The Junta Club was founded in 1882 by Charles D. Scully, who with nine other men, created a forum to promote the discussion of issues relating to literature, politics, current events, and other topics of interest. The founders of the Junta framed a comprehensive constitution which included directions on the frequency and time of meetings, the appropriate food which would be provided to those in attendance, and a dress code which mandated formal attire to all meetings. The club met monthly during the fall, winter and spring and discussed a single subject each meeting. For each meeting, one member would serve as the host, one would prepare a lecture on the subject and another would serve as an alternate. The member preparing the lecture would often need to conduct a great deal of research on that subject because the subjects were selected independent of the members presenting them. The topics of the speeches were picked well over a year in advance with a rotating assignment to members to prepare a lecture for that meeting.
The membership of the Junta was formed primarily of businessmen, doctors, lawyers, university professors and administrators, and architects. In its early years, the club drew from the elite Pittsburgh Society as evidenced by membership held by H. C. Frick, and Andrew Mellon. In later years, the membership of the Junta was taken more from intellectual circles from the university and museum ranks including historian Robert Alberts, and conservationist M. Graham Netting. The Junta maintained a relatively diverse membership which promoted discussions and speeches on a wide variety of topics including world affairs, academic issues (especially history) and personal accounts of vacations and expeditions. Membership in the Junta was strictly limited to 35 men, and the leadership of the club was required in the bylaws to change every year. The meetings of the Junta were originally held monthly at the home of one of its members but soon became a fixture at the University Club in Pittsburgh's Oakland neighborhood. Around the club's thirtieth anniversary in 1912, the club adopted a new focus and molded their organization after Benjamin Franklin's Junto. Franklin's Junto held as its main objectives the stimulation of the mind with formal contact with other brilliant men and nourishing the intellectual spirit by partaking in manly fellowship. In honor of Franklin, the Junta moved their annual banquet to a date close to Franklin's birthday.
The Junta records include correspondence, financial records, minutes, programs, and speeches. While there are occasional gaps in the meeting minutes, these records provide a comprehensive documentation of the club's activities and organization. The minutes include attendance, membership information, business discussed and information relating to the specific subject discussed at the meetings. For the most part, early meeting minutes provide detailed accounts of the speeches and the discussions. Later meeting minutes provide less information and often only briefly discuss the topic raised by that evening's meeting. The lack of transcripts of the lectures and discussions of these later meetings are supplemented by the copies of many speeches presented at the Junta from 1942 until 1984. These speeches are arranged chronologically and were prepared by members on a wide variety of topics. While subject entries have been provided for a few major areas of discussion (education, foreign relations, medicine and Benjamin Franklin), these few entries do not fully cover the wide variety of topics raised by members of the Junta. Administrative material, including copies of the constitution and correspondence, primarily documents operational aspects of the Junta, including appointments, recommendations, and resignations of members. Financial records are incomplete and provide only a cursory examination of the club's fiscal health. Included are early bank books and later treasurers reports. Additional financial information may be found in the minutes. Material relating to the banquets held by the Junta primarily includes printed programs. These programs list the meals served, order of the speakers and after 1912, information on or writings by Benjamin Franklin. Yearly topic programs provide an index to the individual meetings and the discussions held there.
The Junta Club Records are housed in ten archival boxes and are arranged alphabetically by folder title.
This collection is open for research.
These materials came in four accessions and were combined into one body of records in 1976.
Acc# 1975.175 Gift of Robert Alberts, (Records. Mr. Alberts was a longtime member of the Junta and gave these records on behalf of the Junta).
Acc# 1975.176 Gift of M. G. Netting, (Records. Mr. Netting was a longtime member of the Junta and gave these records on behalf of the Junta).
Acc# 1975.177 Gift of Frederick Hetzel, (Records. Mr. Hetzel was a longtime member of the Junta and gave these records on behalf of the Junta).
Acc# 1976.308 Gift of Edward Williams, (Records, primarily speeches. Mr. Williams was a longtime member of the Junta and gave these records on behalf of the Junta).
1976
The Records of Junta, 1882-1984, MSS#39, Historical Society of Western Pennsylvania
This collection was processed by Ruth Salisbury Reid in c1976. Records were rearranged and inventory rewritten by Erin Clougherty on August 18, 1993.
Revision and rearrangement for the encoded version of the finding aid provided by Janet Begnoche on November 4, 1999.
Property rights reside with the Historical Society of Western Pennsylvania. Literary rights are retained by the creators of the records and their heirs. For permissions to reproduce or publish, please contact the curator of the Archives.