Jane Cunningham Croly, aka Jennie June

Summary

Stuff You Missed in History Class

Episode Title: Jane Cunningham Croly, aka Jennie June
Date: September 1, 2025
Hosts: Holly Frey & Tracy V. Wilson

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Episode Overview

This episode dives deep into the life and legacy of Jane Cunningham Croly, better known as Jennie June. Croly was a pioneering journalist, advocate for women's equality, and the driving force behind the early women’s club movement in the United States. The hosts trace her journey from England to America, her influential career in journalism, complex stances on gender roles, and her critical role in founding organizations that supported and promoted women's professional and social advancement.

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Detailed Summary

Early Life and Family Background

[03:45 – 05:54]

• Born Dec 19, 1829, in Market Harborough, Leicestershire, England, to Joseph Howes and Jane Scott Cunningham.
• Described as “buoyant and magnetic,” with a particularly close relationship with her Unitarian minister father.
• Family immigrated to the US around 1841 due to religious persecution of Unitarians; settled in New York State.
• Her father was generous in their new community, sharing surplus garden produce with neighbors and those in need.

Early Signs of Leadership

[05:09 – 06:39]

• Legends claim young Jane was a “club starter” from childhood. For example, she “founded” a temperance society at age nine (though evidence is shaky).
• As an adult living with her brother John (a pastor in Worcester, MA), she managed his household, taught school, and co-created a bimonthly paper for his congregation.

Launching a Journalism Career

[06:39 – 09:15]

• After her father’s death in 1855, Jane moved to NYC to pursue writing. Her first article appeared in the New York Tribune.
• She quickly landed a regular column—“Parlor and Sidewalk Gossip”—in the New York Sunday Times and Noah’s Weekly Messenger.
• Adopted the pen name Jennie June:
  • Notable Quote:
    "I was a sunny, happy little blue eyed girl... One of the poems was called January and another Jenny June. For a long time, I was known to my intimates as Jenny June. The name almost passed out of my mind as I grew older till I commenced contributing to the papers. And then I bethought me of Jenny June as a nom de plume." – Tracy V. Wilson, reading Jennie June, [07:19]
• Jennie June is recognized as one of the first women to syndicate a newspaper column nationally.

Marriage & Professional Partnership

[09:15 – 10:56]

• Married journalist David G. Croly in 1856. Their marriage was unusual for the era—David encouraged Jane’s career.
  • “David did not expect Jane to stop working once they got married or after they had children... Jane and David modeled a much more modern relationship…” – Tony Tracy V. Wilson [10:09]
• Had five children; juggled both a demanding professional and domestic life.

Early Organizing: Women’s Clubs Take Shape

[13:40 – 14:46]

• In 1856, Jane founded her first women’s club, the Women’s Parliament. Though not well-remembered, it foreshadowed her later activism.

Moves, Setbacks, and New Opportunities

[14:46 – 16:34]

• The Crolys briefly moved to Illinois for David’s job at the Rockford Register but quickly returned to New York due to homesickness and the paper’s lack of success.
• Jane became head writer for Madame Demorest’s influential fashion publications.
• Hosted weekly Sunday salons for diverse social and professional circles.

Complex Views on Women’s Roles

[16:34 – 21:40]

• Advocated for women’s equality but often expressed old-fashioned views on marriage and the domestic sphere.
  • Notable Quote:
    “Bad cooking is a crime. It is the cause of dyspepsia and a host of other evils. A woman convicted of it ought to be arraigned for manslaughter.” – Quoting Jennie June’s cookbook, [16:56]
  • “Girls ought not to marry unless they are ready and willing to accept the position of head of a household and capable of making a home what it should be…” – Tracy V. Wilson [17:17]
• Provided practical advice, like not buying all kitchen supplies at once and labeling children’s hats for safety (with much host skepticism).

Exclusion from the Press Club & Birth of Sorosis

[21:40 – 25:53]

• The Press Club of New York refused women (including Jane) entry to a prestigious event for Charles Dickens, despite some support from Horace Greeley.
  • Notable Quote:
    "Some ladies of literary proclivities asked for invitations and got themselves snubbed by the journalists..." – Holly Fry, quoting contemporary news, [21:40]
• Jane responded by founding her own women-only group with 12 founding members—eventually named Sorosis (after a fruit formed from many flowers—symbolizing unity).
  • “She wanted to ‘supply the want of unity and secular organization among women.’” – Holly Fry [23:19]
• Sorosis rapidly expanded nationwide, inspiring a wave of women’s clubs with a range of missions and causes.

Expanding Influence & Professional Challenges

[27:09 – 31:14]

• Jane’s success in journalism continued. After David Croly left his career in 1877 to pursue religious reform and fell ill, Jane became the family’s sole support.
• Purchased an interest in Godey’s Lady’s Book, but it eventually folded.

Legacy as Club Leader and Federation Founder

[31:37 – 32:25]

• After her husband's death, Jane founded the New York Women's Press Club (1889) and General Federation of Women’s Clubs (1890), a nationwide umbrella for clubwomen.
• Also launched a magazine, Cycle (aka "the Women's Cycle").

Shifting Advice to Women & Later Works

[32:25 – 34:00]

• Authored Thrown on Her Own Resources (1891) to guide women facing self-reliance; language was often ableist, but urged women to find and cultivate their professional abilities.
  • “Active work is the necessity of a healthful life. Are you equipped for your part in the battle?” – Tracy V. Wilson quoting Croly, [32:25]
• By this time, she encouraged women to focus not just on domesticity but on careers and self-sufficiency.

Chronicling the Women’s Club Movement

[34:00 – 36:56]

• Wrote The History of the Women’s Club Movement in America (1898), documenting not only Sorosis but many similar organizations, including Working Girls’ Clubs.

Final Years, Death, and Memorial

[35:08 – 41:08]

• Suffered a debilitating hip break at age 69, then left active club life.
• Died Sept 23, 1901, and was memorialized by Sorosis and the Women’s Press Club at the Waldorf Astoria.
• Notable Quotes:
  • “Mrs. Crowley had that particular sense of fellowship among women most unusual... There are no words to express that thought except those that are masculine. Fellowship, brotherhood, fraternity. Mrs. Crowley perhaps more than any other woman in the world had the sense of what fellowship or fraternity meant in women.” – Letter read by Demis Dennison at her memorial, [37:38]
  • “Woman was a new factor in journalism, and Jenny June was a new woman, a new creation.” – From biography by her brother, quoted at [38:48]

Lasting Legacy

[40:25 – 41:08]

• Sorosis chapters existed into the mid-20th century, some persisting even longer.
• The General Federation of Women’s Clubs is still active today.
  • Mission: “Dedicated to community improvement by enhancing the lives of others through volunteer service.”

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On her pen name:
  “For a long time, I was known to my intimates as Jenny June. The name almost passed out of my mind as I grew older till I commenced contributing to the papers. And then I bethought me of Jenny June as a nom de plume.” – [07:19]
• On women’s role in marriage (with present-day pushback):
  “Girls ought not to marry unless they are ready and willing to accept the position of head of a household and capable of making a home what it should be to husband and children. I don't love that.” – Tracy V. Wilson [17:17]
  “No, that was a big yikes for me as a girl. We gotta have a talk, Jenny June.” – Holly Fry [18:26]
• On club naming and purpose:
  “They didn't want the group to be too focused on any single interest or ideology. So even names that borrowed from literature... were dismissed in an effort to make the group, in Jane's own words, 'hospitable to women of different minds, degrees, and habits of work and thought.'” – Holly Fry [24:00]
• On lasting legacy:
  “The General Federation of Women's Clubs, though, is still going strong today. Its mission is stated as, quote, ‘the General Federation of Women's Clubs is an international women's organization dedicated to community improvement by enhancing the lives of others through volunteer service.’” – Holly Fry [40:46]

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Key Timestamps

• 03:45 – Jane Cunningham Croly’s early life and family
• 06:39 – Move to New York City, launch of journalism career, origin of “Jennie June”
• 09:15 – Marriage to David Croly and nontraditional partnership
• 13:40 – Founding of first women’s club, Women’s Parliament
• 16:34 – Mixed messages in Jennie June’s writing about women’s roles
• 21:40 – Exclusion from Press Club, founding of Sorosis
• 27:09 – Becoming sole breadwinner, support of family
• 31:37 – Expansion of women’s clubs, founding the General Federation of Women’s Clubs
• 34:00 – Writing the history of the women’s club movement
• 36:56 – Death, memorials, and legacy

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Closing Notes

This episode offers a nuanced portrait of Jennie June—a woman who simultaneously broke professional ground for women while holding some conservative social beliefs, yet evolved over her lifetime to become a central figure in one of the most important women’s movements of the 19th century. The hosts, in their signature blend of warmth and candor, contextualize both her achievements and her contradictions, making clear why Jane Cunningham Croly, aka Jennie June, remains a pivotal—if sometimes complicated—historical figure.

Transcript

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[Tony Tracy V. Wilson]

And I'm Tony Tracy V. Wilson, and.

[Holly Fry]

This is a topic that has been on my list since I worked on paper patterns because this person is deeply connected to the Demorests who we talked about at length during that as kind of the primary forerunner of paper patterns being widely available in multiple sizes in the US So Jane Cunningham Crowley, who wrote under the pen name Jenny June, was a journalist who advocated for equality for women. She wrote, as we'll talk about later, for the Demerists magazine. She is most well known, though, for founding one of the earliest clubs for women in the US and kind of starting the Women's Clubs movement Jane Cunningham.

[Tony Tracy V. Wilson]

Was born on December 19, 1829 in Market Harbor, Leicestershire, England. Her parents, Joseph Howes and Jane Scott Cunningham, had three children already before Jane was born. She was smart, described as buoyant and magnetic. Her teachers loved her and she and her father were very close from the beginning. According to an account written by her brother, the two of them remained close for the rest of their father's life.

[Holly Fry]

When Jane was about 12 in 1841, the family moved from England to the US eventually settling in New York State, and this move seems to have been precipitated by religious persecution. Joseph Cunningham was a Unitarian minister when England was not particularly friendly to that denomination of Christianity. There are some accounts that say that the family home was was stoned at one point, which led Joseph and Jane to decide to move for the sake of the family's safety. Once they had gotten to the US they lived briefly in Poughkeepsie before making their way to Wappinger's Falls, a little to the south. That's still about 75 miles north of New York City, and their father Joseph built a home and filled the land around it with a massive and very productive garden. He typically grew more food than the family could use, and all of the extra went to neighbors or people in need.

[Tony Tracy V. Wilson]

According to some newspaper accounts, Jenny was a temperance enthusiast and a club starter from a very young age. One account, which was written shortly after her death and appeared in multiple papers, mentioned that at the age of nine she Founded a club called Band of Hope Temperance Society. Allegedly, this club had a song with the lyric, quote, shout aloud. The inspiring lay, the Band of Hope must win the day. But that same account puts her at living in Massachusetts at the age of nine, which would have put the family in the United States earlier than her brother's writing. And all the other accounts say that they were. So this might not be the most trustworthy information.

[Holly Fry]

No, but it's cute, the idea that she started a club. I have a, you know, as a big writer of books and club starter myself as a kid. Have a little kinship to that. As an adult. Jane moved in with her brother John, who at that point was working as a pastor in Worcester, Massachusetts. She took care of the house for him, she sometimes called his housekeeper. She also taught school, and she still found herself with enough spare time to start a small paper with a friend that was distributed twice a month to her brother's congregation. The two women wrote all of the contents of this newspaper, and they had readings of it in the church when it was released every two weeks. And those readings were reportedly very well attended.

[Tony Tracy V. Wilson]

In 1855, after their father died, Jane moved to New York City with the goal of pursuing a career as a writer. Her first article was accepted by the New York Tribune, and soon she pitched a regular column to the New York Sunday Times and Noah's Weekly Messenger. That started a career that would see great success. She started writing under the pen name of Jenny June. And in a lecture given to a women's society she later founded, she gave her own account of how that name began. Quote, I was a sunny, happy little blue eyed girl. And our genial Unitarian pastor was particularly fond of me. One day he gave me a little book of poems published by Benjamin F. Taylor, remarking, these are for the juniest little girl that I know. One of the poems was called January and another Jenny June. For a long time, I was known to my intimates as Jenny June. The name almost passed out of my mind as I grew older till I commenced contributing to the papers. And then I bethought me of Jenny June as a nom de plume. A note on the spelling. Sometimes Jenny ends with a Y and sometimes with an ie. There's not really a solid indicator of which one she preferred. Her professional bylines ended with the ie. But in her own writing and the writing of her family, it changed back and forth. When it came to correspondence, she just used her initials.

[Holly Fry]

Yeah. So I don't know. I don't know if she cared especially, but Jenny June wrote what sounded like unimportant fodder for ladies. Her regular column for the Sunday Times was titled Parlor and Sidewalk Gossip. But she was even in her early career advocating for equality for women in some ways. We'll talk about the problems in a bit. And even in her career just making that column, she was kind of trailblazing because she's often credited with being the first woman to syndicate a column. Parlor and Sidewalk Gossip, which often talked about, you know, the popular clothes of the day, who was having a ball, who attended that ball, et cetera, ran in papers throughout the country in New York, Louisiana, Virginia, Maryland and Kentucky. In 1864, her columns were collected into a book titled Talks on Women's Topics. There was also a follow up book written in 1869, also collected, collecting the columns that had happened since that first book was published called Jenny Juniana Talks on Women's Topics.

[Tony Tracy V. Wilson]

Through her journalism work, Jane met another journalist named David G. Croly. Crowley was originally from Ireland and had become a well respected editor. They fell in love and got married on February 14, 1856, when she was 26. Crowley worked for the New York Herald as a reporter and Jane and David lived in Manhattan together. According to Jane's brother John, David was a conservative Democrat of the strictest sort, a radical in religion, and had but little appreciation of the deeper forces at work in society and in national life. But he was able and honest and enjoyed the respect of his fellow craftsmen. Jane and David had five children together, four of whom lived to adulthood. Then a son who died in infancy, Herbert, Viola and Alice. One thing that was unique about the Crowley marriage was that David did not expect Jane to stop working once they got married or after they had children. At a time when most women stopped being professionals the moment they became wives, Jane and David modeled a much more modern relationship in which Jane's professional work was supported and cheered on by her spouse. David is often mentioned in accounts and letters written by friends and family as frequently telling people how amazing he thought Jane was. To be clear this, he does not seem to have been so progressive as to split the domestic duties with his wife. So Jane was taking care of the entire family and her career, and she often gave up sleep to make all that work.

[Holly Fry]

Coming up, we're going to talk more about Jane's work and a brief move that the couple made to Illinois. But first, we will take a sponsor break.

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[Tony Tracy V. Wilson]

In 1859, the Crowleys left New York for Rockford, Illinois. David had been chosen to be the new editor of the Rockford Register. This was not just a random thing that happened. The job came about because of family connections. The Register was financially backed by William Gore King, who was married to Jane's sister Mary. Some accounts state that this was an entirely new newspaper that David was launching, and others say that he was brought on to try to save it. The Library of Congress has a record of a Rockford Register that started in 1855 with an uncertain end date. So it seems like the latter scenario might be the accurate one. But David and Jane both really missed New York, and this paper did not succeed. So after a year in Illinois, they moved back to Manhattan.

[Holly Fry]

Yeah, during that year was when they had their first child, which she was born in Illinois. But then upon returning to New York, David became the managing editor for the New York World. And this was the first in a string of managing editor positions in the city that he held with a number of different papers. Jane became the head of the women's department for the paper, and she also became the primary staff writer for Madame Demarest's Mirror of Fashions at this time, which we of course, mentioned in our recent episode on Paper Patterns. And Jenny June remained a fixture in the pages of the Demarest magazine as the periodical transitioned to become Demerist's monthly magazine with a more frequent publish cycle. Somehow, despite her busy work schedule and managing an entire household with four kids, Jane and David also had a regular social gathering at their home every Sunday.

[Tony Tracy V. Wilson]

Jenny June wrote extensively about the injustices of society as they related to women's causes. But not all of her advice for women was actually great for women. For example, in 1860, 6. She published a book titled Jenny June's American Cookery Book. And in that she states, quote, food for the well is better than physic for the sick. Bad cooking is a crime. It is the cause of dyspepsia and a host of other evils. A woman convicted of it ought to be arraigned for manslaughter. It just it. I had a little shudder after reading that.

[Holly Fry]

You and me both. Don't read this book. It would make you irate.

[Tony Tracy V. Wilson]

Also, for all of her claims toward equality for women, she writes some pretty old school things about women's role in a marriage. She opens the line of thought by saying that the first decision that a couple must make is, quote, whether they shall keep house or board. She finds that men want to choose to keep house, but young wives often want to board because they don't know how to cook. And then she writes, quote, the final result is that they go to board in some highly genteel establishment where the prices are high in proportion to the gentility and lack of real comfort. And some fine morning, the young gentleman wakes up to the knowledge that he is tied to a wife who doubles his expenses but has added nothing to his happiness, or at any rate nothing to the real value and usefulness of his life. This is a matrimonial swindle. Girls ought not to marry unless they are ready and willing to accept the position of head of a household and capable of making a home what it should be to husband and children. I don't love that.

[Holly Fry]

No, that was a big yikes for me as a girl. We gotta have a talk, Jenny June.

[Tony Tracy V. Wilson]

Meanwhile, I'm like boarding somewhere where someone else is handling all the cooking and cleaning.

[Holly Fry]

Sounds great. Well, it's also funny because it kind of echoes to the ongoing arguments that have been happening throughout my entire life, where there will occasionally be news stories about whether or not you should be eating out at restaurants or not, and whether or not that's wasteful. That's kind of the modern version of this. So it cracks me up a little over. Dramatic and wildly incorrect takes aside, this book is overall pretty practical, even though sometimes it's outdated. And I don't mean in terms of social mores, but like, ingredients and stuff are not things we would use today. But in the introduction, one of the notes that really struck me was that there were not, at the time actually many cookbooks written by women, so there wasn't a lot of information on the practicalities of planning meals while also running a household. And this seeks to Fill that gap. One of the genuinely great pieces of advice that Jenny June offers specifically for setting up a kitchen is that you should not buy a bunch of stuff to set up your kitchen right away because, quote, it is easy to add more when experience has discovered to you precisely what you want. I need this lesson all day, every day because I will buy everything up front and then be like, I don't use that bacon press. She also recommends buying the nicest kitchen implements that you can afford because they will last forever. There is also a thing that just cracked me up and today would not fly. There's a small section of the book titled Label Children, and it just reads, quote, into the crowns of the hats or bonnets of little children sew a square of writing paper stating age and residence. This will save them from any danger of being lost.

[Tony Tracy V. Wilson]

I was like, what if the hat gets lost?

[Holly Fry]

I know. I have so many questions about the feasibility of this approach.

[Tony Tracy V. Wilson]

Yeah, I mean, I see no, no problem with, you know, putting the label with the child's name and maybe some contact info in there. But I don't think it's a solution to the child being lost. Just the hat.

[Holly Fry]

Yeah.

[Tony Tracy V. Wilson]

Anyway, Jenny June notes that no book is perfect and that hers is no exception. Quote, it is not claimed for the present volume by the author that it fully meets the necessities of the case or has satisfactorily accomplished its task even within the modest limits assigned to. Is one thing to think how something may be done and another thing to do it. But it is claimed that the object of the work has been constantly kept in view, that it has been executed lovingly, with a strong appreciation of the benefit and pleasure to be derived from good cooking, from the intermingling of the finer with the grosser elements, with a pleasant remembrance of good times spent in the kitchen, and with an earnest wish to make these duties seem attractive to the conscientious young wives who would willingly perform their part if they but knew how.

[Holly Fry]

So now we come to a pivotal moment. In 1869, Charles Dickens was scheduled to speak at the Press Club of New York. This included a private dinner at Delmonico's, and Jane, like many other people, wanted to attend. But there was a problem. A news write up about the event read, quote, some ladies of literary proclivities asked for invitations and got themselves snubbed by the journalists who were on the committee of invitations. Apparently, Horace Greeley, who was running this event, actually wanted the women invited, but the committee refused to admit the women. There is a Whole lot of copy in accounts and newspapers about how the snub actually has to do with the men wanting to be able to smoke cigars, which they would not be able to do if women were present. Jenny June wrote about the snub in her column, and then other papers featured responses to her, many of which were largely condescending.

[Tony Tracy V. Wilson]

When Jane wrote about this series of events in a book almost 20 years later, she indicated that at first she had been allowed an invitation after applying for one through her husband, but once she had, other women started doing the same thing, and that was when the trouble started. She noted in that account that there was a condition applied just a couple of days out from the event that if the women could find enough other women willing to pay the $15 fee for the event, they could still come but that close to the dinner, it was going to be impossible to meet that requirement. And everybody knew it. So the women took it as an affront.

[Holly Fry]

Yeah, the. The logic, and I'm using air quotes behind it, was like, oh, if just a few ladies come, they'll feel so out of place and it will be miserable. They need a whole group of women, and then they'll be more comfortable. But $15 was an expensive dinner at the time. That's an expensive ticket for people to scrounge up at last minute. So everybody kind of knew this was meant to be an exclusionary qualifier. Jane, who seems to have just generally not have been comfortable being angry about a problem without trying to solve it, decided to create her own women's only group. And that is how the group Sorosis was born. At a meeting with several other women just a few days after that Dickens dinner, Jane told everyone that her goal was to, quote, supply the want of unity and secular organization among women. The women that were there agreed that this was a wonderful idea, and they all started to brainstorm what exactly this could be. They didn't want the group to be too focused on any single interest in ideology. So even names that borrowed from literature, for example, were dismissed in an effort to make the group, in Jane's own words, quote, hospitable to women of different minds, degrees, and habits of work and thought. So some of the names that had been suggested included just Women's League Sphinx, which I sort of love. The idea being that it was slightly mysterious. Columbia, which they dismissed because they said it was too pedestrian and. And hackneyed. And then Blue Stocking Club, which is a literary reference, which got vetoed for that reason. Jane looked through a lot of books and dictionaries in an effort to find the perfect name. And she later wrote that she found the word cirrhosis in a botanical dictionary. The word refers to a fleshy fruit that requires multiple flowers to develop. This is one of those things where when you read write ups about the forming of this group, there are often explainers of what the name means and how it happened that are in no way reflective of what Jane herself wrote about how she found it. But Jane took this to be, quote, full of gracious meaning. And a day later, the first iteration of the group was organized with just 12 members. Poet Alice Carey was elected its first president. And their first order of business was to send out invitations to potential new members to a lunch to be held for them at Delmonico's. And the day of the luncheon, they went from 12 members to 50.

[Tony Tracy V. Wilson]

Before long, cirrhosis had chapters in major cities around the country, and soon smaller cities and towns had them as well. The goal was always to help women professionally and socially. That was the goal of all the chapters, above all else. While leadership was often asked what they were doing for various causes, the response was that they helped their members individually. Occasionally, though they did raise funds for charity. But they never adopted any one cause as a special focus.

[Holly Fry]

We'll talk about this on behind the Scenes. But there was a fascinating amount of news coverage of the founding of Cirrhosis. And it's part of why it did spread so quickly was that people knew a lot about it very fast. Some of those were those write ups were not kind, but it still got the word out that it existed. And while many chapters of Cirrhosis were popping up seemingly everywhere, something else happened. There were suddenly a lot of other women's clubs forming. Many of them sought a more focused mission or identity than the more generalized setup of Cirrhosis. But so many of them were patterned on its structure and the way it worked almost exactly. And almost all of them were focused on some form of women's equality or betterment.

[Tony Tracy V. Wilson]

After we hear from the sponsors that keep Stuff youf Missed in History Class going, we will talk about how Jane became the sole breadwinner for the family and also how her work with women's clubs continued to expand.

[Sponsor/Advertiser Voice]

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[Holly Fry]

Listen to your elders, honey. You might know them from their viral videos, but now the old Gays pull back the curtain on their brand new podcast Silver Linings with the Old Gays, brought to you in partnership with iHeart's Ruby Studio and Veeve Healthcare. With over 300 years of experience between them, hosts Robert, Mick, Bill and Jesse serve four lifetimes of wisdom when it comes to love, sex, community and whatever else they've got on the gay agenda. Listen into these fabulous friends swap stories exploring how queer life has evolved over the decades and the silver linings they've collected along the way. Each episode dives into hot topics from safe sex and online dating to untangling Gen Z lingo, as well as insights on how music, art and fashion show up in queer culture. So check out Silver Linings, a show about how pride ages like fine wine. Available on the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts, you can make a difference in someone's life, including your own. With a job in home care. These jobs offer flexible schedules, health care, retirement options and free training. They also provide paid time off and opportunities for overtime. Visit oregonhomecarejobs.com to learn. Learn more and apply. That's oregonhomecarejobs.com Wouldn't it be great to never buy gas again? EVs are as easy to charge as your phone, and they are a perfect addition to your everyday life. Most people are only driving about 40 miles a day, and most EVs can handle 200 to 400 miles of range on a charge. And there are hundreds of EV models available today, so there's something perfect for every lifestyle and budget. I drive an ev. I've had it for a couple of years. It's my favorite car I've ever owned. It is so fun to drive. The pickup is incredible. It's super agile and it is easy to maintain. The way forward is electric. Learn [e-mail] Though cirrhosis took on a life of its own and kept Jane quite busy, she continued to work as a writer and she was very successful at it. Which is good because her husband left his work in 1877 to promote positivism and to found the New York Church of Humanity. As you may recall, early in the episode, her brother John described David as being a radical in religion, and this is part of it. However, he was not able to actively participate in that endeavor for very long because he soon had a really serious downturn in his health and was eventually bedridden.

[Tony Tracy V. Wilson]

Written throughout all of this, Jane kept writing and working on activist projects. She purchased a half interest in go's Ladies book and worked at trying to keep it afloat, but eventually that magazine folded. In 1886, she published Cirrhosis, Its Origin in History, in which she talked about the beginnings of the club in its first 20 years.

[Holly Fry]

David died in 1889, and it seemed that after his passing, Jane really rededicated herself to her women's groups, perhaps as a way to just stay busy. The same year she was widowed, she started the New York Women's Press Club. The following year, recognizing how large the women's club movement had become, she founded the General Federation of Women's Clubs to serve as an umbrella organization that could assist with all sorts of support needs and connect groups to one another. She later wrote that it had grown out of a desire to have a 21st anniversary event, for Cirrhosis would be a convention of clubs, and she also founded a new magazine called the Cycle, or sometimes the Women's Cycle, which tickles me a little, which was part of the federation's offerings.

[Tony Tracy V. Wilson]

In 1891, she wrote a book called Thrown on Her Own Resources or what Girls Can Do. This is written as a resource for a young woman who's newly in a position to provide for herself. Crowley writes, quote, this may or may not be a hardship. Whether it is or not depends wholly upon the amount and quality of your practical and mental resources. Active work is the necessity of a healthful life. Are you equipped for your part in the battle? Have you courage and energy to carry out a purpose? This book is definitely filled with ableist language, but it also breaks some myths about what would be appropriate jobs jobs for young women. One passage reads, quote, teaching you do not know anything well enough to teach it. Sewing. That means slow starvation. Business no capital to begin with. The situation does look discouraging. Never mind, try again. I just found it a little patronizing. She also points out that a job doesn't belong to you, that you will have to continue to work hard to keep it once you have it. But she adds the positive note that everyone, everyone has something they're good at, and they can start there and build on it and gain respect. Over time. She'd shifted away from preaching the importance of being a good wife and mother to promoting the idea that women could be entirely focused on their careers and contribute to society in that way.

[Holly Fry]

In the late 1890s, Crowley started writing a more comprehensive history of women's clubs in the U.S. titled the History of the Women's Club Movement in America. The book's dedication, which was a reproduction of the words as written in June's own hand, read Quote this book has been a labor of love, and it is lovingly dedicated to the 20th century woman by one who has seen and shared in the struggles, hopes, and aspirations of the woman in the 19th century. That book was released in 1898, and in it she gave particular focus to Cirrhosis, of course, but also New England Women's Club, which is often invoked as a contender with cirrhosis for first women's club in the U.S. friends and Council of Quincy, Illinois, the fortnightly club of Chicago, the Civic Club of Philadelphia, and Working Girls Clubs. Of the Working Girls Clubs, she wrote, quote this convention was a revelation to a public that had only known working girls through the whining and crying of sentimental sympathizers who had nothing in common with working girls themselves.

[Tony Tracy V. Wilson]

In 1898, the year her history of women's clubs was published, Jane, who was 69, fell and broke her hip. Recovery took a long time, and she consulted doctors throughout the United States, Northeast, and in Europe to try to regain some of her health like it was from before the fall. But this did not really seem to work, although there's not much information about the specific In October of 1900, she wrote a resignation letter to the New York Women's Press Club. It read in part, it was really a grief to me not to be able to meet you individually and collectively before leaving to be absent the entire season. The accident which disabled me for the summer threatens to cripple me for the winter also, and in this condition of dependence and general disability, it seemed best to go where I could have seclusion and the care of some member of my own family. I resign my place among you with less reluctance, because the Women's Press Club is now strong and well able to guard its own interests and direct its own affairs. Remember that a well rounded club is an epitome of the world, that it never can and never ought to be perfect according to any one individual's idea of perfection. For everyone's ideal is different and it is the unity in this diversity which constitutes the the spiritual life of the club. As the soul animates and inspires the body, exalt the club. Bring your best to the front. Extinguish personal aims. Mind not all the little picking and carping of human gadflies whose desire to extract blood is perhaps a survival of their species and an evidence of their unfitness for human companionship.

[Holly Fry]

Jane died on September 23, 1901. She may have had a stroke just before her death. That's a detail that appears only in a couple of accounts, but it's not clear where they got that information and if one account was just parroting what another had said. She was buried next to her husband David in Lakewood, N.J. two weeks after.

[Tony Tracy V. Wilson]

Jane's death, the Cirrhosis Club and the Woman's Press Club met at the Waldorf Astoria to remember Jane and her contributions to the women's movement. The meeting was also open to the public and many women's groups from the New York area prepared letters to be read. At the meeting, the then president of.

[Holly Fry]

Cirrhosis, Demis Dennison, read a letter that included the following passage about Jane. Quote, Mrs. Crowley had that particular sense of fellowship among women most unusual. If you will stop to think in our language, you will find that there are no words to express that thought. Thought except those that are masculine. Fellowship, brotherhood, fraternity. Mrs. Crowley, perhaps more than any other woman in the world, had the sense of what fellowship or fraternity meant in women. And although she sometimes may have been called an idealist or sentimentalist, it is recognized by many women that this thought must be abiding. For in a federation it is the spirit that is current through it that keeps the federation alive.

[Tony Tracy V. Wilson]

Cirrhosis printed a memorial book of her letters and writings which included a biography written by her brother. He wrote this of his sister, quote, the most interesting and potent fact within the range of humid knowledge is personality. And in the person of Jane Cunningham Crowley, Jenny June, a potency was apparent which has affected the social life of more women perhaps than any other single controlling factor of the same period.

[Holly Fry]

One of the really interesting passages from that biography kind of seeks to identify the source of Jane's influential personality. So John wrote, quote, what was the secret of Jenny June's charm and power, not scholarship. Let this be said in all sincerity. How greatly she appreciated the scholars advantages was well known to her intimate friends. But these advantages did not belong to her. He also noted that it wasn't wealth or social rank because though she made a good living, she was not an aristocrat by any means. He continued, quote, Nor did Jenny June pattern her work according to the advice or after the example of any one man or woman. There was no example by which she could be guided. Woman was a new factor in journalism, and Jenny June was a new woman, a new creation. I cannot too fully emphasize the fact that she was a new and original personality in journalism. She was unalterably true to her divine womanly ideals of woman's nature, place in society and redemptive work. I say redemptive work, for it was one of her deepest convictions that woman's function was to be the saving salt of all life. Jenny June's recognition of this vital truth brought her into sympathy with a worldwide movement. The new woman is no monstrosity, no sporadic creature born of intellectual fermentation and unrest, but the rise and development of a better, nobler type of womanhood world over. Jenny June's eminent distinction was that she was a leader in this movement.

[Tony Tracy V. Wilson]

When Jane died, there were still Cirrhosis chapters all over the country. A lot of them were shuttered by the mid-1950s, but some have hung on into the 21st century. A lot of them were absorbed into other groups or their members moved on to other clubs when their Cirrhosis chapter closed.

[Holly Fry]

The General Federation of Women's Clubs, though, is still going strong today. Its mission is stated as, quote, the General Federation of Women's Clubs is an international women's organization dedicated to community improvement by enhancing the lives of others through volunteer service. And that is Jane Cunningham Crowley, AKA Jenny June.

[Tony Tracy V. Wilson]

Do you also have some listener mail?

[Holly Fry]

I do, and this one delights me because it's one of those things that I have actually meant to mention on the show a number of times or thought maybe I should, and then I didn't. This is from our listener Chandra, who writes, hi Holly and Tracy. This is mostly for Holly. After the sewing related episode, a friend texted me to ask if I sew, and I initially replied, no, I am not a sewer. And then I realized that's not what I mean because of course it's spelled like sewer. But that got me thinking what the current term is for a person who sews. Seamstress seems outdated and two gender Taylor doesn't seem quite right. My husband suggested Seamstrix. A friend said Stitch Wizard. But I'd really like to know Holly, how do you refer to yourself in terms of being a person who sews as pet tax, I've attached a picture of our three cats and one of our guinea pig. Although there are two white cats, the middle cat is unrelated and the white cat close to the camera and the tortie are brother and sister. They're in our walled in yard where they're safe but can enjoy the outdoors and chase mice as they are in the picture. We have a guinea pig too, despite being a middle aged couple with no kids. Because piggies are adorable and they're a much more fun way to dispose of vegetable scraps than a boring old compost pile. She hangs out in my office with me while I work from home. Love the show and I'm looking forward to October and the Halloween related episodes that come up then. These cats are so cute. And listen, guinea pigs are adorable. I believe you. As for the sewing thing, you instantly brought me back to the second grade without probably meaning to Chandra, because my second grade teacher, Ms. Hollis, who was a wonder of a human being, I loved her desperately, was the first person who really opened my eyes to the fact that you cannot call someone a sewer because it's spelled like sewer and nobody wants that. At the time, that being the 70s seamstress was pretty frequently used. Today I like either Sewist or Stitcher. Those are the ones I tend to use. They seem the least gendered and least loaded and also the most accurate, frankly, because sometimes, you know, it's you're right, it's not the same as being a tailor because they really specialize in specific kinds of garments. Those are the ones that I like. I also like Stitch Witch, but that's just me for fun. Or I'm sure there's another one that isn't appropriate for our show, but it rhymes with Stitch Witch, which you can put it together from there. I love that you brought this up because it really was such a fun memory of being in my second grade classroom and learning that you really shouldn't say someone is a sewer. If you would like to write to us, you could do that@history podcastheartradio.com you can also subscribe to the show if you have not done that already. Just about anywhere you listen to, your Face Shows.

[Tony Tracy V. Wilson]

Stuff youf Missed in History Class is a production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.

[Sponsor/Advertiser Voice]

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[Danielle Fishel]

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Effortless.

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