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Accessibility:
Title:
  • Embreaso Club Records
Author/Creator:
  • Embreaso Club
Call Number:
  • MSS 77
Record Level:
  • Collection
Physical Description:
  • 2 ft.
  • RB, 4 vol.
Inclusive Dates:
  • 1898-1968
Bulk Dates:
  • 1898-1963
Summary:
  • EMBREASO Club Records. 1898-1968, 1.5 ft.
  • The EMBREASO Club (1898-1968) was a woman's social club. The records include minutes, by-laws, scrapbooks, and correspondence.
Historical Note:
  • The EMBREASO Club began in 1897 when a group of seventeen women met to embroider while one of them read. The club name is an acronym devised by one of the women's son's by combining the words EMBroidery, REading and SOcializing. Most of the meetings were held in member's homes. In 1903, deciding it was discourteous to be looking down at their handiwork rather than looking at the speaker, they stopped embroidering. But the club continued to meet regularly "for the intellectual and social culture of it's members." They limited membership to fifty women and continuously had a waiting list. The Club became philanthropic work in 1899, when they decided to give clothing to "starving Cuban's" after a national disaster. Thereafter philanthropy was a regular part of the group's activities. They gave annually to Fresh Cottage, part of the Emily Chase Memorial Home at Oakland Beach and started a children's traveling library in 1912. Beginning with World War I, they were involved with the Red Cross and over the years gave to many other charitable organizations. Occassionally, they became politically active in particular with the Child Labor Movement of 1909, food sanitation and cheaper ice. In 1899, they became a member of RI State Federation of Women's Clubs, which was part of the General Federation of Women's Clubs, a national organization. Over the years, many of the women who serv3ed on the Board of EMBREASO were also active in the RISFWC. The membership consisted of the wives of R.I. politicians and other prominent families in the state. The club meetings and activities were regularly reported in local newspapers. The minutes extend through 1963, and doctuments go through 1968. There is no indication tha the club fomally disbanded.
Scope and Content:
  • Minutes, By-Laws, Executive Board Meetings, Annual Reports starting in 1908 give summary of year's activities. The majority of documents are bound books dating from 1898 - 1963. One folder contains loose papers of scrapbook type items. Four Different scrapbooks contain pictures, correspondence, invitations, newspaper clippings, advertisements, club certificates, playbills and musical bills.
Subjects:
Accession Number:
  • 1987.65.1-
Provenance:
  • This collection was presented to the RIHS as a gift by Doris Ziegler in 1987
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