“In one of the corporations [the Lawrence] of this city, about eight years ago, might have been seen, on a summer evening, a company of four or five young females, who through the day had labored at their several employments in some one of the factories connected with the corporation. Perhaps they were not ambitious above others of their sex.... But wishing to improve the talents which God had given them, they proposed the formation of a society for mutual improvement. An evening was appointed for the proposed purpose; and having invited a few others to join them, they met at the time appointed.... A president, vice-president, and secretary were chosen; a constitution was drafted, and by-laws formed, to which each of the members affixed her name.... At length a circle on a more extensive scale was formed by a gentleman of this city, and a plan conceived of bringing before the world the productions of inexperienced females; of showing that intellect and intelligence might be found even among factory operatives. It was then that _The Offering_ was published; and many of those who were present at the first meeting of our Improvement Circle were contributors to its pages.” At the first meeting, Miss Curtis delivered a stirring address, in which she stated the object and scope of the organization, and the urgent need that existed for all working-women to make an effort to improve their minds. The club met fortnightly, and each member contributed articles in prose and verse, which were read at the meetings, and subjected to the criticism of those present. In answer to a letter of enquiry, Miss Curtis writes: “I do not remember who composed the first circle, not even the names of the officers; but I think Emmeline Larcom was secretary. Farther than that I can only say, I was not anything. I never would hold any office,--office brings trammels. I believe I wrote and read the address of which Maria speaks. Louisa and Maria Currier, Emmeline Larcom, Harriet Lees, and possibly Ann Carter were there.... If you want to know whose brain conceived the idea, I suspect it was I. I was always daring; the other five were modest and retiring.” And thus was formed the first woman’s literary club in this country,--a remote first cause of the hundreds which now make up the General Federation of Women’s Clubs, since it bears the same relation to that flourishing institution as the native crab does to the grafted tree. Some of these early club, or improvement circle women either are, or have been, members of similar organizations in the localities in which they live, and have done their best to incorporate into the constitution of the modern woman’s club the idea of “improving the talents God has given them.” And if they have continued to live up to this doctrine, no doubt they have attained, if not to all they may have desired, at least to all they were capable of achieving, according to their limitations.