Oakwood Historical Society newsletter, 1989

The collection from the Friday Afternoon Club consists of minutes, financial records, programs, and albums or scrapbooks. More recent additions to the collection have also included separate newspaper clippings, photographs and certificates that were not contained in an album or scrapbook. The earliest documents date from 1893 and the latest date to 2014.

Series I: The minutes begin in 1906 and continue to 2014. Most contain a membership roster, with records of attendance and excused or unexcused absences. Many of the minutes files also contain abstracts or summaries of the programs, presentations, or papers from the meetings.

Series II: The programs are printed programs, starting with 1893. They contain specific programs for each meeting on every other Friday, a brief history, names and addresses of full and associate members, and past and current presidents. Each bi-weekly program listing includes the topic, an appropriate quote, the club member presenting a paper and often a reading list. A photocopy of the FAC insignia was found un-foldered in front of one of the boxes of programs during the processing of additions in July 2014. This document was placed in a folder and filed as part of the programs series to protect against inadvertent damage.

Series III: The financial records begin in 1936 and continue until 1992. There is an early receipt book, dating from 1894 to 1897. The records are in ledger books, each filed in a separate folder. Series IV: There are five albums, or scrapbooks. The first album contains a few original writings of the club members and has been filed in one folder. The second album contains a few photos, newspaper articles and a book of Christmas Sonnets written by Margaret Shardelow Young, and covers several years. These items have been filed in several folders, each folder representing a page in the album. The third album is more like a scrapbook, with a variety of items in no particular order. The original order has been preserved and each folder represents a page in the scrapbook. The final two albums contain newspaper clippings.

When additions were processed in July 2014, multiple documents did not fit into the existing series and subseries scheme. Although newspaper clippings, photographs, and certificates were already part of the collection, they were part of specific albums or scrapbooks, whereas the clippings, photographs, and certificates in this addition were provided in separate files and not part of an album or scrapbook, although they were clearly organized and labelled. Therefore, Series IV was renamed to include not only albums, but also news clippings, photographs, and other documents that do not fit the existing series (Miscellaneous) and three new subseries were created so that it would be clear these documents were not arranged as part of a scrapbook or album. Because of their small number and clear labelling, the photographs from this addition were inserted into clear binder pages rather than in separate paper photo sleeves to facilitate browsing, but this housing is not intended to imply an original order or photo album arrangement. The 2008-2010 photos in Subseries VII were originally provided in plain white envelopes. The 2009 photos were apparently intended to be part of the president's book based on the note on the envelope in which they were donated. This note was retained in the same file as the photographs.

The information contained in the Friday Afternoon Club collection would be of interest to anyone studying Dayton history, the history of Dayton women's organizations, or prominent women as individuals (who were club members).