Travel Club of Bristol (Pa.) Records
Scope and Contents
This collection includes various records of the Bristol Travel Club, including scrapbooks, minute books,
ledgers, printed annual reports, and various other materials such as correspondence, financial papers,
membership and attendance records, photographs, and ephemera.
The minute books in this collection form nearly a complete set, 1901-1980. There is also a large amount
of financial records, including ledgers, circa 1924-1991; check stubs, circa 1989-1991; a trial balance
book, 1929-1932; and various other materials such as bank statements, tax information, insurance, and
financial information.
The scrapbooks in this collection contain newspaper clippings of club events and related stories as
well as some photographs, and date from 1928-1967 and 1980-1984. There are also Junior Travel Club
scrapbooks, 1939-1940 and 1956-1976.
Also included in the collection are: printed annual reports, 1961-1994 (incomplete); photographs, circa
1950s-1980s; attendance books, 1901-1924 and 1957-1978; membership lists; awards and certificates, 1968-1990; some correspondence between the Travel Club and other women's clubs and organizations;
and ephemera, such as pamphlets and note cards related to the Travel Club and other women's clubs.
Dates
- 1901 - 1994
Conditions Governing Use
Copyright interests for this collection belong to The Grundy Foundation. For more information, contact the Grundy Archivist (archive@grundylibrary.org).
Biographical / Historical
Mrs. Emlen Martin organized the Travel Club of Bristol, Pennsylvania with sixteen charter members in
1901. Mrs. Martin served as the first president and held the office for twelve years. Initially, members
gathered at each other's homes to discuss their travels and to study other cultures. However, the Club
quickly became much more civic-minded "realizing the need for a service club for women and the
valuable service they could be to the community...Through the years, the Travel Club has been involved
in a variety of charitable programs, including countless hours of volunteer services at Lower Bucks
Hospital and to the Red Cross. Many fundraising projects were carried out for the endowment of a
room at the hospital...Their efforts are extended far beyond the local and county levels, many programs
and projects are aided on the state, national, and international levels." ("History of the Travel Club of
Bristol.")
The Club was admitted to the Pennsylvania Federation of Women's Clubs in 1906, the General Federation
of Women's Clubs in 1925, and was incorporated in 1936 as the "Travel Club of Bristol." In 1958, the
Club purchased the Friends School House (321 Cedar Street) that they had leased since 1929 from the
Bristol Preparatory Meeting of Friends.
In 1930, a Junior Travel Club was formed. Ann Hawkes Hutton served as its first president.
Bibliography:
Quoted text from: "History of the Travel Club of Bristol." Pamphlet found in collection.
Extent
6 Linear Feet (8 boxes)
Language of Materials
English
Abstract
Mrs. Emlen Martin organized the Travel Club of Bristol, Pennsylvania with sixteen charter members in 1901. Initially, members gathered at their homes to discuss their travels and to study other cultures; the Club quickly became much more civic-minded and service-oriented. The Travel Club of Bristol records, 1901-1994, include minute books, ledgers, scrapbooks, printed annual reports, and various other materials such as correspondence, financial papers, membership and attendance records, photographs, and ephemera. Some scrapbooks relate to the Junior Travel Club.
Accruals
No further accruals expected.
Processing Information
Summary descriptive information on this collection was compiled in 2012-2014 as part of a project
conducted by the Historical Society of Pennsylvania to make better known and more accessible the
largely hidden collections of small, primarily volunteer run repositories in the Philadelphia area. The
Hidden Collections Initiative for Pennsylvania Small Archival Repositories (HCI-PSAR) was funded by a
grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
This is a preliminary finding aid. No physical processing, rehousing, reorganizing, or folder listing was
accomplished during the HCI-PSAR project.
In some cases, more detailed inventories or finding aids may be available on-site at the repository
where this collection is held; please contact the Grundy Archivist directly for more
information.
- Title
- Travel Club of Bristol (Pa.) records
- Status
- Under Revision
- Author
- Celia Caust-Ellenbogen and Faith Charlton (PACSCL)
- Date
- 2013
- Description rules
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
- Language of description
- Undetermined
- Script of description
- Code for undetermined script
- Language of description note
- English
- Sponsor
- This preliminary finding aid was created as part of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania's Hidden Collections Initiative for Pennsylvania Small Archival Repositories. The HCI-PSAR project was made possible by a grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
Repository Details
Part of the Grundy Archive Repository