Granddaughters Club: Celebrating
Our Legacy...100 years

Tell Us Your Legacy

Granddaughters Club general body meetings will be held on the first and third Mondays of every month at 6:30 p.m.

Purchase your Granddaughters Club T-shirt at the Spelman College Book Store. Get it today for only $18. Order Online or call (404) 523-8520!

History

Founded in 1910 by Lucy Houghton Upton (Dean and Acting President, 1891-1910) the Granddaughters Club was originally comprised of students whose mothers and aunts attended Spelman. Membership in the club is now extended to students whose mothers, grandmothers, aunts, sisters, and cousins who attended Spelman.

Purpose

The purpose of the Club is to study and preserve Spelman’s history and traditions. One of the officers of the Club is the custodian who serves as the archivist of the College. The Granddaughters are the keepers of all information connected with memorial names of buildings, rooms, trees, plants, furniture or permanent possessions. They are to pass on to new students the traditions of the school, and especially to keep solemn the promise made that no Spelman woman would ever bring reproach upon her name.

Activities

The Granddaughters made their first public appearance during the Founders Day celebration in 1910. Each Founders Day, members of the Granddaughters Club give a symbolic presentation, usually a choral reading followed by decoration of plaques that honor the founders, and recitation of the Granddaughters’ Pledge.

Until the 1970s, the traditional program was held in Howe Hall before the formal Founders Day convocation in Sisters Chapel. When the plaques honoring the founders were moved to Sisters Chapel, the traditional ceremony of the Granddaughters Club was incorporated into the formal convocation.