CLUBS: CosmosClub of Washington. D.C. The,Cosmos Club http://www.cosmos-club.org/ The Cosmos Club 2121 Massachusetts Avenue, N.W. to Washington, DC 20008 Next The Cosmos Club http://www.cosmos-club.org/main.html The Cosmos Club The Cosmos Club stands as "the closest thing to a social headquarters for Washington's intellectual elite." So wrote Western scholar Wallace Stegner in his acclaimed work, Beyond the Hundredth Meridian. His judgment echoed the oft-repeated statement of World War II days that the most significant concentration of Washington's public policy intellectuals centered at the Cosmos Club, unless it was at Union Station when the night train from Boston arrived. Since its founding in 1878, the Cosmos Club has adhered to its stated corporate objectives: "The advancement of its members in science, literature, and art," and also "their mutual improvement by social intercourse." The History A Look Inside The Cosmos Journal The Cosmos Club Foundation 1 of 1 3/7/01 2:31 PM History of the Cosmos Club http://www.cosmos-club.org/history1.html The Cosmos Club The year 1878 saw the Club's founding in the home of John Wesley Powell, portrayed at right by Rudolph Wendelin. The painting places Powell deep in the Grand Canyon, first navigated by the intrepid explorer in 1869. The history of the Cosmos Club is present in every room, not as homage to the past, but as a celebration of its continuum A reminder of its origins, its genius, and its distinction. Clarence Dutton, soldier and geologist, was asked by his New York City friends, "Why have you not in Washington a club like the Century?" His circle of friends met to organize one at the home of John Wesley Powell, soldier and explorer, ethnologist, Director of the Geological Survey, and consummate organizer. The community of scientists and intellectuals in Washington grew rapidly in the 1870's. They came to serve in various government agencies some to explore, survey and understand the geography and resources of the United States... others to expand its intellectual and cultural foundations. or build its economic, social, medical, and industrial prowess... or set forth on expeditions to learn the world's secrets. Powell and his colleagues were at the heart of these efforts. There were other societies, but they tended toward specialization and formal meetings. Powell's vision was a center of good fellowship, a club that embraced the sciences and the arts, where members could meet socially and exchange ideas, where vitality would grow from the mixture of disciplines, and a library would provide a refuge for thought and learning. It was called the Cosmos Club. Back Menu Next 1 of 1 3/7/01 2:31 PM Inside the Cosmos Club http://www.cosmos-club.org/insidel.html The Cosmos Club 800 HALL OF HONORS The Hall of Honors best represents the Cosmos Club in its role as an "extension of the world." On its walls hang portraits of Club members who have received Nobel Prizes, Pulitzer Prizes, Presidential Medals of Freedom, and Cosmos Club Awards. Back Menu Next 1 of 1 3/7/01 2:31 PM The Cosmos Club Journal http://www.cosmos-club.org/journals/index.htm The Cosmos Club COSMOS JOURNAL A journal of emerging issues and insights published annually by the Cosmos Club of Washington, D.C. which was founded in 1878. Its members have done meritorious original work in science, literature, or the arts and are known to be cultivated or have been recognized as distinguished in a learned profession or public service. Following are the fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth, and tenth editions of COSMOS which began publication in 1991. It is distributed to Cosmos Club members, reciprocal clubs worldwide, university libraries and the press. It is the considerable knowledge, insight, professionalism and dedication of the member/writers which makes COSMOS a unique and cosmopolitan journal. The editors draw upon this pool of talent to offer articles on important and timely issues written with clarity and precision, often with a deep concern and a penetrating--and often bluntly critical-analysis of current problems. The range of content reflects the broad interests of the membership which over the years has been honored with 51 Pulitzer and 29 Nobel prizes, and 42 Presidential Medals of Freedom. Murray J. Gart, Wilbur (Bill) Garrett, Editor Editor COSMOS 1995 COSMOS 1996 Wilbur (Bill) Garrett, Walter G. Berl, Editor Editor COSMOS 1997 COSMOS 1998 George S. Robinson, George S. Robinson, Editor Editor COSMOS 1999 COSMOS 2000 Menu 1 of 1 3/7/01 2:32 PM The Cosmos Club Foundation http://www.cosmosclubfoundation.org The Cosmos Club Foundation GOSMOS Welcome to the Cosmos Club Foundation, created by Cosmos Club members in 1967 as a tax-exempt and legally distinct organization charged specifically to advance science, literature. and the arts and humanities through awards and grants for charitable and educational purposes. The Cosmos Club itself was founded in 1878 for the advancement of its members in science, literature, and art and "their mutual improvement by social intercourse." The activities of the Foundation are not designed to be of direct benefit to the Club, although some do affect the Club. The McGovern Award and Award Recipients The Cosmos Club Award and Award Recipients The Young Scholars Award--Background The Young Scholars Award Recipients--1998 The Young Scholars Award Recipients--1999 The Young Scholars Award Recipients--2000 (To view this site with best results, use a graphical web browser supporting HTML 3.0 standards such as Netscape. Further, if you are using America Online, Prodigy, Netcruiser, or any other proprietary Web browser, some graphics, background text, and other HTML 3.0 standards and extensions will not work.) You are visitor number 2996 since 14 September 1999. This page was created on 28 April 1999, and was last updated on 28 September 1999. 1 of 1 3/7/01 2:32 PM COSMOS 1996 http://www.cosmos-club.org/journals/1996/index.htm NAME COSMOS JOURNAL 1. Reflections on an Early Libertarian by Herbert Stein 2. Romance versus Reality in the Ancient Maya Civilization by Richard E. Adams 3. An Unquiet Mind by Kay Redfield Jamison 4. Dolley Madison: A Rare Look at an Early American Heroine by Peter T. White 5. The Dolley Madison House: A Proper Address for the Young Cosmos Club by Volkmar K. Wentzel 6. The Cosmos Club Member Who Changed Our World: The Inventor of the Electronic Computer by Lee Loevinger 7. How the United States Should Use Military Force by Richard N. Haass 8. A Plea For the National Parks by Michael From 9. JFK, RFK, the Mob and Dallas by Ronald Goldfarb 10. Catholics and the Contract with America by Tad Szulc 11. The Crisis of American Criminal Justice by Charles Maechling, Jr. 12. The Economics of Cocaine Capitalism by Rensselaer Lee 13. On the Road to Middle East Peace by Murray Gart 14. Tuberculosis: Romance to Reality to Resurgence by Dr. Richard M. Krause 15. A Global Approach to a Nuclear Dilemma by Luther J. Carter 16. Haiti: Policy Lost, Policy Regained by Robert E. Whit 17. Can Quality Medical Education Survive Health Care Reform? by Richard M. Knapp and Jordan J. Cohen 18. The Making of a New Japan: The Old Power Structure is Breaking Up and the Miracle is Gone by Carl J. Green All articles in the journal are subject to copyright restrictions under U.S. law and are the property of the Cosmos Club of Washington D.C., USA. Permission for re-publication in print or electronic media or comments on the journal should be sent to the Cosmos Club, 2121 Massachusetts Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20008. Tel -202 387783: Fax -202 234 6817: Email - Margaret@Cosmosclub.org. Copies of the printed journal are available for $4.00 each plus postage. Return to COSMOS Journals Return to COSMOS Home Page 1 of 1 3/7/01 2:36 PM COSMOS 1997 Table of Contents http://www.cosmos-club.org/journals/1997/index.html COSMO COSMOS JOURNAL 1. Editorial 2. The Invisible Universe of X-rays and Gamma Rays by Herbert Friedman 3. The Hubble Space Telescope: Ten Times Better by Herbert Friedman 4. What's Wrong at the United Nations? by Charles William Maynes 5. The Battle to Stop Disney's America by Nick Kotz and Rudy Abramson 6. Living Life as a Work of Art by Albert Waterston 7. Can Good Journalism Survive in a Post-Modern World? by Stanley W. Cloud 8. Abolitionist Generals and the Nuclear Policy Debate by Luther J. Carter 9. The Bell and the Bomb by Alvin M. Weinberg 10. Ten Years in a Golden Cage by Frederick Seitz 11. Learning from the American Chestnut Blight by Perry R. Hagenstein 12. Trail's End for Meriwether Lewis - The Role of Syphilis by Reimert Thorolf Ravenholt 13. Technological Advances Create New Global Work Patterns by Robert M. White and Richard H. White 14. The Significance of the Millennium by Lee Loevinger 15. Leadership in Arts--Oxymoron or Opportunity? by Alan Fern 16. Science: No End in Sight by Robert C. Cowen 17. The Odd Couple: Uncle Mark and Teddy by Charles W. Bailey 18. Washington, D.C. - A House Divided by Robert V. Keeley 19. Looking for the Real America by Tom Veblen All articles in the journal are subject to copyright restrictions under U.S. law and are the property of the Cosmos Club of Washington D.C., USA. Permission for re-publication in print or electronic media or comments on the journal should be sent to the Cosmos Club, 2121 Massachusetts Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20008. Tel -202 387783: Fax -202 234 6817: Email - -Margaret@Cosmosclub.org. Copies of the printed journal are available for $4.00 each plus postage. Return to COSMOS Journals Return to COSMOS Home Page 1 of 1 3/7/01 2:37 PM From: Margaret (Margaret@cosmosclub.org: > To: "repp@mail.hartford.edu'" Subject: RE: Information Request Date sent: Fri, 9 Mar 2001 18:13:44-0500 Dear Sir: We have searched our records and are sorry to report that we have nothing on George Bucknam Dorr other than that he was a member from 1921 to 1935. Original Message From: repp@mail.hartford.edu [mailto:repp@mail.hartford.edu] Sent: Thursday, March 08, 2001 9:11 AM To: margaret@cosmosclub.org Subject: Information Request To Whom it May Concern: I am presently engaged in research on one of your former members, George Burnham Dorr (1853-1944), the founder of Acadia National Park. I have examined your web site and wonder whether a Cosmos Club library or archives exists with information relative to early members. If it does, could you put me into contact with that person. I will be visiting Washington March 14 and 15th and would welcome the opportunity to pursue this matter further if your organization has information relative to Mr. Dorr. I have exhausted the Acadia National Park Archives where I located correspondance during the first decades of the 20th century to and from Mr. Dorr on Cosmos Club stationary. I would apprecate any assistance you could provide. Ronald H. Epp, Ph.D. Director of Libraries University of Hartford -- 1 -- Mon, 12 Mar 2001 13:36:33 6.01 A Centennial History 1878-1978 - THE COSMOS CLUB OF WASHINGTON Written by Wilcomb E. Washburn 11 S 2725 W3 C 728 CONTENTS Preface ix PUBLISHED BY THE COSMOS CLUB OF WASHINGTON Introduction & Background 3 IN NOVEMBER 1978, ON THE OCCASION History of Clubs, 3 OF ITS ONE - HUNDREDTH ANNIVERSARY Efforts to Achieve a Club History, 5 A Chronological Overview of the Club's History 15 Founding and Early History, 15 The Successive Homes of the Club, 24 Time Begins to Run Out, 44 Renovation Begins, 60 The Club's Wistaria, 77 Air Conditioning the Clubhouse, 80 Later History, 83 Organization of the Club 95 Development of the Admissions Procedure, 95 Post-World War II Controversies, 100 Background on Qualifications for Membership, 103 Controversy over Race, 109 Controversy over Women as Members, 113 Special Categories of Membership, 118 Frontispiece: Photograph of the Clubhouse taken by George Crossette Membership Goals Committee, 126 in the autumn of 1976. Election of Officers, 127 Endpaper illustration: From a watercolor painting by Walter Paris Use of Club by Other Organizations, 129 Club Management, 134 (1842-1906), "View of Pennsylvania Avenue Looking toward the Employee Relations, 149 Capitol," 1895. The Print Shop, 156 Courtesy of the White House Collection. The Endowment Fund, 157 Exchange Relationships with Other Clubs, 172 Library of Congress Catalogue Card No. 78-70840 The Club's Possessions 179 Copyright © 1978 by the Cosmos Club Art and Memorabilia, 179 Washington, D.C. The Library, 200 BOSTON COLLEGE LIBRARY CHESTMIT UNI A CHRONOLOGICAL OVERVIEW OF THE CLUB'S HISTORY FOUNDING AND EARLY HISTORY INSTITUTIONS are often marked by the char- acter of their founders and if anyone can be called the founder of the Cosmos Club, that man is John Wesley Powell. The organi- zation meeting took place in his house at 910 M Street, NW, on November 16, 1878. At Powell's instigation, the members of the already existing Philosophical Society of Washington, at its December 12, 1878, meeting, voted to join with the new club to prevent a purposeless rivalry between two groups with similar aims. Powell's personality also detemined that the Cosmos Club would be unlike the pre-existing scientific and literary clubs in Washington. The Cosmos Club was to be selective and discrim- inating, as the other groups were. But it was not organized for the purpose of hearing and commenting upon papers, formal or informal. Rather, Powell adapted his own persuasive, prag- matic approach to governmental science to the formation of the Club. High achievement was a prerequisite to admission; but x the atmosphere inside was to be informal and easy-going. This is not to say that Powell created the Cosmos Club single- handedly. Those who gathered at his house that Saturday in Major John Wesley Powell as the second director of the U.S. November had similar ideas. It was Powell's genius to organize Geological Survey (March 18, 1881, to June 7, 1894). their thoughts and express their will. One of those whose thoughts 15 16 THE COSMOS CLUB HISTORY 17 ran in the same channel as Powell's was Clarence Edward Dut- Something was in the air in 1878 that found expression in its ton, a soldier and geologist. Dutton, in his remarks at the twenty- creation. fifth anniversary of the founding of the Club, reported that at The spirit uniting the founders of the Cosmos Club was well the end of September 1878 he had returned to Washington expressed by Pritchett. "They believed," he noted, "that no from New York where he had dined at the Century Club with philosophy is SO serene and SO comforting as that which unites old friends. "Why have you not in Washington a club like the the love of study and of books with the fellowship of men." It Century?" he was asked by his New York friends. To Dutton was Powell, however, who harnessed this sentiment to the prac- the question was a challenge and he took the first opportunity to tical requirements of founding a social club. confer with Powell and Garrick Mallery on the question. Dut- The character of Washington's scientific elite at the time of ton reported that Powell and Mallery welcomed the suggestion. the founding was also well described by Pritchett: "There were The same day Dutton met William Harkness, a physician and no rich people. Everybody had his daily work in some depart- astronomer, in the lobby of the Ebbitt House and found him re- ment of the government, and carried his lunch with him. The ceptive to the idea. Harkness agreed to canvass individuals in more aristocratic wrapped their luncheons in cotton napkins, the Naval Observatory. Another conference with Powell and the bourgeoisie carried theirs in paper bags. They all came Mallery led to the decision to sound out other scientists such as home to a half-past five o'clock dinner." Could anyone shape Edward Singleton Holden of the Naval Observatory, Frederick this inward-looking bureaucracy into an outward-looking com- Endlich of the Hayden Survey, and Jerome Kidder of the pany of free spirits? Smithsonian, "all young and energetic men heartily in favor of Powell prepared the ground carefully. First he invited those the project." who had indicated interest in the plan to meet at his house to Another individual in whom the idea of a scientific and social discuss the matter informally. Although no minutes were kept, society was germinating was Henry S. Pritchett, astronomer and we have the reminiscences of several of those in attendance. It is educator. Pritchett was among the many American and English clear that there was a wide diversity of opinion on what sort of astronomers who observed the total eclipse of the sun in Colo- club should be established and that Powell served as a skilled rado in August 1878. As he noted in his address on the fiftieth manager of the debate and brought about a practical resolution anniversary of the founding of the Club, the astronomers gath- of the differences of opinion. ered at Colorado Springs after the eclipse for a symposium. What emerged was a commitment to "a just mean, in which Arthur C. Ranyard, secretary of the Royal Astronomical So- anything like luxury or ostentation was regarded with disfavor, ciety, a delightful talker, "pictured in such alluring words the and only the essentials of comfort and the conveniences for ra- joys of social intercourse in the Royal Astronomical Society tional intercourse were considered." Dutton was to characterize that, as we listened to his descriptions, we highly resolved to the agreed-upon philosophy as "that temperate, simple, and go back to Washington and found a social-scientific club." Rec- thrifty line of policy which has always characterized the Club ollections years after an event are notoriously unreliable, but and from which it has never deviated since the first preliminary we can vouch for those of Dutton and Pritchett concerning the meeting." Although Dutton's judgment was pronounced on the several influences that joined to produce the Cosmos Club. twenty-fifth anniversary of the founding of the Club, it is not 18 THE COSMOS CLUB HISTORY 19 inconsistent with the character of the Club on its hundredth Secretary pro tem proposed sardonically that the word Club anniversary. should also be spelled with a "K"-"just for symmetry, you Two days after the November 16 meeting, a circular was sent know." Pritchett, in reminiscing on the matter at the fiftieth an- to various individuals proposed as original members taking note niversary of the founding, reported that Professor Holden had of the November 16 meeting and indicating a resolution to or- proposed the name Saturn Club but that after long discussion ganize a social club in Washington on the model of the Century the name was turned down. The records indicate, however, that Club of New York and the Scientific Club of London, to bc the name Saturn did not make it to the final balloting stage at called the Scientific Club of Washington and to be composed of which "Kosmos" garnered four votes, "Scientific" one, "Joseph "men devoted to or interested in science, professionally or other- Henry" one, and "Cosmos" twenty-one. The name Cosmos Club wise." The circular noted the intention to procure rooms in of Washington City, as originally proposed by Mallery, was there- some central part of the city for use during the afternoon and upon unanimously adopted, and the meeting adjourned to Jan- evening only; to form a library of periodicals; to provide only uary 6, 1879, at 8 p.m. in the new Club rooms in the Cor- "extremely simple refreshments, at least at first; and, in general, coran Building. to make a place where it will be possible for the members of the Before the next meeting could take place, however, the Club's Club to meet socially at any time under pleasant surroundings." first crisis arose. It was learned that several members of the Those interested were invited to a second meeting at Powell's Philosophical Society of Washington proposed the establish- house on November 25. ment of a club similar to the Cosmos, perhaps by transforming A rough draft of a constitution was adopted on November 25. the Philosophical Society into a club. The Philosophical Society, The admission fee was set at $25 for resident members with $20 a formal outgrowth of the informal "Scientific Club" or "Satur- annual dues. A special committee was also set up at this meeting day Club" established by Joseph Henry, first secretary of the to report on possible quarters, which a majority of those attend- Smithsonian Institution, in the 1850s, acknowledged Henry's ing recommended be found near the site of the United States leadership. Formed in the Regents' Room of the Smithsonian Treasury at 15th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue. on March 13, 1871, at a meeting called by Henry in response to The special committee, of which Powell himself was a mem- the request of forty-three Washingtonians interested in creating ber, reported back on December 2 recommending the lease of such a society, the members chose Henry as its first president. rooms in the Corcoran Building at the corner of 15th Street and As "a society for the advancement of science" it served a role Henry Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, where the Washington Hotel now thought necessary in order to establish a more authoritative stands. The rooms, described on pages 24-26, looked out on position for science in American society. Its tradition of evening the Treasury Building, the White House beyond, and on the dress for participants (still maintained by the president and Washington Monument. speaker at each meeting) symbolized its concern with establish- A name for the Club was also approved at the December 2 ing the dignity of science. Its formal papers and careful com- meeting. Garrick Mallery proposed the name Cosmos Club, but ments constituted the main business of its meetings. Refresh- one member pointed out that the appropriate Greek spelling of ments were allowed, but only at the conclusion of the scholarly the word began with a "K." In the discussion that followed, the session. The Cosmos Club reversed the priorities. 34 THE COSMOS CLUB HISTORY 35 side of the second floor of the Dolley Madison House in rooms the Club had at nine different times found it necessary to pro- then used for cards, by Dr. Coolidge (the Club manager), and vide increased facilities to accommodate its growth. Four of these for a Board room. These rooms were to be connected by a "lift" increases had involved purchases that had provided the Club with the office on the main floor. Toilet facilities were to be re- with one of the most valuable sites in Washington. In order to arranged to provide for women clerks. stimulate thought about the future policy the Club should adopt, (2) Remodeling the Camcron stable for an assembly hall. Hoyt presented a well-reasoned argument for an expansion of (3) Establishing a commissary and cold-storage plant in the Club facilities that would accommodate the needs of the future existing assembly hall. without violating the traditions of the past. (4) Utilizing the third and dormer floors of the Cameron The Cosmos Club, Hoyt pointed out, because of its increase House for bedrooms. in nonresident membership and its liberal policy for the intro- World War I, with its influx of scholars into Washington, duction of guests and visitors, had become a national as well as many of whom found lodging and board at the Cosmos Club, a local place for the meeting, socially, of men engaged in all delayed the completion of the alterations, but on January 13, lines of intellectual pursuits. Hoyt saw a way of utilizing the 1919, in the new assembly hall converted from the Cameron Club's special relationship with those organizations "which rep- House stable, the Board of Management proudly reported on resent the same activities technically as the Club does socially" the completion of the renovation of the Cameron House. The to provide the resources for a financially sound expansion of new assembly hall, costing $15,000, was thirty-one feet wide, Club facilities. Citing preliminary studies of the possibilities of sixty-four feet long, and twenty-four feet high and had a seating developing the Club's properties (made in cooperation with J. capacity of about 300. It was equipped with a fireproof lantern Rush Marshall), Hoyt suggested that the H Street corner por- booth containing a Simplex motion-picture lantern and a 1,000 tion of the Club's property could be used to provide revenue- candle-power, nitrogen-filled Balopticon projection lantern. The producing quarters for associated scientific organizations as well Board reported that the hall was already reserved for virtually as additional sleeping rooms for resident members desiring per- every night of the year. manent quarters and for nonresident members desiring tempo- Although each acquisition of property was looked upon as rary quarters. On the basis of the estimated income that might meeting the needs of the Club for the foreseeable future, the be received from a new building on the H Street corner, Hoyt rapid growth of membership and their needs brought the un- estimated that the additional fixed charges and operating ex- foreseeable future quickly in view. In October 1921, John C. penses resulting from the construction of such a building could Hoyt, former chairman of the House Committee, addressed the readily be paid. members of the Club in a printed pamphlet entitled Development In another proposal, which anticipated the actual establish- of the Cosmos Club. Hoyt, in his introduction, noted that within ment of the Cosmos Club Foundation, Hoyt proposed the estab- the next year the Cosmos Club would have to consider the lishment of a fund to be known as the Cosmos Foundation, to question of refunding its indebtedness on the Cameron-Tayloe provide for such an expansion. The entire fund, built from do- House, which was then covered by a $200,000 deed of trust due nations large and small, would be reserved as capital, invested November 24, 1922. Hoyt observed that in its 42-year history in land, buildings, or securities, and would not be subject to 36 THE COSMOS CLUB final disposition by any board of officers except after a full op- portunity of the Club itself to pass on any proposal. ENTRANCE No specific action was taken as a result of Hoyt's initiative, TO ASSEMBLY but the Club continued nevertheless to expand. Early in 1928 HALL the availability of 1516 H Street just to the east of its existing property was brought to the attention of the Board. On March 12, 1928, the Secretary reported the purchase of the property at a price of $80,000. It was assumed that the carrying charges of the building would be more than balanced by the increase in sale value of the total property of the Club thus enhanced, but in fact the Depression put the Club under grave financial strain to meet its payments on the house. During 1932 it cost $2,873.26 more in interest, taxes, etc., than receipts for rentals brought in although the entire building was occupied throughout the year. With the mortgage coming due in 1933, the Club was faced with a crisis, which was resolved at an April 3, 1933, meeting at which it was determined to use the Endowment Fund to reduce the mortgage indebtedness to the extent necessary to secure an extension of the mortgage note for a future term. The growth of the executive branch of government in the vicinity of the White House in the period between World Wars I and II cast doubt on the ability of the Club to maintain its presence on Lafayette Square. The intentions of Congress were made explicit by an act of March 31, 1930, directing the Secre- tary of the Treasury to acquire all the privately owned land on Madison Place, though no time limit was set. In September 1939 the United States offered the Club $1,000,000 for its properties on the square. The offer-which could also be per- View of entrance to Assembly Hall of Cosmos Club on Lafayette ccived as a threat since few doubted the power of the U.S. Square. Photo by Walter Willcox, C. 1942. government to take the property by eminent domain if the Club refused to sell-set in motion feverish activity on the part of con- cerned members. A diehard minority urged holding out at all costs. Herbert Friedenwald, in a letter of March 26, 1940, to Louis H. Tripp, insisted that "there was enough intelligence 38 THE COSMOS CLUB HISTORY 39 what might be termed the Palace Square," Fleming urged fur- ther negotiation not only with the government but also with other potential purchasers. "The Cosmos Club now needs a David Harum," Fleming wrote, "-a good 'Hoss Trader' is al- ways an excellent asset in any organization." A special committee under Leason H. Adams was appointed by the Board of Management to consider certain aspects of the proposed sale of the Cosmos Club property to the government and especially to determine what funds would be available for securing other quarters if the property were sold. The com- mittec's report of January 6, 1940, after discussing aspects of the proposed sale to the government, listed various alternative sites and indicated its belief that "any new location should preferably be within two or three blocks and not more than four or five blocks from the present location." It noted that a map prepared in the Secretary's office showed strikingly that the geographical center of the office addresses of the Club membership was not far from the Club's Lafayette Square site. Although generally View of Garden dining area, Cosmos Club on Lafayette Square. sticking to its four- or five-block rule, the committee considered Photo by Walter Willcox, C. 1942. a few sites further away. One site was the Levi P. Morton prop- erty at 1500 Rhode Island Avenue and another was the Patton property at 2122 Massachusetts Avenue at Q Street just across the street from the Townsend Mansion, which was eventually among the members of the Club and enough familiarity with to become the Club's new home. the Members of Congress" to see that the Club was preserved as One of the most interesting possibilities considered by the a national monument. Others urged tactical maneuvers to force committee was an amalgamation with the Metropolitan Club. the government to up its price. Still others scurried around to The proposal-never formalized-was broached late in 1939 in locate alternative sites. George E. Fleming, the Club's Trea- a conversation between Sidney Taliaferro and the president of surer and a Union Trust Co. official, opposed the sale for the Metropolitan Club in which the latter indicated that the $1,000,000 because, he pointed out, after clearing the $400,000 Metropolitan Club might consider favorably the sale of its mortgage debt, only $600,000 would remain, not enough to ob- property to the Cosmos Club for the amount of the Metro- tain a new house of an appropriate character. Since the offered politan's indebtedness ($635,000), the Cosmos Club waiving its price was $62,000 below the assessed value and since the Club's membership requirements for a limited period and taking over holdings possessed a most "unusual exposure, really being on the entire membership of the Metropolitan Club. As Adams 82 THE COSMOS CLUB HISTORY 83 heat conspired to defeat the ever-growing demand for cooler stallation and maintenance of an air-conditioning system. Bar air. Some scientific members may also have shared Dr. René Dubos's belief, as expressed in a proposal addressed to the Na- sales would also rise, Guy thought, possibly as dramatically as room rents, which, in 1954, after the installation of room air- tional Academy of Sciences some years later, that an intensive conditioners, increased to an occupancy rate of 66 percent over investigation should be first made to determine whether the body's natural ability to adapt to extreme heat or cold is not the 33 percent rate of the previous summer. Guy accompanied his argument with a chart showing monthly gain and loss for reduced and respiratory and circulatory disorders increased by dining-room operations for the period 1941 to 1954. He pointed the shift from hot humid summer air to cool dry air-condi- tioned air. out that during the previous two years most of the city clubs in The proponents of air conditioning grew more vocal as the Washington had installed air-conditioning equipment, among them the Army and Navy Club, the Metropolitan Club, the summer heat increased. On July 30, 1953, seventeen Club mem- Press Club, and the University Club. Air-conditioning the din- bers (among them Elliott Roberts and Julian Berla) signed a ing rooms, he pointed out, was a "competitive necessity." petition to President Faulkner expressing their belief that "a Air conditioning, financed by a $10 assessment per member, widespread desire among resident members for air-conditioning came to the Cosmos Club in 1956 with the approval of a con- of the clubhouse" now coincided with the financial ability of the tract with United Clay Products Co. in January of that year. Club to afford this improvement. The signers noted that "if we Mr. Wilberding, who donated his personal services, rode herd can judge by the almost universal example of restaurant opera- on the work as it was performed. The Club was air-conditioned tors, air-conditioning is just simply good business." for the summer of 1956 and has remained air-conditioned since. The concern with air conditioning led to the formation of a Perhaps a club full of scientists for whom experimentation is a committee on air conditioning. In its report of December 15, way of life will be able to answer Dr. Dubos's question as to 1953, the committee, utilizing the expertise and estimates of fellow Club member M. X. Wilberding, a mechanical engineer whether air conditioning increases respiratory and circulatory disorders. So far, the verdict is not yet in. expert in air-conditioning matters, calculated that air condi- tioning could be achieved in most areas of the Club (eliminating the Main-Warne-Lounge and Auditorium) for an estimated cost of $28,035. The committee suggested that a bond issue be LATER HISTORY floated among the membership for $30,000 and hoped that many of those calling for air conditioning would feel constrained The history of a club like the Cosmos Club is in many ways to contribute toward a fund for the purpose. the story of the meeting of the minds that took place within its In the following years the debate over air conditioning con- confines. The Club has been the site of many meetings, some tinued. David J. Guy, the Club's Executive, pointed out that casual, some significant, throughout its history. the loss in revenue in the dining rooms in the four summer In the early 1890s, for example, Rudyard Kipling (according months (amounting to a total of $66,689 for the years 1941- to historian Frank Freidel) recalled listening to Theodore Roo- 1954), if reduced by $2,000 a month, could help pay for the in- sevelt in the Club. "I curled up on the seat opposite," Kipling HISTORY 85 said, "and listened and wondered, until the universe seemed to be spinning 'round and Theodore was the spinner." The great city planner and architect Daniel H. Burnham of Present Home 1952- Chicago (whose son was a member though he was not) stayed occasionally at the Club, particularly when he was in the pro- cess of replanning Washington in 1901-1902 as chairman of the Senate Park Commission. Indeed, on January 15, 1902, when the models created by the Commission were shown to the Presi- dent, his cabinet, and members of Congress in the Corcoran Gallery, Burnham and other members of the Commission stayed at the Club where, as his biographer Charles Moore notes, "The group talked till the small hours grew larger." During World War I the Club assumed a more vital role in the nation's life than it had ever before held. As America mo- bilized, her chemists, psychologists, and engineers had to put their heads together to meet the challenge that culminated in America's entry into the war in 1917. The young chemist James B. Conant, in a personal interview late in his life, recounted Proposed Third Location how he looked with awe and jealousy on the older men like Street Arthur Lamb, Roger Adams, and Robert Millikan who were Lafayette Second Location Square invited to join the Cosmos Club in this period or who were al- ready members. The giants who organized the Chemical War- fare Service at this time would lunch at the Club, but Conant First Location normally had to view them from a distance as a young person 1879-1882 "looking over the fence." In meeting the unexpected emergency brought on by World War I, the Club expressed its patriotism in a manner typical of the time. At a May 31, 1917, special meeting of the Board of Management, a letter from Gcorge S. Rice and others was read requesting that the privileges of the Club be denied to all mem- bers not willing to make a sworn statement that they would sup- port this country in the war. The Board, in considering this re- Map of central Washington showing successive homes of the quest, voted that further details, including the names of persons Cosmos Club acquired 1882-1917. suspected of being enemies of the country, be obtained before any action was taken. 86 THE COSMOS CLUB HISTORY 87 At the June I I meeting another letter from Rice to the same and loyal supporters of the cause of the United States and her effect was read. It was voted to lay the matter on the table. As Allies in the present war." enthusiasm for the war mounted, the Club took various steps The Stangeland affair would not down. On October 28, to support the government's programs for winning the war. On 1918, the Board received a letter from Francis Walker noting July 9, 1917, the Board of Management agreed to cooperate that though Stangeland's guilt was still in question, it seemed with the Food Administrator by serving no beef, mutton, lamb, safe to assume that he had acted in a manner that would render or pork at midday meals of the Club from July I5 to October I. further association with the Club undesirable. Walker urged As the war heated up, the Club's concern reached-by to- that Stangeland be dropped from Club membership, adding, day's standards-almost irrational levels. On May 13, 1918, "I think there are also several other members of the Club- the chairman of the Library Committee asked for instructions some of them residents-whose loyalty is justly under suspicion on what action to take regarding a petition to have the Staats- and I would favor dropping them also." Zeitung restored to the Club files. The Board voted to defer ac- Another letter, from Simon N. D. North, the Secretary of the tion pending further information. Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, on June 22, On July 8, 1918, the Board received letters from several mem- 1918, asked that article IO of the bylaws, which provided that bers urging that member Charles E. Stangeland be dropped no member could be suspended from the privileges of member- from the Club as soon as possible in view of the fact that ship or expelled by the Club except by vote of three-fourths of he had been indicted in a federal court for violation of the the members present and voting at a stated meeting with one "Trading with the Enemy Act." The Board voted to suspend month's previous notice given, be suspended during the war Mr. Stangeland pending the presentation of charges against since the bylaw had been adopted in time of peace without con- him at the next stated meeting. Judge J. F. Smith was, mean- sideration of the changed conditions which a state of war in- while, appointed as head of a committee to confer with the De- volved. North thought it the duty of the Board of Management partment of Justice to obtain information regarding members to take immediate action by regarding this bylaw as tempo- of the Club suspected of pro-German sympathies. rarily suspended by the laws of the United States and urged the At a meeting of the Club on October 14, 1918, with forty Board to proceed at once to the suspension of Stangeland. members present, the President reported the suspension of Other members joined the chorus seeking to expel Stange- Stangeland because of his indictment by a federal grand jury. land, but the Board of Management resisted the pressure to The Board of Management recommended the suspension be suspend the bylaws, and, on January 20, 1919, the Board was continued until a decision of the court was rendered. Despite informed by the Secretary that Stangeland had been acquitted the Board recommendation, Naval Chaplain Roswell Randall of the charges brought against him. Judge Smith was requested Hoes moved that Mr. Stangeland be expelled from the Club. to report on the matter, which he did on January 27 noting that On a show of hands seventeen voted in favor of the motion and the case had been dismissed by the government because there nineteen against it. The Club then unanimously adopted a reso- was no evidence to sustain the truth of the charge. Indeed, a lution that the Board of Management take all necessary action letter from James Smith, U.S. Court of Customs Appeals, on to insure that "all members of the Cosmos Club shall be sincere January 24, 1919, called the matter a "tempest in a teapot," the 88 THE COSMOS CLUB HISTORY 89 grounds for even suspecting Stangeland having been of no sub- with the physicists who sought to provide the United States with stance whatever. The Attorney General's office held Stange- an atom bomb. land entirely blameless. The Board, therefore, recommended to Hence, when, in the summer of 1940, Club President W. a meeting of the Club on February 10, 1919, that Stangeland's Chapin Huntington urged influential members of the Club like suspension be terminated and he be restored to the privileges of Vannevar Bush, who had just been appointed chairman of the membership. The Club accepted the recommendation of the National Defense Research Committee, to write John Carmody, Board. Indeed, the dues of Stangeland were remitted for the administrator of the Federal Works Agency, to allow the Club second half of 1918, by an action of April 14, 1919, because of to continue to use the building, Bush and others did SO. John his "undeserved suspension." C. Hoyt pointed out that in World War I a temporary war In the period between World War I and World War II the membership had been established for about 400 nonresidents of Club continued to serve its usual purpose of a meeting ground Washington and that the Club was prepared to render the same of minds. On January 7, 1934, John Collier, Commissioner of service in World War II. Observers of the Club, Hoyt noted, had often referred to it as quasi-Governmental Institution.' " Indian Affairs (as his biographer notes), called a conference at the Cosmos Club to unite various groups such as the Indian Bush noted that "the scientific group habitually foregathers Rights Association, the American Indian Defense Association, there and it is possible at the dinner hour and in the evening to the National Association on Indian Affairs, and other groups quickly locate a number of individuals for a conference. If there behind a program to replace the Dawes Severalty Act of 1887 were no such gathering place," Bush went on, "I think that the with what became the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934 work of the scientific group would proceed in a somewhat halt- Lewis Merriam, whose published report, The Problem of Indian ing manner until there was an equivalent place in which the Administration, had laid the ground for the reforms of the Collier group would informally meet by habit." era, chaired the session. The groups meeting at the Cosmos In response to the barrage of letters, Carmody, on July 15, : Club proposed some of the reforms that marked a turning point 1940, agreed to give the Club six months' rental and to reopen in America's legislative treatment of the American Indian. i the question at the end of that period in the light of the emer- Just before World War II the Club, as recounted in another gency situation at that time. section, sold its Clubhouse to the U.S. government. But be- When, in November, the Public Building Administration de- cause of the difficulty, if not impossibility, of building a new manded further proof of the increased use of the facilities of the Clubhouse on another site, the Club was forced to request the Club by organizations participating in the National Defense government to allow it to continue to occupy its old premises on program, the Secretary of the Club on November 22 responded a rental basis. Various efforts were made at this time to con- with another barrage of letters from top scientists indicating vince high government officials that the Club was serving a use- how essential the Club was as a clearinghouse for contacts ful national defense purpose. As World War I was the chemists' among those engaged in national defense. war, SO World War II was the physicists' war, and the Club was An example of the type of contact that took place at this time flooded with scientists-especially physicists-from all over the occurred, in the telling of Arthur H. Compton, on the fateful country. This time James B. Conant dined on a basis of intimacy day December 6, 1941. Vannevar Bush, having just received 200 THE COSMOS CLUB POSSESSIONS 201 (4 volumes), Notes and Queries (2 volumes), and Nature (4 vol- THE LIBRARY umes), for the years 1879 and 1880, be bound. The decision to preserve in bound form a mixture of serious and lighter literature was reversed in 1889 when the Board of "The acquisition and maintenance of a library" was one of Management authorized the Library Committee to have only the purposes of the Cosmos Club as expressed in its articles of Silliman's Journal, Nature, Notes and Queries, and Science bound, incorporation. The Club's Library continues to represent "onc but not Punch and Puck. of the Club's principal cultural aspects" as the Library Com- In November 1882 a renewed effort was made to have mem- mittee expressed it in 1963 after the Library had grown to bers donate copies of their own works, a recommendation that 10,000 volumes and 130 periodicals. the Art Committee supported in February 1890 with the sug- Since the Club was composed of men who both read and gestion that an exhibition of the literary productions of mem- wrote books, it early occurred to the Club officers that one way bers be staged as an incentive to members to contribute to "such of acquiring a library was to ask members to deposit copies of a collection." their own works in the Club Library. On March I, 1880, on The problem of abuse of Club literary property came early motion of John Wesley Powell, the Board of Management re- to the attention of the Board of Management and has never solved that the Secretary be instructed to place a notice on the been successfully overcome. On October 2, 1882, Professor bulletin board requesting each member to deposit in the Li- Harkness called attention to the mutilation of some of the brary a bound copy of each of his printed works. journals and offered the following resolution, which was car- But early acquisitions tended to emphasize periodicals, which ried: "The Board regrets to find that in a number of cases the most members found difficult or expensive to acquire person- files of journals belonging to the Club have been mutilated, both ally. At the annual meeting of January 12, 1880, the Library by tearing out pages and by abstracting complete numbers. Committee reported that the Club was receiving 56 periodicals: Such conduct is SO dishonorable that it is hoped every member 8 quarterlies, I5 monthlies, I semimonthly, 23 weeklies, 3 semi- will do his best to detect the culprit in order that he may be weeklies, and 6 dailies. Of these periodicals, thirty-four were properly disciplined." The Secretary was instructed to read the American, eighteen English, three French, and one German. resolution in the Club meeting and to post one copy in the The Library Committee reported only 47 books in the Club smoking room and one in the Library. Library at the time. Variations on this stricture have followed with regularity in As the journals began to accumulate the question of binding the Club minutes. On November 2, 1953, the House Committee them presented itself. On February 7, 1881, the Board of Man- directed that the quotation from Thackeray's Book of Snobs with agement reported that it was not prudent to bind the journals respect to the abuse of periodicals by Club members be en- since they were available in this form in the Library of Congress grossed and put on the bulletin board. No final solution to the and State Department. The Board recommended that the addi- problem of mutilation and theft of periodicals and books is to tional outlay of funds go to purchase additional periodicals. The be expected, particularly in an era when some contemporary Board did, however, recommend that Punch (4 volumes), Puck authors encourage their readers to "steal this book." 202 THE COSMOS CLUB POSSESSIONS 203 On November 9, 1891, the Library Committee asked the sanction of the Board of Management to arrange with a book- seller, Mr. Morrison, to have new books placed on the Library table for a week or ten days, the books to be available for pur- chase through the steward. The proposal was approved with the understanding that a reasonable discount would be allowed Club members. At a Club meeting attended by sixty-two persons on February 14, 1903, the Library and Art Committees were authorized to have a bookplate prepared and placed in the books belonging to the Club. The handsome bookplate that resulted, reproduced on the facing page, was designed by William Fuller Curtis and engraved in 1906 by Edwin Davis French, the distinguished American copperplate engraver. Libraries must discard as well as acquire books, and on Feb- ruary II, 1907, the chairman of the Library Committee, Robert Lee Preston, reported that the miscellaneous collection of U.S. government publications belonging to the Club would be dis- posed of by sale to Lowdermilk & Co., Washington, D.C. billio to At the same meeting of the Board at which the Library Com- mittee reported its intention to discard U.S. government publi- Cosmos Club bookplate, originally engraved by cations, it was reported also that the will of recently deceased Edwin Davis French. member George L. Bradley, a member from 1883 to 1906, con- tained a clause leaving all his books in the city of Washington to the Cosmos Club but with a residuary interest to be held in trust for Mrs. Bradley during the term of her life. The Bradley be- machia Poliphili (Venice: Aldus Manutius, 1499), which James quest was received upon Mrs. Bradley's death in 1919. Not all McManaway has described as "possibly the most beautiful il- the books went to the Club. Some (mostly engravings bound lustrated book printed in the fifteenth century," is perhaps together) went to the Library of Congress, and others (mostly the most important of the incunabula. An exhibition of the popular literature) were given to the Bradley Home for Incur- Bradley books was held in the Folger Shakespeare Library in ables (now the Emma Pendleton Bradley Home) in Providence, November and December of 1947, with a catalogue prepared Rhode Island. by Mr. McManaway, then acting director of the Folger. The The Club received twenty-six rare early printed books from Cosmos Club Bulletin discussed the collection in several issues, in- the Bradley bequest of which Franciscus Columna's Hypneroto- cluding accounts by Edward N. Waters and Donald H. Williams. 204 THE COSMOS CLUB POSSESSIONS 205 The Bradley Collection was kept by the Club in the second- When the tentative plans for the new Clubhouse (never built) floor silver vault in the Townsend Mansion after the move there were being discussed at the annual meeting of the Club on Jan- in 1952, but in 1965 the Library Committee recommended that uary 20, 1941, it was noted that "some criticism" had been di- the collection be deposited in the Library of Congress on per- rected at the plans "because greater floor space was allotted to manent loan. The Board of Management supported the transfer the tap room than to the library." But the Library Committee of the materials from the Cosmos Club but suggested the Folger somewhat sarcastically noted that "such feeling seems to have Library as a possible depository and urged that the condition of been entirely allayed by the ingenious device of deleting the the loan be "indefinite" rather than "permanent" and "subject word taproom and substituting therefor the words coffee room." In to termination at any time by the Board of Management of the the spirit of accommodation and good fellowship, however, the Cosmos Club." The transfer to the Folger Library was effected Library Committee noted that "aside from this drastic modifi- early in 1965. The Bradley Collection was sold at auction in cation, the literary facilities seem adequate, for one should con- 1978 for a handsome figure, the proceeds going to the Endow- sider not only the floor space of the library itself but also that of ment Fund. the periodical and newspaper rooms." The receipt of the Bradley Collection in 1919 led to the hiring One of the most interesting achievements of the Library of a professional librarian to organize the Club's wealth of new Committee was the introduction of a series of "Book and Author books. With the authority of the Board of Management the Li- Suppers" which continue to this day. The first such supper was brary Committee, as it noted in its annual report for 1919, held on March 23, 1954, attended by a capacity crowd of one hired Henry E. Lower, "Assistant in the Library of Congress, hundred. The idea came from William N. Fenton, the new who is spending a little time at the Club nearly every day in chairman of the Library Committee, who stimulated his com- performing much of the work of detail devolving upon the Li- mittee at its first meeting on February 15 to carry out the brary Committee." Succeeding reports of the Library Commit- scheme in order to increase the appreciation of the Cosmos tee indicated that the Club continued to employ a "trained Club's books and their authors. Dwight Gray of the Library librarian" who, through 1924, was identified as Lower and who Committee organized the suppers. Dr. Fenton's idea was to ask probably served until George H. Milne replaced him in 1929. members to discuss their latest volumes at special Club dinners In the Depression year of 1933, the new librarian suggested that which would be informal enough to be called suppers. A. Pow- his own pay be reduced from $50 a month to $30 "upon com- ell Davies, pastor of All Souls' Unitarian Church, the first pletion of the rearrangement and cataloging of the books." speaker, discussed his book The Urge to Persecute. The ground Milne continued as part-time librarian until 1948 when he was rules for the suppers were laid out in Dwight Gray's notes in- succeeded by Laud R. Pitt. Charles Ryan succeeded Pitt in troducing a later speaker, Winfred Overholser. The notes indi- June 1966 and worked until September 1967, when he was cate: "A. We are a Club of gentlemen. B. Differences of opinions succeeded by Miss Caroline M. Burgess, who was still the Club's are welcome, nay courted. C. Immunity from the press. D. No librarian in its centennial year. sermons from the floor." The relative importance of the Library in comparison with Shortly after his election as President of the Cosmos Club, other activities of the Club can be measured in various ways. Charles S. Piggot, on January 28, 1957, wrote the chairman of 206 THE COSMOS CLUB POSSESSIONS 207 the Library Committee that he wished to join the committee at the 'good old days" of Powell, Wiley, Howard and Washing- an early meeting "to discuss with it means for furthering interest ton." Among the themes provided by Piggot to the Library in the intellectual and literary activities of our Club." Piggot Committee on March 3, 1958, were the following: joined the committee at its February 15 meeting and expressed The public schools are in the grip of a teachers' union which has the hope that gatherings, "perhaps smaller than the book-author produced the present disastrous condition. suppers, could be arranged at which topics of a controversial Corporal punishment (flogging) is appropriate for corporal crime. nature might be discussed." Piggot, in a letter, of March 17, The Panama Canal should be owned and operated by the United 1958, noted that the proposed dinners were based on the "very Nations. successful ones held at the Athenaeum in London" where Piggot Foreign aid is a delusion and harmful to a policy of intelligent self-interest. had been stationed after World War II. The discussions, Piggot Our courts protect the criminal more than society (the com- noted, could be based on a recent book, or could spring from munity). some current or historical topic of interest. In a related sugges- Washington is the wrong location for the capital of the United tion, President Piggot asked the committee to explore a subject States. "dear to his heart," the possibility of entertaining notable men at receptions and subscription dinners. The "restoration of this Some of these themes were discussed in the dinners that fol- practice," Edward Waters, chairman of the Library Committee, lowed, the first theme being considered by Louis B. Wright noted in his minutes reporting Piggot's suggestion, "might do on April 15, 1958. much to emphasize the intellectual proclivities of the Cosmos As the number of books in the Club Library grew, the re- Club which, if not in abeyance, have need of some stimulation strictive circulation policy of the Club caused grief to members to regain their former eminence." The receptions would also and problems for the Club. A house rule forbidding removal of foster fellowship among members by cutting through the "struc- books and periodicals from the Clubhouse or to the sleeping tures of special disciplines." rooms, except under rules provided by the Library Committee, Both suggestions were acted upon. A subscription dinner for encouraged, in the opinion of some, illegal removal of reading James B. Conant was proposed for March 14, 1957, and an material and its permanent loss, as well as discouraging use of evening of "intimate, unrehearsed, intellectual discussions" was the Library. Club Executive David J. Guy, on April 6, 1954, proposed for the evening of April 3 with Glen Levin Swiggett, proposed to William N. Fenton, chairman of the Library Com- Dante scholar, talking on "A Translator's Problems with Po- mittee, that a "legal" way of checking out a book be devised. etry, Ancient and Modern." However, Piggot had in mind "There being no legal way," Guy noted, "a fellow who wants a more controversial topics for his "Discussion Dinners." Under book will more than likely stick it in his briefcase and forget to Piggot's urging, after he stepped down as President and became bring it back anyway." a member of the Library Committee, dinners featuring contro- In 1957 the Library Committee urged that a self-charging versial themes were instituted "in an effort," as he put it in a system (with an adequate blank to be filled out and placed on letter to Edward N. Waters on March 17, 1958, "to regenerate the librarian's desk) be instituted and that volunteer assistance the atmosphere of worthy argument and friendly disputation of be solicited from Club members able to give time each day to 208 THE COSMOS CLUB POSSESSIONS 209 the supervision of the Library. The self-charging system, under the true architectural character of the room was being defaced. the supervision of the part-time librarians of the Club rather In fact, as the joint committee pointed out in its July 28, 1965, than of volunteers, was instituted and continues to function, "Report on the Ceiling of the Cosmos Club Library," the de- though not without the perennial problem of loss. Still, the sign of the room, while echoing design elements of a room in the system fulfills the recommendation of one member, Tell Ertl, chateau of Blois whose Francis I mantelpiece provides the in- who in a postcard sent from Grand Valley, Colorado, on April spiration for the Cosmos Club mantelpiece, is in fact quite dif- 15, 1957, informed the Library Committee that "libraries should ferent. In the original room the ceilings are beamed in wood. not be repositories; they should be banks. Like banks a very The beams are structural and "honestly expressed as such," as high percentage of their assets should be on loan at all times. the report of the joint committee pointed out. "The top of the Please make it easy for members to take books out of the library. mantel is capped by a cornice that touches the ceiling," the Perhaps a reasonable charge may permit purchase of additional committee noted. "In the original everything is harmonious." volumes." The Club mantel, on the other hand, was a later addition to the A measure of the strong Club interest in the Library was the Library. "It terminates in a straight line with no cap. This outraged reaction which greeted the attempt to paint the ceiling architectural flaw gives the effect of an inept improvisation." beams in the Library in 1964. The purpose of the suggested As for the ceiling and cornice, the committee pointed out that changes was to improve local and general illumination, ap- "They are not wood as some individuals mistakenly believe. pearance, seating, and sound control in the Library. The prin- They are plaster in the manner of Henri II. There is no cipal recommendation was to paint the ceiling an off-white logical structural system expressed. It is frankly purely decora- color. A joint meeting of the House Committee, Art Committee, tive." The paneling in the Club Library, the committee noted, and Library Committee reviewed the recommendation and is based on a still later period-possibly Louis XIII. "The voted unanimously that the work proceed. wood is very handsome and has a rich patina. The ersatz grain- A "sheaf of letters from members objecting to the painting ing of the cornice and 'beams' suffers enormously by compari- of the ceiling beams in the Library" were read by the Secretary son." The committee urged that the handsomeness of the Li- at the July 20, 1965, meeting of the Board of Management, brary would be enhanced by the painting of the ceiling as which caused the Board to defer a decision on the painting of recommended. the plaster beams. The Board, feeling the heat of the general So heated was the Club reaction that Nicholas Satterlee, in a membership on the one side, proposed to bring up the question letter of September 16, 1965, to the House Committee, noted at the annual meeting in January 1966, a proposal that gen- that "the extravagance of Cruickshankian horror [no reference crated a backfire from the committee chairmen involved. The to the present manager] poured on me over the telephone yes- House Committee chairman urged at the December 21, 1965, terday by an esteemed colleague outraged over the prospect of meeting of the Board that the proposal to refer the question to the painting of the library ceiling prompts me to write in sup- the annual meeting be deleted from the agenda of that meeting. port of the very able presentation of the case for painting by my His motion was lost. fellow member on the Art Committee, Mr. Frederick Fryer " Part of the problem lay in the belief of some members that At a general meeting of the Club in January 1966, by a vote 210 THE COSMOS CLUB POSSESSIONS 2II of thirty-one to sixty-nine, the proposal "to paint the beams and gress Card Division) for three thousand deceased Club members panels of the library ceiling in a uniform light-gray color" could be done by one person in one to two weeks. The Library was defeated. Committee's report for 1954 estimated the cost of "carding" On April II, 1964, the Library Committee proposed to the deceased members at $600 and expressed the hope that living Board of Management the formation of a Special Collection of members would be willing to donate catalogue cards for their books by Cosmos Club members that "are considered classics in own publications. their fields." Each title selected for inclusion in the special col- When Max Lowenthal, remembering the "pleasant evenings lection would be represented by a sound copy of the first or best I spent in the Club library" as a guest of Julian W. Mack, gave edition, with presentation or association copies especially sought. $1,000 in 1954 for the purchase of books for the Club Library in The Special Collection would be shelved in locked cases in the honor of Judge Mack, whose law secretary he had been, the Library or in some other location in the Club, with restricted Library Committee proposed the assembling of a card cata- access. logue of publications by Cosmos Club members as one of the The Board of Management did not enthusiastically welcome uses to which the money might be put. But the committee later the suggestion. It wondered whether it was a proper function of dropped the plan to compile such a catalogue with the Mack the Cosmos Club Library to build up collections of rare books donation and used the money instead for purchase of new books. per se. The committee chairman, James G. McManaway, in a Late in 1957 the matter was again pushed by the Library letter of June 8, 1964, to the Board of Management, urged that Committee, which prepared an announcement published in the the collection of distinguished books and pamphlets by Cosmos February 1958 Cosmos Club Bulletin. While recognizing that Club members could be displayed in the Warne Lounge but be "not all writings of all members can be preserved indefinitely; available for use by members who would have access to the indeed, they can't even be assembled or collected," the com- locked cases through a key available at the front desk. "The mittee expressed its wish to "attempt to maintain a complete Committee intends to make this collection a useful addition to bibliographical record of Club members" and it solicited sup- the Club Library as well as a monument to the authors honored port from the membership for complete lists of members' writ- by inclusion in it," McManaway noted. "The criterion for se- ings to be sent to the Club librarian. While the Club possesses lection would be the author's contribution to the advancement folders containing bibliographies and biographical information of knowledge or his preeminence in American literature." on many of its members, it continues to lack a card catalogue of While the Library Committee failed to convince the Board of books of even a small portion of its members. Management to support its dream of a collection of important Among the few special collections possessed by the Club are books by Cosmos Club authors, it has periodically floated an- the books written by its founder, John Wesley Powell. Pow- other dream: the preparation of a card catalogue of the major ell's bibliography published in 1903 by the Washington Acad- published works of Cosmos Club members. Dwight E. Gray, of emy of Sciences lists 251 titles. Of the 251 there are five books by the Library Committee, on April 6, 1953, estimated that the Powell of which the Cosmos Club has four. The volumes were search to convert from names of members to card numbers described in the November 1972 Bulletin by Donald H. Williams. (which cards could then be purchased from the Library of Con- An important section of the Cosmos Club Library is the hand 212 THE COSMOS CLUB somely bound set of the National Geographic Magazine which, along with other cherished volumes owned by the Club, is located in bookcases in the National Geographic Room ad- THE LIFE OF THE CLUB jacent to the Library. The renovation of the room as an annex to the Library was the gift of the National Geographic Society in 1974. Inscriptions and marginal notations in books in the Cosmos Club Library form a diverting subsection to the history of the GLIMPSES OF CLUB LIFE Cosmos Club Library. Wirth F. Ferger, reporting in the May 1966 Bulletin on a discussion in the Library Committee of a book donated anonymously to the Club Library, noted that another Club member, also anonymous, had supplied a pasted-in note INCIDENTS of Club life are infinite; a few as- which read: "This is a filthy, distorted, sexy, depressing travesty pects of that life will be presented in the following pages. Other on American academic life, and should be thrown on the trash glimpses into the life of the Club may be gleaned from the vi- heap." A passage from the book quotes the suicide note of a dis- gnettes of prominent members contained in a later chapter. illusioned young instructor to the effect: "The world is badly Club quarters were not originally as dignified and sumptuous out of joint, SO I'm leaving the joint." as they are at present. That the original suite of rented rooms in Perhaps more pertinent to Cosmos Club life is the inscription the Corcoran Building left something to be desired is suggested in the presentation copy of Robert Carter Cook's book Human by the resolution passed by the Board of Management on March Fertility: The Modern Dilemma. The inscription reads: "To the I, 1880, that the Secretary be instructed to communicate with members of the Cosmos Club among whom fertility has ceased the agent of Mr. Corcoran "in regard to the present filthy con- to be a dilemma and has become an abstraction." dition of the hallways and approaches to the Club." The min- Club members' biological fertility may be suspect but their utes note that contact was made on March 3 and we hear no intellectual fertility is evident, on the "New Books by Members" more about this defect. shelf, from the number of books to which they have given birth. In its infancy, before the development of a staff that could New books by members come in constantly by this means and cater to the members on a round-the-clock basis, each member serve to enrich a Library already filled with the intellectual possessed a key which enabled him to enter the Club. The production of earlier generations of Cosmos Club members. House Committee, on September 5, 1881, was authorized by the Board of Management to procure a new lock and one hun- dred keys for the outer door to be sold to members at such price as the committee should fix. At the November 6, 1882, meeting of the Board, Albert Leahy Gihon offered a resolution that the House Committee be re- quested to have the Club rooms opened at IO a.m. every day in 213 MEMBERSHIP OF THE COSMOS CLUB WASHINGTON 1941 kg 367 C821m Cosmos Club (Washington D.C.) Membership of the Cosmos Club HS2725. W3 C718 1941 PREFACE IN 1904 the Cosmos Club published a list of its members for the first twenty-five years of its life, 1878 to 1903. Herewith a new list is pre- sented including all members from the foundation up to March, 1941. The scope has been expanded over that of the earlier compilation to the extent of giving citations to certain standard books of biographical refer- ence. These are the Dictionary of American Biography (indicated by the letter D), Who's Who in America (W), and American Men of Science (A). The figures following the letters W and A indicate the most recent volume in which a sketch of the person appears. A fairly full list of bio- graphical references may be found appended to each article in the D. A. B. Another work is indirectly cited, for when a member is noted as having been a Senator or Representative in Congress a sketch may be found in the Biographical Directory of the American Congress, 1774-1927. To have extended the search to other books than these would have added little of value. A few members not in those cited do appear in other works of the "Who's Who" variety, but not many, and such other works are not gen- erally accessible; indeed, most of them are of a very ephemeral nature and LIBRARY survive the publication of only one or two volumes. A more important con- UNIVERSITY OF KENTUCKY sideration is the time that would have been required for the examination of additional works. The law of diminishing returns applied. Many days of research beyond the point already reached would have added little to the mass of information presented. If the volume were to be published within any reasonable time its scope must be limited. This serves to explain many other imperfections which will doubtless be noted by members whose enthusiasm leads them to a careful examina- tion. Many lines of inquiry suggest themselves, which would lead to the correction of deficiencies, but the same objection applies to all, that further time would be required. The study has already extended over several months, since this is a part time job of a single individual. The familiar proverb that whatever is worth doing is worth doing well, like most other proverbs, is not of universal application. To spend the time and labor necessary in order to produce a quite complete, thoroughly accurate and COMPOSED, PRINTED, AND BOUND BY GEORGE BANTA PUBLISHING COMPANY genuinely scholarly work is distinctly not worth while, considering the uses MENASHA, WISCONSIN (if any) to which this little book may be put. One is to give to members V 502267 a general impression of the character of past membership, its occupations and its distinctions; another is to facilitate the location of biographical material as to any individual member. Though a name may be incomplete and the description of occupation imperfect, yet there is sufficient for THE COSMOS CLUB identification in nearly all cases, though not quite all. A good many mem- bers appear in early records with initials only, and much time has been THE COSMOS CLUB of Washington was founded on November 16, 1878. spent in determining whether the individual was the eminent astronomer As to the exact date, and as to the proceedings of the momentous first meet- or the earnest social worker or the notorious forger whom those initials ing, there is no uncertainty; we have full documentary evidence. The would fit. Sometimes the effort has been unsuccessful. It is fair to add, origins of the Club, however, are veiled in some obscurity. At the twenty- however, that several errors and omissions in the 1904 record have been fifth anniversary meeting, one of the founders, Clarence E. Dutton, said corrected, although it listed only 941 members, none of them in the then that about the end of September, 1878, a visit to the Century Club in New distant past. The present list has 3,915 names. It may be well to repeat the York suggested to him the idea of establishing a similar club in Washing- hint that the occupation stated is merely for identification purposes. It was ton, and that he conferred with others (who later joined in the founding) impossible for the compiler, even if technically qualified, to analyze the soon after his return here. At the fiftieth anniversary meeting, Henry S. specialties of the members. May this explanation serve to allay the natural Pritchett, another founder, stated that the local astronomers who went to resentment of the paleontologist who finds himself listed as geologist or Colorado to observe the total eclipse of the sun in August, 1878, were SO the historian who is vaguely described as an author. Positions held have allured by the words of London astronomers there present that they re- seldom been noted, except in case of high office or where the position is solved to found a scientific club in Washington. Perhaps a harmony of actually the occupation. To list offices would have amounted, for some these scriptures can be achieved. It may be that the great inspiration came members, to writing an additional and abridged "Who's Who." independently and simultaneously to two groups which naturally gravitated The roster is now presented to you. The compiler believes that as you toward each other. read the names of your club brethren, past and present, you will join with The astronomical element was certainly strong among our founding him in honest pride in our institution and in humble satisfaction that we fathers, who even seriously considered calling themselves the Saturn Club. are privileged to have part in it. "I think," says Dr. Pritchett, "the reputation of Saturn had something to do with his rejection. It was felt that it was not quite what it ought to be." Comfort it is to say: "Of no mean city am I." With Saturn eliminated, there was practical unanimity in favor of Cosmos. Many years later a certain lady claimed the merit of having suggested this March 15, 1941 THOMAS M. SPAULDING to Dr. Edward S. Holden, but Dr. Pritchett says that Holden "was strong for Saturn," and Major Dutton attributes the name to Garrick Mallery. The member who moved that it be spelled Kosmos was effectively subdued when an amendment was offered that the second part of the name be written Klub "for the sake of symmetry." It was not until the second meet- ing (November 25) that this name was selected, the organization remain- ing anonymous until then. The Club was incorporated on December 13, 1878, with ten names signed to the articles. This was not the whole body of membership, for twenty-seven had voted in the selection of a name, and there may have been others already associated. The Club regards as "founders" all of those- sixty in number-who accepted the invitation extended by the promoters vii vi and formally affiliated before the first annual meeting, which took place creased in height, and on the south there was built an assembly hall, which on January 13, 1879. after 1892 was also used as the lounge, about which there has grown up From the first, the interests of the organization were declared to be so strong a sentimental attachment. On January 5, 1887, we held our "science, literature and art." The exact specifications for membership have second housewarming. It is interesting to note that the two transition been redrawn from time to time, in order to make the requirements more years-that is, the one in which the Club prepared its new home and the definite, but the essential character of the Club has never changed. Its first year of its occupancy-showed an increase of nearly fifty per cent in members must show a certain degree of distinction, or at least aspiration, resident membership. Extensive alterations in the house were made in in some field of culture; worldly success, social position, wealth-none of 1893, of which the most conspicuous was the raising of the assembly hall these is ground for election, though likewise none is an obstacle, as the wing to the height of the older building by the addition of two stories. roster will show. Limited to this extent, yet the Club's field is a broad one, Additional bedrooms were thus provided, which possibly helps to account extending to all branches of human culture and not confined to any one for a thirty-five per cent increase in non-resident membership during the or to a few. following year-a depression period during which the resident member- The Club's first home, leased in December, 1878, consisted of three ship declined. rooms in the Corcoran Building, where the Washington Hotel now stands, The next enlargement took place in 1904, when the adjacent house at the rooms having outlook upon both Pennsylvania Avenue and Fifteenth 25 Madison Place was leased, with a contract of purchase which was ef- Street. Additional rooms were occupied in 1880, which served until the fected in 1906. Authority was granted by the Club in 1907 for the pur- end of 1882, when the Club took possession, by lease, of the house at "23 chase of its old home at 23 Madison Place, and in 1909 for the demolition Lafayette Square," which the present generation may identify as the build- of these two houses for the erection of a new five-story building. Not only ing immediately north of the Tayloe (or Cameron) house. On Decem- were non-members (including ladies) welcomed at the housewarming in ber 28, 1882, the Club had its first housewarming, "crowded with the December, 1910, but the house was opened "for the inspection of members' members and the ladies of their families and the invited guests." At this families and friends on two afternoons." The final enlargement of the club- writing we look forward to another such celebration. The presence of house took place in December, 1917, when the building to the south was ladies there, it appears, will be no modern innovation but will conform to occupied. Unlike the Dolly Madison dwelling, which was originally small venerable precedent. and was always undistinguished except by its associations, this latest ac- Thus the Club took up its residence on Lafayette Square, where it was quisition was one of the finest of town houses in its day. It was built in destined to remain for fifty-nine years. The first house, however, soon be- 1828 for the son of that Tayloe who built and occupied the noble Octagon. came inadequate, partly from increase of the membership but chiefly from Among the later occupants, prior to the Cosmos Club, were Vice-President increased activities. The most urgent need was for an assembly hall large Hobart, Mark Hanna, and Senator Don Cameron. Thus the Club became enough to accommodate the meetings for scientific and literary purposes the owner of two of the historic houses of Lafayette Square, even then (in which had now become a notable feature of the Club's life. The Dolly 1917) still numerous, but now almost all destroyed. With this house we Madison house had previously been offered for lease; discussion was re- acquired the Cameron stable, which was easily transformed into a larger opened and it was found that the owners were now willing to sell. This assembly hall, and a garden whose spreading trees form the roof to an historic house was built in 1820, bought by ex-President Madison as an outdoor dining room. investment in 1828, and used by Mrs. Madison as her residence from As early as this war year the Government made a tentative move toward 1837 until her death in 1849. Originally a small two-story cottage, it was the acquisition of the Club's property. Nothing came of it, however, and greatly enlarged by its next owner, Admiral Wilkes, of South Sea explora- it was soon forgotten. The Club settled into the comfortable belief that tion fame and "Trent Affair" notoriety. For some months in 1861 it was it was established on Lafayette Square for all time, and the only subject the headquarters of General McClellan, then commander of the United for consideration was how best to make use of the ground it owned. A States Army. To fit it for use by the Cosmos Club the third story was in- change took place in 1929, when the definite intention of the Government viii ix to occupy the property eventually was made known. The time was vague kins, Stanford, Chicago, Wisconsin, California, Yale, and other universities. and unspecified; it might be soon or it might be in the remote future. The Some three hundred members have qualified by both distinction and death intention, of course, might be changed. But thenceforth, the sword of for inclusion in the Dictionary of American Biography. A good many oth- Damocles was suspended over the Club. Uncertainty as to the future ers need only the fulfillment of the second requirement. troubled the minds of members, and there was the further practical detri- Today the Cosmos Club draws near to the end of an era, and looks ment that no betterments and even no extensive repairs could safely be forward with confidence to the dawn of a new and equally bright one. undertaken. There was a slow deterioration of the property. At no time did the Government make any immediate threat, but there was gentle and continual pressure. Gutta cavat lapidem. In 1940 the Club determined to accept the Government's offer of purchase and seek a new site. There were few members who did not deeply regret the removal and there were few who voted against it. At the present writing the Club remains in its old home by grace of the Government, while the ground which it has bought is being cleared and the architects are drawing plans for the new house. In 1942 removal will take place to a location on the north side of H Street, between Seventeenth and Eighteenth Streets. Physically there will be a new club; spiritually there is every reason to expect that there will be no change. For the Cosmos Club has always been more than a public utility to its members. From the first it was something in the nature of a fraternal order and SO it has remained in spite of the great growth which necessarily ac- companied the growth of Washington. Covering as it does all fields of culture, the character of the membership has remained always unchanged, except as one element or another increases in the city itself. Though never a purely scientific club, the scientific group was strong from the beginning because the city has hitherto ranked higher in science than in other fields of learning. This tendency appears not only in the stated occupation of the average member but also in the list of great names in American science. A casual inspection of the rolls finds Cleveland Abbe, Alexander Graham Bell, John A. Brashear, Samuel P. Langley, Albert A. Michelson, Simon Newcomb, Robert E. Peary, John W. Powell, Ira Remsen, Walter Reed. No other group approaches this in distinction, although among authors we find Henry Adams, Frank R. Stockton, Thomas Nelson Page; among sculptors, Bartlett and St. Gaudens; among painters, Millet and Weir; among architects, Brunner, Carrère, McKim and Platt. These names are chosen half at random, and only from among the illustrious dead. The rolls show three Presidents and one Vice-President of the United States; ten Justices of the Supreme Court; cabinet officers, Senators, Representatives and judges without number; presidents of Cornell, Michigan, Johns Hop- x xi Donn, Edward Wilton 1896-1912 Driggs, Laurence La Tourette Architect W21 1925- Dwight, Harrison Griswold 1920- Egan Maurice Francis 1898-1924 Author W21 Author W16 Donn, John W. Author; Diplomat D W12 1887-1895 Drury, Horace Bookwalter Geodesist 1920- Dwight, Theodore Freling- Founder-1882 Eggleston, Edward 1901-1902 Economist huysen Author D W2 Donovan, William Joseph 1927-1936 Drury, Newton B. Lawyer W21 1940- Librarian Egloff, Gustav 1927- Director, National Parks Dooman, Eugene H. Dye, Alexander Vincent 1940- Chemist W21 A6 1929- Dryden, Hugh Latimer 1929- Government Official W21 Foreign Service Officer Egy, W. L. 1921-1932 Physicist A6 Doolittle, Roscoe Edward Dyer, Leonard Huntress 1902-1932 Physicist 1912-1926 Chemist W14 A3 Dudley, Charles Benjamin 1900-1909 Inventor W21 Ehret, C. D. 1912-1936 Chemist D W6 Doran, James M. Dyer, Richard N. 1908-1914 Lawyer 1921- Duell, Charles Holland Chemist W20 1905-1917 Eichelberger, William Snyder 1910-1934 Lawyer W10 Dorcus, Roy Melvin E Astronomer W21 A6 1933-1937 Duff, Alexander Wilmer Psychologist A6 1918-1923 Eimbeck, William Founder-1909 Physicist W21 A6 Doriot, Georges Frederic Eagan, John J. 1920-1924 Geodesist D W4 1929-1936 Duffield, William Ward Educator 1894-1897 Manufacturer W13 Ekblaw, Walter Elmer 1925- Engineer W4 Dorr, George Bucknam Eagleton, Clyde 1935- Geographer W21 A6 1921-1935 Dufour, Frank Oliver 1934-1937 Educator W21 Conservationist W21 Eldridge, George D. 1891-1895 Engineer W19 Dorr, Goldthwaite Higginson Eames, William Sylvester 1900-1915 Eliot, Charles William, 2nd 1926- 1924- Duggan, Laurence 1936- Architect W8 Lawyer W21 Landscape Architect W21 Dorr, J. Van Nostrand State Department Official Easley, Ralph Montgomery 1917-1920 Eliot, Samuel Atkins 1929-1933 1917- W21 Political Economist W20 Metallurgist W21 A6 Clergyman W21 Dorset, Marion Duggan, Stephan Pierce 1929- Eastman, John Robie Founder-1913 Elkus, Abram I. 1918-1932 1902-1935 Educator W21 Astronomer D W7 A2 Chemist W16 A4 Lawyer W21 Duncan, C. S. 1922- Eastman, Joseph Bartlett 1919- Elliott, Ezekiel Brown Founder-1888 Dorsey, Herbert Grove 1929- Economist Public Official W21 Physicist W21 A6 Actuary Dunham, Franklin Dorsey, Noah Ernest 1933- Easton, Edward Denison 1883-1901 Elliott, Milton Courtwright 1916-1928 1909- Educator W21 Business Executive W8 Physicist W21 A6 Lawyer W15 Dunham, George Clark Doten, Carroll Warren 1936- Eaton, John 1881-1886 Elliott, W. St. George 1894-1895 1920- Army Medical Officer A6 Educator D W4 Statistician W21 Ellis, George Edwin 1916-1920 Dunlap, Edward Slater Doten, Leonard S. 1902-1934 Ebersole, John Franklin 1828-1932 Public Official W10 1920-1931 Clergyman Engineer Economist W21 Ellis, William Thomas 1918- Dunlap, Irving Hall Doubleday, Frank Nelson 1899-1922 Eckhardt, Engelhardt August 1925-1933 Author W21 1918-1920 Government Worker Publisher W17 Physicist W21 A6 Ellsworth, James William 1906-1925 Dunlap, Knight Douglas, Charles A. 1925-1938 Eddy, Nathan Browne 1939- Capitalist W13 1939-1939 Psychologist W21 A6 Pharmacologist W21 A6 Elmer, R. A. 1883-1884 Lawyer W20 Dunn, Arthur William Douglas, Edward Moorehouse 1918-1927 Eddy, Walter Hollis 1927-1939 Ely, Richard Theodore 1906-1936 1887-1925 Educator W14 Geographer Chemist W21 A6 Economist W21 Dunn, Frederick Sherwood Douglas, George William 1928-1934 Edes, Robert Thaxter 1886-1891 Emerson, Kendall 1929- 1890-1892 Lawyer W21 Clergyman W14 1911-1922 Dunn, Gano Pathologist W12 A3 Physician W21 Douglas, William Orville 1918- Emerson, Merton Leslie 1936- Engineer W21 A6 Edgar, Graham 1918-1932 1936- Justice, Supreme Court W21 Chemist W21 A6 Engineer W21 Dunn, Samuel Orace Douty, Daniel Ellis 1918-1919 1909-1924 Editor W21 Edgerton, Charles E. 1907-1911 Emerson, Robert Leonard 1915-1917 Physicist A6 Dunn, William Edward Economist W17 Chemist Dow, Fayette Brown 1931- 1924-1928 Emery, Alden Hayes 1940- 1917- Economist W21 Edgerton, Henry White Chemist A6 Lawyer A21 Dunning, William Archibald Downer, Jay 1919-1922 United States Circuit Judge 1938- W21 Emery, Henry Crosby 1910-1912 1940- Historian D W12 Economist D W12 Engineer Du Puy, William Atherton Edminster, Lynn R. 1927-1936 Doying, W. A. E. 1926-1933 1920-1936 Author W21 Educator Emery, William Orrin 1909-1933 Chemist W17 A6 Engineer Durand, Edward Dana 1903- Edmonds, Franklin Spencer 1916- Doyle, Henry Grattan Statistician W21 Lawyer W21 Emley, Warren Edwards 1925-1932 1923- Educator W21 Chemist A6 Durand; William Frederick 1926- Edson, Howard Austin 1916-1937 Dozier, Howard Douglas Emmerich, Herbert 1933- 1938- Engineer W21 A6 Plant Pathologist W21 A6 Economist Economist Drake, Alexander Wilson Durham, Edward Miall, Jr. 1918-1931 Edson, John Joy 1896-1935 Emmons, Arthur B. 1913-1922 1884-1897 Engineer W21 Banker W18 Artist D W8 Emmons, Samuel Franklin 1882-1894 Dutch, Charles F. 1920-1926 Edson, Joseph Romanzo 1896-1897 Drake, James Frank Geologist D W6 A2 1910-1911 1918- Lawyer Lawyer Manufacturer W21 Emory, Frederic 1900-1908 Dutton, Clarence Edward Draper, Amos G. Founder-1912 Edwards, George William 1927-1929 Economist W5 1916-1917 Geologist D W7 A2 Economist W21 Draper, Earle Sumner Endicott, Henry B. 1918-1920 1933- Duvel, Joseph William Tell 1917- Edwards, Harry Taylor 1920- Manufacturer Landscape Architect W21 Botanist W21 A6 Botanist A6 Dravo, R. M. Endicott, Mordecai Thonias 1896-1921 1924-1934 du Vigneaud, Vincent 1933-1938 Edwards, James H. Engineer 1909-1930 Naval Officer D W14 Chemist W21 A6 Engineer Endlich, Frederic Miller Founder-1881 16 17 REOLOGY Beginning the Second Century 1979-1994 (A Continuation of the Centennial History 1878-1978) HS 2725 w3 THE C7282 COSMOS 1995 OL Gzol CLUB itan OF WASHINGTON By Wilcomb E. Washburn CONTENTS PUBLISHED BY Preface to Addendum (An Additional Word) 2 THE COSMOS CLUB OF WASHINGTON IN MARCH 1995 Overview 3 AS A SUPPLEMENT TO ITS CENTENNIAL HISTORY PUBLISHED IN 1978 The Debate on the Admission of Women: Historical Background, 1972-1983 4 The Debate on the Admission of Women: Crisis, 1984-1987 8 The Debate on the Admission of Women: Resolution, 1988 14 Resurgence and Revitalization, 1988-1994 18 Library of Congress Catalogue Card No. 95-67680 The Changing Membership 22 Copyright © 1995 by the Cosmos Club Omissions and Errata 25 Washington, D.C. Index 28 22 THE COSMOS CLUB ADDENDUM 23 The Capital Campaign Fund, designed to assure the continued professions has been the increase in the number of lawyers. health of the Club and its home, was initiated in 1989 under the Occurring in an era in which the proportion of lawyers, particularly leadership of J. Patrick Hayes. Through November 30, 1994, it had in Washington, has been multiplying at an extraordinary rate, this raised the extraordinary total of $1,248,000, with 6 gifts in the $20,000 might seem unexceptional for that reason, but it is certainly and over range. These funds, together with a $332,000 contribution suggestive of a changing zeitgeist in a club founded by scientists and from the Cosmos Club Historic Preservation Foundation, have been scholars. While the Club does not keep periodic records of the applied to construction or reduction of the Club's renovation debt. proportions of members of the different professions, a computer check Support for the Cosmos Club Foundation, established in 1967 of the number of lawyers in January 1993 revealed the presence and dedicated to the advancement of the arts, literature, humanities of more than 300, of whom 121 were elected in the decade of the and sciences, has also been strong. A tax-exempt organization, it en- 1980s, 105 in the 1970s, and 41 in the first two years of the 1990s. courages college seniors to continue scholarly work through its Surviving lawyers from earlier decades (probably reflecting their annual Young Scholars Award in cooperation with the 12 universities smaller numbers as well as higher mortality) numbered 20 from the and colleges in the Washington area. Its annual McGovern Award decade of the 1960s, 15 from the 1950s and one each from the 1940s Lecture program recognizes leaders in art, science, the humanities and 1930s. and literature. As for the changing geographical dispersal of members A benefit of Club membership that is sometimes overlooked by throughout the Washington Metropolitan area, the number of members is the extensive network of reciprocal relationships with members from the Capitol Hill area (virtually non-existent in the 1978 clubs around the world. The earliest relationship, begun in 1933 and Centennial History's listing of members' ZIP codes) has shown an still going strong, was with the St. Botolph Club, located in Boston's increase in numbers, to 10 in 20003 and 10 in 20002. There has also Back Bay. Suitable clubs are spotted by the energetic Committee on been a movement to the Maryland and Virginia suburbs. Because Reciprocity, and now exceed 90 in number. A Cosmos Club addresses provided to the Club by members sometimes report office member can now travel around the world and rarely be far from his locations rather than residential locations it is not always possible to or her "club." say with certainty how many members live in a particular area, but it is clear that the Club is no longer oriented entirely to Washington's northwest quadrant, though it is still predominantly so, as the figures THE CHANGING MEMBERSHIP for members from 20007 (144), 20008 (166) and 20016 (188) suggest. As for age, the paucity of youthful members, and the increasing Among the most notable changes in Club life has been the age of older members have remained problems in the years since the changing proportion of certain professional groups represented in centennial history was written. In that book we noted the youthful the Club membership. As the Ad Hoc Committee on Goals noted in character of the Club in its early formative years; when, as one Club 1986, the percentage of new members admitted in engineering and president put it, you rarely saw any white hairs. Increasingly, as the the physical, life, and medical sciences dropped from 73% in 1964 to lifespan of all members (and of scholars in particular) has lengthened, 33% in 1984, but rose again to 52% in 1985. At the same time the the number of white-haired members has increased. Combined with categories of public service, law, the humanities and literature the traditional requirement that candidates for membership reflected a converse change. Most notable among the individual demonstrate scholarly achievement, the number of youthful 24 THE COSMOS CLUB ADDENDUM 25 members as a proportion of Club membership has been small in As of November 1994 the oldest member was Earle S. Draper, recent years despite the efforts of many Club presidents to encourage who was elected to membership in 1933 and in 1994 was 101 years of their nomination. As President Albert H. Bowker pointed out in a age. On October 28, 1994, another milestone was passed - Amy talk at the Club in 1992, the average age of new members stood at 39 Glasmeier became the first active Cosmos Club member reported to at the beginning of the twentieth century. From 1908 to 1947 it moved give birth to a child: Graham Foster Bell weighed in at 8 pounds, 15 into the 40s. From 1978 to 1987, it was 54. Despite the election of ounces (3.77 kg), 21 1/2 inches (54.6 cm). members such as Michael Beschloss and Dinesh D'Souza while in Joan Williams Hoover, then Chairman of the Cosmos Club their 20s, the number of young members is still a small Singles Group and widow of a member, addressed the question "What fraction of that of older members. does the Cosmos Club mean to me?" at a March 1990 reception for As a way of attracting more younger members to the Club, the Club widows. Answering her own question as to why she "hangs annual membership meeting in May 1992 voted overwhelmingly to around" and why she continued to be devoted to the Club after her raise from 40 to 45 the age below which members are defined as husband Linn Hoover died, Mrs. Hoover noted that "The Club is not "junior members" and thus eligible to pay lower dues and initiation only a place to bring friends, it's a place where friends are already fees - 50 percent of regular charges. gathered, and where new friends are waiting to be met. That's very As for the educational institutions attended by Club members, important when you're learning the difficult task of living alone. Linn for the period 1979-1988, Harvard, Columbia, and Yale were the top would have been grateful to know how much the Club has helped three followed by Princeton, George Washington, University of me during these stressful times." "Where else," she also noted, "do California at Berkeley, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cornell, they invite an entomologist to choose the upholstery, SO that the lovely Johns Hopkins, Pennsylvania, Stanford, and Michigan. Those Scalamandre silk is embroidered with little black bugs?" interested in the figures for earlier years are referred to the appendix in the original edition of the centennial history. The Cosmos Club has always had numerous judges, a number of OMISSIONS AND ERRATA whom have served on the Supreme Court of the United States. An article in the Cosmos Club Bulletin in March of 1992 listed a One of the omissions from the centennial history, for which the number, with additional names being supplied in the April issue. author was gently chided, was the lack of reference to geologists in During the 1970s and 80s, when membership in private clubs was the Club's formation. With the help of a paper by Priestley Toulmin, closely scrutinized in judicial and other appointments, the number of III, prepared in 1992, and now in print as "Geological Society of Cosmos Club judges was affected, either by a refusal on the part of Washington and the Cosmos Club," pp. 24-27 in Robertson, E. C., some to seek membership or by resignation of others; with that issue ed., Centennial History of the Geological Society of Washington, 1893-1993 behind us, judges are enjoying membership in the Club. In (Washington, D. C.: Geological Society of Washington, 1993), the comments from two judges printed in the March 1992 Bulletin, the oversight can be remedied. Toulmin notes that the Geological Soci- ability to find, even on casual visits to the Club, stimulating ety of Washington and the Cosmos Club have been "closely, individuals from entirely different fields with whom to talk, is one of almost symbiotically, intertwined throughout the history of the two the most enjoyable aspects of Club membership. organizations." Both sprang, Toulmin notes, "from the loins of the Philosophical Society; the Cosmos in search of a broader perspective 4/11/2016 XFINITY Connect XFINITY Connect eppster2@comcast.net + Font Size Re: Cosmos Club From : Ronald Epp Mon, Apr 11, 2016 11:57 AM Subject : Re: Cosmos Club To : Pauline Angione Hi, Here, here! Yes, they do need to learn about George. I envy you the experience. Will you please send me contact information for Joanne Pierre so that I might use it on a future visit to D.C. Ron From: "Pauline Angione" To: "Ron Epp" , "Ruth A. Eveland" , "William Horner" Sent: Monday, April 11, 2016 10:40:45 AM Subject: Re: Cosmos Club Went by this morning. Spoke to Joanne Pierre. Admin offices. I got quite a tour through the building getting to her office. Nice place George stayed in. Cosmos only has records from 1940 on. They are digitizing their records too, so Dorr might show up. I told her I would send them a copy of the book. They seem very proud of their members who have won Pulitzer prizes, Nobel awards and presidential medal of honor. Their pictures line the walls. I think they need to learn about George. On Sunday, April 10, 2016, Ronald Epp wrote: Pauline, Just arrived home. Glad to hear you are interested in the Cosmos Club. I contacted them in 2001 and was told by Margaret (no last name) that they have nothing on Dorr except his membership 1921-1935. Good luck. Ron From: "Pauline Angione" To: "Eveland Ruth A." , "Epp Ron" , "Horner William" Sent: Sunday, April 10, 2016 3:26:24 PM Subject: Cosmos Club I am in Washington with Bill. I went for a walk today, and found the Cosmos club. I was given the name of the club secretary to call tomorrow to see if she knows anything about our friend George. [image/jpeg:FullSizeRender.jpg] https://web.mail.comcast.net/zimbra/h/printmessage?id=363571&tz=America/New_York&xim= 1/2