Pond Lily Art and Literary Club Collection

The Pond Lily Art and Literary Club was formed in 1901 by sixteen-year-old Augustavia Young, as a means to challenge local newspapers' negative portrayals of women of color. The club's first meeting was held in Denver's City Park, and was named after the lilies floating in the pond there.

Initially the club consisted of high school students who honed talents such as playing instruments, reciting poetry, and reviewing books in order to present public examples that would help create a better opinion of colored people. As declared by Pond Lily's first president, Florence Walden, the goal of the club was to "bring the women of Denver into communication for closer acquaintance, mutual helpfulness, and the promotion of higher social and moral conditions."

Club members were expected to pay dues, create a number of pieces of artwork per year, act as hostesses for rotating meetings, and to conduct themselves according to the standards outlined in the bylaws. Misconduct was fined anywhere from $.02 for not having a biblical quotation prepared for roll call, to $1.00 for not having a finished piece of artwork for the state association conference.

The Pond Lily Art and Literature Club was a member of the National Association of Colored Women, and was one of only four such clubs formed between 1901 and 1925 that was still active in the late 1990s.