Sorosis was the first professional women's club

Women's club

Women’s clubs, also known as woman's clubs, first arose in the United States during the post-Civil War period, in both the North and the South. As a result of increased leisure time due to modern household advances, middle-class women had more time to engage in intellectual pursuits...

 in the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

. The club was organized in New York City

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...

 with 12 members in March 1868, by Jane Cunningham Croly

Jane Cunningham Croly

Jane Cunningham Croly was an American author and journalist, better known as "Jennie June."She was born in England, came to the United States when a girl, and at an early age became a contributor to newspapers and magazines...

. Among its founding members was Fanny Fern

Fanny Fern

Fanny Fern, born Sara Willis , was an American writer and the first woman to have a regular newspaper column. She was also a humorist, novelist, and author of children's stories in the 1850s-1870s. Fern's great popularity has been attributed to her conversational style and sense of what mattered to...

, a popular columnist who had been angered at newspaper women being excluded from the all-male New York Press Club

New York Press Club

The New York Press Club is a membership organization of and for journalists and media professionals in the New York City metropolitan area. The club is a private, non-profit corporation and is not affiliated with any government office or agency and does not advocate or participate in any political...

 when it had an honorary dinner for the author Charles Dickens

Charles Dickens

Charles John Huffam Dickens was an English novelist, generally considered the greatest of the Victorian period. Dickens enjoyed a wider popularity and fame than had any previous author during his lifetime, and he remains popular, having been responsible for some of English literature's most iconic...

 the month before. Sorosis was incorporated in January 1869. Alice Cary

Alice Cary

Alice Cary was an American poet, and the sister of fellow poet Phoebe Cary .-Biography:Alice Cary was born on April 26, 1820, in Mount Healthy, Ohio near Cincinnati. Her parents lived on a farm bought by Robert Cary in 1813 in what is now North College Hill, Ohio. He called the Clovernook Farm...

 was the first president. Within one year, Sorosis had 83 members.

Sorosis meant "aggregation". Its object was to further the educational and social activities of women, and to bring together for mutual helpfulness, representative women in art

Art

Art is the product or process of deliberately arranging items in a way that influences and affects one or more of the senses, emotions, and intellect....

, literature

Literature

Literature is the art of written works, and is not bound to published sources...

, science

Science

Science is a systematic enterprise that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe...

, and kindred pursuits.

External Links

• The University of Texas at San Antonio houses a collection of records for the San Antonio chapter of Sorosis. The collection spans the years 1923 through 1991 and provides information about the club's members and activities primarily through minutes, photographs, scrapbooks and yearbooks.