Kate Tannatt Woods and the Thought and Work Club
36 Lynde Street (building no longer standing)
For years in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries,
a tea room at this address served as an informal headquarters for
the Thought and Work Club of Salem, founded by author, editor, and
journalist Kate Tannatt Woods (1836-1910) in 1891. Its stated purposes
were to “encourage women in all departments of literary work,
to promote home study, and to secure literary and social advantages
for its members.” The club motto was “Lofty thoughts and
kindly deeds.”45 Classes held
at the tea room for members of the all-woman club included such
subjects as languages, art history, and literature. The organization
lasted nearly a century, and also sponsored an annual series of
lectures, concerts, dramatic presentations, and other programs that
were held at various churches and halls in Salem. One of the club’s
most memorable events was a talk on conditions in India and missionary
work given by the noted Hindu monk Swami Vivekananda in August of
1893 (who stayed in Kate’s home at 166 North Street, see S50).
When Kate learned that the local ministers she had invited to hear
the Swami speak were critical of his ideas, this quite “disturbed
the liberal-minded lady.”46
Kate Woods served as president of the Thought and Work Club for
eight years.
Notes
45. By-laws of the Thought and Work Club, 1891.
46. David R. Proper, Swami Vivekananda
in Essex County (Salem, Mass., 1967), 45.
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