Women's College Club of Princeton
Enriching and empowering women since 1916
Contents
Opening page
Education opportunities for women
Education opportunities for women
Education opportunities for women
Education opportunities for women
Education opportunities for women
Education opportunities for women
Education opportunities for women
Education opportunities for women
50th anniversary
Fundraising for scholarships
Fundraising for scholarships
"Friendly fellowship"
Timeline
Archives
Archives
Women talking in front of Holder Hall on Nassau Street, 1920s. (Princeton University Libraries, Ground and Building Series)
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Education for women
In January 1916 a number of college-educated women met in the Princeton's high school on Nassau Street to found the Women's College Club of Princeton. The WCCP's purpose was threefold: collect information about colleges open to women, raise funds for local girls to enable them to go to college, and "foster friendly fellowship" among college women in Princeton. In this exhibit we look at the women who founded the club, the ideals that united them, and the way they accomplished their goals over the years.
Women's clubs
The WCCP was the second women's club in town. The first was the Present Day Club, founded in 1899, to "create an intellectual and social center of thought and action" among Princeton women. Together, they reflected a movement among women that had started in the 1870s to socialize in clubs that fostered intellectual growth, community involvement, and increasingly social reform.
This organization became the the driving force behind the founding of the New Jersey College for Women in New Brunswick in 1918, which would later be renamed Douglass College, after its first dean.
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In 1890 the General Federation of Women’s Clubs was established to share experiences and resources, followed by the founding of the New Jersey State Federation of Women's Clubs (NJSFWC) four years later. In 1911, Catherine Carter Warren, president in of the Present Day Club (who joined the WCCP in 1920), was elected president of the NJSFWC. This organization became the the driving force behind the founding of the New Jersey College for Women in New Brunswick in 1918, which would later be renamed Douglass College, after its first dean.
Women's clubs: vehicle for change
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When students clamored for a speech, “Colonel” Ida Craft yelled: “There’s only one thing I have against Princeton. ... It isn’t co-educational. You ought to have girls like
The suffrage question
The suffrage question
United in their support for women's education, members of the WCCP did not share the same views about women voting. The home town of prominent pro- and anti-suffragists, as well as Woodrow Wilson, Princeton played an interesting role. On February 13, 1913, a group of suffragettes, marching from New York to Washington DC to attend a rally on the day before his inauguration as president, stopped by on campus. When students clamored for a speech, “Colonel” Ida Craft yelled: “There’s only one thing I have against Princeton. ... It isn’t co-educational. You ought to have girls like Cornell!” (Read more)
First minutes (View minute books 1916-1920)
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Suffragettes visiting the University campus, Feb 13, 1913 (source)
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Barnard, Bryn Mawr, Mt Holyoke, Radcliffe
(Martha Irwin) who adopted two children, before marrying a man almost 20 years younger. In the columns on the right only members found in the 1916-1920 minute books are listed, organized by college affiliation. Names that are highlighted have received a short bio, which can be found by clicking on the names..The majority of women were spouses of faculty members of Princeton University, and to a lesser degree the Princeton Theological Seminary. Members indicated as "Miss" were usually teachers, or listed as social workers in the member list of the Princeton Suffrage Committee.
Beggs Frances May Ingalls (Mrs. George E. Beggs), Barnard Hodder, Mary Gwinn (Mrs. Alfred Hodder), Bryn Mawr Irwin, Martha E. (Mrs. Ralph M. Sheddan 1920), Bryn Mawr Scoon, Elizabeth Grier Hibben (Mrs. Robert Scoon), Bryn Mawr Smith, Margaret Warner (Mrs. Donald P. Smith), Bryn Mawr Prentiss, Lucy A. Stearns, (Mrs Lory Prentiss), Mt. Holyoke Smith, Dorothea E., Radcliffe
Gertrude Purves and May Fine (source, p 6)
Founding of the WCCP
Theological Seminary. Unmarried members, indicated as "Miss," were usually teachers, or listed as social workers in the member list of the Princeton Suffrage Committee.
Smith college
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Armstrong, Rebekah Sellers Purves (Mrs. W.P. Armstrong) Croll, Elsie L.
Duffield Hun, Elizabeth Lesley Crawford (Mrs. John Hun) Morse, Ruth Estabrook Tucker (Mrs. Anson Ely Morse) Purves, Eleanor Purves, Gertrude Stevenson, Florence Day (Mrs. J. Rosh Stevenson) Winans, Mary (Mrs. Ario Pardee )
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VASSAR
chool came into being, which May Fine founded in 1899. All Purves sisterss went to Smith College, as did some of their nieces. Elinor graduated in 1904, and Gertrude, the youngest, ten year later. Both Elinor and Gertrude, who lived together for their lives, taught at the Miss Fine school–Elinor for five years and Gertrude her whole life. Some of the WCCP members had been students at the school themselves, like University President's daughter Elizabeth. Other WCCP members taught at Miss Fine's School too before they married, or after they became widows. The sister of Prineton's dean of the faculty Henry Burchard Fine, and headmaster of the Princeton Preparatory School John Burchard FineWell, Miss fine was loved and respected by her students and influential in their lives.
Beard, Elizabeth H.Foster, Helen Stewart (Mrs. William Foster)Robinson, Anne Shaw Hamilton Robinson (Mrs. Chalfant Robinson)Vanderbilt, Mabel T.
Miss Fine's School
Elinor Purves and her sisters play an interesting role in the history of women's education in Princeton. Their parents, Princeton Theological Seminary professor George Tybout Purves and his wife Rebekkah, employed Wellesley graduate May Margaret Fine, to tutor their daughters at their home at Stockton Street. This is is how the Miss Fine School came into being, which May Fine founded in 1899. All Purves sisterss went to Smith College, as did some of their nieces. Elinor graduated in 1904, and Gertrude, the youngest, ten year later. Both Elinor and Gertrude, who lived together for their lives, taught at the Miss Fine school–Elinor for five years and Gertrude her whole life. Some of the WCCP members had been students at the school themselves, like University President's daughter Elizabeth. Other WCCP members taught at Miss Fine's School too before they married, or after they became widows. The sister of Prineton's dean of the faculty Henry Burchard Fine, and headmaster of the Princeton Preparatory School John Burchard FineWell, Miss fine was loved and respected by her students and influential in their lives.
WELLESLEY
Fine, May Margaret Morey, Sara Frances Tupper(Mrs Charles Rufus Morey) Orcutt, Marion Leland Robbins, Emily Hawyard (Mrs. Edmund Yard Robbins) Roberts, Helen Troth Chambers (Mrs. Erastus T. Roberts)
Other women's colleges
Mershon, Grace L. Olmstead (Mrs. Irving Mershon), Elmira
Preston, Frances Folsom (Mrs. Thomas Preston), Wells Smith, Louise S., Wilson Tompkins, Lottie A .Young (Mrs David Tomkins), Wilson
Miss Fine school, c.1900. May Fine and Elinor Purves on middle row 3rd and 4th from left, Rebekkah Purves in front of them and Mildred Purves behind Elinor. Source (p.8)
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Coeducational colleges
Brewer, Clair A., Univ. of ColoradoBayles, Blanche Isabel Van Norman, (Mrs. Frank Bayles), HunterConey, Harriot R. Reitze, (Mrs. J.H. Coney), AlleghenyConklin, Isabelle (Belle) Adkinson, (Mrs. Edwin G.), Moores Hill (Evansville)Conklin, Mary, Goucher Davis, Marguerite Scobie (Mrs. John D. Davis), U.C. Berkeley Fetter, Martha Whitson (Mrs. Frank Fetter), Cornell Hall, Cora E., Teachers College Columbia Hulett, Dency M. Pierpoint Barker (Mrs. George Hulett), Univ. of Pennsylvania Kemmerer, Rachel Mrs. Edwin Walter Kemmerer), Perdue Loomis, Grace Woods (Mrs Elmer H. Loomis), Univ. of California Luehring, Emma A. Hatz(Mrs. Frederick W. Luehring), North Western Macloskie, Lila Mansfield (Mrs. George Macloskie), Univ. of Arkansas McClenaghan, Marguerite, Teachers College, ColumbiaPeck, Martha Elizabeth Van Hoesen (Mrs. George M. Peck), CornellRahill, Flora Lewis (Mrs. W.J. Rahill), Lake Erie Raycroft, Sarah Elizabeth Butler(Mrs. Joseph E. Raycroft), Univ. of Chicago Strong, Louise Potter (Mrs Edwin D.) Glendale Van Hoesen, Ruth S. Hutchinson (Mrs. Henry B. Van Hoesen), Univ. of Minnesota
Miss Fine's School
Of the 49 charter members listed here, more than half graduated from the seven sister colleges (Barnard, Bryn Mawr, Mt Holyoke, Radcliffe, Smith, Vassar, and Wellesley. Four members graduated from other women's colleges, and 19 from coeducational colleges.
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College education costs
Even without counting the Purves sisters, Smith College was the sister college that most WCCP founders graduated from. When the New Jersey College for Women opened in 1918 tuition costs were lower than over college's, but they charged an additional "public room service"
- Bryn Mawr (1918) 125/275
- NJ College for Women (1918) 100 (50 dollars for public room service--at Rutgers in 1904 this was for gymnasium, library, janitor and fuel)
- Smith (1916) 100/350
- Teachers College, Columbia (1918) min 180/308
- Vassar: (1918) tuition 150, maintenance 150, room and board 350
- Wellesley (1916) 175/325
- Wells (1916): $150/350
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When the WCCP celebrated its 50th anni-versary in 1966 three charter members were still alive: May Beggs, Grace Mershon, and Marguerite McClenaghan.
College education costs
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May Ingalls Beggs (L) and Grace Olmstead Mershon (R) honored at the 50th anniversary luncheon, 1966 (read article)
College education costs
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To find out how the WCCC accomplished its goals over the first fifty years members formed a study group to look at their archives. They described their findings per decade in a history skit, acting out parts in historic dress. You can read their script, illustrated with photos of the performance, here.
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Scholarships
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$51,700
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College education costs
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Subtitle
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Subtitle
Subtitle
known as "Mrs. Hospitality."
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College education costs
Subtitle
In 1946 the club bought a silver tea set for 58 dollars, the beginning of new season, where neighborhood teas held by members in different areas where held to attract more members. By the 1970s new members teas were held annually.
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Lectures
Like the Present Day Club, the WCCP organized lectures and events for its members from the beginning. In 1935 it arranged first of series of lectures, at the request of Princeton University. Usually taught by Princeton faculty, it was as aprecursor to the Princeton Adult School.
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In addition to lectures, the WCCP arranged a variety of activities over the years, from study art appreciation study groups, to handicraft and French literature and conversation groups. Members were polled for interests in particular subjects in the monthly blue announcements that were sent in the mail about upcoming events.
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In addition to lectures, the WCCP arranged a variety of activities over the years, from study art appreciation study groups, to handicraft and French literature and conversation groups. Members were polled for interests in particular subjects in the monthly blue announcements that were sent in the mail about upcoming events.
Like the Present Day Club, the WCCP organized lectures and events for its members from the beginning. In 1935 it arranged first of series of lectures, at the request of Princeton University. Usually taught by Princeton faculty, it was as aprecursor to the Princeton Adult School. In 1943, to prepare for war emergencies, the WCCP arranged as part of the "war effort" a course on "Children in Wartime, to train volunteers to participate in child health and welfare work "with its ultimate aim the formation of a group which would be qualified to care for young war refugees." (view newspaper coverage)
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timeline
1918. Dec
1916, Jan
1928, May
1923, Oct 27
First meeting of the Women's College Club of Princeton
Florence Halsey, League of Women Voters, gives talk
Mabel Smith Douglass, dean of new NJ College for Women, visits WCCP
First annual scholarship of $250 announced
1916, Oct
1920, Aug 18
1928, May
Ratifiication of the 19th Amendment gives women the vote
Genevieve Rose Cline (Ohio) becomes the first female federal judge
Margaret Sanger opens the first birth control clinic in the US and is arrested.
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timeline (continued)
1942, Apr-May
1932, Apr 15
1946
1935, Nov
Sarah Lawrence College Director of Education gives talk
First of series of lecture courses arranged by WCCP
30th anniversary; WCCP buys its own tea set
WCCP offers course on child welfare in wartime
1941, Dec 7
1932, Jan
1945, Aug
Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor draws the US into World War II
Hattie Caraway, Arkansas, is first woman elected to the Senate
Capitulation of Japan brings an end to WWII
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timeline (continued)
1961, Nov 6
1966
1955, Mar 21
1959
CCCP's first annual trip: visit to the UN in New York
50th anniversary celebration with history skits
Talk about protection against radiatio in atomic warfare
Study groups include financial law, preschool child, home decor
control
1960, May 19
1969, fall
1955, Dec 1
1964, Jul 2
President Lyndon Johnson signs Civil Rights Act
Rosa Parks refuses to give up her seat.
The FDA approves the first birth control pill
Princeton University admits women
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timeline (continued)
1981, Mar 4
1970, Nov 16
1988, Jan 18
1977, Feb
WCCP hears talk "New Frontiers for Black Women in Education"
Members finally addressed with first names, not Mrs. [Husband]
First recipient of financial aid in 1916 attends 65th anniversary
Visitor from New Jersey Bell talks about Fire Optic Network
1973, Jan 22
1982
1975
In Roe v. Wade decision, the U.S. Supreme Court grants a federal constitutional right to abortion
UN organizes the first World Conference on Women in Mexico
Women earn more than 50% of bachelor’s degrees in the US
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timeline (LAST)
2002-03
1994, May 16
2026
2013, Feb
WCCP annual fashion show theme is "Yesterday/Today"
In the past 110 years WCCP has has scholarships to .... young women for a total of....
Bylaws are changed to make membership more inclusive
WCCP has its own website
1997, Jan 23
2007
2016
Madeleine Albright is sworn in as first female secretary of state.
Nancy Pelosi becomes first woman speaker of the House
Hillary Clinton becomes the first female nominee of a major political party
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College education costs
Click on a volume to read the minutes
Browse volumes
Minute books with constitution and bylaws, 1916-1928
Minute books with constitution and bylaws, 1916-1928
Vol. 1 (1916-18)
Vol. 2 (1919-28)
Scrapbook 1977-1981
Scrapbook 1979-1981
Scrapbook 1984-1994
Scrapbook 1977-1981
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College education costs
Browse volumes
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College education costs
Women's College Club of Princeton
Women's College Club of Princeton
Newspaper coverage - Digitized Clippings - Digitized Princeton newspapers
First
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Princeton and Women's Suffrage (online exhibit)
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Other links
Frances Fulsom Preston Cleveland (1864-1947) graduated from Wells College in 1885 and married President Grover Cleveland, whom she had known since a child, a year later. The youngest woman to have ever been First Lady, she was immensely popular, and scheduled social meetings for women at the White House on saturday, so as not to interfere with their work schedules. The couple settled in Princeton after they left the White House in 1896
She supported women's education but opposed women's suffrage, believing politics were to be avoided and risked women's control of the domestic sphere. She served as the vice president of the New Jersey Association Opposed to Woman's Suffrage from 1913 to 1920.
A widow since 1908 and trustee of Wells College, she remarried Princeton professor of archaeology and acting president at Wells College in 1913. Source: Wikipedia
Martha Eliza Irwin (1878-1946) graduated from Bryn Mawr in 1899. Her alumna file reveals she did settlement work in Philadelphia before moving to Princeton. A single woman according to the census of 1915 and 1920, she lived on Nassau Street with an adopted daughter and son, as well as a niece. She joined the Princeton Suffrage Committee in 1915. In 1920 she married the 19-year younger Ralph M. Sheddan, son of Rev. William B. and Alice Sheddan, also from Nassau Street. She moved with her family to Germantown, Philadelphia, where she lived for 24 years. In a 1935 alumnae survey she wrote that she worked there as social investigator at the Department of Public Assistance.
Obituary Princeton Herald, 1946
Elizabeth Grier Hibben (1888-1970) was the daughter of Princeton University President John Grier Hibben. After attending Miss Fine's School she graduated from Bryn Mawr in 1910. She was listed as a member of the Princeton Suffrage Committee as a social worker. In 1916 she married Robert Scoon, a professor of philosophy at the university. According to her alumna file she taught Sunday school at the First Presbyterian Church of Color of Princeton at Witherspoon Street and volunteered at the Isabella McCosh Infirmary. She had one son.
Sunday Times-Advertiser, Trenton, NJ, November 25, 1928
Cora Hall (1873-1960) graduated from the Teachers College, Columbia University, in 1912, after which he was appointed to teach "domestic science" in the new high school. The has been teaching home economics there until she retired. She was a lifelong member of the WCCP, which instituted the Cora Hall Memorial Award after her death.
Quote from the Princeton Packet, February 7, 2006 about the club's 90th anniversary. Since 2002 membership was open to women with a 2- year college degree rather than a 4-year colllege degree. Since, all women who attended college for even a limited time are welcomed.
Mabel Smith Douglass (1877–1933) was the first dean of the New Jersey College for Women (later Douglass College) in New Brunswick, the first college for women in the state, which opened in September 1918. Only three months later, on December 7, 1918, Mabel Douglass visited members of WCCP to talk about the new college. "She told of the school's location and buildings, the girls school life and good times and the ideals and standars they believed in." (Read the digitized minutes)
Eleanor Purves (1882-1952) and her sister Gertrude (1891-1946) were the oldest and youngst daughter of Rev. George T. Purves, professor at the Princeton Theological Seminary and his wife Rebekah. During their professional career they lived together in Princeton.
Elinor graduated from Bryn Mawr in 1904. After teaching at Miss Fine's school for five years, Elinor became the head of Dorothea House, a settlement for Italians in Princeton, endowed in memory of Dorothea van Dyke. Only Elinor signed up for the Princeton Suffrage Committee, where she was registered as a social worker. She became chief officer at Dorothea House until 1950 and devoted herself to church and community work.
Bryn Mawr Yearbook 1904
Gertrude graduated from Bryn Mawr in 1914. She joined the faculty of Miss Fine's School in 1916, and from 1931 was head of the Lower School, which she remained until her death in 1946. Because of her wish to establish a library at the department that she headed, an endowment fund was established for this purpose in her memory.
Gertrude at Miss Fine School group photo, 1918
Belle Adkinson (1865-1940) graduated Moores Hill college in (circa 1887?) and married Edwin G. Conklin in 1889. She was a member of the Princeton Suffrage Committee. Was president 1924-25, lifelong member of the WCCP.
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Mary "Mamie" Gwinn Hodder (1860–1940) was a professor of English at Bryn Mawr faculty, where she had obtained a doctoral degree in 1888. She was one of the founders og the college prep school Bryn Mawr School in Baltimore in 1885, and ensured that women were allowed to study medicine at Johns Hopkins University, where her father was a member of the faculty. She was the romantic partner of Martha Carey Thomas, dean and president of the college, with whom she lived until she married fellow professor and novelist Alfred Hodder in 1904 and moved to New York. The love triangle was fictionalized in Gertrude Stein's short novel Fernhurst in 1905. After he died in 1907, Mary Gwinn Hodder moved to Princeton where she worked on a translation of Beowulf. She bequeathed her fortune to Princeton University, which holds the Mary Gwinn and Alfred Hodder papers. Mary Hodder was a memher of the WCCP until she died;. (Source: Wikipedia)
Grace Woods Loomis (1880-1951) graduated from the University of California and taught at Binghamton before she married physics professor Elmer H. Loomis, a widower, in 1911. She joined the Princeton Suffrage Committee in 1915, and was a member of the League of women Voters, the University League, and served as president of the WCCP in 1928-29. In addition, she was a founders and president of the Princeton YWCA, and did pioneer work in the New Jersey Commission for the Blind, transcribing books in braille. (view obit in the Princeton Herald)
After graduating from Wilson College in 1910, Louise Smith (1888-1964) got an MA in English at Columnia University. In the census for 1850 she is listed as a 62-year old English teacher in Englewood, New Jersey, who never married. She was was class president and published regularly in the Wilson Alumnae Quarterly . Her resume for February, 1943, can be found in this clipping from the Wilson Alumni Quaterly featuring candidates for alumnae office .
Mary "Mamie" Gwinn Hodder (1860–1940) was a professor of English at Bryn Mawr faculty, where she had obtained a doctoral degree in 1888. She was one of the founders og the college prep school Bryn Mawr School in Baltimore in 1885, and ensured that women were allowed to study medicine at Johns Hopkins University, where her father was a member of the faculty. She was the romantic partner of Martha Carey Thomas, dean and president of the college, with whom she lived until she married fellow professor and novelist Alfred Hodder in 1904 and moved to New York. The love triangle was fictionalized in Gertrude Stein's short novel Fernhurst in 1905. After he died in 1907, Mary Gwinn Hodder moved to Princeton where she worked on a translation of Beowulf. She bequeathed her fortune to Princeton University, which holds the Mary Gwinn and Alfred Hodder papers. Mary Hodder was a memher of the WCCP until she died;. (Source: Wikipedia)
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Marguerite McClanaghan (1890-1981) graduated from Maryville College, Tenn. in 1908 and from Teachers College, Columbia in 1910. Employed by the Princeton Bank and Trust Company from 1915 to 1950 in various positions, she was the first woman to hold an office in a New Jersey bank. She was treasurer and director at Marsh and Company for many years as well as a bookkeeper for a law firm. A charter member from 1916, she was the longest living member of the WCCP. (Trenton Evening Times, January 28, 1981)
Family photo of Marguerite Anna McClanaghan, Ancestry Library (retrieved 31 May 26)
May Margaret Fine (1869-1933) graduated from Wellesley in 1889. The sister of Princeton University's dean of the faculty Henry Burchard Fine, and of John Burchard Fine, headmaster of the Princeton Preparatory School, she founded the Miss Fine School, a college prep school for girls in 1899. She was a member of the Princeton Suffrage Committee, founded in 1915, and was also a lifelong member of the WCCP.
May Fine (source, p 6)
Mabel Tilden Vanderbilt (1879-1957) graduated from Vassar in 1901 and taught history and English at the Princeton High School until 1906, when she became principal of the elementary division of the borough public schools. Eight years later, she became supervising principal. In 1915 she joined the Princeton Suffrage Committee. Mabel Vanderbilt retired and married Howard D. Eldridge in 1932.
Quote from a member of the Princeton High School Class of 1927 in Town Topics
Grace Lucile Olmstead Mershon (1879-1974) graduated from Elmira College in 1903. She taught High School in New York State before she moved to Princeton, where she married Irving Mershon, a banker, in 1914. A genealogist, she wrote several books about the history of the Mershon family. She helped found the Princeton History Society and wrote several articles about the history of Princeton in the Nassau Herald. Her papers, tombstone transcriptions, as well as oral histories that she conducted are kept at the Princeton Historical society. She was was a lifelong member of the Women's College Club of Princeton.
Grace Olmstead Mershon at the 50th anniversary luncheon in 1966
Frances May Ingalls Beggs (1887-1982) graduated from Barnard in 1909. She married George Erie Beggs, professor of Engineering at Princeton University, and had one son. She joined the Princeton Suffrage Committee in 1915 and the WCCP in 1916, where she was a member of the executive committee and president in 1917-18 and 1933-35. A widow since 1939, she became executive assistant of the President of Wellesley College in 1947, where she retired in 1954. During the Club's 50th anniversary she was one of the three charter members who were still alive. Left: yearbook photo of the Barnard Class of 1909
Lesley Crawford (1881-1964) Hun was born in İzmir, Turkey, where her parents were missionaries. After graduating from Andover Academy in Andover, MA, she went to Smith College, from which she graduated in 1904. In 1906 she married John Gale Hun, member of the faculty of the Princeton university mathematics department, who founded the Princeton Mathematics School in 1914, the present Hun School in Princeton.
Harriot Reitze Coney (1866-1941) received her BA at Allegheny in 1887 and MA in 1890, afterwards she attended graduate school at Bryn Mawr 1890-1893. In the following nine years she was a teacher at the Miss Stearns' School, and principal of the Pelham School, Germantown, Philadelphia, and associate principal of Miss Baldwin's School, Bryn Mawr. In 1902 she married Princeton professor of History John Haughton Coney, with whom she had three children. A widow since 1913, she was the first president of the WCCP and was a longlong member.
Entry in the Woman's who's who of America, 1914-15
WCCP final
UCP Citizen Archivist
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Transcript
Women's College Club of Princeton
Enriching and empowering women since 1916
Contents
Opening page
Education opportunities for women
Education opportunities for women
Education opportunities for women
Education opportunities for women
Education opportunities for women
Education opportunities for women
Education opportunities for women
Education opportunities for women
50th anniversary
Fundraising for scholarships
Fundraising for scholarships
"Friendly fellowship"
Timeline
Archives
Archives
Women talking in front of Holder Hall on Nassau Street, 1920s. (Princeton University Libraries, Ground and Building Series)
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Education for women
In January 1916 a number of college-educated women met in the Princeton's high school on Nassau Street to found the Women's College Club of Princeton. The WCCP's purpose was threefold: collect information about colleges open to women, raise funds for local girls to enable them to go to college, and "foster friendly fellowship" among college women in Princeton. In this exhibit we look at the women who founded the club, the ideals that united them, and the way they accomplished their goals over the years. Women's clubs The WCCP was the second women's club in town. The first was the Present Day Club, founded in 1899, to "create an intellectual and social center of thought and action" among Princeton women. Together, they reflected a movement among women that had started in the 1870s to socialize in clubs that fostered intellectual growth, community involvement, and increasingly social reform.
This organization became the the driving force behind the founding of the New Jersey College for Women in New Brunswick in 1918, which would later be renamed Douglass College, after its first dean.
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In 1890 the General Federation of Women’s Clubs was established to share experiences and resources, followed by the founding of the New Jersey State Federation of Women's Clubs (NJSFWC) four years later. In 1911, Catherine Carter Warren, president in of the Present Day Club (who joined the WCCP in 1920), was elected president of the NJSFWC. This organization became the the driving force behind the founding of the New Jersey College for Women in New Brunswick in 1918, which would later be renamed Douglass College, after its first dean.
Women's clubs: vehicle for change
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When students clamored for a speech, “Colonel” Ida Craft yelled: “There’s only one thing I have against Princeton. ... It isn’t co-educational. You ought to have girls like
The suffrage question
The suffrage question
United in their support for women's education, members of the WCCP did not share the same views about women voting. The home town of prominent pro- and anti-suffragists, as well as Woodrow Wilson, Princeton played an interesting role. On February 13, 1913, a group of suffragettes, marching from New York to Washington DC to attend a rally on the day before his inauguration as president, stopped by on campus. When students clamored for a speech, “Colonel” Ida Craft yelled: “There’s only one thing I have against Princeton. ... It isn’t co-educational. You ought to have girls like Cornell!” (Read more)
First minutes (View minute books 1916-1920)
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Suffragettes visiting the University campus, Feb 13, 1913 (source)
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Barnard, Bryn Mawr, Mt Holyoke, Radcliffe
(Martha Irwin) who adopted two children, before marrying a man almost 20 years younger. In the columns on the right only members found in the 1916-1920 minute books are listed, organized by college affiliation. Names that are highlighted have received a short bio, which can be found by clicking on the names..The majority of women were spouses of faculty members of Princeton University, and to a lesser degree the Princeton Theological Seminary. Members indicated as "Miss" were usually teachers, or listed as social workers in the member list of the Princeton Suffrage Committee.
Beggs Frances May Ingalls (Mrs. George E. Beggs), Barnard Hodder, Mary Gwinn (Mrs. Alfred Hodder), Bryn Mawr Irwin, Martha E. (Mrs. Ralph M. Sheddan 1920), Bryn Mawr Scoon, Elizabeth Grier Hibben (Mrs. Robert Scoon), Bryn Mawr Smith, Margaret Warner (Mrs. Donald P. Smith), Bryn Mawr Prentiss, Lucy A. Stearns, (Mrs Lory Prentiss), Mt. Holyoke Smith, Dorothea E., Radcliffe
Gertrude Purves and May Fine (source, p 6)
Founding of the WCCP
Theological Seminary. Unmarried members, indicated as "Miss," were usually teachers, or listed as social workers in the member list of the Princeton Suffrage Committee.
Smith college
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Armstrong, Rebekah Sellers Purves (Mrs. W.P. Armstrong) Croll, Elsie L. Duffield Hun, Elizabeth Lesley Crawford (Mrs. John Hun) Morse, Ruth Estabrook Tucker (Mrs. Anson Ely Morse) Purves, Eleanor Purves, Gertrude Stevenson, Florence Day (Mrs. J. Rosh Stevenson) Winans, Mary (Mrs. Ario Pardee )
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VASSAR
chool came into being, which May Fine founded in 1899. All Purves sisterss went to Smith College, as did some of their nieces. Elinor graduated in 1904, and Gertrude, the youngest, ten year later. Both Elinor and Gertrude, who lived together for their lives, taught at the Miss Fine school–Elinor for five years and Gertrude her whole life. Some of the WCCP members had been students at the school themselves, like University President's daughter Elizabeth. Other WCCP members taught at Miss Fine's School too before they married, or after they became widows. The sister of Prineton's dean of the faculty Henry Burchard Fine, and headmaster of the Princeton Preparatory School John Burchard FineWell, Miss fine was loved and respected by her students and influential in their lives.
Beard, Elizabeth H.Foster, Helen Stewart (Mrs. William Foster)Robinson, Anne Shaw Hamilton Robinson (Mrs. Chalfant Robinson)Vanderbilt, Mabel T.
Miss Fine's School
Elinor Purves and her sisters play an interesting role in the history of women's education in Princeton. Their parents, Princeton Theological Seminary professor George Tybout Purves and his wife Rebekkah, employed Wellesley graduate May Margaret Fine, to tutor their daughters at their home at Stockton Street. This is is how the Miss Fine School came into being, which May Fine founded in 1899. All Purves sisterss went to Smith College, as did some of their nieces. Elinor graduated in 1904, and Gertrude, the youngest, ten year later. Both Elinor and Gertrude, who lived together for their lives, taught at the Miss Fine school–Elinor for five years and Gertrude her whole life. Some of the WCCP members had been students at the school themselves, like University President's daughter Elizabeth. Other WCCP members taught at Miss Fine's School too before they married, or after they became widows. The sister of Prineton's dean of the faculty Henry Burchard Fine, and headmaster of the Princeton Preparatory School John Burchard FineWell, Miss fine was loved and respected by her students and influential in their lives.
WELLESLEY
Fine, May Margaret Morey, Sara Frances Tupper(Mrs Charles Rufus Morey) Orcutt, Marion Leland Robbins, Emily Hawyard (Mrs. Edmund Yard Robbins) Roberts, Helen Troth Chambers (Mrs. Erastus T. Roberts)
Other women's colleges
Mershon, Grace L. Olmstead (Mrs. Irving Mershon), Elmira Preston, Frances Folsom (Mrs. Thomas Preston), Wells Smith, Louise S., Wilson Tompkins, Lottie A .Young (Mrs David Tomkins), Wilson
Miss Fine school, c.1900. May Fine and Elinor Purves on middle row 3rd and 4th from left, Rebekkah Purves in front of them and Mildred Purves behind Elinor. Source (p.8)
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Coeducational colleges
Brewer, Clair A., Univ. of ColoradoBayles, Blanche Isabel Van Norman, (Mrs. Frank Bayles), HunterConey, Harriot R. Reitze, (Mrs. J.H. Coney), AlleghenyConklin, Isabelle (Belle) Adkinson, (Mrs. Edwin G.), Moores Hill (Evansville)Conklin, Mary, Goucher Davis, Marguerite Scobie (Mrs. John D. Davis), U.C. Berkeley Fetter, Martha Whitson (Mrs. Frank Fetter), Cornell Hall, Cora E., Teachers College Columbia Hulett, Dency M. Pierpoint Barker (Mrs. George Hulett), Univ. of Pennsylvania Kemmerer, Rachel Mrs. Edwin Walter Kemmerer), Perdue Loomis, Grace Woods (Mrs Elmer H. Loomis), Univ. of California Luehring, Emma A. Hatz(Mrs. Frederick W. Luehring), North Western Macloskie, Lila Mansfield (Mrs. George Macloskie), Univ. of Arkansas McClenaghan, Marguerite, Teachers College, ColumbiaPeck, Martha Elizabeth Van Hoesen (Mrs. George M. Peck), CornellRahill, Flora Lewis (Mrs. W.J. Rahill), Lake Erie Raycroft, Sarah Elizabeth Butler(Mrs. Joseph E. Raycroft), Univ. of Chicago Strong, Louise Potter (Mrs Edwin D.) Glendale Van Hoesen, Ruth S. Hutchinson (Mrs. Henry B. Van Hoesen), Univ. of Minnesota
Miss Fine's School
Of the 49 charter members listed here, more than half graduated from the seven sister colleges (Barnard, Bryn Mawr, Mt Holyoke, Radcliffe, Smith, Vassar, and Wellesley. Four members graduated from other women's colleges, and 19 from coeducational colleges.
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College education costs
Even without counting the Purves sisters, Smith College was the sister college that most WCCP founders graduated from. When the New Jersey College for Women opened in 1918 tuition costs were lower than over college's, but they charged an additional "public room service"
- Bryn Mawr (1918) 125/275 - NJ College for Women (1918) 100 (50 dollars for public room service--at Rutgers in 1904 this was for gymnasium, library, janitor and fuel) - Smith (1916) 100/350 - Teachers College, Columbia (1918) min 180/308 - Vassar: (1918) tuition 150, maintenance 150, room and board 350 - Wellesley (1916) 175/325 - Wells (1916): $150/350
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When the WCCP celebrated its 50th anni-versary in 1966 three charter members were still alive: May Beggs, Grace Mershon, and Marguerite McClenaghan.
College education costs
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May Ingalls Beggs (L) and Grace Olmstead Mershon (R) honored at the 50th anniversary luncheon, 1966 (read article)
College education costs
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To find out how the WCCC accomplished its goals over the first fifty years members formed a study group to look at their archives. They described their findings per decade in a history skit, acting out parts in historic dress. You can read their script, illustrated with photos of the performance, here.
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Scholarships
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$51,700
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Subtitle
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Subtitle
known as "Mrs. Hospitality."
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College education costs
Subtitle
In 1946 the club bought a silver tea set for 58 dollars, the beginning of new season, where neighborhood teas held by members in different areas where held to attract more members. By the 1970s new members teas were held annually.
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Lectures
Like the Present Day Club, the WCCP organized lectures and events for its members from the beginning. In 1935 it arranged first of series of lectures, at the request of Princeton University. Usually taught by Princeton faculty, it was as aprecursor to the Princeton Adult School.
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In addition to lectures, the WCCP arranged a variety of activities over the years, from study art appreciation study groups, to handicraft and French literature and conversation groups. Members were polled for interests in particular subjects in the monthly blue announcements that were sent in the mail about upcoming events.
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In addition to lectures, the WCCP arranged a variety of activities over the years, from study art appreciation study groups, to handicraft and French literature and conversation groups. Members were polled for interests in particular subjects in the monthly blue announcements that were sent in the mail about upcoming events.
Like the Present Day Club, the WCCP organized lectures and events for its members from the beginning. In 1935 it arranged first of series of lectures, at the request of Princeton University. Usually taught by Princeton faculty, it was as aprecursor to the Princeton Adult School. In 1943, to prepare for war emergencies, the WCCP arranged as part of the "war effort" a course on "Children in Wartime, to train volunteers to participate in child health and welfare work "with its ultimate aim the formation of a group which would be qualified to care for young war refugees." (view newspaper coverage)
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timeline
1918. Dec
1916, Jan
1928, May
1923, Oct 27
First meeting of the Women's College Club of Princeton
Florence Halsey, League of Women Voters, gives talk
Mabel Smith Douglass, dean of new NJ College for Women, visits WCCP
First annual scholarship of $250 announced
1916, Oct
1920, Aug 18
1928, May
Ratifiication of the 19th Amendment gives women the vote
Genevieve Rose Cline (Ohio) becomes the first female federal judge
Margaret Sanger opens the first birth control clinic in the US and is arrested.
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timeline (continued)
1942, Apr-May
1932, Apr 15
1946
1935, Nov
Sarah Lawrence College Director of Education gives talk
First of series of lecture courses arranged by WCCP
30th anniversary; WCCP buys its own tea set
WCCP offers course on child welfare in wartime
1941, Dec 7
1932, Jan
1945, Aug
Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor draws the US into World War II
Hattie Caraway, Arkansas, is first woman elected to the Senate
Capitulation of Japan brings an end to WWII
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timeline (continued)
1961, Nov 6
1966
1955, Mar 21
1959
CCCP's first annual trip: visit to the UN in New York
50th anniversary celebration with history skits
Talk about protection against radiatio in atomic warfare
Study groups include financial law, preschool child, home decor
control
1960, May 19
1969, fall
1955, Dec 1
1964, Jul 2
President Lyndon Johnson signs Civil Rights Act
Rosa Parks refuses to give up her seat.
The FDA approves the first birth control pill
Princeton University admits women
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timeline (continued)
1981, Mar 4
1970, Nov 16
1988, Jan 18
1977, Feb
WCCP hears talk "New Frontiers for Black Women in Education"
Members finally addressed with first names, not Mrs. [Husband]
First recipient of financial aid in 1916 attends 65th anniversary
Visitor from New Jersey Bell talks about Fire Optic Network
1973, Jan 22
1982
1975
In Roe v. Wade decision, the U.S. Supreme Court grants a federal constitutional right to abortion
UN organizes the first World Conference on Women in Mexico
Women earn more than 50% of bachelor’s degrees in the US
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timeline (LAST)
2002-03
1994, May 16
2026
2013, Feb
WCCP annual fashion show theme is "Yesterday/Today"
In the past 110 years WCCP has has scholarships to .... young women for a total of....
Bylaws are changed to make membership more inclusive
WCCP has its own website
1997, Jan 23
2007
2016
Madeleine Albright is sworn in as first female secretary of state.
Nancy Pelosi becomes first woman speaker of the House
Hillary Clinton becomes the first female nominee of a major political party
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College education costs
Click on a volume to read the minutes
Browse volumes
Minute books with constitution and bylaws, 1916-1928
Minute books with constitution and bylaws, 1916-1928
Vol. 1 (1916-18)
Vol. 2 (1919-28)
Scrapbook 1977-1981
Scrapbook 1979-1981
Scrapbook 1984-1994
Scrapbook 1977-1981
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Browse volumes
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Women's College Club of Princeton
Women's College Club of Princeton
Newspaper coverage - Digitized Clippings - Digitized Princeton newspapers
First
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Princeton and Women's Suffrage (online exhibit)
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Other links
Frances Fulsom Preston Cleveland (1864-1947) graduated from Wells College in 1885 and married President Grover Cleveland, whom she had known since a child, a year later. The youngest woman to have ever been First Lady, she was immensely popular, and scheduled social meetings for women at the White House on saturday, so as not to interfere with their work schedules. The couple settled in Princeton after they left the White House in 1896
She supported women's education but opposed women's suffrage, believing politics were to be avoided and risked women's control of the domestic sphere. She served as the vice president of the New Jersey Association Opposed to Woman's Suffrage from 1913 to 1920.
A widow since 1908 and trustee of Wells College, she remarried Princeton professor of archaeology and acting president at Wells College in 1913. Source: Wikipedia
Martha Eliza Irwin (1878-1946) graduated from Bryn Mawr in 1899. Her alumna file reveals she did settlement work in Philadelphia before moving to Princeton. A single woman according to the census of 1915 and 1920, she lived on Nassau Street with an adopted daughter and son, as well as a niece. She joined the Princeton Suffrage Committee in 1915. In 1920 she married the 19-year younger Ralph M. Sheddan, son of Rev. William B. and Alice Sheddan, also from Nassau Street. She moved with her family to Germantown, Philadelphia, where she lived for 24 years. In a 1935 alumnae survey she wrote that she worked there as social investigator at the Department of Public Assistance.
Obituary Princeton Herald, 1946
Elizabeth Grier Hibben (1888-1970) was the daughter of Princeton University President John Grier Hibben. After attending Miss Fine's School she graduated from Bryn Mawr in 1910. She was listed as a member of the Princeton Suffrage Committee as a social worker. In 1916 she married Robert Scoon, a professor of philosophy at the university. According to her alumna file she taught Sunday school at the First Presbyterian Church of Color of Princeton at Witherspoon Street and volunteered at the Isabella McCosh Infirmary. She had one son.
Sunday Times-Advertiser, Trenton, NJ, November 25, 1928
Cora Hall (1873-1960) graduated from the Teachers College, Columbia University, in 1912, after which he was appointed to teach "domestic science" in the new high school. The has been teaching home economics there until she retired. She was a lifelong member of the WCCP, which instituted the Cora Hall Memorial Award after her death.
Quote from the Princeton Packet, February 7, 2006 about the club's 90th anniversary. Since 2002 membership was open to women with a 2- year college degree rather than a 4-year colllege degree. Since, all women who attended college for even a limited time are welcomed.
Mabel Smith Douglass (1877–1933) was the first dean of the New Jersey College for Women (later Douglass College) in New Brunswick, the first college for women in the state, which opened in September 1918. Only three months later, on December 7, 1918, Mabel Douglass visited members of WCCP to talk about the new college. "She told of the school's location and buildings, the girls school life and good times and the ideals and standars they believed in." (Read the digitized minutes)
Eleanor Purves (1882-1952) and her sister Gertrude (1891-1946) were the oldest and youngst daughter of Rev. George T. Purves, professor at the Princeton Theological Seminary and his wife Rebekah. During their professional career they lived together in Princeton.
Elinor graduated from Bryn Mawr in 1904. After teaching at Miss Fine's school for five years, Elinor became the head of Dorothea House, a settlement for Italians in Princeton, endowed in memory of Dorothea van Dyke. Only Elinor signed up for the Princeton Suffrage Committee, where she was registered as a social worker. She became chief officer at Dorothea House until 1950 and devoted herself to church and community work.
Bryn Mawr Yearbook 1904
Gertrude graduated from Bryn Mawr in 1914. She joined the faculty of Miss Fine's School in 1916, and from 1931 was head of the Lower School, which she remained until her death in 1946. Because of her wish to establish a library at the department that she headed, an endowment fund was established for this purpose in her memory.
Gertrude at Miss Fine School group photo, 1918
Belle Adkinson (1865-1940) graduated Moores Hill college in (circa 1887?) and married Edwin G. Conklin in 1889. She was a member of the Princeton Suffrage Committee. Was president 1924-25, lifelong member of the WCCP.
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Mary "Mamie" Gwinn Hodder (1860–1940) was a professor of English at Bryn Mawr faculty, where she had obtained a doctoral degree in 1888. She was one of the founders og the college prep school Bryn Mawr School in Baltimore in 1885, and ensured that women were allowed to study medicine at Johns Hopkins University, where her father was a member of the faculty. She was the romantic partner of Martha Carey Thomas, dean and president of the college, with whom she lived until she married fellow professor and novelist Alfred Hodder in 1904 and moved to New York. The love triangle was fictionalized in Gertrude Stein's short novel Fernhurst in 1905. After he died in 1907, Mary Gwinn Hodder moved to Princeton where she worked on a translation of Beowulf. She bequeathed her fortune to Princeton University, which holds the Mary Gwinn and Alfred Hodder papers. Mary Hodder was a memher of the WCCP until she died;. (Source: Wikipedia)
Grace Woods Loomis (1880-1951) graduated from the University of California and taught at Binghamton before she married physics professor Elmer H. Loomis, a widower, in 1911. She joined the Princeton Suffrage Committee in 1915, and was a member of the League of women Voters, the University League, and served as president of the WCCP in 1928-29. In addition, she was a founders and president of the Princeton YWCA, and did pioneer work in the New Jersey Commission for the Blind, transcribing books in braille. (view obit in the Princeton Herald)
After graduating from Wilson College in 1910, Louise Smith (1888-1964) got an MA in English at Columnia University. In the census for 1850 she is listed as a 62-year old English teacher in Englewood, New Jersey, who never married. She was was class president and published regularly in the Wilson Alumnae Quarterly . Her resume for February, 1943, can be found in this clipping from the Wilson Alumni Quaterly featuring candidates for alumnae office .
Mary "Mamie" Gwinn Hodder (1860–1940) was a professor of English at Bryn Mawr faculty, where she had obtained a doctoral degree in 1888. She was one of the founders og the college prep school Bryn Mawr School in Baltimore in 1885, and ensured that women were allowed to study medicine at Johns Hopkins University, where her father was a member of the faculty. She was the romantic partner of Martha Carey Thomas, dean and president of the college, with whom she lived until she married fellow professor and novelist Alfred Hodder in 1904 and moved to New York. The love triangle was fictionalized in Gertrude Stein's short novel Fernhurst in 1905. After he died in 1907, Mary Gwinn Hodder moved to Princeton where she worked on a translation of Beowulf. She bequeathed her fortune to Princeton University, which holds the Mary Gwinn and Alfred Hodder papers. Mary Hodder was a memher of the WCCP until she died;. (Source: Wikipedia)
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Marguerite McClanaghan (1890-1981) graduated from Maryville College, Tenn. in 1908 and from Teachers College, Columbia in 1910. Employed by the Princeton Bank and Trust Company from 1915 to 1950 in various positions, she was the first woman to hold an office in a New Jersey bank. She was treasurer and director at Marsh and Company for many years as well as a bookkeeper for a law firm. A charter member from 1916, she was the longest living member of the WCCP. (Trenton Evening Times, January 28, 1981)
Family photo of Marguerite Anna McClanaghan, Ancestry Library (retrieved 31 May 26)
May Margaret Fine (1869-1933) graduated from Wellesley in 1889. The sister of Princeton University's dean of the faculty Henry Burchard Fine, and of John Burchard Fine, headmaster of the Princeton Preparatory School, she founded the Miss Fine School, a college prep school for girls in 1899. She was a member of the Princeton Suffrage Committee, founded in 1915, and was also a lifelong member of the WCCP.
May Fine (source, p 6)
Mabel Tilden Vanderbilt (1879-1957) graduated from Vassar in 1901 and taught history and English at the Princeton High School until 1906, when she became principal of the elementary division of the borough public schools. Eight years later, she became supervising principal. In 1915 she joined the Princeton Suffrage Committee. Mabel Vanderbilt retired and married Howard D. Eldridge in 1932.
Quote from a member of the Princeton High School Class of 1927 in Town Topics
Grace Lucile Olmstead Mershon (1879-1974) graduated from Elmira College in 1903. She taught High School in New York State before she moved to Princeton, where she married Irving Mershon, a banker, in 1914. A genealogist, she wrote several books about the history of the Mershon family. She helped found the Princeton History Society and wrote several articles about the history of Princeton in the Nassau Herald. Her papers, tombstone transcriptions, as well as oral histories that she conducted are kept at the Princeton Historical society. She was was a lifelong member of the Women's College Club of Princeton.
Grace Olmstead Mershon at the 50th anniversary luncheon in 1966
Frances May Ingalls Beggs (1887-1982) graduated from Barnard in 1909. She married George Erie Beggs, professor of Engineering at Princeton University, and had one son. She joined the Princeton Suffrage Committee in 1915 and the WCCP in 1916, where she was a member of the executive committee and president in 1917-18 and 1933-35. A widow since 1939, she became executive assistant of the President of Wellesley College in 1947, where she retired in 1954. During the Club's 50th anniversary she was one of the three charter members who were still alive. Left: yearbook photo of the Barnard Class of 1909
Lesley Crawford (1881-1964) Hun was born in İzmir, Turkey, where her parents were missionaries. After graduating from Andover Academy in Andover, MA, she went to Smith College, from which she graduated in 1904. In 1906 she married John Gale Hun, member of the faculty of the Princeton university mathematics department, who founded the Princeton Mathematics School in 1914, the present Hun School in Princeton.
Harriot Reitze Coney (1866-1941) received her BA at Allegheny in 1887 and MA in 1890, afterwards she attended graduate school at Bryn Mawr 1890-1893. In the following nine years she was a teacher at the Miss Stearns' School, and principal of the Pelham School, Germantown, Philadelphia, and associate principal of Miss Baldwin's School, Bryn Mawr. In 1902 she married Princeton professor of History John Haughton Coney, with whom she had three children. A widow since 1913, she was the first president of the WCCP and was a longlong member.
Entry in the Woman's who's who of America, 1914-15