This area contains a rich selection of minutes, accounts and ephemera that relates to the variety of societies and clubs that have been created by students during their period of study. They were formed to enable students to make connections with others, and to provide relief from studying. Many can be grouped under the following themes:

Debating - The main club that debated philosophy was the Dialectical society. The Church society sought to discuss theological ideas and new thoughts about the church. The Stapeldon Society started out as a debating society but changed over the years to become the mouthpiece on all Exeter College activities

Food and Drink - Adelphi Wine club offered members regular dinners with fine wines and food Literary – reading and critiquing of literature was a strong feature of Exeter College society and there are many that the archive holds material on including the Anonymous and Literary Society, Essay club, Pythian club and Mods Classical society

Performing Arts - A number of shorter-lived musical/dramatic societies such as Kappa club, and Leonids are featured, as well as the longer running Music society and John Ford Dramatic Society, which is now known as Exon.

Sport - Exeter College was one of the earliest Oxford Colleges to have a Boat club from 1824, although the earliest minutes are from 1858. Athletics and Cricket are also strongly featured.

EC/13/1 Adelphi wine club

EC/13/2 Amalgamated clubs

EC/13/3 Anonymous Literary Society

EC/13/4 Athletics club

EC/13/5 Boat club

EC/13/6 Church Society

EC/13/7 Cricket club

Cricket has been another longstanding sport played at Exeter College. These two account ledgers detail the income they were receiving from Central Committee, and then outgoings for payment to 'Rogers' who was upkeeping the grounds where cricket was played. From 1844 until the 1920s Exeter College playing field was based at Cowley. Following the building of a footbridge over the Cherwell, Exeter bought a new field in Marston from Oxford University and in 1924 had it laid out for rugby, hockey, cricket, football and eventually tennis. It was opened on 2 May 1925 with a cricket match between present and past college members.

EC/13/8 Dialectical society

This society was initially created by members of the Rector Roger Marret's class for Literature Humanity. It was decided 24 April 1892 to 'form a society for the discussion of philosophy'. Like many other groups they initially met in each other's rooms. At the first meeting, held only a few days later on 29 April 1892, Roger Marret read a paper Ethics: intellectual and emotional. Of particular note is a questionnaire pinned to the inside of the first ledger by the American Branch of the Society for Physical Research asking for students’ thoughts on the afterlife.

EC/13/9 Essay club

This club, although called the Essay club, mainly produced poetry. They were probably an offshoot club from the larger Stapeldon Society, as many of the poems, plus some essays, feature in the Stapeldon magazine. Their original constitution rules state they meet 4 times in Michaelmas/Hilary terms and 3 times in Trinity. All members had to submit original compositions of essays or poems by the second and last meetings of every term to the 'Critic', who was then expected to read out two of their choosing for the other group members to agree upon submission to the magazine. This provided a platform for poets/writers to hone their literary skills

EC/13/10 Kappa club

This club, formed in 1900, although with a Greek motto of Kaloi Kapdou meaning Good heart, was purely a way of the members to entertain each other. Members met no more than 3 times a term, and were encouraged to sing songs and perform soliloquy to each other. Over time performances were made to other members of Exeter College and by 1901 a whole programme of songs and plays were performed in the main Dining Hall.

EC/13/11 The Leonids

This society was called the Leonids and the rules stated that the object of the club be for 'mental and social improvement'. Members met once a week in each other’s rooms in order to discuss plays but also to perform them to each other or sing songs. Like the Kappa club, which overlapped with this group between 1900-1901, the society went onto perform songs and plays in the Dining Hall to other members of Exeter College.

EC/13/12 Literary society

This society originally began as the Exeter College Junior Shakespeare Society. The purpose of the group was 'reading Shakespeare' and sections of plays that were read at the first meeting were 'As you like it', 'Macbeth' and 'A Midsummers night dream'. Of particular note in the first minute book is a photograph of the original members in 1882, together with a separate list of plays read between 1882-1888. At first only the titles of the plays are given, but over time the society extended their repertoire of reading to all literature. 31 October 1885 the name of the society changed to the Literary Society and critiques of the plays being read by group members started to be included in the minutes

EC/13/13 Mods classical society

This society had similarities to both the Essay club and Dialectical society. As before, members met no more than three times a week in each other rooms to read and discuss their own essays or papers on classical literary themes. An initial meeting was held on 8 December 1893 to discuss and draw up the rules, one of which was that members would read their papers in order of seniority. Topics of discussion included Sophocles, Aeneid and Athenians.

EC/13/14 Music society

The direct purpose of this society was 'the promotion and practice of vocal music'. Singing members had to pay an entrance fee of 5 shillings per annum with non-singing members 10 shillings, with 1 pound, 1 shilling paid annually thereafter. The first evening concert given within the Dining Hall was 7 December 1861 where a series of pieces by Mendelsohn and Kitchen were sung. Committee meetings were held once a term in the practice room. Main meetings were held once a term in the Dining Hall. Thereafter annual Christmas concerts were provided to all College by the Music Society with occasional commemorative ball performances. By 1887 the Society were performing as part of the 'Smoking concerts' phase of entertainment which ran until the 1930s. Their repertoire had also expanded to providing summer as well as Christmas concerts.

EC/13/15 Stapeldon society

The development of the Stapeldon Society has been gradual and has had three phases. It began as a private debating society in 1869 when around 28 members met and decided to form. Until 1880 it was like many other groups, a society meeting within members rooms. When the society identified itself with the College as a whole, the enlargement made this arrangement no longer possible. Within the College register date 7 March 1881, a note was made to use 'Lecture Room no 1, which had been, through the kind permission of the sub-rector, the Rev W. W. Jackson, prepared for the reception of the society'. This space remained the home of the Society for 7 years until it migrated to the newly-instituted Junior Common room in 1887 where it remains to this day.  Before the society relocated to the Junior Common Rom however, the society's existence was challenged through a debate on public business in 1886. A committee of four was established to draw up new rules and proposals made by the Fellows were discussed. The Stapeldon Society was then given the authority to act as the mouthpiece of the college.

From 1889 anyone could be allowed to ask a question in college business without giving notice beforehand. . From 1904 Society members provided content towards the Stapeldon Magazine, and this continues with the current Exon newsletter. Today's society is closely linked with the Junior Common room and on the whole the group meets weekly. 

EC/13/16 John Ford society

John Ford (1586 – c.1639) was an English playwright and poet of the Jacobean and Caroline eras, born in Devon, matriculating 26 March 1601.  Although remembered primarily as a playwright, he also wrote a number of poems on themes of love and morality.  Evidence of earlier dramatic performance during the nineteenth century, tended to be one off production, mostly the Oxford University Dramatic society using the Fellows garden as a venue.  The Stapeldon magazine provides details of two plays produced in 1936 by Neville Coghill under the name of The Dramatic Society.  The Twenty Club formed in 1938, with the objective to study certain aspects of modern Theatre. The first mention of The John Ford Society, is in 1947 when a production of Perkin Warbeck, in collaboration with the Wadham Amateur Dramatic Society was given.  Prior to this plays had been read, not performed.  This format continued during the 1950s, with readings amongst the group, and one main production per year, taking place in either the Dining Hall or Fellows Garden during the summer. From the 1960s, productions began to be written or produced by Neville Coghill, performed within either the Oxford Playhouse or overseas. In 2012 the society was reformed as a production company 'Exon', but they are now part of the wider Oxford University Dramatic society. Members continue to perform an annual production either at the Oxford Playhouse, the Burton Taylor studio theatre or the Fitzhugh auditorium at Cohen Quadrangle.

EC/13/17 Oxford Borstal camps

The origins of the camp partly began through vacation work undertaken by the chapel groups of many Oxford Colleges, but partly through the creation of a regular camp for boys from a housing estate near Leeds organised by Joseph Jory, Rector of Spennithorne. Members from Exeter College were involved from 1960. Young men spent one week under canvas in the Dales and then members of the college spent one week in a borstal [e.g. a custodial institution for young offenders] which in Exeter College's case was Ever Thorpe Borstal near Hull. The aim was to provide time away from the institution to the young men but also for college members to gain an understanding of what it was like to live in such institutions.

EC/13/18 Pythian club

Extraordinarily little exists or is known about the Pythian club. At first glance it would appear to be an essay club, originating from Exeter College, but there were also members from Hertford, Jesus and Merton Colleges. It's motto 'Im ganzen guten schonen resolut zu leben' roughly translates as 'It is good to live resolutely on the whole'. The German motto may possibly have come from the first President, Berthold Schlesinger Kisch, whose grandfather Joseph Kisch was born in Baden, Germany around 1807/1808 and then emigrated to Britain. Berthold Schlesinger Kisch, was born in Paddington 25 October 1882. He matriculated 15 Oct 1901 and achieved a first in Honorary Moderns 1903 and a second in Literae Humaniores 1905. He appears to have dropped out in his third year preferring to go to the International School of London, whereupon he married a year later and emigrated to India. The following two Presidents, Arthur Robert Reade and John Hobleyn Appleton all matriculated on the same date and all were studying for the same degrees. From the content of the programmes, they mostly read English literature essays/works to each other but they did also perform musical concerts.

EC/13/19 Oxford University clubs

A small series of ephemera relating to Oxford University clubs including the Esperanto club, Raleigh club and Oxford University rugby football club/medical graduates.

EC/13/20 Magazines

Exeter College's students have produced a varied array of magazines. The largest complete publication is the Stapeldon magazine, which was produced by members from the Stapeldon Society [1904-1988] This reported on all current college affairs and news, listed all freshers, achievements by current and alumni members as well as obituaries. Exon is the current magazine for the college which began in 1998 and continues to report all current college news. Smaller runs of magazines, printed for a short time include the Round Robin, The Broad and Pidgin. There is a full set of The Broad located in the Bodleian Library and the Oxford Union Society Library.