Quadratic Club
The Quadratic Club, or the Q.C., was the first women’s literary organization on campus, founded in 1872, two years after the first woman enrolled at Michigan. The inaugural meeting was in Lucy Maynard Salmon’s room with three members; the club eventually grew in size and scope.1 The Q.C. described itself as a club for literary culture and social intercourse, founded to increase the number of opportunities for academic discussions for women at the University.2 The governing body was autonomous from that of the University, which gave the women freedom as to what could be discussed. Another function of the Q.C. was to bring women students from all different class standings together as equals, since class rivalries among freshmen, sophomores, juniors, and seniors were prevalent at the time.
1. Olive Louis San Anderson, An American Girl, and Her Four Years in a Boys' College (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan, 2006), 213.
2. Ibid.