Fortnightly Ignorance Club papers

Collection

Identifier: D.201

Staff Only

Biographical/Historical note

The Fortnightly Ignorance Club was founded in January 1881 by a group of prominent Rochester, NY women, led by Dr. Sarah Adamson Dolley and Jenny Marsh Parker, to discuss and take action on "vital topics of the day." The women, initially thirteen in number but growing to almost fifty over the next decade, held evening meetings every two weeks in the downtown offices of their husbands. They posed to one another questions about which they were ignorant and, through research, correspondence with notable experts, and pointed discussions, attempted to answer their questions. Among the central issues which they addressed were vivisection, suffrage for women, prison reform, "the woman questions," the placement of women on the boards of the Rochester school district and the Western New York House of Refuge, and the appointment of a police matron to the Rochester jail. After much investigation and agitation, it was through the club members' work that the last three reforms were achieved in Rochester during the 1880s.

For additional information on the club, its activities and its prominent members, see the following:

Dictionary of American Biography, XIV, 229-230

Notable American Women, I, 497-499

Rochester Historical Society Publication Fund Series, XI, 190-193

Rochester Historical Society Publication Fund Series, XXIII, 1-106.

Scope and Contents

The papers of the Fortnightly Ignorance Club consist of two manuscript volumes containing minutes of the group's meetings, correspondence, newspaper clippings, and club budgets. The correspondence, between recording secretary Jenny Marsh Parker and notable women reformers (including Marie E. Zakrzewska and Susan B. Anthony), is interleaved in the volumes and indexed. The two volumes cover the periods 1881 to 1883 (volume 1) and 1886 to 1891 (volume 3) with a gap during the intervening years.

Creator

Fortnightly Ignorance Club (Rochester, N.Y.) (Organization)
Anthony, Susan B. (Susan Brownell), 1820-1906 (Person)
Parker, Jenny Marsh, 1836-1913 (Person)
Zakrzewska, Marie E. (Marie Elizabeth), 1829-1902 (Person)

Dates

Creation: 1881-1891

Language of Materials

English

Extent

1 box(es)

Access

The Fortnightly Ignorance Club Papers is open for research use. Researchers are advised to contact the Rare Books Special Collections & Preservation Department prior to visiting. Upon arrival, researchers will also be asked to fill out a registration form and provide photo identification.

Use

In consultation with a curator, reproductions may be made upon request. Permission to publish materials from the collection must be requested from a curator. Researchers are responsible for determining any copyright questions.

Immediate Source of Acquisition

Purchased from ADS Autographs, June 19, 1985.

Preferred Citation

[Item title, item date], Fortnightly Ignorance Club Papers, D.201, Rare Books, Special Collections, and Preservation, River Campus Libraries, University of Rochester