marriage

Victorian Leap Year humor, as part of an advertisement for thread. (Public Domain) In the 19th century, Leap Year provided the opportunity for the reversal of roles between the “fairer sex” and gentlemen. On February 29th, a lady had the prerogative to propose marriage to the man whom her heart...

(Getty Images) In the Mid-19th Century, marriage handbooks suggested the way to keep your husband interested involved never, ever actually sleeping in the same bed with him. One such guide advised having separate bedrooms stating, "While this might seem like a cold custom, is not this better...

By authors: J. David Hacker, Libra Hilde and James Holland Jones In 1864, the editor of the Southern Literary Messenger received a letter from H. R., who identified herself as an eighteen-year-old, unmarried woman from Buckingham County, Virginia. Hattie, as the editor called the anonymous...

Copyright by F.A. Stokes Co., 1905 (Printed in America) - Free to use with attribution to CC BY According to a 19th century New York newspaper story reprinted in many papers — including the Cincinnati Enquirer on Oct. 21, 1893 — young women in offices were acting mysteriously by reaching out...

Between Ebay, LoC and NYPL we have endless old treasures like this image illustrative of who we were. Because divorce was rare ( for quite a few reason ) it's extremely probable this couple fulfilled the part in their wedding vows reading ' Til death parts us '. BUT get this- we're getting back...

(Getty Images) Duties of Husbands and Wives (From Hill's Manual of Social and Business Forms, 1891.) The Husband's Duty A very grave responsibility has the man assumed in his marriage. Doting parents have confided to his care the welfare of a loved daughter, and a trusting woman has risked...

Image from Godey's 1862 has always made me smile. A hopefully unrealistic illustration in that issue's wedding section includes this, five brides frilled to the gills. I found it a little surreal, too. Symbolism can be found in weird places. It wasn't intentional creating a thread on a topic...

The Reluctant Bride (1866) by Auguste Toulmouche. In 1864, the editor of the Southern Literary Messenger received a letter from H. R., who identified herself as an eighteen-year-old, unmarried woman from Buckingham County, Virginia. Hattie, as the editor called the anonymous letter writer...

Greetings Everybody! 1. During the American Civil War did enlisted men in the union army did courtship with and married southern women? 2. If so, how would the enlisted union soldiers met, do courtship with, and got married to southern women? 3. How common was it for enlisted union soldiers...

" Love-sick swains - Compose rush rings and myrtleberry chains - And stuck with glorious king cups, and bonnets - Adorn'd with lawrell slips, chaunt their love sonnets. " Rush rings braided from perishable grasses were once a signal a couple was not married. They were enjoying a less legally...

We hear an awful lot about romantic preludes to weddings. OH the fluttering hearts, the shimmering, silver-lined future and weeping bridesmaids. it's a ' thing '. One couple, in 1863, bypassed the entire scene. One couple's inauspicious betrothal and marriage were accomplished inside a day...

Not Louisa but you catch her spirit, waving to the world from her perch above Pennsylvania. The world below was 1855. For the moment. Just a cool story. Not a story, something you bump into, taking you elsewhere, reminding us how interconnected is our world. Story of my life, while looking for...

'At West Point I had a classmate - in the last year of our studies he was roommate also - F.T. Dent, whose family resided some five miles west of Jefferson Barracks. Two of his unmarried brothers were living at home at that time, and as I had taken with me from Ohio, my horse, saddle and...