New Bedford Woman's Club and Junior Woman's Club records

The New Bedford Woman’s Club was organized in 1897 by a group of four women, Cora Cleveland, Alice Munsey, Mabel Cleveland and Carrie Gifford, plus eight others. The Club affiliated with the Massachusetts State Federation of Women’s Clubs in 1898, and the General Federation of Women’s Clubs, the national organization, in 1900. The first president was Ada W. Tillinghast, who held early club meetings in her home at the corner of Eighth and Elm Streets. According to the Club constitution, its purpose was the “intellectual, philanthropic, moral and social advancement” of its members. It soon outgrew its space and moved the meetings to the First Baptist Church in New Bedford. In 1917 they raised $12,000 to purchase and renovate the Standish House at 20 South Sixth Street. Meetings continued at this site at least until 1974, when the house was sold to the New Bedford YWCA. The club disbanded around 1990. Among the Club’s accomplishments was establishing playgrounds throughout the city, subsidizing school lunches, supporting the Cancer Clinic and the Dental Clinic in the public school, sending books to the leper colony on Penikeese Island, providing supplies for patients at St. Luke’s, the Veteran’s Hospital in Rutland, and the Sassaquin Sanitorium. During world War I they sold War Bonds, and during World War II they shared their home with the U.S.O. for the entertainment of soldiers. One of their main projects was working with the disabled, founding a Blind Reading Circle in the early part of the 20th century. The New Bedford Junior Woman’s Club was formed in 1940 and composed of women between the ages of 21 and 35. It’s stated purpose “shall be the development of its members in intellectual endeavor, social fellowship and community service.”