Mary Clark Brittingham

Mary Lucy Clark, a native of Portland, WI, was born to James Adams and Mary Hughes Clark on December 5, 1868. Mary attended the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Although the University first admitted female students in 1863, it was not yet commonplace for women to attend college. At Wisconsin, Mary was a member of the Gamma Phi Beta sorority and president of her class. She was also a member of the women's Laurea Literary Society. Literary societies at that time were concerned with the arts of debate and oratory, and forensic competitions were often held between rivaling societies, focusing on contemporary issues. Laurea debated the only other female literary society, Castalia, as well as the male societies. Mary received a Bachelors of Letters in the "Modern Classical Course" in 1889, along with 71 other graduating seniors. She married Thomas later that year, on her 21st birthday.

Mary was actively involved with the Women's Club of Madison. Established in 1893, it was attended by the wives of the city's most prominent figures. The club's membership lists invoke a modern-day map of Madison: Atwood, Olin, Vilas, Proudfit, Slichter, La Follette, Mills.¹ Privilege had armed these women with more education and free time (in the form of nannies and servants) than their contemporaries, but they were still shut out of the political and business spheres, as dictated by strict social mores. They were forced to employ less traditional means to achieve their agenda.

The Women's Club began as an educational forum—the group's programs were at first literary and musical—but it soon developed into a surprisingly effective vehicle for social and civic reform. In no small part, the club's successes lay in the willingness of its members to use their very real, if unofficial and domestic, power over the most prominent men in the city.