Woman's Literary Club of Baltimore

A number of literary societies founded throughout the country during this time provided women a chance to read and discuss literature in a supportive setting.

The Woman’s Literary Club of Baltimore was founded in March 1890, and was the idea of two young writers, Louisa C.Osburne Haughton and Hester Crawford Dorsey, who issued an invitation to discuss founding a club “to further greater intellectual development of the women of Baltimore and to promote social relations among those of similar tastes.”[1] Nearly 40 women responded.

[4] Some of the best-known writers affiliated with the club included Lizette Woodworth Reese, Margaret Sutton Briscoe, Louise Malloy,[5] and Harriet Lummis Smith.

They remained a fairly small group, capping their membership at 100, and while this allowed them funds for their activities, it would not support the purchase and maintenance of a building.

The committees that presented programs to the club most often were those dealing with literature: Fiction, Modern Poetry, Drama, Essays, Current Criticism and Translation.

In addition to weekly meetings, the Woman's Literary Club of Baltimore held salons, which were social events with a musical program and refreshments.

Each January beginning in 1902, the club held an annual Twelfth Night Celebration, an elaborate dinner with a musical program and a Christmas cake baked with souvenirs that was paraded through the gathering.

Among those honored were Edgar Allan Poe, Junius Brutus Booth, John Pendleton Kennedy, Sidney Lanier, Col. Richard Malcolm Johnston, William H. Rinehart, and former Club member Mary Spear Tiernan.

Notices of meetings and events published in the Baltimore Sun indicate that the club stayed true to its mission of supporting women writers and their literary pursuits.