The St. Botolph Club is a private social club in Boston, Massachusetts, founded in 1880 by a group including many artists. Its name is derived from the English saint

Botwulf of Thorney Botolph of Thorney (also called Botolph, Botulph or Botulf; later known as Saint Botolph; died around 680) was an English abbot and saint. He is regarded as the patron saint of boundaries, and by extension, of trade and travel, as well as vari ...

. Among the club's other activities in its quarters at 2 Newbury Street, it hosted an extensive and long-running series of fine arts exhibits, particularly new work from painters of the American Impressionists:

Dennis Miller Bunker Dennis Miller Bunker (November 6, 1861 – December 28, 1890) was an American painter and innovator of American Impressionism. His mature works include both brightly colored landscape paintings and dark, finely drawn portraits and figures. ...

, Dodge MacKnight, Joseph Thurman Pearson Jr. (in a 1912 dual exhibition with ''animalier'' sculptor

Albert Laessle Albert Laessle (March 28, 1877 – September 4, 1954) was an American sculptor and educator. He taught at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts for more than twenty years and is best remembered as an animalier. He won the 1918 Widener Gol ...

) and

Willard Metcalf Willard Leroy Metcalf (July 1, 1858March 9, 1925) was an American painter born in Lowell, Massachusetts. He studied at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and later attended Académie Julian, Paris. After early figure-painting and ill ...

, who first showed his landscape ''

May Night ''May Night'' ( rus, Майская ночь, Mayskaya noch ) is a comic opera in three acts, four scenes, by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov from a libretto by the composer and is based on Nikolai Gogol's story "May Night, or the Drowned Maiden", from hi ...

'' at the club in 1906. The club also exhibited work by

Wilton Lockwood Wilton Lockwood (September 12, 1861March 21, 1914, age 52) was an American artist born in Wilton, Connecticut. Biography Lockwood was born in Wilton, Connecticut to Emily Middlebrook and John L Lockwood. He was a pupil and an assistant of John ...

Adelaide Cole Chase Adelaide Cole Chase (Boston, Boston, MA, 1868–1944, Gloucester, Massachusetts, Gloucester, MA) was an American painter of portraits and still lifes. She was a member of the Art Students' Association. Biography Born in Boston, Massachusetts, sh ...

, Frances C. Houston, and the sculptor

Bela Pratt Bela Lyon Pratt (December 11, 1867 – May 18, 1917) was an American sculptor from Connecticut. Life Pratt was born in Norwich, Connecticut, to Sarah (Whittlesey) and George Pratt, a Yale-educated lawyer. His maternal grandfather, Oramel Whittles ...

. Among its members were the architect

Charles Follen McKim Charles Follen McKim (August 24, 1847 – September 14, 1909) was an American Beaux-Arts architect of the late 19th century. Along with William Rutherford Mead and Stanford White, he provided the architectural expertise as a member of the par ...

and Boston composer Frederick Converse. Originally exclusively a men's club, the St. Botolph Club has been open to women since 1988 in advance of a Supreme Court ruling against sexual and racial discrimination in social clubs that would have mandated it. The club appeared in fictionalized form as the "St. Filipe Club" in two novels written by Arlo Bates, ''The Pagans'' (1884) and ''The Philistines'' (1888). Since 1972 at 199 Commonwealth Avenue, the club maintains reciprocal relationships with a large number of social clubs worldwide.

References

External links

Official website
1880 establishments in Massachusetts Clubs and societies in Boston Gentlemen's clubs in the United States Organizations established in 1880 {{US-org-stub

See also

References

External links