The Bryn Mawr Scandal of 1904, with Marne Litfin (episode 16)
A Minnie, a Mamie, and a Mary walk into a complicated, possibly polyamorous, romantic friendship. Writer Marne Litfin lets me tell them a story involving M. Carey Thomas: famous suffragette, early Bryn Mawr College president, and complicated, racist historical figure. Mary Garrett, Mamie Gwinn, Alfred and Jessie Hodder, two ill-fated Olives, and even Gertrude Stein make appearances in this old timey scandal. Stay tuned for more about the Friday evening; I’m not done with them yet!
The Friday Evening. From left - bottom row: M. Carey Thomas, Mary Garrett (middle), Julia Rogers. From left - top row: Mamie Gwinn, Bessie King. Photo from the Bryn Mawr College Photo Archive, in the Bryn Mawr College Special Collections.
SHOW NOTES:
This episode is presented to you (and is inspired) by To Believe in Women: What Lesbians Have Done for America by Lillian Faderman. The other Lillian Faderman book we mentioned is called Odd Girls and Twilight Lovers.
“Coercive philanthropy” is a term often used in tandem with Mary Garrett and first wave feminists of that time period, whereas I don’t see it used widely today, even though, as Marne pointed out, it still happens.
Case in point: You can read an article on coercive philanthropist Charles Munger on CNN, with the great title “Warren Buffett's billionaire partner bankrolls windowless dorm. An architect quit.”
Alfed Leroy Hodder, circa 1890. (photo from Wikipedia)
Other sources for this episode include the books The Power and Passion of M. Carey Thomas by Helen Lefkowitz Horowitz and Mary Elizabeth Garrett: Society and Philanthropy in the Gilded Age by Kathleen Waters Sanders.
A great way to learn about the life of character and voice actor Arnold Stang is through his wonderful obituary in the New York Times. But you can also watch his string of chunky commercials here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jpg2liApM0A. (Marne and I got through about five.)
If you want to find Marne Litfin’s work, check out https://www.marnelitfin.com/ or start with their cool tweets at @jetpackmarne on twitter.
Email researchholepodcast@gmail.com to share your research hole, something you learned this week, or corrections for the errors we inevitably made.