Posted on by Megan Hultberg

A Lover of History: A Bit of Lucy Meacham Thruston’s

Lucy Meacham (Kidd) Thruston was born on March 29th, 1862 in to John Meacham Kidd and Elizabeth Rebecca Adams Kidd, an old Virginia family. Being from Virginia inspired her to write works such as A Girl of Virginia (published in 1902) to which tells a story about a “loveable light spirited daughter of a professor of the University of Virginia” while giving details about the college from the point of view of those who live around it.

From “The Baltimore Sun” May 22, 1907

She moved to Baltimore when she was 12, graduated from Maryland-State Normal School at Towson (not the State Teachers’ College) and taught for a little there. She married her husband Julius Thruston who was from Baltimore on February 14th, 1887, which let’s be honest is so romantic! From a young age, Thruston has claimed to always being a “some-what romantic” and enjoyed writing. Her first publication Songs of the Chesapeake was quickly followed by her most well-known novel Mistress Brent: A Story of Lord Baltimore’s colony in 1638 in 1901, intentionally bringing together history and fiction of Maryland. This publication familiarized her name among not only Baltimoreans, but the country.

Her love and pride of being a Southern woman is seen in her other publications including Jack and His Island: A Boy’s Adventures along the Chesapeake in the War of 1812 1902, Where the Tide Comes In 1904, Called to the Field: A Story of Virginia in the Civil War 1906, and Jenifer in 1907 which takes place in the Carolina mountains. Her love for history of the South can be seen in all her publications, she even says in The Baltimore Sun, “I often feel that history often throws light on the facts of today, and that the present day in turn can throw light on the facts of history”.

In 1915 publication of The Baltimore Sun, she told of her writing short stories and articles in order to spend more time with her family. November 27, 1938 Thruston passed away after a really bad fall, leaving behind her two daughter Miss Augusta Thruston (who she lived with after the death of her husband in 1920) and Mrs. James Miller Leake who moved to Florida. She was a much loved and praised author during her time and years to follow. Although she has been seemingly left in the early 20th, she was much loved and adored for her love of the history and the South.

Posted on by Katie Kazmierski

The Club’s Arithmetic: An Overwhelming Flow of Additions and Resignations

On Thursday I started transcribing the minutes of the Board of Management of the Woman’s Literary Club of Baltimore from 1907-1908. Here’s what has caught my attention so far, besides the delightful phrases “dainty refreshments” and “queen of an afternoon”:

It’s hard to keep up sometimes with the amount of women who apply for membership in the Club, are suggested by current members to join, or resign. It feels like for every member who wants to join, another member is resigning—whether it’s because she’s sick, her husband is sick, or simply “too busy” to devote the time and energy required to be an active member. Both the additions to the Club and the resignations are fascinating. Whenever a current member suggests a woman she thinks should join, she is expected to vouch for the candidate’s credibility in several different avenues. Has she sat in on a Club meeting? What did she think of it? Does she write or make music or make any contribution to the arts? While these are all valid questions, it makes me wonder about the seriousness of the society. These women are certainly not playing around. They’ve taken something that seems like it can be casual and have made it very formal and exclusive. I wonder why.

Which leads me to the resignations… why are so many women resigning so frequently? Why was the Club and its duties so exhausting that it caused so many women, month after month, to resign? It makes sense to me that Board members would resign occasionally because seemingly a lot more work was done on the Board, but even so, that happened so often that there was what feels like a constant game of musical chairs on the board of directors. It leaves me wondering what these positions meant to the women who held them and what exactly pushed them away—whether it was a heavy workload or something beyond that.

It’s also worth mentioning that they’re constantly debating whether a past member should become an “honorary member” or not. Well, debating not so much as making unanimous decisions that the lady in question should be an honorary member without a doubt (they often will pose questions only to come to a unanimous positive decision regardless—above anything, these women are agreeable). Regardless, what is an honorary member? Does she attend meetings when she wants to? Does she contribute to the Club? Or is this simply a title, nothing else? I hope to find out more about what being an honorary member entails; maybe the Constitution says something about it.

In the mean time, I can’t wait to see who resigns next. This is better than reality TV.