Women's Clubs around the State

The lady doctor and her labs
Carroll County Historical Museum, Eureka Springs

Members of two clubs founded in 1888, the Philomathic Club of Helena and the Fort Smith Fortnightly Club, devoted themselves solely to reading and reviewing books. Several literary clubs, however, focused simply not on reading and reviewing books, but on founding community libraries. The Women's Book Club of Helena organized in 1900 established and operated a city public library.

The Mena Women's Literary Club established a public library and enacted plays such as Romeo and Juliet and The Merchant of Venice. Other clubs accepted an even broader role for themselves, perhaps speaking to the Progressive Era impulse.

For example, members of Petentes Women's Club of Little Rock, founded in 1912, not only read literature, history and current events, they engaged in a number of charitable activities. Similarly, the Siloam Springs Women's Fortnightly Club sponsored community improvement projects while they studied parliamentary law and English literature.

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