Overview of the Collection

Historical Information

Scope and Contents

List of Charter Members

Past Presidents

Annual Topics

Arrangement

Restrictions

Index Terms

Related Items

Physical Characteristics and Technical Requirements

Administrative Information

Series Description

Series 1: Publications

Series 2: Administration

Series 3: Photographs and other

Contents List

Sesame Club Records
[1865--1980]

"Progress is the law of life, Strength united is stronger."

Club members on Mrs. Besler's porch, 1919

Part of the Local Organizations Collection at the Plainfield Public Library
Finding aid prepared and encoded by Sarah Hull in February 2009

The Sesame Club, one of Plainfield’s oldest literary clubs, was organized on November 10, 1904.  The name comes from John Ruskin’s “Sesame and Lilies” - the first book read by the club.  Three local ladies, Mrs. Stephen H. Voorhees, Mrs. Louis H. Ross, and Mrs. William M. Sandford, are credited with founding the club, which began with twenty-five members.  Each year, the club focused on a reading topic, such as a particular author, place or time period, and members prepared programs on it and would review a book or read a paper.  Past subjects included: Ralph Waldo Emerson, Rome, and a Winter in Florence. Sometimes members would bring special guests, with topical knowledge or experience, to speak at club meetings. Current events would be discussed at each meeting, which would continue with a planned program. For example, in 1911-12 the annual focus was on Famous Americans; weekly programs consisted of: historians, journalists, humorists, Hawthorne, Walt Whitman, Lowell, musicians, essayists, dialect writers, and so on.

Charter members of the Club agreed to meet every Thursday morning from 10am to 11:45am.  The first half hour would be devoted to the roll call and interesting current events; the remainder of the morning would be spent in reading and study.  It was the object of the club, “unanimously expressed by the members, that there shall be as little routine as possible and as much absence of formality, so that [the] meetings may be a place where they [could] come with their work and their books, contributing what they can to the general knowledge, and go away feeling that they have been helped by what they have heard from others and that the morning [had] been as profitable as well as a pleasurable one.” (Source: Secretary’s and Treasurer’s Book, page one; November 10, 1904; "The Papers of the Sesame Club,” Box 2, Folder 8; Local History Department, Plainfield Public Library, Plainfield, New Jersey)

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The Papers of the Sesame Club include a variety of historical material spanning from 1865 to 1980, with the bulk of records dating between 1908 to1979.  Record types include: annual club programs, constitution and by-laws, roll books, minutes, membership and officer lists, newspaper clippings, photographs, miscellaneous club documents and two books.

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Mrs. J. L. Brownlee
Mrs. Edward Caldwell
Mrs. Arthur H Chamberlain
Mrs. H. T. B. Chase
Mrs. Thomas R. Cone
Mrs. Arthur E. Crone
Mrs. John H. Doane
Mrs. Charlotte W. Foster
Mrs. J. H. McEldowney
Mrs. Frank T. Ostrom
Miss Louise Patten
Mrs. Louis R. Ross
Mrs. William M. Sandford
Miss Pauline May Sandford
Mrs. G. Studart Simons
Mrs. Walter P. Veysey
Mrs. Stephen H. Voorhees

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The Papers of the Sesame Club are arranged into four series:

Series 1: Publications (annual club programs, event programs)
Series 2: Administration (constitution and by-laws, roll books, meeting minutes, membership and officer lists)
Series 3: Newspaper Clippings
Series 4: Photographs and other (books and miscellaneous club documents)

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Access and Use

Restrictions on Access

The Papers of the Sesame Club are available for research.

Access is restricted to materials prepared by the Local History department staff. All materials must be viewed in the Plainfield Room and may not be removed to another area of the library without permission of the Library Director or designee. Materials must be handled carefully and kept in order. Materials must not be leaned upon, altered, folded, ripped, or traced upon. Marks may not be added or erased from materials. Materials must be returned directly to Local History department staff and inspected before the researcher leaves the Plainfield Room.

Restrictions on Use

One photocopy may be made (by Plainfield Public Library staff) of each document for the purpose of research; official Local History departmental reproduction fees may apply. Permission to publish must be obtained by the Plainfield Public Library Board of Trustees as delegated to the Library Director. Permission to publish does not constitute a copyright clearance. The researcher is responsible for further copyright restrictions. The Plainfield Public Library is not responsible for the misuse of copyrighted material

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This record series is indexed under the following controlled access subject terms.

Organizations:

Places:

Subjects:

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The following published books are included in this collection (box 4):

Riskin, John. Sesame and Lilies: two lectures delivered at Manchester in 1864. New York : John Wiley & Son, 1865.

Riskin, John. Sesame and Lilies. Philadelphia : Henry Altemus, 1899.

Plainfield Public Library’s local history photograph collection, Grimstead G-722.

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This collection consists of paper documents, photographs and ephemera which do not require any additional technology for access.  Two negatives are included in the collection, and require a light box/table for optimal viewing.

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Administrative Information

Preferred Citation

Identification of item; Date (if noted); The Papers of the Sesame Club, Box and Folder Number; Local History Department, Plainfield Public Library, Plainfield, New Jersey.

Acquisition Information

The collection was donated in 2003 by the Sesame Club.

Processing Information

This collection was processed by Sarah Hull in February 2009. The finding aid was written by Sarah Hull in January 2009. Finding aid content follows the guidelines suggested by Describing Archives: A Content Standard.

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