Our history
Tennessee women have been serving their communities together since before the state federation existed.
Before there was a federation
On November 20, 1885, a group of Knoxville women organized Ossoli Circle, named for the American writer Margaret Fuller, Marchesa d'Ossoli. It was the first federated woman's club in the South. When the General Federation of Women's Clubs was founded in 1890, Ossoli Circle was a charter member.
GFWC Ossoli Circle is still an active GFWC Tennessee club. Its Knoxville clubhouse is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Some of today's member clubs are older than the state federation itself. The Tullahoma Woman's Club was organized in 1889, seven years before Tennessee clubs joined together to form a federation at all.
1896: twenty clubs become a federation
Twenty Tennessee clubs met in Knoxville in 1896 and organized a state federation. A century later, in 1996, the organization held its Centennial Convention.
The federation has carried three names over that span. It was founded as the Tennessee Federation of Women's Clubs. By the 1980s it was GFWC of Tennessee, Inc. Today it is GFWC Tennessee.
A gown for every governor's wife
Between 1980 and 1982, a committee led by Lucy Hollis of Tullahoma hand-sewed exact replicas of the inaugural gowns worn by the wives of six Tennessee governors: Alexander, Dunn, Cooper, Ellington, Clement, and Blanton. The finished dolls entered the permanent collection of the Tennessee State Museum in Nashville, where a piece of GFWC Tennessee's handwork has stood alongside the state's own history ever since.
1885
Ossoli Circle organized in Knoxville, November 20.
1889
Tullahoma Woman's Club organized, seven years before the state federation.
1890
GFWC founded. Ossoli Circle is a charter member.
1896
Twenty clubs organize a Tennessee federation.
1980–82
Clubwomen create the First Lady Dolls for the Tennessee State Museum.
1996
Centennial Convention.
Today
32 clubs, about 1,100 members, five districts.
Read the full histories
Our state has book-length histories, written by the clubwomen who lived them, covering the federation from its founding through 2002.
Please contact us if you would like a printed copy of these historical documents.
The state federation started by those 20 clubs in 1896 is still here, in 32 vibrant clubs across Tennessee.