women

From a New England farmer's newspaper, 1861 You know the ubiquitous butter churn? It's always seemed like yet another exhausting chore. Ever try it? Remember a teacher in elementary school hammering home the lesson by actually bringing one to school. Kids took turns using that thing and after...

It may not have taken much effort watching that ' home washer ' being put to use, perhaps the point of this advertisement. Like it was easy. Most of our ancestors were the girls using those things. That's a load of sodden laundry next to it and ever hang a wet sheet on the clothes line? It's a...

The headlines of The Weekly Mississippian that greeted it's Jackson, MS readers on November 6, 1862 was shocking: "A DARK DAY IN JACKSON" "...mangled bodies of men, women, and girls who had been employed in making cartridges were scattered in every direction!" Women, girls and children made up...

Harper's published this image of the massive ladies meeting held in Cooper Union's ' Foundation Building ", April 1861. According to accounts 4,000 women attended a mass discussion about what would be their role providing relief and supporting men engaged in this war. A few men came. For awhile...

" You're shaking like a blancmange my dear creepmouse. I assure you, passementerie tassles on that dress would put you in a bad box. You can't gammon me your new husband isn't a banging big-bug. I don't see him cutting his stick before the ceremony at sight of you, with or without...

There’s getting to be a slight chill in the air so it got me thinking about how my Victorian friends might have dressed to keep warm when they were outside. We’ve all seen pictures of women’s gowns with wide puffy sleeves. The sleeves were so big that they could not fit into the sleeve of a...

"Southern Belles" by Alan Maley In the Encyclopaedia of Astounding Facts and Useful Information (1889), there is an entire chapter dedicated to the "secrets of beauty" because… "If women are to govern, control, manage, influence and retain the adoration of husbands, fathers, brothers, lovers...

Written in the Nashville Daily Union 12/21/1862 More proof of those so-called "She Rebels" spunk and determination to help their men along with "peppery" letters referred to in @John Hartwell post: -hence my portrayal at reenactments sometimes gets questioned until they actually read my display!

"In the Library" by August Toulmouche, 1872. The Victorian “bluestocking” was defined as, “a stiff, stilted, queer literary woman of a dubious age.” This stereotype actually made its way into an 1883 edition of the Popular Encyclopedia, where a “bluestocking” was defined as a “pedantic female”...

From the Met, an era quilt whose history is unknown. Nearly impossible tracking down quilts specific to those sewn for fund raising or use in hospitals, have an idea this was one. There are 26 stars but have a feeling two were put in to balance the design. There's an American theme running...

Are you already dreading the impending winter cold? Well take a good look at the photograph above of a woman climbing a glacier in a billowing Victorian skirt. It may surprise you to learn (it certainly did me) that several Victorian females braved the ice in their petticoats during a time...

In reference to @Eleanor Rose excellent post I have to wonder about the antithesis stories of young women at the time and a common sad factor of how lust and being poor, desperate and devastated during war can tarnish even the purist of souls. Was it their choice? Many camp followers were...

Sally Ward Lawrence Hunt Armstrong Downs Who was the original Southern belle? I wish I knew. @NH Civil War Gal got me thinking about this when she inquired about the origin of the phrase, “Southern belle.” Probably like a lot of little girls growing up in the South, I was told the story of...

(Photo courtesy of Only In Your State) When I say "Southern belle" one person inevitably comes to my mind — Scarlett O'Hara. The "Gone With the Wind" heroine has always been the classic Southern belle for me, sitting on the front porch of her family's plantation, playing coy with the Tarleton...

A few may be from the 70's but heh...these women lived during the war! … and now the actresses!

The Confederate Government responded to rioutous women by seeking to make their needs a budgetary priority and meet their demands via Government policy. I find the last line of the following extract very interesting: 'Like all the riots that hit the CSA that spring the one in Richmond was...

This illustration from one of the ' Lady's Companion ' books prevalent at the time ( and for decades before the war ) really rubs it in to we girls. Fleeting time, fleeting youth! Thread title is from Longworth, please excuse puns. He'd given this whole age thing some thought and seems so...

I have noted on a couple of occasions here that women may be perceived as the 'instigators' for men to fight during the period of the Civil War. Actively encouraging men to fight, they created an expectation that men should do their duty or potentially suffer 'rejection' (for taking what would...

" Lady Columbia " was originally symbolic of all of us, North and South. Based on Greek and Roman warrior goddesses with a good dose of belligerence thrown in, she stayed ' North ' in 1861 albeit was given no choice in the matter. Still, a kinda awesome symbol- women were as influential in the...

PHOTOGRAPH BY STATE ARCHIVES OF NORTH CAROLINA I recently came across a relic that’s been preserved at the North Carolina State Archives - memoirs left by the NC Tomato Club girls, pioneers of small-patch gardening. As it turns out Tomato Clubs came to North Carolina under the leadership of...

From LoC, any self respecting ad agency may now quit. Delightful? Fewer and fewer of us will recognize what on earth ' lard ' may be, much less ' refined lard '- or its genesis. Or uses. Our ancestors knew and this ad would have sold Fairbanks by the 20 pound block. CWT needs a light-ish...

Tipton's era ( ish ) photo of Georgeanna McClellan's half of the duplex shows the old basement doors entered from the street. Her sister's body was carried there, a battle making burial hazardous. Mary Filey Wade, Harry Wade, Ike Brinkerhof, Lewis Kenneth McClellan and mother Georgia huddled...

You could use a LOT of imagery for this story. Bees, hives and do-not-get-in-the-way, win. Hang on, it's perfect, promise! Women across the South, working in cooperation, en mass- all a buzz. Whoa, what?? Thought I'd poke around in the topic of " Gunboat Quilts " yet again. Not a lot of...

Why did slavery need so much protection from the federal government? Why did secessionists assert that a government with abolitionist allies could eliminate slavery in the long run? Why didn't they have confidence that the arrangement was so powerful and flexible that it would not only survive...

It is said that Charlotte E. McKay “had received a magnificent Kearny Cross, a medal of honor with the front inscription, ‘Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori;’ and on the reverse, “Presented to Mrs. C. E. McKay, by the officers of the Seventeenth regiment Maine volunteers, May, 1863.”...

The most legendary girls, disagreeably-wise, in all History ( albeit fictional ), Cinderella's stepsisters embody those skewered so well in Harper's print. The ' or else ', seems to follow along with what happens to those in fairy tales, too. So funny. End of war news, Lincoln's death, funeral...

By 1864, displaced women felt the pinch. Soldier's wives, sisters, daughters and mothers in households where the breadwinner vanished faced terribly uncertain futures. It cannot have been an accident that an 1864 book publication offered a huge variety of opportunities for women to choose from-...

From an illustration of a French vivandiere, Crimea War era. This image, while wonderful, unhelpfully ' Googled ', confuses ' our ' war, and women from who they were and what they did. Many of our women of the war suffer from a kind of simplistic mythology, helped along by the internet. We can...

A mother and Milliner - creator of bonnets and hats for ladies, and daughter, in what seems a typical " Occupational Photograph " of the era. Her trade is displayed as a centerpiece and, quite wonderfully, the daughter's doll is wearing a tiny hat. " Occupational Photographs " seem to have been...

There isn't one, perfect image illustrating ' Women ' and ' The Civil War '. Winslow Homer's sketch of Union families fortunate enough to reunite symbolizes the end- to an awful war for women. All of us. That will make sense in a moment. Hang on. Using forum time today to pull a thread, like a...

Thanks to Scarlett O’Hara, Southern women have been teased about “pitching” hissy fits for years (Please note we never “have” or “throw” them). While Scarlett certainly brought prominence to hissy fits and the Old South, the general consensus is that nobody knows the origin for certain. Either...

This mid-century, 1800's illustration is of a Russian wedding tradition whereby bride and groom are hurtled towards the church, pursued by more thundering carriages and horsemen. Richmond's wedding parties around 1864 may have found the scene familiar. NYPL Sorry. Some things are just a set-up...

Since the era chemist issuing a warning on ball dresses - and death- to America was British, it's only fair a famous, British ( if ridiculously elite ) ball room be used illustrating the point. Almack's Assembly Rooms, London, had unbelievably survived a Regency popularity explosion and still...

Surgery during this period killed as many as it cured, mostly due to sepsis. It was in Europe, where the surgical arts were being perfected, at this time, specifically France, and new techniques flourished there and were quickly disseminated among European medical schools. However, even in...

Taking the Oath and Drawing Rations by John Rogers from the New York Historical Society (link below) During the Civil War, Confederate political prisoners and prisoners of war could be released on taking an "Oath of Allegiance." After the war, President Andrew Johnson's plan, published May 29...

I'm working on a nurse impression and I'm hoping to find another person on here that is familiar with nurse impressions and is willing to critique my current wardrobe and to run questions by as I continue to develope my impression. Also above is a picture of some of the members of my battery...

"Tables about breast high had been erected upon which the screaming victims were having legs and arms cut off. The surgeons and their assistants, stripped to the waist and bespattered with blood, stood around, some holding the poor fellows while others, armed with long, bloody knives and saws...

I have started this thread as a place for assembling resources for the study of Ladies' Memorial Associations in the South. These voluntary groups were founded at the end of the Civil War by white women in many communites throughout the South to insure the proper burial and memorialization of...

Hello, My name is Erin and I'm from the upper peninsula of Michigan! So greetings from the great snowy north! I'm just starting out in historical reenacting. I have done colonial era events in the past and I just started researching Civil War era. So far I have been to 2 small reenactments with...