Work Inside the Home
Enoch Morgan's Sons Company Advertisement
Those
women who did work primarily in their own homes – as the majority of
middle and upper-class women did – often found that, in the words of an
old song, “a woman’s work is never done.” The time-consuming task of
maintaining a home prior to modern conveniences largely fell to women,
married or single, often assisted by hired help or, in the South,
slaves. This section contains numerous manuals and other works on
housekeeping in general (see the previous case on Cookery and Fancy
Work for additional, more specific sources), but it also features works
by Abby Morton Diaz and Charlotte Perkins Gilman highly critical of the
stultifying, “soul-destroying” effects of housework.
Charlotte Perkins Gilman, 1860-1935.
Soapine Trade Cards, 1876-1882.
In the early 1880s, not long after graduating from the Rhode Island
School of Design, the young Charlotte Perkins designed these cards and
others in an attempt to earn money and pay bills through her
demonstrable skills as an artist. Though talented, she eventually
rejected art as a potential career because she felt it to be a poor
conduit to reform. Trade cards were a fairly common way for merchants
to sell their products, and cards advertising soap and other cleaning
products were among the most common.Louisa May Alcott, 1832-1888.
Autograph letter, signed, to Mrs. Parker, 1873.Joel Myerson Collection of Nineteenth Century American Literature.
In this hurried note, Alcott suggests that household duties are keeping her from pursuing other pleasures. She writes that she couldn’t use the ticket to the fair Mrs. Parker had sent her since she “was prevented by much work as we were shutting up the house for the winter.” She notes in a subsequent paragraph that her father had gone West and that she and her mother were going to try boarding for a few months to save money.
Photographs of Orchard House, Concord, Massachusetts, and an Alcott Composite.
Joel Myerson Collection of Nineteenth Century American Literature.
These two souvenir photographs, ca. 1880, depict Louisa May and Bronson
Alcott along with Orchard House, their home inConcord, and the Concord
School of Philosophy building on the grounds.
Celia Thaxter’s Library.
Richard Henry Stoddard.
Poets’ Homes. Pen and Pencil Sketches of Poets in Their Homes.Boston: D. Lothrop and Company, 1879.
This picture of the poet Celia Thaxter’s library serves as a reminder that writing, of course, was for virtually all the authors exhibited here a domestic activity which they had to juggle alongside other household responsibilities.
“the deplorable sufferings of multitudes of young wives and mothers”
Catharine E. Beecher, 1800-1878.
A Treatise on Domestic Economy, For the Use of Young Ladies at Home, and at School.
Boston: T.H. Webb, 1842.
Beecher’s treatise is considered the first complete housekeeping guide
published in America. It was reprinted approximately once every year
from the time of its original publication in 1842 until the early
1870s. An educator and author, Catharine Beecher later collaborated
with her sister Harriet Beecher Stowe on another domestic manual (see
the adjacent The American Woman’s Home). Among her many other achievements, Catherine ran her sister’s household while Harriet finished writing Uncle Tom’s Cabin.
“To the women of America, in whose hands rest the real destinies of the republic”
Catharine E. Beecher, 1800-1878, and Harriet Beecher Stowe, 1811-1896.
The American Woman's Home: or Principles of Domestic Science; Being a Guide to the Formation and Maintenance of Economical, Helpful, Beautiful, and Christian Homes.
New York: J.B. Ford; Boston, H.A. Brown, 1869.
Through their chapters on such topics as manners, decoration, healthful
food, clothing, care of both servants and children, and the decoration,
maintenance, and organization of rooms, the two sisters strive to
convince their readers that the home really was the cradle of
civilization.
Sarah Josepha Buell Hale, 1788-1879.
Keeping House and House Keeping: A Story of Domestic Life.
New York: Harper, 1845.
Hale became a prominent literary figure both through her novels and as editor of the influential Godey’s Lady’s Book,
where she raised the circulation from 25,000 to 150,000 during her
nearly fifty year reign. This 1845 novel fictionalizes the domestic
advice Hale disseminated in other mediums. It also dramatizes some of
the class and racial tensions associated with what was then widely
known as “the servant problem.” For instance, a character quits her
domestic position after a black waiter is retained to serve at a dinner
party because she “wouldn’t live with a negro.”
“a subject which is, or ought to be, important to every American female”
Eliza Leslie, 1787-1858.
Miss Leslie’s Lady’s House-Book; A Manual of Domestic Economy.
Philadelphia: A. Hart, late Carey & Hart, 1850. 12th Edition, enlarged.
Gift of Wylma Wates in memory of James Tillar Wates ’19.
Originally published under the title The House Book,
this widely used and well-thumbed guidebook went through numerous
editions, as did Leslie’s receipt (or recipe) books. Though she also
published stories in children’s books and women’s magazines, the woman
her readers knew as “Miss Leslie” earned most of her income through her
books on domestic management.
“Our problem is this: How may woman enjoy the delights of culture, and at
the same time fulfil her duties to family and household?”
Abby Morton Diaz, 1821-1904.
Domestic Problems. Work and Culture in the Household, and The Schoolmaster’s Trunk, containing Papers on Home Life in Tweenit.
Boston: D. Lothrop and Company, 1884.
Author and activist Diaz became an advocate for working women after
realizing that the women she organized to sew for the Union troops were
“grossly underpaid.” In this volume, originally published in 1875, Diaz
argues that housework is “woman-killing” and that men “should share
household tasks, so that they may appreciate the difficulty of women’s
work.”
“Shall the home be our world . . . or the world our home?”
Charlotte Perkins Gilman, 1860-1935.
The Home: Its Work and Influence.
New York: McClure, Phillips & Co., 1903.
Gilman described The Home as “the most heretical—and the most amusing” of any work she had
written. The book debunks nearly all the domestic myths,
demonstrating that the home was not necessarily an economical nor a
private nor a holy nor even a feminine space. A domestic life is no
substitute for a public life, Gilman insisted, but such had been
woman’s lot, and the costs to both to her and her family had been
excessive.
“A house does not need a wife any more than it needs a husband”
Charlotte Perkins Gilman, 1860-1935.
“The Housewife.”
The Forerunner, Volume I, September 1910, p. 19.
This satirical poem, featured in a magazine Gilman wrote, edited and
published herself for over seven years, lampoons the hallowed “Angel in
the House” along with the domestic ideology Gilman’s great-aunts,
Catharine Beecher and Harriet Beecher Stowe, had propounded in their
domestic manuals.
Enoch Morgan's Sons Company Advertisement, ca. 1890.
Collection of McKissick Museum.
This advertisement for Sapolio soap reveals important racial and class
divides among nineteenth century women. Even as new innovations
promised to make women’s lives easier, working-class women still
performed difficult, menial labor for little pay. The advertisement’s
suggestion of household magic ignores the African-American woman’s work
that makes clean floors possible.
Medicine Chest, ca. 1844-1875.
Collection of McKissick Museum.
This medicine chest originally contained twenty vials of Doctor
Humphreys’ Specific Homeopathic Remedies. Homeopathic theory proposes
that individuals can be cured of common ailments, like whooping cough,
by ingesting small amounts of the disease itself. Mothers often kept
such supplies at home to care for family members’ minor and serious
illnesses.
Rebecca at the Well Teapot, ca. 1858-1862.
Collection of McKissick Museum, gift of Fay Stevenson and sisters.
This Rockingham teapot embodies Victorian ideals of marriage and
femininity. In Genesis 24, Abraham’s servant approaches Rebecca at the
well, and she instantly accepts God’s will and agrees to marry Isaac.
This commonly-reproduced Victorian image portrays marriage as divinely
ordained. The teapot symbolizes woman’s service to her husband to honor
God.
Spinning Wheel, ca. 1830-1840.
Newberry County, South Carolina.
Collection of McKissick Museum.
Making cloth was an arduous and time-consuming process in the
nineteenth century. After gathering cotton, wool, and other fibers,
female workers used this spinning wheel to spin fibers into yarn.
Workers then wove the yarn into cloth to make clothes, bedding, and
items for home and trade.
Homespun Dress, ca. 1840-1860.
Alamance County, North Carolina.
Collection of McKissick Museum, gift of O. Holt Allen.
A woman invested a great deal of time and energy to produce this
homespun cotton dress. After gathering cotton, spinning yarn, and
weaving cloth, she then sewed the garment by hand. This labor was so
time-consuming that many women owned only a few, simple items of
clothing.
Sewing Machine, ca. 1856-1875.
Grover & Baker Sewing Machine Company of Boston, Mass.
Collection of McKissick Museum.
Hand-operated sewing machines transformed home life in the
mid-nineteenth century. With a machine’s help, women could create
garments quickly, freeing their time for other pursuits. Large textile
factories used the same technology, creating new jobs for men, women,
and children outside the home.
Machine-Made Dress, ca. 1860-1880.
Collection of McKissick Museum, gift of O. Holt Allen.
Machine-made clothing, like this cotton dress, created new
opportunities and challenges for women. Sewing machines reduced the
amount of labor needed to produce a garment, granting women time for
other pursuits. Many women and children sought employment outside the
home in textile factories. This work often required long hours in
unsafe conditions.
Lydia Howard Sigourney, 1791-1865.
Select Poems.Philadelphia: E. C. Biddle, 1841.
The title, Select Poems, essentially sums up this varied collection. Lydia H. Sigourney was the only child of parents who strongly embedded religious principles in their daughter starting at a very young age. Her religious upbringing is evident in the 4th Edition of this poetry collection. In addition to very strong religious tones in her poetry, Sigourney incorporates “advice” for her female audience. The table of contents provides the titles of her various types of poems. Motherly concerns are expressed throughout the book; she also writes about the struggles of being a housewife. Sigourney’s style of writing demonstrates turning to religion as a means of dealing with hardships. It is evident that Sigourney’s intent with her writing was to do good, and to inspire others to do good, by heeding to the virtuous examples set by wives and mothers of the era.
Label: Darcey Blair.
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