On January 21st the Lakeside Browning Club of Dallas, Texas came to the Armstrong Browning Library for a tour and luncheon. The purpose of their visit was to see in person the items purchased with the generous gift they made to the Armstrong Browning Library last year in anticipation of the Club’s 100th anniversary in 2023.
In 1923, Ella Caruthers Porter founded the Lakeside Browning Club. In its early years the club met every Tuesday during the spring and fall months to discuss “literary, economic, social and civil topics.” Nearly all of these discussions were tied to Robert Browning’s poetry. The members also actively undertook philanthropic activities such as funding scholarships and donating books to the libraries of secondary schools and higher education institutions. Today the club meets monthly and continues its intellectual and philanthropic pursuits.
The Club’s recent gift to the Armstrong Browning Library provided the funds necessary to purchase a copy of Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s Poems Before Congress, a small collection of political poems written in support of the unification of Italy. This particular copy belonged to Charles Dickens and bears his bookplate on the front pastedown endpaper along with a label reading “From the Library of Charles Dickens, Gadshill Place, June, 1870.”
Club members also made possible the purchase of a manuscript in Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s hand of her poem “The King’s Gift,” which was first published after Barrett Browning’s death in the American newspaper the Independent. The poem, which is about Teresa Garibaldi (1845-1903), the daughter of Italian General Guiseppe Garibaldi, was published again in her Last Poems in 1862.
Both rare items are now available for use in research and classroom instruction.
The Lakeside Browning Club has long been a supporter of the Armstrong Browning Library. In 1951, the Club gave a mahogany and green velvet folding chair that belonged to Robert and Elizabeth Barrett Browning during their residence in Casa Guidi to the Library.
The John-Leddy Jones Research Hall, the Library’s bronze doors, and the statue of “Pippa” in front of the Library also have ties to members of the Lakeside Browning Club and their families. The stained-glass window illustrating Browning’s poem “My Last Duchess” was given to the Library by alumnae of the Cocke School of Expression in honor of Mrs. A. A. Cocke, a long-time leader of the Lakeside Browning Club.
The following club members contributed to their group’s gift:
Mrs. Robert Black
Ms. Katherine L. Blair
Mrs. Robert Blanshard
Ms. Kathryn Bond
Mrs. Charles Scott Burford, Sr.
Mrs. D. Harold Byrd, Jr.
Mrs. Byron W. Cain, Jr.
Mrs. John R. Castle, Jr.
Mrs. Geoffrey Crowley
Mrs. E. James Cundiff, II
Mrs. David C. Dick
Mrs. Robert Dyer
Mrs. Robert H. Engstrom
Mrs. Donald F. Finn
Mrs. Robert R. Fossum
Mrs. Wilson Fry
Ms. Barbara E. Gary
Mrs. G. Hawkins Golden, II
Mrs. John R. Guittard
Mrs. Daniel Hennessy
Mrs. David Hudnall
Mrs. Stephen P. Huff
Mrs. Allen Huffhines
Mrs. George E. Hurt, Jr.
Mrs. Phillip Gray John
Mrs. William B. Kendrick, III
Mrs. Hugh D. King
Dr. Cheryl Cox Kinney
Mrs. Steve Linder
Ms. Pat Mittenthal
Mrs. Wanderley Oliveira
Mrs. James Paschal
Mrs. Michael C. Petty
Mrs. Richard Rathwick
Mrs. Jerry Ridnour
Ms. Kathey Roberts
Mrs. Peter H. Roe
Mrs. Michael Rogers
Mrs. Douglas M. Simmons
Mrs. John R. Sloan
Mrs. Sam Stollenwerck
Mrs. Lawrence Svehlak
Mrs. Richard Trimble
Mrs. Gary S. Utkov
I am quite surprised that there are Browning Clubs all over America.what do you find to be the most attractive sections of the works that impressed you enough to be part of such an organization……………I would love to know. I visited the Museum nearly thirty years ago and was impressed, even way back then.
I am back in my homeland, Australia after 41 years in America.
I would be delighted to hear from you regarding what I asked.
Ronald Browning Nash