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Fortnightly Ignorance Club papers
Creator: Fortnightly Ignorance Club (Rochester, N.Y.)
Call Number: D.201
Dates: 1881-1891
Physical Description: 1 box
Language(s): Materials are in English
Repository: Rare Books, Special Collections, and Preservation, River Campus Libraries, University of Rochester
Table of Contents:
Biographical/Historical Note
Scope and Content
Subject(s)
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Access
Use
Citation
Collection Overview
Title: Fortnightly Ignorance Club papers
Creator: Fortnightly Ignorance Club (Rochester, N.Y.)
Call Number: D.201
Dates: 1881-1891
Physical Description: 1 box
Language(s): Materials are in English
Repository: Rare Books, Special Collections, and Preservation, River Campus Libraries, University of Rochester
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 Content
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.
Subject(s):
New York (State)--Rochester
Women--Societies and clubs
Women--Suffrage
Social problems
Minutes (Records)
Correspondence
Newspaper clippings
Financial records
Fortnightly Ignorance Club (Rochester, N.Y.)
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Purchased from ADS Autographs, June 19, 1985.Access
The Fortnightly Ignorance Club papers is open for research use. Researchers are advised to contact Rare Books, Special Collections, and Preservation prior to visiting. Upon arrival, researchers will also be asked to fill out a registration form and provide photo identification.Use
Reproductions are made upon request but can be subject to restrictions. Permission to publish materials from the collection must currently be requested. Please note that some materials may be copyrighted or restricted. It is the researcher's obligation to determine and satisfy copyright or other case restrictions when publishing or otherwise distributing materials found in the collections. For more information contact rarebks@library.rochester.eduCitation
[Item title, item date], Fortnightly Ignorance Club papers, D.201, Rare Books, Special Collections, and Preservation, River Campus Libraries, University of Rochester
Administrative Information
Author: Finding aid prepared by Rare Books and Special Collections staff
Publisher: Rare Books, Special Collections, and Preservation, River Campus Libraries, University of Rochester
Address:
Rush Rhees Library
Second Floor, Room 225
Rochester, NY 14627-0055
rarebks@library.rochester.edu
URL:
Creator: Fortnightly Ignorance Club (Rochester, N.Y.)
Call Number: D.201
Dates: 1881-1891
Physical Description: 1 box
Language(s): Materials are in English
Repository: Rare Books, Special Collections, and Preservation, River Campus Libraries, University of Rochester
Table of Contents:
Biographical/Historical Note
Scope and Content
Subject(s)
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Access
Use
Citation
Collection Overview
Title: Fortnightly Ignorance Club papers
Creator: Fortnightly Ignorance Club (Rochester, N.Y.)
Call Number: D.201
Dates: 1881-1891
Physical Description: 1 box
Language(s): Materials are in English
Repository: Rare Books, Special Collections, and Preservation, River Campus Libraries, University of Rochester
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 Content
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.
Subject(s):
New York (State)--Rochester
Women--Societies and clubs
Women--Suffrage
Social problems
Minutes (Records)
Correspondence
Newspaper clippings
Financial records
Fortnightly Ignorance Club (Rochester, N.Y.)
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Purchased from ADS Autographs, June 19, 1985.Access
The Fortnightly Ignorance Club papers is open for research use. Researchers are advised to contact Rare Books, Special Collections, and Preservation prior to visiting. Upon arrival, researchers will also be asked to fill out a registration form and provide photo identification.Use
Reproductions are made upon request but can be subject to restrictions. Permission to publish materials from the collection must currently be requested. Please note that some materials may be copyrighted or restricted. It is the researcher's obligation to determine and satisfy copyright or other case restrictions when publishing or otherwise distributing materials found in the collections. For more information contact rarebks@library.rochester.eduCitation
[Item title, item date], Fortnightly Ignorance Club papers, D.201, Rare Books, Special Collections, and Preservation, River Campus Libraries, University of Rochester
Administrative Information
Author: Finding aid prepared by Rare Books and Special Collections staff
Publisher: Rare Books, Special Collections, and Preservation, River Campus Libraries, University of Rochester
Address:
Rush Rhees Library
Second Floor, Room 225
Rochester, NY 14627-0055
rarebks@library.rochester.edu
URL: