondays and Thursdays, "at hours varying with the seasons,"69 and the Marvell Mother's Club opened the library for three hours one afternoon each week. The Warren Woman's Club housed their collection in a member's home. "The door was left open and any person desiring to check out a book went in unassisted, selected a book, signed the card and left ten cents - one dime - library charge."70 The Fort Smith Fortnightly library was open every Saturday afternoon from May to October. The only time the library was forced to close was on the Saturday following the cyclone of January 11, 1898.71 The Woman's Literary Club of Mena "appointed two club members to take charge

"'"Sixty Years of Pathfinding," Morrilton Pathfinder Club.

67Report of the president, December 7, 1893, Fort Smith Fortnightly Club.

^Stuttgart Daily Leader, May 1980, Centennial Edition, sec. 4, p. 1. ^Southern Standard, September 1, 1966.

70Swa£Ford, Arkansas Federation of Women 's Clubs: History 1986.

71Minutes, December 5, 1 898, Fort Smith Fortnightly Club.




of the library each Saturday afternoon, going at 2 and remaining until 6. It may be remarked, parenthetically, that in all the club work, the women, like the birds, go in pairs."72

Growing collections and patronage necessitated larger quarters; consequently libraries often had several homes. Many collections resided at one time or another in county courthouses, churches, or (for some unknown reason) former offices of local physicians. The Woman's Library Association of Arkadelphia first housed its bodes in the home of Mrs. S. R. McNutt, a club member who served as their first librarian. Over the next few years they rented

space in the Sanders block on Maddox Street, then at the store of E. W. Thomas, and finally at McAdams and Stuart's Department Store. In 1903 two benefactors came to their aid: Dr. J. R. Dale donated a lot for the library, and noted Little Rock architect Charles L. Thompson provided the building plans and specifications free of charge. The building, of Georgian design with four ionic columns in front, solid brick walls, and white wood finish, was opened in December 1903. The association spent ten years retiring the debt incurred in construction costs.

The Woman's Book Club of Harrison temporarily located their library in the Harrison Times newspaper office while members sought a suitable location for a building to accommodate both the library and club meetings. A Harrison physician, who was married to a club member, offered to house a

library in his backyard. The October 15, 1902, minutes relate that Mrs. Lulu Vance opened the "discussion of our clubhouse. Her heart is so deeply interested she has enthused her husband [Dr. Vance] to such an extent he

proposes to build in their garden and allow the ladies in payments to pay him for the building."73 Another member suggested purchase of the abandoned office building of Dr. Johnson, which sat on a less desirable lot but was available for $250. A motion to postpone the decision until the next meeting, so that members could "consult their husbands regarding the issue," carried. When they reconvened, the club voted to purchase the Johnson property.74 A called meeting on December 29 at Mrs. Ella Bunch's lacked a quorum, so the "members present repaired to the home of Mrs. Clark, she being unable to go out that day."75 The purpose of the meeting was to discuss ways and means to

12Mena Star, March 3, 1926.

73Minutes, October 15, 1902, Woman's Book Club of Harrison.

74Ibid., October 29.

75Ibid., December 29.




finance the repairs, remodeling, and refurbishing necessary to convert a doctor's office into a library. The ladies' efforts met with success because on March 3, 1903, the Harrison Public Libraiy formally opened to the public with two stoves, numerous book cases, six hundred volumes of books, and a piano as the initial furnishings.

Dr. R. Y. Phillips provided the Woman's Club of Malvern with a room at no charge for its first library. The library later moved to the basement of the First Methodist Church and then to the courthouse. In 1927 the club borrowed

$7,500 from the three Malvern banks and purchased a lot on the corner of Third and Ash Streets for $2,250. They commissioned a Little Rock architect, Thomas Harding, to design a library and hired a local contractor, Emmett

Nunn, to construct the building, which was colonial style with fireplace and

shelving around the main room and a basement containing kitchen, shower, and dressing rooms. On March 13, 1928, the Woman's Club and Library opened to the public after an expenditure of twelve thousand dollars, including grounds, buildings, and furnishings.76 Over the next few years, the club strove

valiantly to pay off the banknotes. With five thousand dollars remaining, they finally lost the battle during the Depression and defaulted on the loans. They successfully appealed to the public for donations, and the library building was deeded to the Hot Springs County Library Association.

Fund-raising events and solicitations of donated books and money were

only the beginning of clubwomen's efforts on behalf of the reading public. As clubs matured, members became activists. They quickly learned to be

politically aggressive in their pursuit of public support for libraries. Taking their cue from the AFWC, which counted tax-supported libraries a high priority from its beginning, club members lobbied legislators to that end. They were soon petitioning local and state officials and legislators to pass ordinances and laws that would allow publicly funded libraries. Between 1910 and 1930 the Camden New Century Club, the Woman's Library Association of Helena, the Warren Woman's Club, the Woman's Literary Club of Van Buren, the Fort Smith Fortnightly Club, and the Woman's Study Club of

Rogers were among those clubs that were responsible for passage of city, county, and state measures that provided tax monies for libraries.

On January 1, 1908, Arkansas's first Carnegie library opened in Fort Smith - not without a struggle however: "There were no provisions for

76"Womanfs Club Building Becomes Hot Spring County Library "

Heritage 2 (July 1 97 1 ): 54.




obtaining library funds through taxation, and it was necessary to have state law passed before the maintenance fee required by Mr. Carnegie could be

pledged."77 Members of the Fortnightly Club allied themselves with key legislators from Sebastian County and passed the required legislation. In 191 1 the Helena Library became the first in Arkansas to receive funding under a

subsequent state law that raised the allowance to one-half mill tax levy for the

support of public libraries. Passage of the local levy was due primarily to the efforts of the Women's Library Association.

In 1929 the Camden New Century Club organized the Camden Library Association, a common ploy of women's clubs seeking to involve local business and professional men in the funding effort. A local attorney was invited to join the association and at the request of the New Century Club

president, he drew up the necessary petitions to have a library tax of one-half mill included on the November ballot. Club members circulated the petitions, secured the necessary signatures, and passed the tax measure. A few years later, the club successfully warded off attempts by private and public interests to appropriate the historic library building.78 Willing to relinquish the building only if the city provided other suitable housing and funding for library services, the club held firm, as one member recalled:

When the new municipal building was built, one councilman was

going to move the library books into one of the rooms of that building and sell the library property and give the money to the city. . . . One

mayor was determined to take the property and that was really a battle

royal. Another citizen wanted to move the building next to the fire

department, sell the lot and give the money to the city. The city was so in need of it! ! ! So only those who have been very close to the situation know the struggle it has taken to hold on to this property.

^Thelma Wray, 'Tort Smith Public Library," Journal of the Fort Smith Historical Society 13 (April 1989): 26. The law referred to was the 1903 legislation allowing one-fourth mill to be levied for library support. Carnegie grants required a community to hold title to the construction site and to pledge to support the library with an annual amount equal to 10 percent of the original grant. The Fort Smith Fortnightly Club and the Morrilton Pathfinders were able to secure Carnegie grants.

7*The building of classic Greek architecture had originally housed law offices, but just after the Civil War it was used by the federal government first as a Freedman's Bureau and later as a Land Office. The ladies of Camden walked on the other side of the street rather than walk under the U.S. flag hanging in front of the building.




This the association always offered, that any movement for a

permanent library that would be a credit to the city, they would

cooperate with [to] the fullest extent. They would gladly donate their entire holdings of property and books, but they were not interested in

any make-shift plans.79

Having honed their political skills on public library projects, clubs directed their enthusiasm and energies toward numerous other enterprises that

improved the quality of life in their communities. According to a historian of the Morrilton Pathfinders, "one is really amazed to find how much the Pathfinder Club has done in Morrilton, in the way of promoting culture, beautifying the town, education and furtherance of laws, both moral and

sanitary."80 Following the establishment of the library in 1898, their earliest

projects included a kindergarten opened in 1907, and the installation of signals at railroad and street crossings. Beginning in 1909 the club sponsored "Clean

Up Week," giving prizes to the best-cleaned yards and alleys. The city eventually relieved them of this duty, but one member complained that, unlike the city, the club never left "sacks and boxes on the street corners for months."81 Following almost twenty years of volunteer projects, one Pathfinder recalled that "the war was on, our hearts were sad and we began to do war work instead of club meetings." After the war "we relaxed as one

usually does after a great effort," until 1925 when the club began a new series of projects that included a milk program for undernourished school children, playground equipment for the local park, Red Cross drives, and crime

prevention programs.82 Having founded a public library in 1910, in the 1920s members of the

Blytheville Woman's Book Club served as Red Cross volunteers, sold Tuberculosis Association seals, contributed to local student loan funds, waged a voter registration campaign, raised funds for local schools, distributed milk to undernourished children, sponsored musical concerts, led a city

79"Fifty Years of Camden Library History," 4. ""'Sixty Years oFPathfinding," Morrilton Pathfinder Club. ""History of the Library," Morrilton Pathfinder Club. ""Sixty Years of Pathfinding," Morrilton Pathfinder Club.




beautification project, and ensured that Blytheville had a pure water supply.83 The DeWitt Mother's Club, after establishing a public library in 1926,

supplied books and magazines for Tucker Farm and furnished a women's restroom each year during the county fair. They regularly directed letter-

writing campaigns toward their state legislators in support of selected

legislation, such as the Children's and Mother's Aid Bureau Bill and prison reform. In the Depression they operated a soup kitchen for school children, assisted in clearing cans and rubbish from local highways, made jelly and canned fruits for the Boy's Industrial School, circulated a petition asking that chickens be shut up, and campaigned to keep obscene magazines off newsstands.

Local club projects were often undertaken at the urging and under the

leadership of the Arkansas Federation of Women's Clubs.84 Mrs. Jerome Pillow of Helena, AFWC vice president in 1897, wrote in the club woman's column of ihe Arkansas Democrat that "it is now felt that purely literary work is not all satisfying." She summoned clubs to "Benefit their respective communities by the establishment of free libraries, traveling libraries, increased interest in public schools and kindergartens, school libraries; household economics especially sanitation and cleanliness in cities, schools and homes. A reform movement has come to be a necessity."85 In 1900 President Frances Marion Hanger reminded the AFWC that "Our social

pleasures, literary and musical programmes should be ballasted with some

practical work that will prove the universal sisterhood of womanhood."86 Over the next twenty years, the federation became actively involved in educational

reform, civic improvement, health care, penal reform, and children's and women's rights.

While clubwomen were engaged in numerous civic and political causes, there is little evidence that they were active suffragists. Mrs. Lulu Vance, who

presented a paper on Elizabeth Cady Stanton at a meeting of the Woman's Book Club of Harrison, proved, according to the minutes, to be "an excellent

83Mrs. J. W. Bader, "History of the Blytheville Woman's Club," April 20, 1929 (Mrs. Bader was a charter member and Mississippi County historian); Mrs. H. G. Bush, "Brief History of Blytheville Woman's Club from Formation to 1969, as Gleaned from Minutes," November

14, 1969, Blytheville Woman's Club, Blytheville, Arkansas. For a full discussion of the Federation's activities, see Ross, "New Woman."

%s Arkansas Democrat, March 19, 1898, cited in Ross, "New Woman," 324.

^Yearbook 1900-1901, AFWC collection, 17.




advocate of the pioneer champion of woman's rights." At the next club

meeting, the minutes were read and approved "excepting the clause

designating Mrs. Vance as an advocate of woman's rights. The charge is withdrawn and made null and void."87 The organized suffrage movement never commanded large numbers of members in Arkansas, and the majority of clubwomen took care to avoid this issue. Not until 1915 did the AFWC endorse the enfranchisement of women.

A club woman's progression from founding libraries, a safe and socially acceptable project, to lobbying the state legislature for prison reform or

demanding suffrage, marks a significant revision of the image of the southern

lady. The women's club movement, which had its roots in church missionary and benevolent societies, provided a bridge between those societies and the full-blown women's movement of the Progressive Era. During this time, the roles of women underwent critical change.88 Arkansas clubwomen who founded public libraries wore many hats. They continued to be wives, mothers, and homemakers at the same time that they were becoming educators, volunteers, reformers, and visionaries. For the first time women stepped outside the home and assumed the role of social, cultural, and civic conscience for their communities. "As women formed associations, they moved the values of 'woman's sphere' - that place where piety and compassion ruled and where moral upbringing of the young took place - into the public realm and tried to institutionalize them."89 The founding of a public library was often the first

step toward the institutionalization of those values. While the original impetus to organize clubs may have been study programs for self-education in topics such as art, philosophy, and literature, few members were seriously committed to educating themselves in the traditional sense. Training of a more practical nature soon took precedence over perusing the classics. Clubwomen acquired "less tangible talents" referred to by Blair: organization, public speaking, and

^Minutes, January 21, 1903, Harrison Woman's Book Club. ^See William D. Jenkins, "Housewifery and Motherhood: The Question of Role Change

in the Progressive Era," in Mary Kelley, ed., Woman 's Being, Woman 's Place: Female Identity and Vocation in American History (Boston: G.K. Hall, 1979), 142-153; Anne Firor Scott, The Southern Lady: From Pedestal to Politics 1830-1930 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1970); Nancy Woloch, Women and the American Experience (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1984).

wScott, "On Seeing and Not Seeing," 16.




fimd-raising.90 According to Mrs. J. Frauenthal, vice president of the AFWC in 1910,

At the beginning women read their little papers upon whether

Shakespeare was really Shelley or Byron, held the little paper in

trembling fingers and enunciated the views of the Encyclopedia Britannica with trembling voice. Now behold them step boldly out and without paper, often times without notes, enunciate their own views on child labor, the indeterminate sentence, or votes for women. Look about you and see what women have done toward civic

righteousness, not alone in cleaning streets and alleys, but cleaning up the moral plague - spots which are in every town.91

Progressing from efforts to improve themselves to efforts to improve their

communities, they were quick to identify the link between ignorance and standards of living and confidently move into an arena which was avowedly theirs - public education. Their unflagging support for public libraries, compulsory education, free kindergartens, and higher education for women testifies to their convictions about the value of education in a democratic

society. The founding of a public library was, in many ways, a logical choice of projects for a literary club. What better way to make an educational impact than to establish an institution that was known as the "people's university"? Public libraries proclaimed the clubs' belief in universal education, which included not only the education of all children, but vocational instruction for workers and the improvement of the minds of the citizenry through the reading of good bodes. Though at first a natural outgrowth of the collections of books amassed for club study programs, a library garnered community support, lending credibility to a club's work and providing the experience clubwomen needed to attempt other civic projects.

Even as Arkansas clubwomen extended their influence outside the home,

they never lost sight of home as the center of their lives. A Morrilton club charter member would later reminisce that "though we have many of us grown old in the Pathfinder Club, we have not grown away from the house and house interests are still our greatest concern. Although we are full fledged club

90BIair> Clubwoman as Feminist, 58.

91"Yours Truly," AFWC collection, 1910..




women, we are still homemakers."92 This credo was first promulgated at the national level in 1904, when members of the General Federation of Women's Clubs reached consensus that "We have no platform unless it is the care of women and children, and home, meaning the four walls of the city, as well as four walls of brick and mortar."93 Devotion to this concept of home developed a strong sense of unity among club members.

Through unity clubwomen in Arkansas, as throughout the nation, found their power in numbers and for the first time experienced the effectiveness of

organization. Alone, as housewives and mothers, they had little influence; banded together in common cause, they rightfully earned the sobriquet, "municipal housekeepers." A U.S. congressman noted in 1919 that "This is fast becoming a government of the women, for women's views, and by the women's clubs. . . . Strange that the men do the voting and elect us to these

positions, while the women assume the duty of telling . . . what they want us to do."94

Club members took care in the early years to avoid any action that might be interpreted as sympathetic to the suffrage movement, and there was little overt enthusiasm exhibited for the temperance movement. This posture enabled club members "to engage in respectable reforms, to educate themselves and the public, and in some cases to disguise their attacks on

chivalry."95 However, letters, newspaper clippings, and club minutes leave little question that suffragist sympathizers lurked among the membership of

literary clubs, even if names from the Arkansas suffragist movement

infrequently appeared on the club rolls. While Arkansas literary clubs may not have been a breeding ground for feminist leaders, they did provide a platform for women concerned with improving themselves and their communities.

Organized clubwomen became a force with which to reckon, and though not as aggressive as their sisters in northern and western states, they significantly expanded the confines within which a southern lady might change the world around her.

Thus the contributions of Arkansas clubwomen to libraries did indeed reflect women's changing social roles, but these changes were not as radical as

^"History of the Libraiy," 1932, Morrilton Pathfinder Club.

^Scott, "On Seeing and Not Seeing," 16.

"Mary Jean Houde, Reaching Out: A Story of the General Federation of Women's Clubs

(Chicago: Mobium Press, 1989), 89.

95Grantham, Southern Progressivism, 203.




they might first appear. They stopped short of action which would have revolutionized woman's place in American society. In the face of change, a society can accept it or modify and adapt its institutions to ensure their survival. In the Progressive Era the latter occurred, and clubwomen applied their efforts to "improving society rather than altering its fundamental order"; they devoted themselves to reform rather than role change.96

Historians who perceive the promotion of public libraries as a means to impose middle-class virtues on the lower class may misconstrue both the role and the power of early southern clubwomen. While social control may be a motivation accurately ascribed to clubwomen in eastern and northern states, similar behavior would have been a startling departure from the traditional role of southern women, and it is questionable whether Arkansas clubwomen had any ulterior motive to control others. Altruism is a much more likely explanation than manipulation, for southern literary clubs descended from the altruistic tradition of missionary and benevolent societies. To argue that southern women, who customarily stayed home, raised children, and cared for their husbands, would set out to transform an entire class of people is problematic.

The crux of the problem lies in two interrelated conundrums: first, the negative connotation usually attached to the term social control juxtaposed with the positive connotation accorded altruism; second, the difficulty of imputing motivation or intent. Social control can be beneficial, and altruism can be used for ulterior motives. It follows that altruism could be an instrument of social control, and that social control could be an intentional result of altruism. Thus when clubwomen lobbied for legislation for compulsory education, was this altruism or an effort at social control? Or was it both?

The answer to this question depends upon intent - whose interests did they have at heart? One approach to this issue is to attempt to reconcile the words of Arkansas clubwomen with their actions. As has been demonstrated, when referring to libraries, club members spoke in terms of "improving ourselves and our communities," "benefiting others as well as ourselves," "educating children," and "providing a place where strangers in our city can spend a pleasant evening reading." Their actions corresponded to their words. They opened their libraries to all white citizens either freely or at a nominal charge;

^Ross, "New Woman," 35 1 .




they waged lengthy campaigns to make the libraries truly free and public through tax support; and they gave generously of their time, talents, and resources to keep the libraries open.

As clubs pursued other community improvements, they addressed human issues of public health, child labor, penal reform, juvenile delinquency, orphanages, and universal education. They challenged society to "focus upon the child as the future guardian of our civilization," to protect and educate "thousands of unfortunates, young men and women who will be an honor and a blessing to our State, instead of remaining criminals and outcasts," and to remedy the "evil of limited free school privileges by tactful and conservative methods directed to our lawmaking powers."97 These words could be interpreted as not so subtle attempts at social control, as typical Progressive Era rhetoric, or as an altruistic mission statement. If wanting one's fellow citizens to be healthy, well educated, and humanely treated is a form of social control, and it might well be, then clubwomen were culpable.

Social control is most readily apparent in the limitation of their altruism to the white members of their communities. For as Ross has noted, literary clubwomen were products of their times: "The color barrier defined the bounds of social intercourse in this age of reform and the Arkansas club movement mirrored the national movement as it developed along lines of racial segregation. This world of segregation, however, did not prevent Arkansas women of both races from embracing like concerns and pursuing similar aims. Regardless of race, women used the club as a vehicle for social change."98 Being reformers, not revolutionaries, clubwomen erred on the side of conservatism. Their libraries, kindergartens, clinics, and parks were built for whites. However, within the slowly widening limits of their social and political spheres, they instituted reforms that ultimately benefitted all Arkansans.

Clubwomen assumed responsibility for library services, as well as such services as public sanitation, reform schools, sanatoriums, and school milk programs because state and local governments, run by men, had not yet accepted that responsibility and because women deemed these services to be essential to their communities. In that sense they were indeed imposing their will upon entire communities, but not for their own advantage except in the sense that a healthy, safe, well-educated citizenry led to higher standards of

"Yearbook 1901-1902, AFWC collection. ^Ross, "New Woman," 326-327.




living and an improved community - a community admittedly defined by the white middle class.

In the end, altruism became both the strength and the weakness of the clubs, for "When women's advance became justified in terms of the good they could do, rather than of their human right to equality, it became conditional in nature."99 It required the more focused suffrage movement to win for women their legal right to full participation in the political process, and the more self- serving women's movement of the 1960s to wage the battle for social and economic equality. There is little doubt however, that women's literary clubs had already made significant inroads toward women's full participation in social processes, thus helping pave the way for the Nineteenth Amendment. In effect, Arkansas literary clubs contributed to a belated Progressive Movement in the South. Their legacy is captured in the 1910 musings of a charter member of Monticello's Sorosis Club:

The world is all gates, all opportunities, strings of tension to be struck. May we so grasp those opportunities, striking those strings with such care and provision that others may reap the benefit thereof

long after we have passed the portals of these other gates. May these

opportunities be seized as they pass with firmness and skill, that the world may realize that we are in earnest for the upbuilding of every good work. If the present generation finds no pleasure nor profit in our having had an existence as an organization, may we so build that we can leave our impress on the future generations of our town. May what we have done help them do more than they otherwise could have done.100

This clubwoman's hope for future generations has been realized. Arkansans continue to find knowledge, pleasure, and a sense of community in the libraries

bequeathed to them. As founders of that most democratic of American institutions, literary clubwomen built a firm foundation for continuance of their mission: free public library service for Arkansans. The libraries they founded remain as monuments to their commitment to improving their lives and the lives of those around them.

"Garrison, Apostles of Culture, xv. 1 ̂"Sorosis Club Celebrates 75th Anniversary Year," A dvance Monticellonian, November

1977.




APPENDIX A

ARKANSAS PUBLIC LIBRARIES FOUNDED BY LITERARY CLUBS

Date Founded City Organization

1888 Helena Library Association 1 892 Fort Smith Fortnightly Club 1 895 Little Rock Cooperative Club 1896 Searcy Phoenix Club 1 897 Arkadelphia Woman's Literary Association 1898 Morrilton Pathfinder Club 1 899 Crawfordsville Woman's Book Club 1899 Malvern Woman's Club 1 899 Van Buren Women's Literary Club 1900 Harrison Woman's Book Club 1900 Mena Woman's Literary Club 1902 Monticello Sorosis Club 1904 Camden New Century Club 1904 Rogers Woman's Study Club 1910 Blytheville Woman's Club 1910 Corning Wednesday Club 1921 Hardy Timely Club 1922 Marvell Mother's Club 1922 Stuttgart Woman's Club 1924 Bearden Book Club 1926 Brinkley Round Table Literary Club 1927 DeWitt Mother's Club 1926 Warren Women's Club 1929 Magnolia Sorosis 1 93 1 Benton Junior Fortnightly Club 1931 Lake Village Delta Shakespeare Club 1933 McGehee Delphia Society 1935 Stamps Woman's Study Club



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