Women's Travel Club, 1935-

The Women's Travel Club (WTC) credits Mrs. Arthur Hartt of Brookline, Massachusetts, with "starting up" the organization in October l934. The idea may, however, have originated with several women whose husbands belonged to the Harvard Travel Club, after which the WTC is patterned.

The WTC's first formal meeting was held in Boston in January l935. The main purpose was to form a club for women who had taken unusual trips, "really something worthwhile--no cruises or casual tourists to be included" (see #45v). It was formed not "for social purposes," but "to provide help to other women travelers" (#l). Its members were women from well-known families in the Boston/Cambridge community whose "unusual travel purposes and method of travel and personality would contribute to the life of the club" (#2). Education, family relationship with other members, husband's profession, and social and academic connections were also considerations for membership.

The WTC holds annual and monthly meetings; its executive committee meets frequently. At each monthly meeting a member gives a talk, illustrated with slides, photographs, a movie, or artifacts, reporting on an unusual travel experience; some examples are big-game hunting in India, an archaeological dig in China, collecting mammals in Greenland, botanical research in Canada, or a fifteen-month stay in China. Non-members occasionally address the meetings; Margaret Mead, for instance, spoke in March 1944 about her experience of living in Great Britain. Other events--joint meetings with the Harvard Travel Club, picnics, teas, luncheons, a costume party--all focus on some aspect of travel.

During World War II, the WTC attempted to be of use to the community and to the war effort. In 1940 the club formed a Red Cross Service unit that met weekly to sew layettes while "travel conversation flowed" (#45v). The members loaned their travel films, photographs, and maps to the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) (#35). They offered to give travel lectures to soldiers and bought War Bonds with WTC savings. Individual members volunteered as ambulance drivers and plane-spotters.

After the war, the WTC resumed its earlier activities and also made an effort to reach out into the community, making travel grants to students wishing to study and do research abroad.

From the guide to the Records, 1933-1976, (Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute)