Posted on by Monica Malouf

Surprising Find in Frederick, MD

Over the weekend I took a trip to Frederick, MD for the day. The beautiful town lies northwest of Baltimore, close to the Virginia border. Among the mountains the town boasts colorful buildings and shops, as well as rich history. I had visited with Dr. Cole two years ago for a class trip to the Civil War Medicine Museum, but I hadn’t expected my second visit to tie in with our current class.

As I was walking through the town absorbing the old buildings, I came across a sign that read “Trail Mansion”. This rang a bell in my head, but I couldn’t remember why that name held significance. “Trail” I kept repeating; “Why do I know the name ‘Trail’?” Suddenly it dawned on me–I was thinking of Florence Trail, member of the Woman’s Literary Club of Baltimore. I realize this could’ve been a common Maryland name or merely a coincidence, but I snapped a few photos anyways, determined to do a little research.

It turns out the mansion belonged to the wealthy Frederick resident Charles Edward Trail, Florence’s father. To double-check this information, I turned to Marina’s blog post about Florence Trail. Yep, she grew up in Frederick; this must have been her childhood home. The red brick building stands tall, with a unique face in comparison to the other dwellings on the street. Nonetheless, it lies tucked away. The mansion serves as a landmark which marks a specific time in history, and today it functions as a funeral home.

Posted on by Monica Malouf

Margaret Sutton Briscoe: Honorary Yet Extraordinary

Photo found at: https://consecratedeminence.files.wordpress.com/2014/02/margaret_sutton_briscoe_hopkins.jpg

Margaret Sutton Briscoe was a prolific writer and an honorary member of the Woman’s Literary Club of Baltimore. Although she published numerous texts, her greatest contribution to the Club appears to be her reputation. As I researched Briscoe, I kept finding short-story after short-story, as well as poems and essays; however, I barely found mention of her within the WLCB’s meeting minutes. Sure, she was in the meetings, but she only played a minor role. I found this very curious, but as I’ve learned more about the club, her honorary status has become less and less surprising.

Briscoe wrote and worked as a publisher in New York City, where she met and married her husband, Arthur Hopkins. She moved with him to Amherst, MA where they both served as faculty and influential individuals at Amherst College. She was involved in numerous philanthropic and women’s clubs, as expected of a society woman of the time. In fact, she checks off all of the expected boxes in my mind. She wrote, worked, traveled, devoted her time to social activities and clubs, knew Mark Twain, allegedly used the pseudonym “Travers Hopkins”, and boasted a high reputation. She possessed interesting anecdotes about her life, identifying as a true southern woman (in what I assume she would consider a sea of Yankees), was shipwrecked in the Adriatic Sea, and had a text written about her by a student. She opposed suffrage, a fact that is disappointing but not surprising for the traditional, southern Christian woman. She was a successful writer, counselor, and socialite, and although I imagine her southern sympathies would prove problematic (her family owned a plantation on the Chesapeake Bay), there remains something likable about her.

Briscoe still proves a bit of a mystery to me, even though biographical information is widespread thanks to Amherst College’s archives and Five College Archives & Manuscripts (asteria). I still wonder how much involvement she had with the Woman’s Literary Club of Baltimore, and I hope to unearth some hidden minutes or mention of Briscoe. I enjoy her writing; it’s no surprise that she gained such popularity in periodicals like Harper’s New Monthly Magazine, Harper’s Bazar, Century Magazine, etc. Her language, work, and biography mirror the witty and sassy look in the eyes of the woman whose photo accompanies this text. She is charming and challenging, and for this reason I keep hoping she will surprise me with more involvement in WLCB.  I expect she will remain a mere influential individual, bringing to the Club prestige and clout, but some part of me will hold out for a new discovery while continuing my research.

 

Biographical information found at The Consecrated Eminence: The Archives and Special Collections at Amherst College and Five College Archives & Manuscripts Collections (hyperlinked above).

Posted on by Monica Malouf

Miss Virginia Berkeley Bowie: Awaiting New Discoveries

It took me weeks to find information on Miss Virginia Bowie, a member of the Women’s Literary Club of Baltimore from 1909-1920. To be honest, I feel her biography and discovery is still unfinished. While I’ve located article, poem, and essay names by Bowie, the texts themselves still remain a mystery.

That being said, here is some basic biographical information about Miss Virginia Berkeley Bowie…

She was born in Baltimore, Maryland on July 8th, 1880 to Dr. Howard Stafford Bowie and Laura Berkeley Bowie. She had two brothers and one sister, Eleanor Howard Turner (Bowie). She married Major Frederick Schoenfeld, U.S.A,  in Ellicott City, Maryland on June 23rd, 1928. Some of her more well-known works include: “Dilemma of Patrolman Redmund” (written for the Sunday Sun’s short-story contest), “Curious Happenings in Old Maryland”, “The Human Side of

Washington”, and “Our German Spy”, and “Dark River”. She served on many committees and clubs throughout her life, and she died in Baltimore on December 30th, 1976 at the age of 96.

I first found information on this Baltimore debutante and socialite through old newspaper articles. They mostly reviewed her performances in plays put on by the local chapter of the Daughter’s of the American Revolution (D.A.R.), mentioned as Washington-Custis Chapter, Frederick Scott Key Chapter, etc. I found that Miss Bowie performed in numerous plays for not only the D.A.R.–including “Pwang Lu”, “Castles in Spain”–but for other groups as well. What I found most interesting about her involvement in the theater was actually her duties off stage. She served as Secretary & Treasurer and on the Board of Governors for Stagecraft Studios, a theater located at 3 West Centre Street in the 1920s. She performed and helped put on “The Countess Cathleen”, “Sister Beatrice”, and “The Beaux’ Stratagem” for Stagecraft Studios, all mentioned in the Baltimore Sun.

Miss Bowie attended the Bard-Avon School of Expression, so it’s no surprise that she excelled in drama and performance. In addition to her artistic abilities, however, Bowie served as Historian for her D.A.R. chapter. She wrote numerous articles concerned with Maryland colonial history, biographical information on George and Martha Washington, and Revolutionary War history. She clearly proved a prominent member of her D.A.R. chapter, as she is mentioned throughout Baltimore Sun and Evening Sun articles concerning the group. I found all of this fascinating, but one question still remained: how was she involved in the Woman’s Literary Club of Baltimore?

Not until my discovery of her marriage to Major Frederick Schoenfeld did my research really boom. I found articles reviewing the meetings of the Woman’s Literary Club of Baltimore, and Miss Virginia B. Bowie was all over them. I discovered that she read poems, articles, and essays at the meetings, including translations from Italian and French. She served as Chairman of the Committee on Foreign Languages in 1916, and she was a member of the Committees of Unfamiliar Records, Foreign Languages, and Colonial and Revolutionary History throughout her time in the club. I also found that she won numerous awards within her clubs and organizations, including a D.A.R. prize for her essay “Margaret Brent of St. Mary’s Court” and third place for her lyrical poem, “Dark River” mentioned in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch article, “Pen Women Award Prizes For Poetry” (January 19 1933, pg. 13).

Now that I’ve found the names of roughly 19 works by Virginia Berkeley Bowie Schoenfeld, I am on the chase to track down the texts. She’s proven a prolific individual and a window into Baltimore society during the early 20th century. I fully expect to fall deeper into the rabbit hole of research, discovering more information about this talented Baltimore native. What I find daunting, however, is that the search will never be over; years from now I will be searching for the name “Virginia Bowie Schonefeld” (in its many variations), fully expecting to make new discoveries.

 

*Photo and information found in The Baltimore Sun from 1880-1930, on newspapers.com

Posted on by Monica Malouf

Gender Distinction in “Proem”: Abuse of Consciousness or Act of God?

“Proem” proposes that the distinction of gender within humanity came with Original Sin rather than creation.  Initially both called “man”, men and women were considered equal; however, with The Fall of Man came the distinction of gender due to corruption of consciousness.  Man constrained woman, “…that she should leave him never;”, and “weak still he kept her, lest she be strong and flee;” (stanza 7).  “Proem” suggests that the sociological influence man had over woman created a polarization of gender which exists solely through psychological constraints and power-abuse.  The most striking line, “And he never once hath seen her since the pre-historic time!” proposes the illegitimacy of gender distinctions which assume one sex as the dominant (stanza 9).  The subordination of woman exists due to a psychological fear which created an “other”. If man saw woman as she was in “the pre-historic time” (here meaning the Prehistoric Era but also before consciousness and sexual distinction), he would realize the fundamental equality which all humans, regardless of gender, possess. Woman is deemed lesser not because of legitimate factors or value-based judgments but due to the fear inspired by Original Sin and abuse of consciousness.  Beginning Women and Economics with this “Proem” suggests that gender lines and expectations exist arbitrarily rather than by act of God; this inspires readers to question the economic and social subordination of women described in the following chapters.