The Woman's Club of Louisville
Organized 1890

Mission
The Woman's Club of Louisville was organized in 1890 for the purpose of promoting and supporting civic improvements, championing the educational and philanthropic needs of our community - especially for women and children - and cultivating the fine arts.
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HATTIE BISHOP SPEED
Member, Philanthropist and Founder of the J.B. Speed Art Museum
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SISTERS: MILDRED AND PATTY HILL
Early Education Reformers 
Composers of the Song
Happy Birthday to You

REMARKABLE WOMEN

Dr. Lillian South 1879-1966

​Dr. South earned her medical degree in Philadelphia and later studied at Johns Hopkins, the Mayo Clinic, the Pasteur Lab in Paris, and the Madame Curie Radium Institute. She returned to Kentucky and in 1906, and with the help of her medical partners, established a health care facility with 42 beds in her home, named St. Joseph's Hospital.  In 1910, Dr. South was appointed Director of Bacteriology for Kentucky where she spearheaded a public campaign to reduce leprosy and rabies and was credited for virtually eradicating the once widely prevalent hookworm disease from the state. 
  
She lobbied the Kentucky State Legislature to ban the use of the public drinking cup and was responsible for over 12 million doses of typhoid vaccine being given during her career, which saved countless lives during the Great Flood of 1937. Her work brought her national prominence. In 1922, South established the first lab technician training program in the United States; the graduates finding employment in medical laboratories around the world. She was the first woman to hold the position of vice president of the A.M.A.

Patty Blackburn Semple (1853-1923):
​ Educator, Suffragist, Civic Leader
​First President of The Woman's Club of Louisville

Mary Lafon (1840-1925)
Charter Member of The Woman’s Club of Louisville
​and
​First Vice-President

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​Mary was born near Lexington in 1840.  She was educated at Maplewood Academy in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, an early female boarding school.  In the 1850s she went to Europe to pursue advanced linguistics study.

Eventually moving to Louisville, she formed the Presbyterian Mission Society of Kentucky.  In the late 1870s, she became the administrator of Louisville Presbyterian Orphans’ Home.  In the 1880s, she was one of the leaders of the Free Kindergarten Movement, a supporter of the Kentucky Infirmary for Women and Children, and an officer in the Louisville Equal Rights Association. 
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In the 1890s she became a charter member of The Woman’s Club of Louisville. During that time she was actively involved in the founding of the Louisville Children’s Free Hospital (later Kosair Children’s Hospital / Norton Childrens' Hospital).  It became the tenth pediatric hospital in the United States, the first in the South, and the first nondenominational hospital in Louisville. Lafon was the Hospital’s president from 1890 until 1918.

Always an advocate for women’s rights, she was a founder in 1900 of the Louisville Suffrage Association.  As late as the 1920s, as an elderly woman, she was active with the League of women voters, movements to equalize marriage laws, child labor legislation, women voter registration, and government support for child health and public education. 
-The Encyclopedia of Louisville 
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1800's

  • 1890 The Woman's Club of Louisville was organized by Susan Look Avery
  • 1890 A memorial was sent to the Constitutional Convention praying that all lottery franchises be repealed
  • 1891 Petition presented to the Mayor and city Council asking for matrons in jails and station houses
  • 1892 Petition with over 500 signatures presented to retail merchants asking for seats for shop-girls 
  • 1893 Petition sent to the Kentucky Legislature asking for the age of consent be raised from twelve to eighteen. 
  • 1893 Petition sent to the Kentucky Legislature asking that the women of Kentucky be granted property rights, the power to make wills and the equal custody of their children. 
  • 1893 A Free Exhibition of Impressionist paintings was given in which many of the world's most noted artists were represented. 
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1900s

  • 1906 The Carnegie Institute declared The Woman's Club of Louisville to be : The greatest ethical influence for public sentiment in the state of Kentucky.
  • 1921 The Younger Woman's Club of Louisville was founded.
  • 1923 Denishawn Dance Group performs with young dancers Martha Graham (founder of modern dance) and Louise Brooks (Ziegfeld Follies dancer and later iconic silent movie actress with Paramount Pictures.)
  • 1932 Fundraiser for the American Foundation for the Blind featuring Helen Keller as speaker.
  • 1937 The Woman's Club served as a receiving station for supplies and for flood sufferers. 
  • 1938 The first No-Jury Art Show was held providing the artists of Louisville a place to exhibit their talent. 
  • 1939 Poet Rober Frost spoke to Club members and the Community.
  • 1941 Community Service Community was formed to help with the war effort, aid children of Appalachia, and provide volunteers to local social services departments, hospitals and charities.
  • 1943 Carl Sandberg read some of his work, played the guitar singing rakish ballads.
  • 1946 Pianist Lee Luvisi (aged 8) made his first public appearance onstage in the Auditorium.
              The Club also sponsored concerts featuring Vladimir Horowitz and Arthur Rubenstein.
  • 1948 The Louisville Deaf Oral School was founded by The Woman's Club and the Kiwanis.
  • 1951 Ogden Nash recited his poetry for an amused audience.
          (I think that I shall never see
           a billboard lovely as a tree.
          Perhaps unless the billboards fall
          I'll never see a tree at tall.
  • 1956 Bookmobiles purchased for the Louisville Free Public Library to provide service to rural communities.
  • 1967 The Woman's Club of Louisivlle Charity Fund, Inc. was established for the purpose of raising and managing funds for charities.
​              It is listed as a 501(C)3 organization by the IRS. (See recent grants under Charity