The Business and Professional Women’s Club of Sherbrooke was founded in July 1934 by a group of fifteen women. Jean Kinkead was elected as their first president. The Club was organized with members, all of whom had to be gainfully employed women, and an elected president. In 1935, the Sherbrooke club became a chapter of the Canadian Federation of Business and Professional Women’s Clubs. In 1937, the Sherbrooke club was instrumental in the establishment of the Border Business and Professional Women’s Club in Rock Island.
Initially the Club focused on bringing professional women together and on highlighting women active in the professional or political spheres through hosting special speakers, among which included Nellie McClung in 1939. During the war, the Club’s activities largely focused on war work. In 1945, the Business and Professional Women’s Club of Sherbrooke established a public speaking contest for girls from Sherbrooke and Lennoxville High Schools.
Later on, the Business and Professional Women’s Club of Sherbrooke’s primary aim was to provide friendship and fellowship for working women. It is likely that the Club disbanded in the late 1960s.
Published
Title based on contents of fonds.
The fonds contains primary source information on the activities and members of the Business and Professional Women's Club of Sherbrooke from 1938 to 1949. It consists of the minutes from one meeting and a scrapbook containing newspaper clippings, correspondence, programmes, a copy of a presentation made at a meeting by Bertha Price, and photographs. The fonds is composed of the following series: Minutes ([ca. 1944]) and Scrapbook (1938-1949).
Some of the pages are fragile. Scrapbook also shows evidence of insect damage.
The fonds was transferred in 2018 from the Eaton Corner Museum.
Published
The item is a photograph of the women in attendance at the regional convention of the Business and Professional Women's Clubs in North Hatley on 16 and 17 September 1939. Photograph probably taken in front of Pleasant View Hotel.
Excellent.
Photograph also available in digital format.