The Women's Reading Club of Henniker, New Hampshire

Ten Yearbooks. Henniker, NH: n.p., 1901–1905; 1906–1910; 1912–1916.

10 volumes; 18mo.; 3 oblong; age-toned; string-bound; paper wrappers; slightly sunned; mild edgewear. 

“The hand that rocks the cradle can just as gracefully wield a gavel.” So wrote Jane Hobart Tuttle commenting on the women's club movement in New Hampshire in The Granite Monthly [“The Women’s Clubs of Littleton,” Vol. XXIX, No. 2]. In the dawn of the Progressive Era, women were no longer satisfied with meeting in sewing circles or charitable church groups. The woman's club movement, which took place throughout the United States, established the idea that women had a moral duty to pursue education and a responsibility to transform public policy. Tuttle claims that the two enemies of women’s education were “conservatism and man,” explaining that conservatism is cranky and man is crankier. Concerning the objectors to the women’s movement she claimed that they “have had their day” and were powerless to stop the ladies in their pursuit.

One town involved in the rise of women’s clubs in New Hampshire was Henniker, where Mrs. Kate M. Ingalls led an effort in 1897 that resulted in The Women’s Reading Club of Henniker, with the mission of promoting “interchange of thought and cultivation of taste for a more extended knowledge of reading, such as history, authors, fiction, current events, or whatever the Club may deem advisable.” This club was limited to a membership of thirty which resulted in some criticism, but the meetings were held in the homes of members, so the rule was not changed. The meetings were “purely literary” and concentrated on American history, civil government, and literature. There was also a “gentlemen’s night” when their husbands or other male relatives were invited to a meeting. 

Every year, the Women’s Reading Club published a pocket-sized yearbook that covered the club officers, members, constitution, and by-laws, as well as the program and hostess for each meeting that year. Each year had a theme announced. In the present collection, which covers the years 1901–1916 (minus the 1905–06 and 1911–12 volumes), topics are diverse, including New Hampshire history, South America, Sociology, American Literature, and Alaska and Our New Possessions, among others. For some years, each program opens with a quote related to the topic under discussion. In later years, the greetings, the club motto, and the club song were all given space. 

Ida J. Graves of the Henniker club once wrote “With the advancement made in women’s clubs in the past years one may easily believe that the future will excel the past, as the present surpasses the beginning.” History has proved her right.