The 1922 conference of the International Federation of University Women (IFUW now GWI) at Reid Hall in Paris provided the British Federation of University Women (BFUW, now BFWG) with a platform to launch their fund raising for Crosby Hall, the British Federation’s international hall of residence in London. As Caroline Spurgeon told conference delegates “… everyone who had come to Paris would realise… the value and attraction of such a centre as the American University Women’s Club in Paris … for the university women of the world” (IFUW, 1922, p.19). The talk will discuss the “value and attraction” of Reid Hall which resulted in promises of donations to the Crosby Hall fund. It will trace the roles of M.Carey Thomas, Dean of Bryn Mawr College, Pennsylvania, in acquiring Reid Hall for the American Federation of University Women and that of her cousin Alys Russell, who played an important role in fund raising for Crosby Hall and who also travelled regularly to Paris on behalf of Reid Hall’s American governors to oversee Reid Hall in its early days as a centre for University women. The talk will highlight some of the key differences in the remit, ownership, financing and management of Reid Hall and Crosby Hall, which would eventually lead to Reid Hall becoming Columbia University’s European study centre (where the French Federation of University Women continues to be located) and Crosby Hall becoming a private residence
Joyce Goodman, The “Value and Attraction …of a Centre like Reid Hall” : Reid Hall, Crosby Hall and University Women of the World, online presentation to the Winchester Women Graduates Association, 5 October 2021
Image, Personal archive, photo Joyce Goodman
