Scope and Content Note
Founded in 1874 to promote intellectual and literary discussions, the Literary Society of Washington, D.C., has numbered Washington’s cultural and civic leaders among its members. The society’s records span the years 1873-1991 and consist of correspondence, minutes of meetings, papers read by members at regular literary meetings, and miscellaneous material. Included are photocopies and typewritten transcripts. The collection is organized into seven series: Minutes of Meetings , Correspondence , Speeches and Writings File , Miscellany , Addition I , Addition II, and Addition III .
The Speeches and Writings File mainly contains papers presented at society meetings. Though the bulk of the papers, or essays, are dated from the 1960s to the mid-1970s, a representative sample remains from the earlier years of the society. Undated essays by Edward Miner Gallaudet, Ainsworth Rand Spofford, and others are included in the author listing, while writings by society members not identified as papers delivered at scheduled literary meetings are contained in the same series under the headings “Poems” and “Writings.”
Research material pertinent to a historical analysis of the society is contained in the Minutes of Meetings series. Minutes were kept both for regular literary meetings and executive committee meetings and contain abstracts of papers read at the meetings, discussions entertained in response to the essays, and standard business and procedural matters affecting the operations and development of the society.
The Correspondence supplements the minutes in documenting the administration of the society. The material in this series is largely of a routine nature and is concerned with topics such as the sponsoring of new members, resignations and appointments of society members, cancellation notices of attendance, and speaker arrangements. Prominent members of the society represented in this series include Albert W. Atwood, Alexander Graham Bell, Clifford Kennedy Berryman, George Franklin Bowerman, Katherine Garrison Chapin, Tyler Dennett, Edward Miner Gallaudet, Frederick Richmond Goff, Gilbert Hovey Grosvenor, David Jayne Hill, Margaret Landon, Waldo Gifford Leland, Julia Ten Eyck McBlair, David C. Mearns, John C. Merriam, Charles Moore, Helen Nicolay, Theodore W. Noyes, Robert Lincoln O’Brien, William Edwin Safford, Ainsworth Rand Spofford, Florence P. Spofford, Henry White, Robert Simpson Woodward, and Robert Sterling Yard.
Addition I, Addition II, and Addition III consist almost entirely of papers read at the society, with Addition I also including a few minutes of meetings and memorials.