Anne Weston Whitney was an extremely active Club member from 1892 to 1908. Over the course of her years in the Woman’s Literary Club of Baltimore, she held many roles. She was (at different times) chairman of the committees on fiction, the study of the English language, ethnology, and anthropology, an elected Club director, the longtime corresponding secretary, and, towards the end of her time in the Club, the second Vice President alongside Ellen Duvall under the leadership of Mrs. John C. Wrenshall. As a committee chairman and general member, she was also a frequent presenter of mostly informational pieces, but occasionally also works of fiction. Her membership ended when she moved to New York in 1908.

Anne, or Annie, was born to Milton and Ann Whitney in 1849 in Massachusetts, and moved to Baltimore with her family sometime between 1850 and 1860. Alongside the WLCB, Anne was also the secretary for the American Folklore Society, which was founded in 1888. She is also credited in some news articles as the secretary of the Baltimore Folklore Society, but these may be the same organization. Mrs. Waller Bullock was also a member of the American Folklore society with her, and one Baltimore Sun article describes a presentation they did together on common superstitions. Some of the wisdom they imparted on the society included: “Never walk in the middle of the road, the dead walk there,” “If a horse’s mane gets tangled at night, it’s because the witches have tangled it,” and “A leather shoestring knotted five or nine times and worn around the neck will cure the whooping cough.”

Only one of her publications in the Journal of American Folklore seems to survive today, an article she wrote titled “Items of Maryland Belief and Custom.” It details various superstitions and odd customs of Maryland inhabitants, and is available here. Though this seems to be the only piece penned by her that is accessible, there are also Baltimore Sun articles chronicling her work with the Folklore Society that include excerpts from her research. One such article includes her descriptions of a Maryland estate haunted by a pair of invisible clippers that can be heard snipping away all day and night, and causing cuts and gashes to appear in clothing, curtains, plants, and other materials. She writes that the estate was possessed by an evil spirit, or wizard, and the problem was solved by having a priest exorcise the grounds. Even though a lot of her fiction and other writings seem to be lost, it’s clear that she had a fascination with the supernatural as well as for the literary, and was a respected member of both communities.