Archive Record
Metadata
Catalog Number |
ORG 2008.11 |
Title |
Winton Club Cabaret |
Collection |
Organizations |
Object Name |
Programs |
Scope & Content |
This collection includes a complete set of Winton Club Cabaret programs plus four scrapbooks (or albums) which include programs from 1920 through 1974 along with newspaper clippings, photographs, reports, financial documents, and a couple of buttons. |
Admin/Biographical History |
After the Winchester's Visiting Nurse Association (VNA) was founded in 1899, for many years church women supplied the nurses with linens and other supplies. Acting on a suggestion by Jennie Mead (a doctor's wife), a dozen young women met in 1911 and decided to form a club, the Winton Club, to benefit the VNA. Guided also by Cornelia Houghton (another doctor's wife), club members met regularly to sew and soon were doing all the mending, a task which grew to include replacing all the hospital linen supply. Supplying the hospital linens involved not just the work of sewing but also the purchase of materials, a yearly expense which grew annually. After trying other fund-raising projects, in 1920 the women held a ball with staged entertainment. After that, the Winton Club Cabaret became a yearly event and developed into full-length shows played to sell-out audiences in Town Hall Auditorium through 2020 (the next shows being put on hold by the COVID-19 pandemic). The cabarets have drawn onstage and backstage talent from many communities and afforded the Winton Club husbands, who traditionally build the sets, and others the opportunity to support the Club in its assistance to the hospital. Even the doctors, nurses, and other personnel take to the stage to sing and dance in an annual hospital number. Show proceeds have been used not only for the linen supply but also for other hospital supplies and equipment, capital campaigns, and building drives. In 2006, the Winton Club was honored by the Hospital as Philanthropist of the Year. It was reported then that Club members provide over 5,000 volunteer hours both within and outside Winchester Hospital each year and have provided Winchester Hospital with over $3 million in patient linens, equipment, and monetary gifts. |
Copyrights |
Permission to publish material from this collection is subject to approval by the Town of Winchester. |
Finding Aids |
A finding aid with detailed information about the contents of the collection is available. Contact the Archives for a copy. |
Subjects |
Clubs Education |
Search Terms |
Mt. Holyoke Radcliffe College Smith College Wellesley College |
Containers |
Cabaret programs 1925-1962 Cabaret programs 1963- 1975 Cabaret programs 1976-1982 Cabaret programs 1983-1990 Cabaret programs 1991-1999 Cabaret programs 2000-2020 Cabaret 1919-1936 Cabaret 1919-1936 Cabaret 1949-1964 Cabaret 1965-1974 |