The Granddaughters' Club at Meredith College was founded in 1922 by the Alumnae Association‘s Executive Secretary Mae Grimmer (Class of 1914). The club was formed for students who were daughters of Meredith alumnae; the “grandmother” implied by the name was Meredith College, the Alma Mater. A 1924 Twig article cheered that after the year's first club meeting, "Here's to Meredith's daughters' daughters."
As time passed, the club would welcome the actual granddaughters of alumnae and those with any relative who attended Meredith. Starting out as largely a social organization that boosted loyalty and pride and that would bring together mothers and daughters on campus for breakfasts or teas, gradually the focus of the organization shifted. In the 1940s to the early 1960s, the club was associated with the Needlework Guild of Raleigh, providing clothes for needy children. In its later years, the “Granddaughters” worked closely with the Alumnae Association during Orientation and Reunion Weekends. The club was renamed the Mae Grimmer Granddaughter’s Club in 1979 to honor its founder. The Club was apparently discontinued following the 2010-2011 academic year.
In the first year after the club was formed, the name was not yet formalized. In the 1923 Oak Leaves, the club was called "The Granddaughters."
The students of the 1923-24 club posed for the yearbook in "old-fahioned" garb, perhaps imagining their mothers in school. At this point, Meredith College was still on the original downtown campus, so both generations attended classes and roomed in the same buildings.
The Granddaughters' Club members are dressed in fashionable clothes and berets of the 1930s.
The Granddaughters' Club (1949.)
The Hut was a student-run landmark on campus for many years, a cabin for meetings, informal gatherings, and dates. Here the Granddaughters' Club used the building for a get-together in 1950.
The Granddaughters' Club posed for on the steps on Johnson Hall in the fall of 1952. This photograph appeared on the cover of the alumnae magazine, commemorating the new academic year.
The Granddaughters' Club (1954.)
Club members often posed with their mothers, themselves alumnae of Meredith College. These are the 1964 members.
Meredith College students and alumnae shared a meal, probably on the day of the annual alumnae meeting in 1966.
Meredith College mothers and daughters pose on Class Day (1967.)
The Granddaughters' Club (1972.)
Granddaughter's Club (1994.)
In 2004, the Granddaughters' Club was a much smaller organization from its heyday in the 1930s and 1940s when the first generations of "daughters" attended Meredith.
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Meredith College
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