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Sorosis

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For the skin disease, see Psoriasis.
Sorosis Club rules in 1869

Sorosis was the first professional women's club in the United States. It was established in March 1868 in New York City by Jane Cunningham Croly.

Origin of the club's name

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Sorosis is a latinate word meaning 'aggregation' (from the Greek sōros, meaning ‘heap’). Its object was to further the educational and social activities of women by bringing representative women of accomplishment in art, literature, science, and kindred pursuits. The club's name, Sorosis, would be founded by Jane Croly through searching countless of dictionaries.[1] Jane was fond of "its full, appropriate signification, its unhackneyed character and sweet sound".[1] Briefly, Kate Field, one of the 14 beginning charter members, would change the club's name from Sorosis to the "Women's League", but after much consideration and a second ballot, Sorosis would be restored to become the club's final name.[1] As a result, Kate Field and others would withdraw themselves from the club.[1] The meeting would conclude with Alice Cary presenting her inaugural address.[1] The following week, Alice would resign from presidency due to the strain the disputes caused on her health.[1]

History

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In March 1868, a group of women were denied the ability to purchase a ticket to attend the all-male New York Press Club hosted dinner for author Charles Dickens at Delmonico's.[2] In response to being excluded by the New York Press Club, Sorosis was organized.[2] On April 20, 1868, Sorosis hosted its first lunch meeting at the same restaurant.[2] They extended an invite to Dickens, but he declined to attend.[2] At the meeting, the 14 charter members of Sorosis were Alice Cary, Jane "Jennie" C. Croly, Kate Field, Phoebe Cary, Ella Clymer, Celia M. Burleigh, Josephine Pollard, Ellen Louise Demorest, Charlotte B. Wilbour, Anne Botta, "Fanny Fern" Parton, Henry M. Field, Lucy Gibbons, and James T. Field.[3] In January of 1869, Sorosis would become incorporated meaning it became a legal institution.[4] Within one year, Sorosis had 83 members.[4] Along with Boston's New England Woman's Club (also founded in 1868), Sorosis inspired the formation of women's clubs across the country.[4]

The Sorosis ... was organized ... to promote "mental activity and pleasant social intercourse," and in spite of a severe fire of hostile criticism and misrepresentation, it has evinced a sturdy vitality, and really demonstrated its right to exist by a large amount of beneficent work. ... These ladies pledged themselves to work for the release of women from the disabilities which debar them from a due participation in the rewards of industrial and professional labour ... I believe it has been the stepping-stone to useful public careers, and the source of inspiration to many ladies.

— Emily Faithfull, 1884[5]

Early members of Sorosis were participants in varied professions and political reform movements such as abolitionism, suffrage, prison reform, temperance and peace. Sorosis expanded into local chapters beyond New York City in the early twentieth century and the various chapters went on to organize war relief efforts during both World Wars. Peacetime activities included philanthropy (such as support for funding the MacDowell Colony), scholarship funds, and social reforms (such as literary training for immigrant women). In later years, Sorosis focused its activities on local projects, raising money for the aid of other women's clubs, funding scholarships for women, and aiding local rescue missions.[4]

In 1890, Sorosis invited other women's clubs to attend a ratification convention in New York City.[6] Sixty-three clubs were in attendance and formed the General Federation of Women's Clubs.[7] Together, these women's clubs would push for social and political reform on the local, state, and national level.[6]

The University of Texas at San Antonio houses a collection of records for the San Antonio chapter of Sorosis. The collection spans the years 1923 through 1991 and provides information about the club's members and activities primarily through minutes, photographs, scrapbooks and yearbooks.[4]

Club and meeting structure

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Each month, with the exception of a summer recess, Sorosis hosted symposiums on the following topics: literature, science, philosophy, art, drama, and education.[8] Members of Sorosis formed committees that conducted work and research on the various symposium topics.[8] Each committee was granted one day each year to present their work.[8] The club also hosted business meetings two weeks after each monthly symposium.[8]

Viewpoints

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The viewpoints of Sorosis leaned more conservative than other women's groups of the time.[9] Though many of its members were suffragists, the group did not actively work towards the advancement of women's suffrage.[10] Sorosis was known to support abolition movements,[9] temperance,[10] women's education,[9] dress reform,[11] and rights for working women.[9] In general, Sorosis accepted traditional ideas about the differences in sexes.[12] This included the idea that men and women have naturally different temperaments, and that men are less spiritually pure than women.[12] They also held the viewpoint that serving others was more important than acting in self-interest for women.[12] Sorosis and other women's clubs believed that it was these inherent gender differences, such as women's naturally higher morality and nurturing tendencies, that made it so women should take active roles in reform and bettering society.[12]

Member achievements

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Scientific achievements

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  • Jennie de la Montagnie Lozier was a physician for 12 years.[13] In her time as a Sorosis member she was chairman of science, chairman of the committee on philosophy, and corresponding secretary.[13] Later on, she was elected president of Sorosis.[13] In 1889, Lozier was sent to the International Homeopathic Congress in Paris by the New York Medical College and Hospital for Women.[13] There, she presented her paper on women's education in medicine in French.[13] The paper was printed in the transactions of the congress in its entirety.[13]
  • Phoebe Jane Babcock Wait was a physician and the elected chair of obstetrics at the New York Medical College and Hospital for Women.[14] In 1883 she was named chairman of the staff at that same hospital.[14] Later on, she was elected to the office of the dean of the college by its faculty.[14] She was a member of several societies such as Sorosis, the Society for Promoting the Welfare of the Insane where she served as secretary, and was a consulting staff for the Brooklyn Women's Homeopathic Hospital.[14]
  • Anna Manning Comfort was a doctor of medicine and a member of the first class at the New York Medical College for Women.[15] After graduation, she became the first women to practice medicine in the state of Connecticut.[15] Dr. Comfort wrote "Woman's Education and Woman's Health" in 1874 as a response to a paper that attacked women's higher education.[15]

Literary and journalistic achievements

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  • Ella Maria Dietz Clymer was a poet with a career in theater.[16] In 1881, she adapted a version of Faust to be performed on an English stage.[16] In addition to adapting the stage production herself, she also played a role in it.[16] After leaving her theater career, she published numerous poems in both English and American press including "The Triumph of Love" in 1877, "The Triumph of Time" in 1884, and "The Triumph of Life" in 1885.[16] Within Sorosis, she served on several committees and eventually served as its president for two years.[16]
  • Eliza Putnam Heaton was a journalist and editor.[17] She graduated top of her class from Boston University before becoming the associate editor of the Brooklyn Daily Times.[17] She later worked for the "Times" as an editor.[17] In 1891, she began running the first daily news column that dealt specifically with women's movements.[17]

Business achievements

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  • Alice Houghton was a broker.[18] In 1888, she established her own real estate, insurance, and investment brokerage firm called Mrs. Alice Houghton & Co.[18] She was the lady manager and superintendent of the woman's department in her state where she prepared Columbian Exposition displays.[18] Within Sorosis, she was president of the Spokane branch.[18]

Notable members

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See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b c d e f Croly, Jane Cunningham (1886). Sorosis: its origin and history. New York, N.Y.: J.J. Little & Co. pp. 6, 7, 11, 13, 28.
  2. ^ a b c d Freedman, Paul (2014). "Women and Restaurants in the Nineteenth-Century United States". Journal of Social History. 48 (1): 1–19. ISSN 0022-4529.
  3. ^ Croly, Jane Cunningham (1886). Sorosis: its origin and history. New York, N.Y.: J.J. Little & Co. pp. 6, 7, 11, 13, 28.
  4. ^ a b c d e "Collection: Sorosis records | Smith College Finding Aids". findingaids.smith.edu. Retrieved 2020-05-13.  This article incorporates text available under the CC BY 3.0 license.
  5. ^ a b Faithfull, Emily (1884). Three Visits to America. New York: Fowler & Wells Co., Publishers. pp. 18–21.
  6. ^ a b White, Kate (2015). ""The pageant is the thing": The Contradictions of Women's Clubs and Civic Education during the Americanization Era". College English. 77 (6): 512–529. ISSN 0010-0994.
  7. ^ "History and Mission". GFWC. Retrieved 2020-05-13.
  8. ^ a b c d "Concerning Clubs, Exhibitions and Art Matters". The Decorator and Furnisher. 27 (6): 188–188. 1896. ISSN 2150-6256.
  9. ^ a b c d Rosenthal, Naomi; Fingrutd, Meryl; Ethier, Michele; Karant, Roberta; McDonald, David (1985). "Social Movements and Network Analysis: A Case Study of Nineteenth-Century Women's Reform in New York State". American Journal of Sociology. 90 (5): 1022–1054. ISSN 0002-9602.
  10. ^ a b Stevenson, Alice (2019), "Collecting in America's Progressive and Gilded Eras (1880–1919)", Scattered Finds, Archaeology, Egyptology and Museums, UCL Press, pp. 69–104, doi:10.2307/j.ctv550cxt.6, ISBN 978-1-78735-141-7, retrieved 2024-04-12
  11. ^ Riegel, Robert E. (1963). "Women's Clothes and Women's Rights". American Quarterly. 15 (3): 390–401. doi:10.2307/2711370. ISSN 0003-0678.
  12. ^ a b c d Jeffrey, Kirk (1981). "Review of The Clubwoman as Feminist: True Womanhood Redefined, 1868–1914". New York History. 62 (2): 230–232. ISSN 0146-437X.
  13. ^ a b c d e f Willard, Frances Elizabeth; Livermore, Mary Ashton Rice (1893). A woman of the century; fourteen hundred-seventy biographical sketches accompanied by portraits of leading American women in all walks of life. University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Buffalo, N.Y., Moulton.
  14. ^ a b c d Willard, Frances Elizabeth; Livermore, Mary Ashton Rice (1893). A woman of the century; fourteen hundred-seventy biographical sketches accompanied by portraits of leading American women in all walks of life. University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Buffalo, N.Y., Moulton.
  15. ^ a b c Willard, Frances Elizabeth; Livermore, Mary Ashton Rice (1893). A woman of the century; fourteen hundred-seventy biographical sketches accompanied by portraits of leading American women in all walks of life. University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Buffalo, N.Y., Moulton.
  16. ^ a b c d e Willard, Frances Elizabeth; Livermore, Mary Ashton Rice (1893). A woman of the century; fourteen hundred-seventy biographical sketches accompanied by portraits of leading American women in all walks of life. University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Buffalo, N.Y., Moulton.
  17. ^ a b c d Willard, Frances Elizabeth; Livermore, Mary Ashton Rice (1893). A woman of the century; fourteen hundred-seventy biographical sketches accompanied by portraits of leading American women in all walks of life. University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Buffalo, N.Y., Moulton.
  18. ^ a b c d Willard, Frances Elizabeth; Livermore, Mary Ashton Rice (1893). A woman of the century; fourteen hundred-seventy biographical sketches accompanied by portraits of leading American women in all walks of life. University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Buffalo, N.Y., Moulton.
  19. ^ a b c d Willard, Frances Elizabeth, 1839-1898; Livermore, Mary Ashton Rice, 1820-1905 (1893). A woman of the century; fourteen hundred-seventy biographical sketches accompanied by portraits of leading American women in all walks of life. Buffalo, N.Y., Moulton. Retrieved 8 August 2017.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)Public Domain This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
  20. ^ a b c The Encyclopedia Americana: A Library of Universal Knowledge, vol. 2, 1920, p. 466.
  21. ^ a b c d Binheim, Max; Elvin, Charles A. (1928). Women of the West: A Series of Biographical Sketches of Living Eminent Women in the Eleven Western States of the United States of America. Los Angeles: Publishers Press. Retrieved August 6, 2017.
  22. ^ "Souvenir Fifteenth Annual Congress of the Association for the Advancement of Women Invited and Entertained by Sorosis" (PDF). New York: Drew University. October 1887. p. 29. Retrieved 16 April 2022.
  23. ^ "Dr. Phoebe Jane Babcock Wait - 31 Jan 1904, Sun • Page 7". The New York Times: 7. 1904. Retrieved 4 October 2017.

Further reading

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  • Rakow, Lana F. and Kramarae, Cheris, Women's Source Library, Vol. IV: The Revolution in Words, pp. 243–245
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