Pleasant Hour Club Records
1902 - 1939
Microfilm reel no.: MF 3910
Introduction
The Pleasant Hour Club was organized in 1899 in Wakarusa Township,
west of Lawrence, Kansas, to provide an outlet for women interested
in educational topics and current events. The membership of the Pleasant
Hour Club included women who lived in the Brackett Rural School District
No. 54. This area has since been absorbed by the City of Lawrence. Many
of the members were also members of the Kanwaka Literary Society. The
Pleasant Hour Club disbanded around 1960.
This section provides basic information about the collection and a
brief overview of its contents.
1.1 Repository: Kansas State Historical
Society (Topeka).
1.2 Creator/origination: The Pleasant
Hour Club of Douglas Co., Kansas.1.3 Collection title: Records.
1.4 Collection dates: 1902-1939.
1.5 Collection identification: Microfilm
MF 3910/Collection 5017.
1.6 Collection size: 3 items.
1.7 Abstract: The Pleasant Hour Club
was organized in 1899 in Wakarusa Township, west of Lawrence, Kansas,
to provide an outlet for women interested in educational topics and
current events. The membership of the Pleasant Hour Club included women
who lived in the Brackett Rural School District No. 54. This area has
since been absorbed by the City of Lawrence. Many of the members were
also members of the Kanwaka Literary Society. The Pleasant Hour Club
disbanded around 1960.
The club record book begins with its constitution, followed by a list
of officers for 1902, the order of business, the list of members and
a chronological list of attendance for the year. The minutes for the
year 1902 were faithfully recorded from January through December. A
few other records for other dates appear intermittently following the
1902 records. The minutes for each biweekly meeting list the date, location
(which rotated among members' homes), a number or an approximation of
attendance, reading and approval of the minutes from the previous meeting,
then the program. Programs usually were historical presentations on
subjects such as the history of a state, well known political figures
or events. Meetings frequently include poetry recitations, singing and/or
the playing of musical instruments. Following the record book are two
historical essays about the club.
The terms listed below may include names, places, subjects, occupations,
titles, and other words describing this collection. These terms are
used in the ATLAS catalog used by the Kansas State Historical Society
and affiliated libraries in Topeka, http://lib.wuacc.edu/search, as
well as libraries and archives subscribing to OCLC, a national library/archives
database. Searches on these words should produce a description of this
collection as well as other books and collections that may be of interest.
2.1 Genre/physical characteristics: Bound volume, 20 x 18 cm., and
eleven loose pages.
2.2 Geographic names:
Lawrence (Kan.)
Wakarusa (Douglas County, Kan.: Township)
Douglas Co. (Kan.)
2.3 Subjects:
This section provides more detailed information about this collection
that may be helpful to those wishing to use it, including its history,
restrictions, copyright information, other formats, and a suggested
citation form.
3.1 Custodial history: Originally owned by the Pleasant Hour Club,
later owned by Mrs. Margaret C. Wulfkuhle, who loaned it to the Kansas
State Historical Society for microfilming in 1999-2000.
3.2 Restrictions on access: None.
3.3 Copyright/ publication rights: (Notice:) This material may be protected
by copyright law (Title 17, U.S. Code). The user is cautioned that the
publication of the contents of this microfilm may be construed as constituting
a violation of literary property rights. These rights derive from the
principle of common law, affirmed in the copyright law of 1976 as amended,
that the writer of an unpublished letter or other manuscript has the
sole right to publish the contents thereof unless he or she affirmatively
parts with that right; the right descends to his or her legal heirs
regardless of the ownership of the physical manuscript itself. It is
the responsibility of a user or his or her publisher to secure the permission
of the owner of literary property rights in unpublished writing.
3.5 Preferred citation: Pleasant Hour Club records, 1902-1939; ms.
collection 5017. ; Library and Archives Division, Kansas State Historical
Society.
3.6 Accruals: While other record books of the Pleasant Hour Club may
come to light, no other accruals are expected.
3.7 Processing information: Processed by Robert A. McInnes in February
2000.
The Pleasant Hour Club was organized in Wakarusa Township, Douglas
County, Kansas (Brackett School District No. 54) on January 25, 1899.
Eventually, the Brackett area was absorbed by the City of Lawrence as
Lawrence expanded westward. The Pleasant Hour Club was intended to provide
an organization for women interested in educational topics and current
events. Club meetings took place in members' homes on a rotating basis,
and in the Brackett school house.
Within months of the organization of the Pleasant Hour Club, the Kanwaka
Literary Club organized in a township just west of the Wakarusa Township.
The Kanwaka Literary Club is still active.
An examination of the club history, written by Mrs. Guy Bigsby (Nellie
Colman Bigsby) reveals that the members were deeply sentimental people.
They valued symbolism and tokens of affection and appreciation. These
women's social lives were based almost entirely on club membership and
attendance. PHC members also valued tradition, repetitious custom, and
the recognition of anniversaries. Each December, the PHC would hold
a banquet to honor the club's founders. When officers were elected,
the past-president would ceremoniously pass the gavel on to the president-elect.
Past presidents were bestowed with ornamental pin engraved with the
club's initials. The friendships that developed among members, and the
tokens of affection they gave to each other, were of paramount importance
in their lives.
Issues of profound importance to the membership included such things
as official club colors ? purple and Nile green. Official club badges
was another issue of prolonged debate; what kind of ribbons would they
have? Lilac became the official club flower in 1902. Two years later,
Mrs. Lindsay composed the official club song.
Nellie Bigsby, one of the club's more prominent members, died in 1962,
and it seems that the club disbanded around that time.
According to the record book's fly-leaf the Pleasant Hour Club was
established in Wakarusa. Actually, the PHC was formed in Wakarusa Township
in Douglas County, Kansas; indicating the misleading nature of the handwritten
notation.
The book begins with its constitution, followed by a list of officers
for 1902, the order of business, the list of members (spanning two pages)
and a chronological list of attendance for the year. The minutes for
the year 1902 were faithfully recorded from January through December.
A few other records for other dates appear intermittently following
the 1902 records. These additional records include: a newspaper clipping
from an unidentified newspaper, concerning the Wednesday, January 7,
1903 meeting of the club; the ninth annual meeting of the PHC on December
31, 1908; a ribbon, dated 1924, from the Kansas Federation of Women's
Clubs; a poem, 1928; two brief essays on parliamentary law; and a notation
concerning a club pin presented to one of the PHC members.
The minutes for each biweekly meeting typically span from one to two
pages, and occasionally three. Entries list the date, location (which
rotated among members' homes), a number or an approximation of attendance
("an unusually large number of club members in attendance" for the February
19th meeting), reading and approval of the minutes from the previous
meeting, then the program. Programs usually were historical presentations
on subjects such as the history of a state, well known political figures
or events. Meetings frequently include poetry recitations, singing and/or
the playing of musical instruments.
Following the record book are two historical essays about the club.
The first is a rough draft of Nellie Colman Bigsby's fortieth anniversary
history of the club in 1939 and is eleven pages long. The second is
also a handwritten historical essay. Virginia Colman Bigsby wrote this
two-page essay, and though it is undated, internal evidence reveals
that it was written some time after 1962.
Women's organizations in Kansas developed largely as the result of
the environment of the state in the latter part of the nineteenth century.
As white Euro-Americans migrated into the western American frontier,
women were mostly living in a state of isolation at that time. This
persisted in Kansas, at least until the latter part of the nineteenth
century and in some rural areas, into the twentieth century. Once Kansas
began to fill with settlers and their descendants, the social conditions
that in which women found themselves changed remarkably. Women's organizations,
whether for personal improvement, or for political reform, were actually
an indication that the frontier was becoming more "civilized." Organizations
such as these can only thrive after frontier homesteads have been converted
into established homes. The process of establishing new farms in the
early years of Kansas history was too demanding and time-consuming for
reform organizations to germinate, much less so for social and self
improvement societies.
As women's groups formed, many of them adopted reform causes, such
as prohibition, suffrage, and labor reform issues. In Kansas, these
women were following a tradition established by their eastern sisters,
who had been active in the abolitionist cause during the antebellum
days. The age in which women's clubs were flourishing was the age when
political reform was also ascending. Women participating in clubs in
the Victorian Age thought of these organizations as constituting a renaissance
for women, a time when women could form their own "establishment," separate
from male-dominated society. Jennie J. Croly remarked "it has been in
every sense an awakening to the full glory and meaning of life." Women's
social needs provided the impetus for forming groups, circles, and social
clubs and served as an outlet for the expression of their values. Organizations
such as these and the records they left behind, serve as barometers
of the age and social, cultural and political conditions in which they
existed.
Women, throughout the United States during the Victorian and Edwardian
ages typically were members of a wide variety of organizations. Martha
Farnsworth, who lived in Topeka, Kansas, from 1887 to 1924, was a member
of at least nine different women's organizations.
Aside from promoting serious political reform issues, women organized
social clubs whose purpose was to fulfill their need for friendships
with female neighbors. The Pleasant Hour Club met that need, often using
literary works as a vehicle for socializing.
The year 1920 was a major turning point in the history of women's organizations.
By the time women gained the right to vote, with the adoption of the
nineteenth amendment to the constitution, all of women's political reform
goals had been achieved, and women's reform organizations no longer
served a purpose. What next? To an extent, women's social and self-improvement
groups were the only remaining social outlet other than church groups.
Moreover, most of these clubs served to transcend the usual status barriers,
such as wealth, religion and ethnic background. Soon women recognized
that these groups served to enhance their domestic "sphere," by educating
them and making them better read and informed wives, mothers, and citizens.
Microfilm is available on a self-service basis in the Research Room
or may be borrowed from the Kansas State Historical Society through
interlibrary loan.
Item 1) Record Book, 1902[-1930].
Mrs. Lucretia Levett served as club secretary for the year 1902, and
her handwritten minutes appear on each page.
Item 2) Rough draft of the 40th Anniversary History of the Pleasant
Hour Club, written by Nellie Colman Bigsby in 1939.
This appears to be a rough draft of the club's history, as there are
many editorial notes appearing on each page.
Item 3) Historical Notes, undated, 2 pages, handwritten, by Margaret
Colman Wulfkuhle.
This section includes lists of sources used in the preparation of this
finding aid, collections on similar subjects that may be of interest
to researchers, items cataloged separately, and items removed from the
collection.
7.1 Bibliography:
Croly, Jennie June. The History of the Woman's Club Movement in
America. New York, Henry G. Allen & Co., 1898.
Hale, Lilian Walker. "The Club Movement in Kansas," The Midland
Monthly. Des Moines, Iowa, Johnson Brigham Publisher, January-June
1897.
Wenger, Mae. Centennial History: GFWC Kansas Federation of Women's
Clubs. Shawnee Mission, Kansas, Kes-Print, Inc.,1988.
7.2 Related materials: Microfilm listed below is available through
interlibrary loan.
Kanwaka Literary Club records, 1908-1991, Microfilm reels: MF 884-MF
885.
Ladies Benevolent Society records, 1891-1894, Microfilm reels: MF
884-MF 885.
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