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  Clytean Club

  Aquene Kimmel

  The Clytean Club began in 1897 as The Twelve, a ladies' literary society in Cleveland, Ohio, but it evolved to cover broader topics across history, current events, fiction, and nonfiction. Its name was later changed to The Clytean Club, after a brief time as the Kletian in 1898. “Clytean” was derived from a Greek myth in which Clytie, a water nymph, spent her days staring into the sun (Apollo) in unrequited love, until she was transformed into a flower so that she might continue to face the sun. The club interpreted Clytie's sunny vigil as representative of the constant quest for — and attentiveness to — knowledge, and their symbol is a sunflower, whose face similarly tracks the sun.

  Notable members include Fanny Kendel, Alice Hartman Chester, and Eda Gerstacker. Kendel was active in many levels of PTA, including her serving as their National Field Secretary. Chester, a music teacher, was an inductee into the Kiwanis Hall of Fame and acknowledged as a Woman of Distinction by the Medina County YWCA. Gerstacker was the founder of the Rollin M. Gerstacker Foundation and mother of Carl Gerstacker, former chairman of the Dow Chemical Company.

  The Clytean meets once per month, usually at a member's house, at which time the group discusses materials it has read, listens to guest speakers, votes on the admittance of new members, and plans its donations to and involvement in various charities.

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  Oral histories of the women of Fenn College

  Mary Joyce Green Women's Center

  Listen to recorded interviews* conducted through CSU's Mary Joyce Green Women's Center with Fenn College alumnae, as well as Professor Jane Pease, as they talk about their experiences as co-eds at a private urban college during the Forties, Fifties, and Sixties.

  *All recordings are in MP3 format.

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  Ethnic Women of Cleveland

  Sofia Vassenovitch

  In 1986, Dr. Jeanette Tuve of Cleveland State University conducted a series of interviews with 29 women of eastern European birth or heritage. Many of these conversations were with women who remembered World War II or the Great Depression.

  Sponsored by the The Mareyjoyce Green Women's Center and the History Department and funded by the George Gund Foundation, the project focused on the women's experiences building homes and communities in America while retaining their ethnic traditions.