Young Women’s Culture Class of Olathe
The Young Women’s Culture Class of Olathe was organized September 25, 1897 by Florence Brown. She and a group of friends decided to give their informal gatherings more structure, and became part of the Women’s Club Movement, which began in 1868 in New York, when Jennie June Croly founded her women’s club, “Sorosis.” Mrs. Brown and her neighbors began a group that has remained active for 100 years, and continues to meet regularly.
The first set of rules for the Culture Class stated that the class was limited to no more than 25 members, and that they would meet every two weeks. Members who missed three meetings in succession without sending an excuse would be removed.
The Culture Class met in a room referred to as the “Athenean Hall” until 1905. The earliest meetings were led by three officers: the Leader, Mrs. Brown, the Secretary, Miss Gertrude Stypes, and the Critic, Miss Ella Mahaffie. The Treasurer’s record book for 1898-1899 indicates that members paid 55 cents each in annual dues. The money was used to pay for stationery, stamps, pictures, event programs, ribbon, flowers, chairs, a secretary’s book, fuel, and the services of a janitor.
Originally, meetings alternated between “musical afternoons” and talks given on the topics of literature, art and ethics. The program for February 11, 1899 shows that members presented the subjects of “Les Miserables,” “French Painting,” and “Does Art Perfect Itself Through the Affections?”
Eventually, regular musical afternoons were dropped. In 1916, the Class desired a broader program and the presentations were divided into Politics, Science and Philanthropy, and Literature and Art.
In 1922 the group’s name was shortened to Culture Class, and the flower was changed from the marguerite to the rose.
The Johnson County Museum of History’s Culture Class collection includes event programs, treasurer’s books, histories, songbooks, meeting minutes, annual calendars and scrapbooks. The Museum also holds papers from other women’s clubs, including the Olathe Sigournean Club, Kappa Epsilon, Olathe Delphi Club, and the Chrysantas Club.
--ALBUM vol. 10, no. 4 (fall 1997)