March 8, 2005

The program for the meeting of the Aesthetic Club, one of the oldest women’s clubs west of the Mississippi River (it began in 1883), consisted of two papers: first, “Conflicting Concepts of Jefferson and Hamilton” by Martha Sowell, an analysis of economic thought and predictions, followed by “Warring Words of Frost and Sandburg” by Dale Ronnel, which profiled poets Robert Frost and Carl Sandburg and their works. Amelia Smith, an active member between 1940 and 1960, summed up the club’s strength: “It has always been a body of women who stood for and lived up to its motto, ‘The Good, the True, and the Beautiful.’ Never once, whether there were good times, wars, a Great Depression, or social changes, has it departed from remarkable standards.”