The purpose of this Oberlin women’s literary and social club, limited to 20 members, was “the study of Parliamentary Law, or other subjects of interest, and to interest ourselves in the Questions of the day.” At each meeting members responded to role call with quotations from famous people. Active members included Emma Mason, Martha H. Sperry, Emma A. Haylor, and Emily H. Lyman. Many were also members of Pansy Chapter #34, the Oberlin chapter of Order of the Eastern Star, founded in 1894 as the women’s auxiliary to the Masons.

The activities of the Finitimi Society illustrated the growing interest on the part of women in politics and civic affairs in the early years of the twentieth century in Oberlin. The records in this collection document the period from 1902 to 1926.