Our History

The Fight for Books: Historic Calgary Week 2018

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This month our city enjoyed Historic Calgary Week. The theme for this year was The Power of Partnerships and the Calgary Women’s Literary Club was pleased to be invited to participate. Held in the delightfully historic Memorial Park Library, Mary Carwardine, Sue Carscallen and Sandra Ens took part in an engaging talk which served to deliver a thoughtful and informative overview of the significant role that our club has played in Calgary’s history.

This presentation created an enhanced appreciation of the accomplishments of our founder, Annie Davidson. Annie we were told was a lady of quiet dignity and thoughtful opinions who overcame the many challenges and losses that were typical of her time. Buoyed by her love of books, she sparked intellectual and social discourse in a growing population of literate Calgary women.  These women shared the scarce few books that they had brought with them on their journey to Calgary during their weekly meetings in Annie’s parlor.

Under Annie’s leadership, in a time when women had yet to win the right to vote, the Calgary Women’s Literary Club worked tirelessly to garner support and succeeded in obtaining the land and the funding to build the first public library between Winnipeg and Vancouver. The Memorial Park Library came into being in 1912.

Annie’s “book club with a difference” continues to meet on Tuesday afternoons in the library that she built. Today’s members hold dear the legacy left to us by Annie as we continue to discuss and analyze literature.

I have borrowed liberally from the talk in my efforts to capture and relate the flavor of this wonderful presentation.

Doloris Duval, CWLC President

CWLC First Minute Book

 

The Fight For Books: Historic Calgary Week

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“Open old book, studio shot” by Siri Stafford (Licenced by Getty Images)

Happy summer everyone!

As part of Historic Calgary Week,  Sue Carscallen and Mary Carwardine will be presenting:

The Fight for Books:
The Calgary Women’s Literary Club
Sunday, JULY 29TH
1:30 pm
Memorial Park Branch

We hope those of you NOT away on holidays will come to cheer on our unbeatable CWLC research team/presenters!

 

Memorial Park Library

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With a photo of the front entrance and the bold headline “A National Treasure” on the front page of its January 19, 2018 edition, the Calgary Herald announced that Memorial Park Library has been designated a national historic site.

Although the article on page A2 doesn’t mention the Calgary Women’s Literary Club by name, it does explain that the library “was built thanks to the efforts of a group of local women, including one of Calgary’s cultural pioneers, Annie Davidson.” Memorial Park Library served as the city’s main library from 1912, when it opened, until 1963.

Although it may not be published, I did write the following e-mail to the newspaper:

Continue reading →

Our Club founders are noted in Swerve Magazine’s Dec 1, 2017 issue

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Open old book, studio shot (with permission from Getty Images)

The Calgary Herald’s Swerve Magazine has once again given our Club a lovely tribute, this time to our founders who championed bringing the first library to Calgary. The article ends by reminding us that our Club has been using the Memorial Park premises for 103 years!

You can read the entire article here:

New Central Library, East Village

Click below for more about:

Our History

And while you are at it, Sue recently gave us a presentation:

CWLC Archives at the Glenbow

 

CWLC President’s Report 2017

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There is no surer sign of Spring in Calgary than the first flowers we see! It’s also the time for the CWLC President to review the past Fall and Spring Season,. Margaret Sparkes has eloquently recapped our 2016-17 season. Your Webmaster will also archive it under the website page, Our History.

Was there anything that stood out for you this last year? Let us know!

CWLC President’s Report 2017

What Sue Carscallen unearthed at the Glenbow Archives

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Archives photo by Samuel Zeller (CC0 1.0, Unsplash)

Archives photo by Samuel Zeller (CC0 1.0, Unsplash)

Sue gave a marvelous presentation on our Club’s interesting past, gleaned from its archives. (What other book club do you know submits its Minutes to Provincial archives and has done so for over 100 years?).

The photographs she took of discoveries in the archives, shared in her PowerPoint presentation, are treasures themselves!

Sue’s no stranger to exhaustive research, having edited and published her Great Aunt’s journals, originally written in Russian and French. Check out Sue’s website: A Countess in Limbo

To learn more:  CWLC Archives at the Glenbow

First Fall Meeting October 4

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Hello, friends and fellow readers! Just a reminder that our first meeting of the Fall 2016 session is on Tuesday, October 4, in our usual venue – the lower level of Memorial Park Library, 1221 – 2 Street S.W. We had thought about making this a field trip, but the Glenbow Museum archives department is simply not set up to accommodate a large group, so Sue Carscallen is bringing the club’s archived material (or some of it, at least) to us. I know Sue will present an interesting and unique perspective on our club’s history.

If at all possible, please come early (1:30 pm onwards) for light refreshments and to meet new members and catch up with old friends.

Best wishes, Margaret

Historic Calgary Week

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From Margaret Sparkes:

More free publicity for the Calgary Women’s Literary Club! The Calgary Herald of Tuesday, July 26, contained an article titled “First city library revealed” as part of a series of articles on Historic Calgary Week, which runs from July 22 to August 1.

 

In a brief overview of events taking place on July 26, they included the following.

 

“Catch the Cowtown Opera perform the story of how Annie Davidson and the Calgary Women’s Literary Club fought to start the city’s library system at the First Baptist Church on 4 Street S.W. from 2 p.m. to 2:45.

 

“Then, take a tour of Calgary’s first library – funded by Andrew Carnegie – at 3:30, starting at Central Memorial Park’s Boxwood Café.”

 

I might add that the tour was being guided by our old friend Marj Wing, who was the library’s representative responsible for Memorial Park Library until her recent retirement.

 

Feb 6, 1906

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“Visualize the ladies meeting in their long dresses, petticoats, tightly corseted”, the first members of our Club 110 years ago!

At our 110th Anniversary celebration, Ruth Hilland also reminded us that “apparently Bob Edwards of the Calgary Eye Opener newspaper took great delight in making disparaging remarks about the ‘literary ladies’. Of course those were the heady days of the wild and woolly west, with a bar and brothel on every street corner. And maybe our ladies were a little straight-laced — but God bless them every one!”

Please check Our History (tab above), provided by Ruth Hilland (long-time member, Past President and currently focused on New Members). To quote Ruth: “May we carry on for at least another hundred years!”