Yesterday I had the honor & privilege of speaking about the WLCB at the institution that has made this project possible: the Maryland Historical Society, located in the Mt. Vernon neighborhood of Baltimore.

I provided an overview of the WLCB project, including some of the major issues we’ve encountered– the historical invisibility of women! Victorian propriety! the sheer quantity of literature produced by Baltimore women! the sheer quantity of documents about the WLCB! the Virtual Library & archive! Lydia Crane!

One of the best things about the talk was that Cynthia was able to attend, and was able to contribute some of her vast knowledge of the WLCB, gleaned through many hours of transcribing minutes, during the Q&A. The other best thing about the talk was that I was able to incorporate excerpts of other team members’ writings about the Club into my talk, including Cynthia’s historical overview of the Club and how it operated, Katie’s writings about the Club library, and Clara’s thoughts about the Club members’ troubling attitudes about race and the Civil War.

I was also able to share some snippets of writings by Club members. I chose a few short poems: “Motherhood,” by Clara Newman Turner (cousin of Emily Dickinson), “A Monosyllabic Tragedy” by humorist & journalist Louise Malloy, and “Lydia” by Lizette Woodworth Reese. These, I thought, showed a range of attitudes about gender roles–ranging from adherence to the values of Victorian womanhood, to more complicated views of marriage and same-sex relationships. When I was putting the talk together, I was struck by how far we have come in the past 2 years in our understanding of these women and how they have contributed to the literary landscape, and what potential there is for this project to put Baltimore women writers, finally, on the map.

Not a lot of people came–it was scheduled over lunch, for one thing–but whose who did were engaged and interested. More than half of them, it turned out, were current members of women’s clubs!

One group of women was very curious about why the WLCB disbanded in 1941. I said that we had not uncovered any direct evidence, which is not really surprising since clubs frequently end after a period of inactivity, a process which by its very nature is not documented. They speculated that perhaps it was because an organization like the WLCB may not have been needed by that time in order to support women writers– and that there might be other organizations that could perform that work.

I actually wonder if part of it was that the Club members, gradually migrating to the suburban neighborhoods north and west of downtown, may have simply gravitated toward clubs in those areas. I suspect that some of these clubs, like Mount Washington’s Lend-a-Hand Club and the Roland Park Women’s Club, likely absorbed many of the WLCB’s members over the years.

It was exciting to see how interested present-day women’s club members were to learn about historical antecedents of their own clubs.

I was also struck by a comment made by a staff member from the Maryland Historical Society. She said that for her, what was most interesting about the WLCB project is that it showed the importance of literature in understanding the history of women’s experiences. The poetry I shared, she said, provided a glimpse into what women were actually thinking– which is impossible (or at least very difficult) to get from traditional historical sources, such as census documents, biographical dictionaries, and so on. I debated whether or not to include any literary analysis in this talk, since I was presenting at a historical society. But now I’m glad I did!

The best part about a public humanities project is actually connecting with the public. Next time, I hope to bring some students to join in the fun.