The Hoard Historical Museum has announced that it has a new exhibit featuring Fort Atkinson’s Tuesday Club, which, a news release notes, is Wisconsin’s oldest active women’s study club.
The exhibit will be on display throughout the fall.
According to the release, the exhibit features the 16 women who, in 1881, started Tuesday Club. At that time, Fort Atkinson did not have a library and little money was available for people to purchase books. Despite these challenges, when an ad appeared in a local newspaper in 1880 or 1881, inviting interested women to spend a few hours each week reading and studying together, the women joined the club.
The release defines a study club as a small group of people who regularly meet to discuss a specific topic or topics related to a theme.
The release continued: “The idea for the club came about one day when Mrs. N. F. Hopkins was reading George Eliot’s “Romola.” Set in fifteenth century Florence, Romola details the lives of several people and explores the interpersonal connections between them. Mrs. N.F. Hopkins later described her reaction to it, (saying:) ‘There came to me a great longing to know the people in the story as living, breathing, loving beings as George Eliot did.’ She hurried to her friend’s house with her idea of asking a few others to join in reading Romola together. Through personal invitations to participate and the ad in the paper, the club was begun.”
The 16 women were described within the release as sharing “an interest in intellectual pursuits. They were considered leaders in the literary activities of the community. Many had attended college and some had spent several years teaching before they married. One had taught at Ripon College. One had written articles, poems and stories that were published in national magazines and leading newspapers. One had graduated from Albion Academy, a four-year college that was the first higher education institution in Wisconsin to admit women.
“Several of the women were married to prominent Fort Atkinson men. Their husbands were doctors, lawyers, and businessmen. Two had founded local banks. Several had held elected office, including state senator, state legislator, county board member and village president. Others served as the first city attorney, the state superintendent of schools, and president of the Wisconsin Dairyman’s Association. Some were from the families of early settlers, whose names, (such as) Jones, Caswell, Rankin, and Rogers, are familiar.”
Topics chosen over the years for an annual study by club members included European cities, such as London, Paris and Venice, along with literature, arts, women, other countries and Wisconsin, among others, according to the release. The club has produced a study annually, with the exception of 1918, which, the release noted, was the first year of a worldwide pandemic that took 675,000 lives in the United States.
By 1919, the release continued, the women resumed their meeting schedule, and their activities continue to modern day.
According to information found online, in Wisconsin, Gov. Tony Evers declared a COVID-19 public health emergency, issuing Executive Order 72 on March 12, 2020. His “Safer at Home” initiative was put in place March 24. The following May, the Wisconsin Supreme Court struck the Safer at Home order down, declaring it unconstitutional, leaving local governments to impose or recommend their own health restrictions.
In the months that followed, the release stated, the Tuesday Club women did not meet in person, but, according to an earlier story written by Chris Spangler and published by Fort Atkinson Online in July of 2021, the club was not idle. Members collected memories of the months spent in 2020 and 2021 “masked up, maintaining a physical distance even from friends and family, and skipping holiday gatherings,” as one member expressed it.
An earlier story about the collection of memories is here: https://fortatkinsononline.com/forts-tuesday-club-create-booklet-titled-sharing-memories-of-the-2021-coronavirus-pandemic/.
This year, the release continued, the Tuesday Club celebrates its 142nd year.
“Talks given by the club’s members will feature World Heritage Sites, the latest in a long list of interesting topics the group has studied. The exhibit was created and installed by Lori Bocher and Bonnie Geyer, two Tuesday Club members,” the release stated.
The Tuesday Club exhibit case is located toward the back of the Mary Hoard gallery, next to the entrance to the Jones Family Gallery, the release noted.
The Hoard Historical and National Dairy Shrine museums are located at 401 Whitewater Ave., Fort Atkinson. The museums are open Tuesdays through Saturdays, from 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Visiting the museums is free.
For more information about the Tuesday Club exhibit, other exhibits in the museums and programming, visit the Hoard Historical Museum website: www.hoardmuseum.org.
Mrs. N.F. (Matilda) Hopkins, photo courtesy of the Hoard Historical Museum and the Fort Atkinson Historical Society.
Mrs. Milo C. (Mary) Jones II, photo courtesy of the Hoard Historical Museum and the Fort Atkinson Historical Society.
Mrs. C.A. (Adele) Caswell, photo courtesy of the Hoard Historical Museum and the Fort Atkinson Historical Society.
The Tuesday Club of Fort Atkinson has assembled a booklet featuring members’ memories of their activities during the coronavirus pandemic. Above are some of the authors, from left to right: Seated — Bonnie Geyer, Bernice Neff, Mary Touton, Joan Jones, Mabel Schumacher, Carolyn Nord and Beth Covey; Standing — Eve Horton, Joan Mittag, Diane Abendroth, Shirley Johnson, Carol Ward Knox, Angela Nelson, Cindy Whitney, Ann Engelman, Marsha Wilson, Becky Tuttle and Marie Nelson. File photo/Chris Spangler.
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