Finding Aid for Association of Cosmopolitan Clubs Records, 1908-1929, 1939-1944, 1949-2009 | University of Illinois Archives

Title: Association of Cosmopolitan Clubs Records, 1908-1929, 1939-1944, 1949-2009

ID: 41/64/8

Primary Creator: Association of Cosmopolitan Clubs in the American Universities

Extent: 7.0 cubic feet. More info below.

Arrangement: Alphabetical, then chronological thereunder

Subjects: Cosmopolitan Club, Foreign Students, International Dinners, International Education, League to Enforce Peace, Peace Movement, Photograph Albums, Photographs, Residences, World War I - Intelligence, Morale and Propaganda, World War I - Military Government and Peace

Formats/Genres: Papers

Languages: English

Records of the Association of Cosmopolitan Clubs (founded 1907), a member of the international Corda Fratres, include minutes, agenda, constitutions, correspondence, photographs, programs, reports, scrapbooks, and publications relating to activities, the business of the local and national associations, The Cosmopolitan Student, the Club houses, house residents, board of directors, committees, conventions, foreign students, international dinners and coffee hours, membership, the relationship of the Association to Corda Fratres, and the connection of the Association with the peace movement. The series includes the correspondence (1909-14) of Prof. Thomas E. Oliver (Professor of Romance Languages), leader in the Association and the peace movement, with George W. Hasmyth, R. C. Candee, Surendra Nath Karr, Louis P. Lochner, Arthur R. Seymour, H. M. Udovitch, and United States Senators (1919). The series also include the administrative files of faculty advisor Susan Taylor (tenured assistant professor of English as an International Language, 1964-99) and Executive Director Andrea Shields (1985-2007).

The Cosmopolitan Club of the University of Illinois was founded as an independent organization in 1906, when it adopted its original constitution, and joined the Association of Cosmopolitan Clubs, of which it was a charter member, in 1907.¹ According to the 1909 Cosmopolitan Annual of the Association of Cosmopolitan Clubs, The Association of Cosmopolitan clubs was organized in December, 1907, when the constitution and by-laws printed [...] were adopted by delegates of the eight charter chapters assembled in convention at Madison, Wisconsin. By February, 1908, the constitution and by-laws had been unanimously ratified by these eight chapters. An informal organization, however, was effected between the Wisconsin International club and the Cornell Cosmopolitan club as early as October, 1906, and the clubs founded between that date and the Madison convention may be said to have joined this tentative organization to the extent of adopting the designation of chapters of an Association of the Cosmopolitan clubs, co-operating to some extent in propaganda work, and exchanging occasional letters.² The histories published by the University of Illinois Cosmopolitan Club use 1907, the date of the founding of the Association of Cosmopolitan Clubs in Wisconsin, as the founding date of the local organization.³ The local chapter has been called alternately Association of Cosmopolitan Clubs⁴ and simply the Cosmopolitan Club.

¹ Cosmopolitan Annual, 1909, p. 117 RS 26/20/30; Constitution of the Cosmopolitan Club, University of Illinois, 1910, RS 41/64/8.

² Cosmopolitan Annual, 1909, p. 117-118.

³ Notes on the History of the Cosmopolitan Club, adapted from a text by Prof. Alan K. Laing, http://www.prairienet.org/cosmo/history/html, 1996.

⁴ See, for example, The Illio, 1920, p. 156-157.

Cosmopolitan Club
Foreign Students
International Dinners
International Education
League to Enforce Peace
Peace Movement
Photograph Albums
Photographs
Residences
World War I - Intelligence, Morale and Propaganda
World War I - Military Government and Peace

Repository: University of Illinois Archives

Accruals: 9/63; 5/5/98; 3/2/01; 2/2/06; 7/8/10

Alternate Extent Statement: 8.25 megabytes

Other Note: 3 Pages

URL: https://files.archon.library.illinois.edu/uasfa/4164008.pdf

PDF finding aid for Association of Cosmopolitan Clubs Records (41/64/8)