The Scarab Club (originally the Hopkins Club, after the marine painter Robert Hopkins) was formed in 1907 as a men’s only art group. Women were first admitted in 1962.
Scarab tile by Pewabic Pottery
The Club’s board repeated invited the DSWPS to join it as an auxiliary group. The Society declined and has remained an independent group since its inception. But starting in 1933, after the DSWPS separated from the DIA, the Scarab Club hosted its annual exhibitions for forty years.
The club's themed costumed balls, held from 1917 to 1950, were the single most important social event in Detroit each year.
DSWPS members dressed as Spanish ladies for the Scarab Club’s annual Costume Ball