Colorado’s first women’s literary society turns 125
November 4, 2009 by Aimee Heckel
Filed under Etcetera, Inspiration U
Since 1966, Peggy Archibald has left every other Thursday afternoon on her calendar free. The Boulder woman plans vacations between these Thursdays.
“It’s a real commitment,” she says. “But you don’t think of it as a commitment. You think of it as great pleasure.”
Obviously, she adds, it must be something incredibly special to keep her interest and dedication for 43 years.
Now imagine something powerful enough to keep an ever-evolving group of women’s interest for 125 years. You would have the Boulder Fortnightly Club.
The Fortnightly Club of Boulder is the oldest women’s literary club in the state, and one of the oldest in the country, founded in 1884 by Mary Rippon, a “founding mother” of the University of Colorado in Boulder. Last month, the club celebrated its 125th anniversary.
“We are such a part of Boulder and have been for so long,” says Archibald, who is the longest active member of the 35-woman group. “We weave a thread through the history of Boulder.”
The city of Boulder itself was only 25 years old when Rippon, CU’s first female professor, began to feel restless and curious. She wanted to try something new.
She and a handful of friends decided to model a group after study clubs in Michigan. The purpose: to promote literary and scientific culture. Group members would research the topic of their choice and present their findings at tea parties every other Thursday, or every “fortnight.” Archibald says the topics can be anything that catches your interest.
Even though the research is purely for entertainment and isn’t published anywhere other than in a file in the local Carnegie library, members take their projects seriously. Papers can span 20-pluspages. Topics have included the history of justice; female pioneers of Colorado and the West; the history of the piano; patterns and shadows in nature; the Louvre museum in France; and female astronauts.
Other than the changing roles of women in society, the long-time members say not much has changed with the Fortnightly Club, says Kathy Raybin, the current president. Raybin joined in 1993.
“That’s the beauty of it. It doesn’t change. It’s always about papers and tea parties,” Raybin says. “If my mother had been in it, it would have been the same: a way for women who are mid-life to continue with their education, whose lives are otherwise focused on the home and the university.”
– By Aimee Heckel
