The Camden Garden Club History
Founding member of the Camden Garden Club, Mary Elizabeth Parker Talbot photographed near her home in 1898.
THE BEGINNING
On a late winter’s day in 1915, Mary Elizabeth Parker Talbot asked 20 of her friends to gather together at her home on Central Street to discuss the possibility of forming a garden club. At subsequent meetings, they discussed whether the club’s purpose should be civic betterment or the promotion of the interest in gardening.
Many activities were proposed such as introducing garden education into the schools, reserving a shelf at the library for gardening books, lectures and talks, exterminating caterpillars and sending flowers to the sick.
“Red Chimneys,” home of Mrs. Parker Talbot and the location of the first meeting of the newly formed Camden Garden Club.
FOUNDING MEMBERS
After a few months, a constitution was adopted, the club was named the Camden Garden Club and Miss Emma Alden was elected president. Along with Mrs. Talbot, other founding members were: Anne Alden, Carrie Hodgman, Ida Carpenter, Julie Patterson, Alice Tufts, Augusta Curtis, Florence Hayward, Myra Montgomery, Ella Perry, Kate Sherman and Emma Shepherd.