Canada's Centennial Minton Bowl
Date1967
Credit LineGift of Nancy Geddes Poole, London, Ontario, 2017.
Object number2017.034.001
Label TextThe members of the Cipher Club purchased this bowl to mark 100th anniversary of Canada and the 10th anniversary of the club. The Cipher Club was founded in 1957 as a women’s investment club and was the women’s version of the men’s investment club, “The 32s.” It had 10 members, the original being Eula White, OBE, Shirley Hare, Agnes Kennedy, Alice Mackenzie, Monnie Elwood, Marjorie Blackburn, Agnes DuMoulin, Florence Buchanan, Adel Reid, and Nancy Poole. They each brought $10 to the table and they invested the $100. They met monthly at each other’s homes for lunch, drinks, and cigarettes. Nancy emphasized that the club and the meetings of the members was a product of the 50s. They were women of leisure, who had help in the kitchen, and who lived in what Nancy called the remnants of a pre-war culture. But they also discussed the issues of the day, particularly politics, city issues and what was needed in the community.
The Cipher Club came out of a group of six women who participated in a CKSL contest to win a trip to England. The lost the contest, which was fine with them because the winners were a group of War Brides, but they realized that they worked so well together that they felt a club should be the outcome. Nancy was the youngest member and says she learned a great deal from the older women, particularly Eula White. White had set up a wartime service club at the Y, which welcomed all service personnel passing through London. She organized sending men to the homes of Londoners and she organized volunteers. White was awarded the OBE for this work.
NameBowl, Decorative
