Minutes from the 20 year celebration of Des Moines Women’s club
Minutes from the club day celebration record a recounting of the past and a setting of goals for the future including the development of an art gallery for Des Moines
Officers Day, Oct. 4th 1905
proved to be more than usual interest. It was the twentieth anniversary of the Club, and was the first Club meeting held in Elks Club House…
A feature of much interest was the presence of charter members, who occupied seats in the front of the hall. Those included in the list were Dr. Fosnes and Mesdames Andrews, Gatch, Patchen, Dickinson and Nourse. Mrs. Andrews, Mrs. Nourse and Mrs. Patchen each gave an interesting talk about the Club of twenty years ago, and expressed great pleasure at the progress made, and the splendid growth of from twenty members to 387.
Mrs. DuBois, wife of Senator [Fred] DuBois of Idaho, who has just returned from Manila, P.I., talked entertainingly of educational conditions on the Island.
Mrs. Cummins, the retiring President, [wife of the then governor of Iowa] made a strong plea for a plan to be provided for the Club’s art treasures where they might be of easy access to all who wished to see them.
On receiving the gavel from Mrs. Cummins, Miss Gilcrest spoke briefly, emphasizing the necessity for a suitable and permanent place of meeting, where the pictures of the Club could be on view. She thought the Club was to be congratulated upon having assumed an undertaking, though it could not be accomplished in a day nor a year, which was worthy [of] the Club’s best energies and devotion. The encouragement of an enjoyment of art would be a far-reaching benefit to the community in which we live. To belong to the Women’s Club is an act of public spirit and not of selfishness. She spoke of the loyalty and enthusiasm that has gone to make the honorable history of the past, and expressed the belief that the same spirits in the Club today would give to the coming year, its share of profit and success.
Announcement was made of the art loan exhibit, which promises to be of very high order. October 19th will be opening day, and will probably continue ten days.
President Gilcrest announced that by special request of the Art Committee, Mrs. Lowell Chamberlain had consented to have Art day, Oct. 18th, at her home.
Before adjournment Mrs. W. L. Read asked for a rising vote of appreciation of the many privileges of the day the presence of the charter members and ex-presidents, the satisfactory reports given by the recording and corresponding secretaries and Treasurer, and various committees; in fact, so broad that no one was omitted.
The 188 members and 29 visitors were requested to remain for a social half hour. Club adjourned.
Eliza Cox Mitchell, Sec’y