Timeline
1920
- The
Roaring Twenties begin
-
Prohibition is introduced in the US
- The
US refuses to join the League of Nations
- The
Ottoman Empire is dissolved
- Babe
Ruth traded to New York Yankees
- Hitler
presents the National Socialist agenda in Munich
The
Madera Woman's Improvement Club Piano Recital of 1920
Jane
Cunningham Croly (1829 - 1901)
On the
evening of June 18, 1920, the Madera Woman’s Improvement
Club hosted a piano recital in their club house located at 301
W. Yosemite Avenue, Madera. (Madera Daily Mercury 18
June1920: 2). The soirée was devoted to classical compositions
performed by the students of Roxie Bissett.
Roxie Eloise Bissett
was born on the 7 October 1888 in California to Norris R. and
Alice M. Gordon Bissett, immigrants from Nova Scotia, Canada.
Miss Bissett lived in Madera as a girl, where she attended school.
Her family moved to Fresno sometime before 1910, where she became
a music teacher, and contributed to the cultural life of the area.
She died in 1981 at the age of 93 in Sacramento.
Many of the performers
listed on the program were, or went on to become, students at
Madera High School.
 Marjorie
Williams (class of 1920)
 Kathryn
Grove (class of 1921)
Pansy Hope (class of 1922) ; Fay Stephenson (class of 1923) ;
Ruth Wakefield (class of 1923) ; Beth Mickel (class of 1923) ;
Grace Williams (class of 1923).
 Lucile
Burk (class of 1924)
 Agnes
Nohrnberg (class of 1924)
 Richard
Warner (class of 1925)
 Grace
Bartmann (class of 1927)
The
Woman's Club
Jane Cunningham Croly
emigrated to the United States from England to become America’s
first syndicated woman's columnist. In 1868, the New York Press
Club refused to admit her, or any other woman, to its special
program featuring Charles Dickens. She reacted by founding Sorosis,
a club for women. Croly, a staunch believer in equal rights, set
out to improve and advance the situation of all women. She organized
a national convention of women's clubs in 1889, and the General
Federation of Women's Clubs was born, thus setting in motion
a network of capable women that would reshape American society.
Branches spread rapidly across the country. The Woman’s
Improvement Club of Madera was one of them. It was founded in
1906, even before the city was incorporated, and is still carrying
on its good work. The Woman’s Club of Madera celebrated
its centenary on September 16, 2006. The local community is grateful
for their commitment to public service, which they have faithfully
maintained for over a century.
Portrait
photographs from The Purple & White.
©
Madera County Library 2007.
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