Ladies Physiological Institute

Co-founded by Eunice Hale (Waite) Cobb, the mother of Darius and Cyrus Cobb, noted Boston artists, the Ladies Physiological Institute, was the first women's club in America and promoted health and fitness.[1][2]

History

The historical correspondence created by the Ladies Physiological Institute were donated to the Arthur and Elizabeth Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America, Radcliff College, in Cambridge, Massachusetts in November, 1976. [3]

This collection, which includes documentation from 1848-1966, was processed under a grant from the National Historical Publications and Records Commission.

The Arthur and Elizabeth Schlesinger Library has written this introduction to the collection:

“ "The Ladies' Physiological Institute was an outgrowth of five years of meetings (1843-1848) on women's physiology led by one of Boston's first women physicians, Harriot K. Hunt. In 1848 Professor Charles P. Bronson announced a course of lectures for women "who should form themselves into a society for the promotion of useful knowledge among their own sex," offering to present such a group with his medical apparatus if they could raise $1000. Hunt's group met, adopted a constitution, and chose Eunice H. Cobb to receive Prof. Bronson's donation, which consisted of a full size model of a woman; other anatomical models; bones; and French engravings. As none of the women was prepared to defy public opinion by serving as president of the new club, Prof. Bronson filled that office for the first two years. Within a year of its formation, the L.P.I. had 454 members, in spite of the prevailing view that it was immodest and disgraceful for women to talk about the human body. ”
“ On May 6, 1850, the Institute was incorporated in Massachusetts stating its purpose as "promoting among women a knowledge of the human system, the laws of life and health, [and] the means of relieving sickness and suffering." Eunice Cobb, called "Mother Cobb," was elected president. The Institute held weekly lectures, covering such topics as "Physiology and Hygiene of Women in Middle Life," "Dress Reform and Physical Development," and "Development of Character in Schools." In 1895, the L.P.I. joined the Massachusetts State Federation of Women's Clubs, and in 1906 the General Federation of Women's Clubs. Over the years the scope of topics broadened, reflecting the more general interests of women's clubs in the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries." ”

References

  1. ↑ The Makers of the Mold, by Kenneth W. Newcomb, 1996
  2. ↑ The New Werner Twentieth Century Edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1907, Page 261
  3. ↑ Ladies' Physiological Institute (Boston, Mass.) Records, 1848-1966: A Finding Aid, Arthur and Elizabeth Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America, Radcliff College, Cambridge, MA
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