Occasional Papers

Occasional Papers are published by the Club for sole distribution to Club members and associates. This series of papers was initiated at the recommendation of the History Committee. Contributions generally deal with the Club, with the Clubhouse and its furnishings and artwork, or with Club members and their contributions to the sciences, literature and arts, and to society as a whole. In 2012 the scope of the series was expanded to include a McGovern lecture.

Members interested in contributing to the series should review the guidelines and then contact the chair of the History Committee, Marc Rothenberg, or a member of the Editorial Panel, Stanley Cloud, Judy Holoviak, Gerald Kauvar, Ian McDonald, Thomas Veblen.

Cosmos Club Legacies: The Land and Townsend Decorative Arts by Laurence J. Aurbach (January 31, 2013) (PDF 6 MB) –
Published by the Cosmos Club January 31, 2013

Download high-resolution versions of images in Cosmos Club Legacies: The Land and Townsend Decorative Arts, Occasional Paper No. 4. Some of these images may be protected by copyright; for permission to use, please contact the Club Secretary through the Cosmos Club staff. 

Fig. 1. 2121 Massachusetts Avenue in 1950
Fig. 2. 1957 map of properties north of the Club
Fig. 3. Library fireplace 1915 (Frances Benjamin Johnston)
Fig. 4. Current fireplace (Richard Shanklin ’89)
Fig. 5. Gilded fireplace, Blois Chateau, Loire Valley, France
Fig. 6. Peaslee plan 1952
Fig. 7. Columns next to stable 1915 (Johnston)
Fig. 8. Columns in 1950
Fig. 9. Columns in Garden Dining Room (Shanklin)
Fig. 10. Detail of column in Garden Dining Room (Shanklin)
Fig. 11. Columns in East Garden (Shanklin)
Fig. 12. Wall fountain on stable 1915 (Johnston)
Fig. 13. Griffons and circular wellhead in West Garden allee (Shanklin)
Fig. 14. Square wellhead in West Garden allee (Shanklin)
Fig. 15. Lions on ballroom terrace (Shanklin)
Fig. 16. Stone bench East Garden (Shanklin)
Fig. 17. Tacca Fountain in Florence, Italy (Johnston)
Fig. 18. Club’s Tacca Fountain with flowers, about 1902 (Fredrick Olmsted)
Fig. 19. Tacca Fountain in East Garden 1952
Fig. 20. Restored fountain in East Garden 1992

The Fiery Sword of Lafayette Square by Arthur Herman (January 8, 2013) (PDF)
Published by the Cosmos Club January 8, 2013

The Life of Honor: McGovern Award Lecture by K. Anthony Appiah (January 5, 2012) (PDF)
Published by the Cosmos Club August 30, 2012

Desegregating the Cosmos Club: A Talk by John Hope Franklin (May 25, 2007)
With an Introduction by the History Committee (PDF)
Published by the Cosmos Club September 1, 2010

Guidelines for Occasional Paper Submissions

Editorial Scope:  Items to be published within this series of occasional papers will be generally of a nontechnical nature and will pertain to the Cosmos Club, to its Clubhouse, furnishings and artwork, to Club members and their contributions to the sciences, literature, and arts, and to society as a whole.

Length:  Not more than 3000 words, plus photographs, figures, graphs, and tables limited to a reasonable number to support the content of the paper. (For reference, a typical full page of the Bulletin contains about 550 words.) Items of appropriate length for the Bulletin that are within this editorial scope are expected to be submitted to the Bulletin Editor for the Editor’s consideration. The Editor of the Bulletin shall have full autonomy in determining the selection, editing, and positioning of articles in that publication.

Distribution:  These occasional papers will be made available to Club members through the member-only portion of the Club’s Website. The format will be designed so that members may print copies for their personal use from the web. At the discretion of the Club Secretary or President, a limited number of commemorative copies may be produced in hard copy from the electronic version. Distribution by other means is beyond the scope of these guidelines and requires a separate proposal for budgetary purposes and separate approval of that budget.

Archiving:  These papers will be archived in electronic format as well as in hard copy.

Copyright policy:  Copyright will be retained by the author so long as the Club is granted the rights necessary to permit it to distribute the item in any medium and at any time and to include the item in any compilations published by the Club. Thus, authors will be free to submit the same or similar material for publication elsewhere, such as in a professional journal. Authors may transfer full rights to the Club if they wish. When published, the paper will indicate the copyright ownership of the item; in most cases it is expected that this will be ownership by the author. If the author transfers ownership to the Club, the Club will not unreasonably withhold permission for republication by another organization.

Decision body:  The final decision to publish under these guidelines will rest with the Occasional Papers Editorial Panel. This panel is appointed by the Board of Management and is charged with ensuring that the material published in this series meets the high standards expected of Club programs and activities and that the guidelines have been followed. Panel members will serve three-year terms. At least one member of the Panel will be a voting member of the Board of Management. The Panel will work under the general direction of the Club Secretary. The Panel will have full editorial decision-making responsibility for items that meet these guidelines. At the request of the Board of Management, the Panel may serve as an editorial panel for other items that go beyond these guidelines but that do not fit within the scope of the Bulletin.