Monday Afternoon Club
By: Karen Vincent, president of the Delaware County Historical Society and Delaware County Historian.
For those rare times when you get a photo off of your phone and made into a print, take note of what someone wrote on the back of this print and do the same on yours. It’s great and unusual to have this much information on any photograph. Someone took the time to tell those of us in the future the date, time, location, and reason for this gathering of women. The women are even identified. Although it would have been great if first names had been included, I’ll settle for this information.
On February 8, 1892, the first official meeting of an unnamed reading circle met at the home of Harriet Hine. The other charter members of this reading circle were Harriet Kemper, Elizabeth Long, Catharine Johnson, Mary Maring, and Susan Moore. At this meeting, it was decided according to the minutes, that “As we are all American born citizens to quicken our memories in the history of our country. Montgomery’s American History was selected as the book for our study.” The minutes of the club are held in the Minnetrista Heritage Collection.
It became obvious that the club needed a name. Since one of the members had read a paper about Christopher Columbus’ wife, it was decided to name the club for her using her maiden name of Perestrelo. Soon, the members decided that the name “Perestrelo” required too much explanation, so it was changed to Monday Afternoon Club — simple and easy to remember.
In 1917, the year this photo was taken, topics discussed at meetings included “Gathering Clouds Along the Color-Line,” “The New Head of Tuskegee,” “Suffrage,” and “The British Control in Egypt.” Lighter topics included dogs and birds. The Monday Afternoon Club is still active today, almost 130 years after it was formed.
