St. Botolph Club Records 1879- Guide to the Collection The St. Botolph Club records are stored offsite and must be requested at least one business day in advance. Contact the Library at library@masshist.org or (617) 536-1608 to request materials. Please discuss your request with the reading room staff before requesting cartons by barcode. There are restrictions on the use of this collection. Users must sign an agreement stating that they understand these restrictions before they will be given access to the collection.

Table of Contents Collection Summary Historical Sketch Sources Collection Description Related Materials Acquisition Information Restrictions on Access Restrictions on Use Organization of the Collection Detailed Description of the Collection Name Index Exhibition Indices Preferred Citation Access Terms Photographs Removed

Collection Summary

Historical Sketch

The St. Botolph Club was founded in Boston on January 10, 1880 following the circulation of a letter sent to some three hundred prominent male citizens. Signed by Henry Cabot Lodge, Francis Parkman, the club's first president, Phillips Brooks, William Dean Howells and seven others, the invitation proposed a club which would feature an art gallery with monthly exhibitions open to the public, a reading room, and rooms for general use. Its purpose, as noted in the club constitution, was established for the "promotion of social intercourse among authors, artists, and other gentlemen connected with or interested in literature and art."

Modeled after New York's Century Club, the newly founded club debated over its name, finally deciding on the St. Botolph, the patron saint of Boston (a corruption of St. Botolph's Town in Lincolnshire, England).

The organization's first quarters were located at 87 Boylston St. The club resided in two other locations, 2 Newbury St. (later 4 Newbury St.) and 115 Commonwealth Ave. before securing its current location, 199 Commonwealth Ave. in 1971.

In addition to social intercourse, the club offered its members a variety of activities. Sunday afternoons were reserved for concerts. "Smoke talks," lectures which surveyed politics, science, social issues, and the arts, began in 1883. Receptions were given for visiting notables and art exhibitions were held for both member and non-member artists.

The club has displayed a variety of artistic mediums in its exhibitions including: Italian and French paintings, decorative arts, prints, photographs, and architectural drawings. It also promoted the "new art" of its time and, as such, sponsored John Singer Sargent's first one-man show in America in 1888. Works by Claude Monet were displayed in 1892, 1895, and 1899. Monet's first show in the United States was held in February 1891 at the Union Club in New York. By 1900 the club had sponsored solo exhibitions of virtually every important American Impressionist of the era, including J. Alden Weir, John Twachtman, Childe Hassam, Theodore Wendel, John L. Breck, Edmund Tarbell, Lilla C. Perry and Mary Cassatt. The St. Botolph's support of Impressionism before the turn of the century constitutes its primary contribution to the history of art.

The St. Botolph Club continues as one of Boston's social clubs. Women were granted membership in 1990. The club maintains its mission of promoting the arts and literature in the city of Boston.

Sources

Curtis, Joseph Henry. St. Botolph Club: Its Birth and Early Club History. Boston : s.n., n.d.

Collection Description

The records of the St. Botolph Club, housed in 30 cartons, 2 oversize boxes, and 4 extra oversize folders contain loose records and bound volumes documenting the history of the club from 1879-1991. The records have been divided into six series: Historical materials, Administrative records, Club activities, Clippings/Scrapbooks, Recordings, and Unprocessed additions.

The bulk of the collection consists of administrative records, both loose and bound, correspondence between club members and the officers of the club, printed material relating to member activities and scrapbooks.

Throughout the history of the organization, record keeping practices were inconsistent. As a result, similar types of records may be found in several locations. For example, financial information on the club can be found in both loose and bound minutes, financial records, and the scrapbooks. Researchers should give attention to series, and subseries titles, loose and bound materials within those series and the scrapbooks for the information needed.

There are periodic gaps throughout the collection. Most notable is the absence of minutes for the years 1972-1975. The scrapbooks end in 1974. There are also significant gaps within the exhibition lists.

Of interest to the researcher in this collection is the revelation of members' attitudes contained in the correspondence of 1880-1896 and the occasional letters included in the secretaries' records. The collection documents the history of an institution typical of the Boston gentlemen clubs of the past hundred or more years, yet unique among them. The records also reveal the members' attitudes on such different issues as temperance, qualification for membership, women in the club house, benefits for servants, patriotism during the First World War, and financial hardships in the Great Depression. Finally, the art exhibition catalogues, the concert programs, the lists of lecturers, and the members' poetry provide information not only about the artistic and literary history of Boston since 1880, but about individual artists, performers, writers, and lecturers.

NOTE: Indexes to the exhibitions, by date of exhibition and name of artist, are available in the MHS Library.

Related Materials

The Archives of American Art at the Smithsonian Institution (Washington, D.C.) holds microfilm of records of The St. Botolph Club from 1879-1974. The microfilm was created in 1981, before the records were deposited to the MHS, and does not reflect the current description or organization of the collection.

Acquisition Information

The records were deposited at the Massachusetts Historical Society by the St. Botolph Club in 1991. Additional, unprocessed materials were deposited 17 Dec. 1997, and 31 Mar. 1999. (More expected.)

Restrictions on Access

The St. Botolph Club records are stored offsite and must be requested at least one business day in advance. Contact the Library at library@masshist.org or (617) 536-1608 to request materials. Please discuss your request with the reading room staff before requesting cartons by barcode.

There are restrictions on the use of this collection. Users must sign an agreement stating that they understand these restrictions before they will be given access to the collection.

Restrictions on Use

The Massachusetts Historical Society does not claim ownership to the literary rights (copyright) to the St. Botolph Club records. The records are on deposit at the Massachusetts Historical Society from the St. Botolph Club. The Massachusetts Historical Society cannot give permission to publish or quote from documents by individuals for whom it does not hold copyright. Use of the collection does not imply permission to quote from or publish, all or in part, documents in the collection. It is the sole responsibility of the researcher to contact the Historical Society in writing to request permission to quote from or publish documents in this collection. The Historical Society will then forward the formal written request to the St. Botolph Club.

Photocopies are for personal use only. Personal use photocopies may not be donated or deposited in other libraries or archives, or made available to other researchers without the written permission of the donor.

Organization of the Collection

The collection is organized into the following series:

Detailed Description of the Collection

Select Name Index to Officers' Correspondence

Exhibition Indices

Two indices, listing exhibitions by date and by artist, are available in the MHS Library.

Preferred Citation

St. Botolph Club records, Massachusetts Historical Society.

Access Terms

This collection is indexed under the following headings in ABIGAIL, the online catalog of the Massachusetts Historical Society. Researchers desiring materials about related persons, organizations, or subjects should search the catalog using these headings.

Photographs Removed from the Collection

The following photographs were removed from the collection to the MHS Photo Archives and are stored with oversize photographs.

Photo album showing the interior and exterior, and floor plans of the St. Botolph Club, 199 Commonwealth Avenue. 28 black and white and 4 color photographs.

1 color photograph of a prayer from the St. Botolph church, Boston, England.

13 albumen photographs of William Morris Hunt's paintings that were exhibited at the St. Botolph Club.

15 8x10 black and white photographs and 13 5x7 black and white negatives of an unidentified painting exhibition.

2 black and white photographs and 1 photogravure of Francis Parkman.

13 photographs of unidentified people.

2 unidentified photographs of architectural details, one might be the St. Botolph Club, 199 Commonwealth, the other 115 Commonwealth.

4 black and white photographs of a church in Boston (Lincolnshire), England. By C. V. Clark.

2 black and white photographs of Boston (Lincolnshire), England. 1) A street view [Bargate]. 2) A harbor view.

13 Miscellaneous views of Lincolnshire, England.

2 color photographs of George Sagendarph, in Florida.

1 black and white photograph of Joseph R. DeCamp, artist.

2 black and white photographs showing the interior of [St. Botolph's Church, Lancashire, taken in 1953].

1 8x10 black and white photograph of [Roy Lamson?] playing a clarinet at the St. Botolph Club, n.d.

5 unidentified black and white photographs.

2 8x10 black and white photographs of Christopher O'Riley, pianist.

3 8x10 black and white photographs of Elizabeth Parcells, soprano.

1 8x10 black and white photograph of the Harvard Glee Club, December 16, at 6:30 [1980's].