The MacDowell Clubs in the United States were established at the turn of the twentieth century to honor internationally recognized American composer

Edward MacDowell Edward Alexander MacDowell (December 18, 1860January 23, 1908) was an American composer and pianist of the late Romantic period. He was best known for his second piano concerto and his piano suites '' Woodland Sketches'', ''Sea Pieces'' and ''Ne ...

. They became part of a broader social movement to promote music and other art forms in America.

History

The first MacDowell music club was established in 1896 in Boston by Edward MacDowell's students — ''The MacDowell Club of Boston'' ( Edith Noyes Greene was one of the founders).Bomberger, E. Douglas
''MacDowell''
New York: Oxford University Press, 2013, p. 287. Club in

Providence, Rhode Island Providence () is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Rhode Island, most populous city of the U.S. state of Rhode Island. The county seat of Providence County, Rhode Island, Providence County, it is o ...

was founded in 1901,Yackley, Elizabeth A
Marian MacDowell and the Macdowell Clubs
. M.A. thesis. University of Maryland, College Park, 2008. and another one, in

Baker City, Oregon Baker City is a city in and the county seat of Baker County, Oregon, United States. It was named after Edward D. Baker, Edward Dickinson Baker, the only U.S. Senator ever killed in military combat. The population was 10,099 at the time of the 20 ...

, in 1903, another club formed in

Conneaut, Ohio Conneaut ( ) is the northeastern most city in Ashtabula County, Ohio, United States, as well as the entire state as a whole. Located in the Greater Cleveland, Cleveland metropolitan area, it is settled along Lake Erie at the mouth of Conneaut Cre ...

in 1903. The ''MacDowell Club of Canton'' was founded in 1908; its members donated funds for construction of the Gail Watson Cable Recital Hall. The ''MacDowell Club of Allied Arts of Los Angeles'' was established in 1918. In Cincinnati, not a club, but the ''Cincinnati MacDowell Society'' was founded in 1913, which formed significant ties with the

MacDowell Colony MacDowell is an artist's residency program in Peterborough, New Hampshire. The program was founded in 1907 by composer Edward MacDowell and his wife, pianist and philanthropist Marian MacDowell. Prior to July 2020, it was known as the MacDo ...

. At the peak of their popularity before and during the

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, about 400 independent clubs functioned in the nation. In 1955, Marian MacDowell wrote in a letter, "I suppose in the last forty years there must have been nearly 400; probably there are 300 now." War-time entry of women into the workforce and later social developments decreased the membership, and combined with advances in transportation and communication diminished the role of MacDowell Clubs both as social hubs and entertainment venues. In 2008, fifteen MacDowell Clubs continued to operate, including, in

Altus, Oklahoma Altus () is a city in and the county seat of Jackson County, Oklahoma, United States. The population was 18,729 at the 2020 census. Altus is home to Altus Air Force Base, the United States Air Force training base for C-17, KC-46 and KC-135 ...

;

Dyersburg, Tennessee Dyersburg is a city in and the county seat of Dyer County, Tennessee, United States. It is located in northwest Tennessee, northeast of Memphis on the Forked Deer River. The population was 16,164 at the 2020 census, down 5.72% from the 2010 ce ...

;

Jackson, Mississippi Jackson is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Mississippi, most populous city of the U.S. state of Mississippi. The city sits on the Pearl River (Mississippi–Louisiana), Pearl River and is locate ...

;

Louisville, Kentucky Louisville is the List of cities in Kentucky, most populous city in the Commonwealth of Kentucky, sixth-most populous city in the Southeastern United States, Southeast, and the list of United States cities by population, 27th-most-populous city ...

;

Canton, Ohio Canton () is a city in Stark County, Ohio, United States, and its county seat. It is the List of cities in Ohio, eighth-most populous city in Ohio, with a population of 70,872 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. The Canton–Massillo ...

;

Chickasha, Oklahoma Chickasha is a city in and the county seat of Grady County, Oklahoma, Grady County, Oklahoma, United States. The population was 16,051 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, a 0.1% increase from 2010. The city is named for and strongly ...

;

Janesville, Wisconsin Janesville is a city in Rock County, Wisconsin, United States, and its county seat. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the city had a population of 65,615, making it the List of cities in Wisconsin, tenth-most populous city in Wis ...

; and

Milwaukee, Wisconsin Milwaukee is the List of cities in Wisconsin, most populous city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. Located on the western shore of Lake Michigan, it is the List of United States cities by population, 31st-most populous city in the United States ...

. As of 2015, such clubs, as the ''MacDowell Club of Mountain Lakes'' in New Jersey (established in 1916 by Lazelle Crooks Whitmore), the ''MacDowell Club of Allied Arts'' in Oklahoma City (established in 1920 by Hyla Florence Long), the ''MacDowell Music Club in Janesville'', Wisconsin, the ''MacDowell Music Club of Chattanooga'' (founded in 1916), and the ''MacDowell Club of Milwaukee'' (established in 2008) were functioning. A typical small club gathering would feature a privately held meeting with invited talks, piano and vocal solos and duets of local performers. Bigger clubs were able to organize academic lectures, concerts, recitals (including Marian MacDowell's or other well-known national performers) and art exhibitions opened to the general public, as well as private dinners, pageants, and balls. Several organizations, including clubs in New York City, Los Angeles, Austin, Illinois,

Green Bay, Wisconsin Green Bay is a city in Brown County, Wisconsin, United States, and its county seat. It is located at the head of Green Bay (Lake Michigan), Green Bay (known locally as "the bay of Green Bay"), a sub-basin of Lake Michigan at the mouth of the F ...

Chattanooga, Tennessee Chattanooga ( ) is a city in Hamilton County, Tennessee, United States, and its county seat. It is located along the Tennessee River and borders Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the south. With a population of 181,099 in 2020, it is Tennessee ...

, Oklahoma City, and

, among others, established student funds and scholarships for youth and developed outreach programs through Junior MacDowell Clubs while continuing to support financially the

. Several clubs established their own choruses, as in

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

, Boston and

Milwaukee Milwaukee is the List of cities in Wisconsin, most populous city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. Located on the western shore of Lake Michigan, it is the List of United States cities by population, 31st-most populous city in the United States ...

; other — vocal ensembles. In Boston, the MacDowell Club Orchestra consisting mainly of amateur and semiprofessional female musicians gave performances in Copley Hall; the MacDowell clubs of New York, Milwaukee, and Los Angeles also formed their own orchestras. All employed well-known conductors, such as Georges Longy, and

Arthur Fiedler Arthur Fiedler (December 17, 1894 – July 10, 1979) was an American Conductor (music), conductor known for his association with both the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Boston Symphony and Boston Pops Orchestra, Boston Pops orchestras. With a combi ...

in Boston; in New York, orchestra was formed in 1929, led by David Mannes, a concertmaster of the

New York Symphony Orchestra The New York Symphony Orchestra was founded as the New York Symphony Society in New York City by Leopold Damrosch in 1878. For many years it was a rival to the older Philharmonic Symphony Society of New York. It was supported by Andrew Carnegie, w ...

, and held concerts in

Madison Square Garden Madison Square Garden, colloquially known as the Garden or by its initials MSG, is a multi-purpose indoor arena in New York City. It is located in Midtown Manhattan between Seventh Avenue (Manhattan), Seventh and Eighth Avenue (Manhattan), Eig ...

and the Metropolitan Opera House. All clubs were responsible for adopting their own bylaws and acted differently in defining their membership: some were accepting musicians only, as the ''MacDowell Club of Green Bay in Wisconsin'', or the ''Macdowell Club of Mountain Lakes'' in New Jersey, other subscribed to an allied arts organization philosophy championed by

as the ''MacDowell Club of New York City''; some were operating strictly as

women's clubs The club movement is an American women's social movement that started in the mid-19th century and spread throughout the United States. It established the idea that women had a moral duty and responsibility to transform public policy. While wome ...

, i.e., the ''MacDowell Club of Mountain Lakes'', the ''MacDowell Club of Los Angeles'', or the ''MacDowell Club of Milwaukee'', while other accepted men, as clubs in Boston and New York did. However, most of the MacDowell clubs were "female-only organizations." Many clubs joined the National Federation of Music Clubs.

MacDowell Club of New York

The MacDowell Club of New York City was established in 1905 and disbanded in 1942. It was among the biggest clubs by the same name around the country honoring the legacy of

and supporting the

, the artists' retreat in

Peterborough, New Hampshire Peterborough is a New England town, town in Hillsborough County, New Hampshire, Hillsborough County, New Hampshire, United States. The population was 6,418 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. The main village, with 3,090 people at the ...

. The Club funded and awarded a resident scholarship at the MacDowell Colony and made regular financial contributions.Guide to the MacDowell Club of New York City Records, 1905-1942
, ''New York Historical Society'' The club charter declared the main goals of the club as following: In a few years the membership of the club grew to 600. Club membership included writers, musicians, performing and visual artists, theate and film actors, sculptors, and architects: Hamlin Garland, Richard Watson Gilder,

Edwin Arlington Robinson Edwin Arlington Robinson (December 22, 1869 – April 6, 1935) was an American poet and playwright. Robinson won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry on three occasions and was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature four times. Early life Robins ...

James Harvey Robinson James Harvey Robinson (June 29, 1863 – February 16, 1936) was an American scholar of history who, with Charles Austin Beard, founded New History, a disciplinary approach that attempts to use history to understand contemporary problems, which ...

John Dewey John Dewey (; October 20, 1859 – June 1, 1952) was an American philosopher, psychologist, and Education reform, educational reformer. He was one of the most prominent American scholars in the first half of the twentieth century. The overridi ...

, Leonora Speyer, Herbert Adams, Robert Aitken,

Hobart Nichols Henry Hobart Nichols Jr. (May 1, 1869 – August 13, 1962) was an American landscape painter and illustrator.Artists and Architects, National Academy Museum 1083 Fifth Avenue New York, New York 10128 accessed October 11, 2015 http://www.na ...

, Irving Ramsey Wiles, Ivan Olinsky, F. Luis Mora,

Robert Henri Robert Henri (; June 24, 1865 – July 12, 1929) was an American painter and teacher. As a young man, he studied in Paris, where he identified strongly with the Impressionists, and determined to lead an even more dramatic revolt against A ...

George Bellows George Wesley Bellows (August 12 or August 19, 1882 – January 8, 1925) was an American realism, American realist painting, painter, known for his bold depictions of urban life in New York City. He became, according to the Columbus Museum of Art ...

Louise Homer Louise Beatty Homer (April 30, 1871May 6, 1947) was an American operatic dramatic contralto who had an active international career in concert halls and opera houses from 1895 until her retirement in 1932. After a brief stint as a vaudeville en ...

David Bispham David Scull Bispham (January 5, 1857 – October 2, 1921) was an American operatic baritone. Biography Bispham was born on January 5, 1857, in Philadelphia Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalitie ...

, Katherine Bacon (1896-1952), Francis Stetson Rogers (1870-1951), Charles Coburn, Harriet Rogers (Otis) Dellenbaugh, Beatrice Cameron, Harold Van Buren Magonigle, and May Riley Smith, among others.

Facilities

The MacDowell Club was initially located in the

Carnegie Hall Carnegie Hall ( ) is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. It is at 881 Seventh Avenue (Manhattan), Seventh Avenue, occupying the east side of Seventh Avenue between 56th Street (Manhattan), 56th and 57th Street (Manhattan), 57t ...

studio (1905-1909), then at the old Metropolitan Opera House (1909-1911). In 1911, the Club moved to a spacious building at 108 W 55th Street,''An Art Exhibition Without a Jury System of Award''
,

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

, May 14, 1911 which featured a large vaulted gallery. In 1924, the MacDowell Club purchased the old converted Marquand stable — located at 166 East 73rd Street — from the

Joseph Pulitzer Joseph Pulitzer ( ; born , ; April 10, 1847 – October 29, 1911) was a Hungarian-American politician and a newspaper publisher of the ''St. Louis Post-Dispatch'' and the ''New York World''. He became a leading national figure in the U.S. Democ ...

estate.

Richard Morris Hunt Richard Morris Hunt (October 31, 1827 – July 31, 1895) was an American architect of the nineteenth century and an eminent figure in the history of architecture of the United States. He helped shape New York City with his designs for the 1902 ...

had designed the original building for art collector

Henry Gurdon Marquand Henry Gurdon Marquand (April 11, 1819 – February 26, 1902) was an American financier, philanthropist and art collector known for his extensive collection. Early life Marquand was born in New York City on April 11, 1819, not long after the dea ...

in 1883. Shortly after Marquand's death in 1902, the building had been sold to

, then publisher of the ''

New York World The ''New York World'' was a newspaper published in New York City from 1860 to 1931. The paper played a major role in the history of American newspapers as a leading national voice of the Democratic Party. From 1883 to 1911 under publisher Jo ...

'', who lived several blocks to the east at 73rd and Park. A fire swept the building in 1935 and destroyed prints by Whistler, Hassam and others. In 1979, the Landmarks Preservation Commission proposed 12 of the 13 stable and garage buildings on the block for designation as part of the East 73rd Street Historic District, excluding the Marquand building. A year later Halina Rosenthal, head of the block association and later founder of the Friends of the Upper East Side Historic Districts, lobbied the commission to include the Marquand stable in the designation, which it did in 1981.

MacDowell Chorus

The MacDowell Chorus was formed in November 1909, under the direction of Kurt Schindler. Two months after its founding,

Gustav Mahler Gustav Mahler (; 7 July 1860 – 18 May 1911) was an Austro-Bohemian Romantic music, Romantic composer, and one of the leading conductors of his generation. As a composer he acted as a bridge between the 19th-century Austro-German tradition and ...

, then the conductor of The

New York Philharmonic Orchestra The New York Philharmonic is an American symphony orchestra based in New York City. Known officially as the ''Philharmonic-Symphony Society of New York, Inc.'', and globally known as the ''New York Philharmonic Orchestra'' (NYPO) or the ''New Yo ...

, invited the chorus to perform with the orchestra.Gustav Stickley, ''The MacDowell Chorus, A New Music Development in New York''
'' The Craftsman'', Vol. 19, pg. 316, Oct 1910–Mar 1911, New York In 1912, Schindler changed the name to ''Schola Cantorum.'' Schindler continued to conduct the Schola Cantorum until January 1926, when he accepted an offer to take charge of the Roxy Theatre. Hugh Ross later became the director of the chorus.

Student Fund Committee

The MacDowell Club established a scholarship fund to support aspiring talented young artists, and funded a resident scholarship in Professor George Baker's Drama Workshop at

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

, and a resident fellowship at the

Notable art exhibitors

In 1911, John W. Alexander, the Club's second president, instituted a revolutionary for the time change by introducing an ''open exhibition'', or ''no jury'' policy. Group of artists started to select works for exhibition in the MacDowell Club galleries by themselves. Many talented, but previously unrecognized artists, such as Stuart Davis,

Edward Hopper Edward Hopper (July 22, 1882 – May 15, 1967) was an American realism painter and printmaker. He is one of America's most renowned artists and known for his skill in depicting modern American life and landscapes. Born in Nyack, New York, to a ...

, Yasuo Kuniyoshi, among others, received an opportunity to promote their works. Among the notable art exhibitors were: *

, 1912 * Colin Campbell Cooper, 1912 *

, 1917 * C.K. Chatterton, 1917 * William Laurel Harris, ''Saint Francis de Sales before Pope Clement VIII'' *

Helen Farnsworth Mears Helen Farnsworth Mears (; December 21, 1872 – February 17, 1916) was an American sculptor. Early years Mears was born December 21, 1872, in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, daughter of John Hall Mears and Elizabeth Farnsworth Mears (pen names "Nellie Wildwo ...

, one of 3 bronze ''

bas-reliefs Relief is a sculptural method in which the sculpted pieces remain attached to a solid background of the same material. The term ''relief'' is from the Latin verb , to raise (). To create a sculpture in relief is to give the impression that th ...

'' of

* Abraham Jacob Bogdanove, 1918

Presidents

* Eugene Heffley * John White Alexander * Frederick Stokes * Ernest Peixotto * Frederick S. Dellenbaugh * Benjamin Prince * Cecil Smith * Hartwell Cahell

Charter members

* Kate Sara Chittenden * Mrs. Edgar L. Street (b. Somerset, Pennsylvania; d. 1935

)