Lotos Club
Encyclopedia
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
. Founded in 1870 by a young group of writers and critics, Mark Twain
Mark Twain
Samuel Langhorne Clemens , better known by his pen name Mark Twain, was an American author and humorist...
, an early member, called it the "Ace of Clubs". The club was named tongue-in-cheek for the forgetfulness of care exhibited by the Lotos-Eaters of the Odyssey
Odyssey
The Odyssey is one of two major ancient Greek epic poems attributed to Homer. It is, in part, a sequel to the Iliad, the other work ascribed to Homer. The poem is fundamental to the modern Western canon, and is the second—the Iliad being the first—extant work of Western literature...
; it takes its motto from Alfred, Lord Tennyson's poem "The Lotos-Eaters":
The Lotos Club has always had a literary and artistic bent, with the result that it has accumulated a noted collection of American paintings, including work by Charles Henry Miller, E. Irving Couse
E. Irving Couse
Eanger Irving Couse was an American artist and a founding member and first president of the Taos Society of Artists. He is noted for paintings of Native Americans, New Mexico, and the American Southwest...
, Adolfo Müller-Ury
Adolfo Müller-Ury
Adolfo Muller-Ury was a Swiss-born American portrait painter and impressionistic painter of roses and still life.-Heritage and early life in Switzerland:...
, Carleton Wiggins
Carleton Wiggins
Carleton Wiggins was an American landscape and cattle painter. He was born in Orange Co., N. Y., and studied in New York at the National Academy of Design and with George Inness, and in Paris, and settled in New York. His landscape were executed in broad flowing lines, with a rich low-toned...
, and Zenos Frudakis
Zenos Frudakis
Zenos Frudakis is a figurative sculptor whose subjects include portraits of living and historical individuals and poetic/philosophical sculpture with a post-modern sensibility. He lives and works near Philadelphia...
. Its state dinners (1893 menu at right) are legendary conventions of scholars, artists and sculptors, collectors and connoisseurs, writers, and journalists.
History
The Lotos Club's first home was at Two Irving Place, off of 14th Street near the Academy of Music. Journalist DeWitt Van Buren was the Lotos Club's first president, serving for one year and being succeeded by A. Oakey Hall. Other early Club officers included Vice President F.A. Schwab, Secretary George Hows, and Treasurer Albert Weber. New York TribuneNew York Tribune
The New York Tribune was an American newspaper, first established by Horace Greeley in 1841, which was long considered one of the leading newspapers in the United States...
editor Whitelaw Reid
Whitelaw Reid
Whitelaw Reid was a U.S. politician and newspaper editor, as well as the author of a popular history of Ohio in the Civil War.-Early life:...
was elected Club president in 1872, at which time the Lotos Club moved to 149 Fifth Avenue at 21st Street.
In 1892, the Club moved to 556-558 Fifth Avenue at 46th Street, purchasing their first clubhouse. At that time they also merged with the Fellowcraft Club.
It was at the Lotos Club in 1906 that George Harvey
George Brinton McClellan Harvey
George Brinton McClellan Harvey was an American diplomat, journalist, author, administrator for electric rail construction and owner and editor of several newspapers, all positions that brought him great wealth....
, editor of Harper's Weekly
Harper's Weekly
Harper's Weekly was an American political magazine based in New York City. Published by Harper & Brothers from 1857 until 1916, it featured foreign and domestic news, fiction, essays on many subjects, and humor...
, sent up his first trial balloon by proposing Woodrow Wilson
Woodrow Wilson
Thomas Woodrow Wilson was the 28th President of the United States, from 1913 to 1921. A leader of the Progressive Movement, he served as President of Princeton University from 1902 to 1910, and then as the Governor of New Jersey from 1911 to 1913...
for the Presidency. In 1909, with financial backing from Andrew Carnegie
Andrew Carnegie
Andrew Carnegie was a Scottish-American industrialist, businessman, and entrepreneur who led the enormous expansion of the American steel industry in the late 19th century...
, the clubhouse was moved to 110 West 57th Street.
Frank R. Lawrence was the Club's longest serving president, from March 1889 until his death on October 26, 1918. Lawrence was succeeded as president by Chester S. Lord, who served for five years. In 1923, Columbia University
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
president Nicholas Murray Butler was elected president of the Club.
The club has been housed since 1947 in a 1900 clubhouse designed by Richard Howland Hunt
Richard Howland Hunt
Richard Howland Hunt was an American architect and member of the notable Hunt family of Vermont, who worked in partnership with his brother Joseph Howland Hunt in New York City, as Hunt & Hunt. The brothers were sons of the first American Beaux-Arts architect, Richard Morris Hunt...
at 5 East 66th Street. (The building had been commissioned by Margaret Shepard as a wedding gift for her daughter, Mrs. William Jay Schieffelin.)
In 1976, the Club amended its constitution to admit women.
Constitution
Lotos Club Medal of Merit
The Lotos Club issues a Medal of Merit; previous recipients include general David PetraeusDavid Petraeus
David Howell Petraeus is the current Director of the Central Intelligence Agency, sworn in on September 6, 2011. Prior to his assuming the directorship of the CIA, Petraeus was a four-star general serving over 37 years in the United States Army. His last assignments in the Army were as commander...
, scientist James D. Watson
James D. Watson
James Dewey Watson is an American molecular biologist, geneticist, and zoologist, best known as one of the co-discoverers of the structure of DNA in 1953 with Francis Crick...
, flautist Jean-Pierre Rampal
Jean-Pierre Rampal
Jean-Pierre Louis Rampal was a French flautist. He has been personally "credited with returning to the flute the popularity as a solo classical instrument it had not held since the 18th century."-Early years:...
, and puppeteer Bil Baird
Bil Baird
William Britton Baird , professional name Bil Baird, but often referred to as Bill Baird, was an American puppeteer of the mid- and late 20th century.One of his better known creations was Charlemane the lion...
.
The Club also awards a Foundation Prize and an Award of Distinction.
Notable former members
- Nicholas Murray Butler (1862–1947) — philosopher, diplomat, and educator
- Julius ChambersJulius ChambersJulius Chambers, F.R.G.S.,There is disparity about an unused first name. The Americana Vol.4 calls him Charles Julius Chambers, Dictionary of American Biography and The Delta Kappa Epsilon Quarterly call him James Julius Chambers. Regardless of the correct name, he used neither one in...
(1850–1920) — writer and activist - Henry Golden DearthHenry Golden DearthHenry Golden Dearth was a distinguished American painter who studied in Paris and continued to spend his summers in France painting in the Normandy region. He would return to New York in winter, and became known for his moody paintings of the Long Island area...
(1864–1918) — painter - Paul DoughertyPaul Dougherty (artist)Paul Hampden Dougherty was one of America's most important marine painters. He was elected to membership of the prestigious National Academy of Design and was one of the most honored painters of his era...
(1877–1947) — artist - Miles EvergoodMiles EvergoodMiles Evergood was an Australian artist who achieved renown in Europe and the United States, as well as his native country...
(1871–1939) — artist - Mark FreemanMark FreemanMark Freeman was an Austrian-born American artist, "whose prints and paintings from the 1930s chronicle a seminal period of New York City’s architectural growth in a style that has been described as a beautiful blend of the poetic and historical."-Biography:Freeman was born in 1908 in...
(1908–2003) — artist (honorary member) - A. Oakey Hall (1826–1898) — politician and writer
- Louis KronbergLouis KronbergLouis Kronberg was an American figure painter, art dealer, advisor, and teacher. Among his best-known works are Behind the Footlights and The Pink Sash .- Biography :...
(1872–1965) — painter - Thomas W. KnoxThomas W. KnoxThomas Wallace Knox was a journalist, author, and world traveler, known primarily for his work as a New York Herald correspondent during the American Civil War...
(1835–1896) — journalist and author - William Ordway PartridgeWilliam Ordway PartridgeWilliam Ordway Partridge was an American sculptor whose public commissions can be found in New York City and other locations....
(1861–1930) — sculptor - Whitelaw ReidWhitelaw ReidWhitelaw Reid was a U.S. politician and newspaper editor, as well as the author of a popular history of Ohio in the Civil War.-Early life:...
(1837–1912) — politician and writer - C. I. Scofield (1843–1921) — theologian, minister, and writer
- William Howard TaftWilliam Howard TaftWilliam Howard Taft was the 27th President of the United States and later the tenth Chief Justice of the United States...
(1858–1930) — 27th President of the United StatesPresident of the United StatesThe President of the United States of America is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces.... - Mark TwainMark TwainSamuel Langhorne Clemens , better known by his pen name Mark Twain, was an American author and humorist...
(1835–1910) — writer - George Washington (inventor)George Washington (inventor)George Constant Louis Washington was an American inventor and businessman of Anglo-Belgian origin. He is best remembered for his invention of an early instant coffee process and for the company he founded to mass-produce it, the G...
(1871–1946) — inventor - Willie WildeWillie WildeWilliam 'Willie' Charles Kingsbury Wilde was an Irish journalist and poet of the Victorian era and the older brother of Oscar Wilde.-Background:...
(1852–1899) — journalist and poet