The Monday Evening Club was founded in Pittsfield, Massachusetts in 1869. It normally has up to 15 active members. Membership is by invitation only, and the number of members has ranged from about 14 to 24 over the years.
The Club meets about seven times per year from late fall through spring. Meetings consist of a fine dinner hosted by one member, and a paper presented aloud by another member. Following the reading of the paper, the host calls upon each member in turn to comment on the paper. The reader gets time for "rebuttals," if any, and then everyone goes home.
This format has been unchanged since the founding of the Club. Papers cover a wide range of interests. Unfortunately the Club did not archive the 1450-odd papers that were presented during its first 139 years, but the purpose of this blog is to do so beginning with the 2008-2009 season. We also post older papers contributed from the personal records of members.
Paper titles are circulated to members in notices of meetings, so presenters tend to create obscure titles to prevent prior research by their audience for the purpose of delivering erudite commentary. On this blog, we preserve the original title and add a subtitle that more clearly identifies the subject.
