Eliza Kirtley Royle

Common Roles/Uncommon Lives »

A leader in the women’s club movement, Royle founded and was the first president of the Ladies Literary Club, the first Utah women’s club affiliated with the General Federation of Women’s Clubs. Born in Columbia, Missouri, Royle moved in 1871 to Salt Lake City, where she remained for the next forty years. Prior to founding the Ladies Literary Club, Royle was a member of the Blue Tea – Utah’s first women’s club. Upon her death in 1910, the Salt Lake Tribune heralded Royle as “one of Utah’s most prominent pioneers and one of the most brilliant women of the West.”