| Creator | Monday Lunch Club (Boston, Mass.) |
| Title | Monday Lunch Club records |
| Dates | 1921-1991 |
| Identification | MS 61 |
| Quantity | 2.5 linear feet (5 manuscript containers) |
| Collection Abstract | The collection includes membership records, by-laws, brief histories of the organization, and correspondence. |
| Historical Abstract | The group that came to be called the Monday Lunch Club was the idea of Ned (Edward) Hartman, at the time, Secretary of the Massachusetts Civic League. The initial purpose of the club was to bring together those interested in, and working in the field of social welfare. It was hoped that by discussing their common interests and exchanging information about problems and activities, the groundwork would be laid for cooperation in influencing the legislative process and presenting proposals to elected officials. |
| Language | Material in English. |
| Location | Collection may be stored offsite. Please contact Archives staff for more information. |
Collection is open.
Copyright for materials resides with the creators of the items in question, unless otherwise designated.
Please contact the College Archivist with requests to publish any material from the collection.
[Identification of item: description and date], Monday Lunch Club records, MS 61, Simmons College Archives, Boston, MA, USA.
Papers were a gift from the Monday Lunch Club to the School of Social Work Library and later transferred to the College Archives, and a gift from Fred Clanagan to the College Archives
Accession number: 85.006
Processed by Elizabeth Balcom, April 1985.
This collection guide was encoded as part of the LEADS project by Meghan Poepping, August 2013.
The group that came to be called the Monday Lunch Club was the idea of Ned (Edward) Hartman, at the time, Secretary of the Massachusetts Civic League.(1) William H. Pear (1865-1954), soon to become the General Agent of the Boston Provident Association, and Benjamin Marsh (ca, 1878-1952), secretary of the Pennsylvania Society to Protect Children from Cruelty, were also involved in the discussion in the summer of 1907 during which the idea was first raised.(2) Subsequently Carl Carstens (circa 1865-1939), Executive Secretary of the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, was involved in planning the original group.(3) They began meeting in 1908 as The Executives' Round Table.(4) In an article published in 1931, it is noted that the group began meeting every Monday at the Boston City Club around 1910.(5) The group celebrated its 50th anniversary in 1958, taking 1908 as the founding date.(6)
The initial purpose of the club was to bring together those interested in, and working in the field of social welfare. It was hoped that by discussing their common interests and exchanging information about problems and activities, the groundwork would be laid for cooperation in influencing the legislative process and presenting proposals to elected officials. William H. Pear in his history of the club discusses several ways in which this was done. He notes as some of their successes, passage of the Desertion and Non-support Statue of 1911, the Mother's Aid Statute of 1912 and changes in the workmen's Compensation Law in 1912. Organization of the Department of Public Welfare (to replace the State Board of Charity) was part of the legislation proposed by the group. The group also invited public officials to speak at their lunch meetings, and used this opportunity both to obtain information and to disseminate it. One of their more famous guests was Calvin Coolidge, who visited the club just before he was inaugurated as governor.(7)
The club began, as has been noted, as a very small one. Pear notes that they tried to keep the numbers down to a point where all could sit around a table and talk. As the years went by, more social service organizations were founded, and all expanded their staffs; thus the number of social work executives who could be a valued part of the club increased dramatically. The club increased in size, but throughout its history the members had a concern about the size of the club. Various devices were used to limit membership, including developing inactive and honorary categories of membership, so that those who were eligible to be members, but because of work pressures could not attend meetings very often, could retain a type of membership and yet open up spaces for others ( a limit to the number of members was usually set, although this changed over the years).
The Monday Lunch Club consisted of men only, yet there were women in executive positions in the social welfare field. In 1924, a women's lunch club was formed. Sometimes this was referred to as the Monday Lunch Club; sometimes as the Women's Club or the Women's Lunch Club.(8) The two groups held joint meetings over the years. In October 1959 the men's club discussed whether the two groups should merge, and decided against doing so.(9) A merger took place finally in 1968, with the first "joint" meeting held on October 7, 1968.(10)
Being an informal and relatively small organization, The Monday Lunch Club apparently did not keep extensive records. The collection includes membership records, by-laws, brief histories of the organization, and correspondence. Generally, correspondence consists of copies of letters to members asking for payment of lunch expenses, apologetic replies, letters inviting and thanking speakers, and letters concerning membership. A rule required dues payment and meeting attendance to retain active membership. This may seem surprising in an otherwise informal club, but the reason was precisely its informality. Members wanted a club to be small enough to allow for personal contacts and informal exchange; they also wanted the club to include executives of all the important social agencies in the area. As these grew both more numerous and larger, keeping the small size became difficult. One partial solution was to require attendance and dues and to place people on inactive or honorary status if they did not keep up. This way, new people could become members. As the membership policy generally required active members to be employed in executive positions in social service agencies, the correspondence provides much information about who held what jobs when.
The collection contains little information on programs. There are some lists of programs which include the names and affiliations of speakers and their topics, but practically no information on the substance of the speeches. An exception is a list for the year 1927-28 which includes brief summaries of the speakers' remarks. Included is a brief record of two meetings held on the question of race relations with "Matthew Bullock, colored, Dartmouth graduate, attorney-at-law," as the speaker.
These and related materials may be found under the following headings in online catalogs.
Collection is arranged into 4 series:
This series consists of membership lists in various forms. Most are typed and dated lists, with changes and sometimes the dates of the changes written in. It is usually possible to tell when a list was first compiled and sometimes when it was changed. However, because of many of the changes were not dated, it is not always possible to determine from these lists exactly what time periods are covered. The practice of updating the lists varied over the years; that is, they were not always updated a the same time of year. When a list has two dates, a typed and handwritten addition, the later date has been used to place it in the chronology. Since practice changed, the lists have been arranged by calendar years, not "club years." Also, since new members were admitted as spaces opened up, club lists were seldom static. The years around the time of the merger include men's and women's lists.
As the lists of members are sparse for the earlier years, a compilation of members from 1922 to 1940 is of particular interest. This list includes the season and the names of those elected who accepted, declined and resigned office.
Arranged in reverse chronological order.
Box 1
This series includes by-laws (apparently the club never had a constitution), rules and guidelines which governed the club over the years. The rules changed over the years, with changes usually concerned with membership dues and payments. There is a June 1969 revision made when the two clubs merged.
Arranged in reverse chronological order.
Box 1
This series includes a paper written by William H. Pear, "The Life Story of the Monday Lunch Club." It covers the history of the club from its inception as the "Executives' round Tables" in circa 1908 until circa 1947. Also included in this section are a list of officers of the club from 1910 until 1961 and a brief chronology of the merger of the men's and women's clubs. The histories, inclusively, cover the period from 1908 to 1980.
Arranged in reverse chronological order.
Box 1
These are the major administrative records covering the years noted above, with some gaps. The same type of records were not kept from year to year and the degree of completeness also varies. Within each folder the records are arranged into the following rough categories: lists of officers; lists of members, program information; correspondence in chronological order; and other items, including financial information.
Arranged in reverse chronological order.
Box 1
Box 2
Box 3
Box 4
