The Chaminade Club of Jackson, Mississippi, is over one hundred years old. When it was founded in 1903, Jackson’s population was about 8,000—Vicksburg, Meridian and Natchez were larger. People traveled by horse and buggy or mule and wagon. The mule-drawn trolleys on State and Capitol Streets had only recently been replaced by electric streetcars. Most Jacksonians lived between Fortification Street on the north, Poindexter Park on the west, and Battlefield Park on the south. The grandeur of the nearly completed New State Capitol was a striking contrast to the fledgling capital city.
Yet, all that being said, something really wonderful occurred in 1903 when two young women, Anne Mims Wright and Marie Willie Henry, decided to organize a music club that would promote the study of music among its members and cultivate the appreciation of music in the community. They chose eleven friends to join them, and the charter meeting was held on Wednesday afternoon, January 7, at Mrs. Wright’s home. These thirteen young women, ranging in age from 17 to 33, had a common bond – each had a musical education and was capable of performing recitals in her chosen musical field. Six of them were music teachers; four were (or would become) church pianists, organists, or choir directors.
A quotation by Thomas Carlyle, “Go deeply enough, there is music everywhere,” was chosen as their motto. The club’s name, Chaminade, honored the famous French pianist and composer, Cécile Louise Stephanie Chaminade (1857-1944). It is noteworthy that of more than two hundred Chaminade Clubs existing in the United States in the early 1900s, we know of only four others functioning today. They are in Fayetteville, North Carolina (organized 1927); Attleboro, Massachusetts (1912); Providence, Rhode Island (1905); and – the only club older than ours –Yonkers, New York (1895).
Membership in the new Jackson club was extended to those who could maintain high standards of musical performance. Two club meetings per month, October – May, were specified for recitals by the members and the study of various musical subjects. Additional recitals during the year would be given at the Institute for the Blind, the Baptist and Methodist Orphanages, and the Old Ladies’ Home. The club’s first birthday began the tradition of “Chaminade Guest Day” that has continued for a hundred birthdays.
In 1903, the idea of women’s clubs was just budding in Mississippi. Two months after its founding, the Chaminade Club joined the Mississippi Federation of Women’s Clubs (organized 1899). The Federation’s agenda added civic responsibilities to the Chaminade Club’s musical endeavors. They studied the need for Child Labor Laws, and sent letters on the subject to every member of the State Legislature. One of the club members, Lily Wilkinson Thompson, became a state leader in the women’s suffrage movement. (In 1920, when Tennessee supplied the crucial 36th ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment, Mrs. Thompson’s elation was duly reported in the Daily Clarion-Ledger.)
The club’s goal to cultivate the appreciation of music in the community was quite a challenge. Jackson was too small to attract professional artists without the active sponsorship of an organized group. In 1905, the then 25 members of the Chaminade Club undertook that sponsorship. Their Active membership did not grow beyond 30 members, but, for more than twenty years, the world’s finest musicians gave Jackson concerts under the club’s auspices. The artists presented included pianists Ottokar Malek and Xavier Scharwenka, violinist Maud Powell, the Zoellner String Quartet, the Metropolitan Opera star Geraldine Farrar, and on two occasions, the Minneapolis Symphony. The Creatore Grand Opera Company presented Lucia de Lammermoor, and the St. Louis Symphony performed two times, in 1922 with soloist Marguerite Namara, and in 1925 with Helen Traubel, soon after her professional debut.
Hoping to reach as many people as possible, the club charged very reasonable ticket prices. However, this endeavor was not without its hazards. For its second Jackson appearance, when the St. Louis Symphony insisted on payment in cash, the club president dutifully complied and carried $2,250 in cash to the evening performance. There are stories of certain club members taking their grocery money (which they rolled in their stockings) to concerts, just in case ticket sales did not cover the fee for the artists. Sponsorship of professional musicians by the Chaminade Club stopped only when the Jackson Civic Music Association was formed and presented four concerts in the 1926-27 season.
From the club’s beginning, its members actively encouraged young musicians. Belhaven music majors were invited to be club members, and a Chaminade music scholarship was established at the college (the first of a number of club scholarships). A“Little Chaminade Club” for children was begun in 1905, succeeded some years later by the Junior Chaminade (for older youth) and the Juvenile Chaminade (elementary ages). These clubs continued until 1939 and 1943 respectively, and became the Junior MacDowell and La Petite MacDowell when the senior MacDowell Club assumed their sponsorship. The MacDowell Club had been organized in 1922 with a membership of more than a hundred musicians and music lovers. The new club filled a need that the Chaminade Club could not fill because of the older club’s unique performance requirements. The Chaminade Club enthusiastically supported the founding of the MacDowell Club – in fact, thirty of MacDowell’s charter members were also Chaminade members.
Both World Wars curtailed the club’s normal activities. The members lowered the club dues, sold and individually bought Liberty Stamps and War Bonds, and were leaders and workers in the Red Cross. In an effort to bolster spirits during 1917-18, the club provided more public recitals in one year than ever before or since. In World War II several members “went to war” with their husbands or to work for the Red Cross in other cities. At home the club furnished both musical equipment and musical entertainment for the military units stationed here.
For 42 years most club meetings were held in the members’ homes, but after World War II, the Municipal Art Gallery became the regular meeting place. Cultural changes are reflected even in the informal way members’ names are listed in current club yearbooks. New lifestyles of working women have decreased the number of those who are able to “keep up” their abilities as musical performers. In response, the club has reduced its performance requirement from twenty- five to fifteen years of recitals before a member may request Active- Associate status.
Still, the Chaminade Club has persevered, losing some members, gaining others, and keeping many for decades, ever supportive of the musical standards set down a century ago. As we celebrate our hundredth birthday, we honor the members who have gone before and pledge our support to present and future members as they continue to promote the study of music among our members and cultivate the appreciation of music in our community.
Note: A Brief History of the Chaminade Club of Jackson originally appeared as
“A Brief History of the Club” in the 100th Anniversary program booklet when the club’s centennial was celebrated with a special program at 2:00 on January 11, 2003, at Northminster Baptist Church, Jackson,Mississippi.