Our History
Founded in 1895, the University Women's Club of The Ohio State University had a charter membership of 60 women, led by Flavia Canfield, the wife of the then president of the University. Over the decades, many presidents' wives were active members along with women faculty, faculty wives and daughters as well as many women from the community.
In 1920, for the 25th anniversary of our Club, Jane Denney, a charter member, wrote this Retrospect:
The Women's Club of The Ohio State University was founded in 1895 by Flavia Canfield, wife of James Hulme Canfield, who came to the presidency of the University from the chancellorship of the University of Nebraska.
Mrs. Canfield was intensely interested in the Women's Club Movement, which at that time was in its initial stage. She found Columbus, except for one or two exclusive clubs, unorganized territory. She started a club campaign. She naturally began with the wives of the Faculty and organized the Faculty Club as it was called in the beginning. Mrs. Canfield's clubs were the sensation of the hour.
I often accompanied her on her organizing expeditions. She drove an old black horse which from its patience and understanding I suspected of having given a similar club service in Nebraska. We would invade a neighborhood at two o['clock in the afternoon and by four o'clock a new club would be launched with a name, a motto, a flower and federated; Mrs. Canfield was keen for federation.
There have been many good results of these group associations. The best, doubtless, are life-long friendships that have naturally grown out of a common endeavor. The University Women's Club has promoted acquaintance among its members. I trust that through the years this purpose will be kept prominent. Women must guard the offices of friendship and hospitality in this age of unrest. Printed on our first program was a quotation from King Lear, "Here is my hand and mine - with my heart in it. Let us in these anniversary days renew this pledge of good will.
During her residence in Columbus, Mrs. Canfield was honored with the presidency of The Columbus art Association. She broadened the policy of the association and enlarged the membership. She resented an effort to keep to a narrow coterie an interest which should be widely cultural. An artist herself, Mrs. Canfield was very kind to struggling artists of merit. She encouraged and aided Mrs. St. Gaudens when she was Miss Johnson, living at Flint, Ohio. She recognized her talent and secured patrons for her art. She was equally kind to others. Mrs. Canfield now lives in New York. At the age of seventy-five she is youthful in spirit and endeavor. She recently wrote and illustrated a clever war story for children, "The Refugee Family." She has always done things with her brush and her pen. Her gifted daughter, Dorothy Canfield, has achieved a distinguished place among the literary persons of American with her "Brimming Cut" and other writings.
At the time of the founding of the Women's Club in 1895, there was little social life in either student or faculty circles. Dancing in University buildings was forbidden by rule. I recall that a committee from the Women's Club petitioned the Faculty to allow students to hold their parties in university buildings instead of public halls and hotels down town and after some hesitation permission was given to hold the Junior Prom on the campus. In that day, the University was quite removed from the city. Although a viaduct had just been completed across the railroad tracks, East Enders had vivid memories of the days when a journey northward was attended with considerable danger because of the ten or twelve tracks which their horses had to cross. In these twenty-five years the city has reached the university and extended far beyond.
It was inevitable that the university campus should lose its country aspect. Wide paved roads are a necessity in an age of automobiles. But I like to recall the time when these roads were paths through the grass and when the orchard trees still flourished near the president's house and near Eleventh Avenue. The informality of the old tie campus was its charm. The entire Indianola district had a delightful country aspect. Fifteenth avenue was the only city street. The rest of the section was still in its native condition of woods and ravines. Sixteenth Avenue was a lane, a lover's walk through the trees. Indianola Avenue from Sixteenth Avenue was a path across the pastures to the ravine beyond. The old Neil home with its charming house and spacious grounds was still intact. At one end of the grounds was a cabin occupied by the servants... High Street from Fifteenth Avenue to Eleventh avenue opposite the campus was a long stretch of unoccupied land except for an abandoned red brick school house of earlier years. University life was quite suburban. Student life was not so centered about the University as now. Fraternities were small groups in rented houses. College activities were few, social events not numerous, athletics a negligible interest and university spirit and community life not conspicuous.
In the years of which I have been speaking students had few places of rendezvous on or close to the campus. In these circumstances, Mrs. Canfield was concerned for the social welfare of the students. She hoped through the Women's Club to give students the opportunity of knowing the faculty and their wives more intimately. She understood that young men and women away from the refining influence of home life are likely to neglect the cultivation of the social graces. The first year the Club gave a series of receptions to students. Hayes Hall had just been completed and it was to this building that the students were invited. The University was so small that the Club had the courage to entertain the student body en masse. There was no shortage of sugar or any good thing in that day and we provided refreshment in abundance. I recall that lemonade was made by the barrel and served from the original container. The University soon became too large for such entertainment to be possible.
In later years we confined our efforts to the group of women students. At one time circles of ten were formed among the girls, each circle chaperoned by a member of the Women's Club. The hostesses opened their homes to the girls and in turn were invited to affairs which the girls arranged. Out of these beginnings have grown the numerous and varied social enterprises of students and faculty until now we hear less of the need of encouragement than of restraint. The creation of the position of Dean of Women has insured expect attention to the welfare of university women, including their social welfare. A woman of intellectual attainment and social grace can do much to establish scholastic and social standing. A women's building where the women's activities are centered will greatly facilitate the work of the Dean and will render possible a more intimate influence upon young women from the standpoint of social training.
The Women's Club has grown from a charter membership of sixty to a membership of three hundred. The Club, too large to be accommodated in private homes, has held its meetings of late in university halls. The smaller study groups recently organized will make possible a return to the intimacy which was the chief advantage of home meetings.
The early programs of the Club are interesting reading. The first printed program was for the year 1897-1898. The meeting occurred bi-monthly and all of the papers were presented by club members. The subjects discussed were timely for that period. "The Legal and Political Status of Women" was presented in a paper of keen logic, wit and sarcasm by Mrs. John Gordy, wife of Professor Gordy of the Department of Philosophy. She did not expect to be convincing; she hoped only to entertain her listeners and to set some few to thinking seriously of Votes for Women. As the suffrage battle grew in intensity, members of the Women's Club gave staunch support to the cause, as members of The College Equal Suffrage League and other suffrage organizations. The adoption of the Nineteenth Amendment as brought to a successful conclusion the long struggle for Votes for Women.
Domestic Science was a subject discussed before the Club by the first director of the School of Domestic Science at The Ohio State University - Miss Perla Bowman. The idea of such instruction in the University was so novel that the older men on the faculty frowned and made it difficult for Dr. Canfield who favored the subject to find a place for it in the curriculum. College Settlements was the subject of a paper by Miss Bertha Scott, daughter of former President W.O. Scott. Jane Addams was just coming into prominence with her work at Hull House in Chicago. As a native of Chicago, it was my privilege to be intimately acquainted with the beginnings of this experiment in social settlement work. I have followed with keen interest the career of Miss Addams, who, because of her sympathy for oppressed classes of society, has become a world figure in humanism. Interest in social settlement work in Columbus resulted in the founding of the First Neighborhood Guild (later named the Godman Guild) in 1898 by a group of university people under the direction of Dr. James H. Canfield.
Of the Club subjects of more recent years, I recall with especial pleasure the travel talks which brought us intimate, charming reports of trips abroad in the years before the World War when each year several members of the Club sojourned in foreign lands. The drama afternoons have been very enjoyable. A list of the plays read before the Club brings to mind many pleasant hours with Barry, Shaw, Dunsany and other modern playwrights. A recently organized Newcomer Club (March 2, 1014) has occasionally presented a program before the Club. This section brings to our acquaintance the gifted women recently added to the Club membership. The Music Group, the first study group to be organized has presented programs of professional merit. This group took upon my suggestion the name Music GROUP, in the hope that the name would suggest the formation of other study sections. This hope has been realized in the organization during the present year of a Literature Group and an Art Group. A Social Service Group has also been formed. It is an evidence of growth that there is this desire among club members for special study and work sections.
The Women's Club has made a worthy contribution to the life of the University in promoting acquaintance, in affording opportunities for study, in furthering the interests of the University and in rendering a notable service during the World War. An auxiliary chapter of the Red Cross was established at the University which enlisted the entire membership of the Women's Club in the making of surgical dressings and hospital garments. Support was also given to canteen work at the railroad stations, to hospital service for the Student Army Training Corps and to the work of hospitality which provided entertainment for soldiers in training units at the University and at the Columbus Barracks. The War Service is the most distinguished chapter in the history of the Women's Club. An organized unit ready for work is always an advantage in a time of emergency. The women's clubs throughout the country afforded such units as did the church guilds and other women's organizations.
In the next decade women will take a more active part in shaping affairs of the state and the nation, serving on an equality with men in important positions of trust. The great spiritual purpose of the new age should be the fostering of friendly relations and mutual understanding among nations. In the movement for World Peace the University should play an important part. The University Women's Club will enjoy increasing opportunity for influence and achievement.
Mrs. Joseph Villiers Denney (Jane) was one of the 60 Charter Members of the University Women's Club. She also served as its President in 1897 and 1912.