Sorosis [Membership List] 1923Ð1924

New York: [The Club], 1924. . 12mo, pale wine colored stiff wrappers; front cover printed and faded with dampstain on lower inner corner. Sorosis was the first professional women's club in the United States. The club was organized in New York City with 12 members in March 1868, by Jane Cunningham Croly. Croly had long wanted to open opportunities for women and for women to play a greater role in molding American society. The specific event sparking the creation of Sorosis occurred in April 1868 when the New York Press Club decided to bar women from its dinner honoring Charles Dickens on his American tour. Although the Press Club agreed at the last minute to open their doors to women if enough expressed a desire to attend the Dickens's soiree, it was too little too late to satisfy Croly and her friends. (Years later, the Press Club formally apologized to Sorosis.) Among its founding members were Josephine Pollard, a children's author, and Fanny Fern Parton, a popular columnist who had also been angered by the New York Press Club's actions. Sorosis was incorporated in January 1869. Alice Cary was the first president. Within one year, Sorosis had 83 members.The organizational meeting at Delmonico's restaurant in New York was itself a challenge to socially acceptable behavior since it was not deemed proper for women to be seen in public places without a male escort. Sorosis is a botanical term used to describe aggregated fruit, Mrs. Croly foundit in a botanical dictionary The general supposition is that Sorosis comes from the Greek word meaning sister. But it has a much more significant and broader meaning than that. It is the botanical name of a class known as aggregated fruits, of which the raspberry is an example- a collection of flowers, which mature into fruits, all joined together in one wholesome body. The club's object was to further the educational and social activities of women, and to bring together for mutual helpfulness, representative women in art, literature, science, and kindred pursuits. (Inventory #: 2720)