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Fourth of July, 1853

In the 1850s, the Fourth of July was a major holiday. Some of the celebrations were similar to ours, including parades, picnic dinners, and fireworks. Some were less so, like the dawn gun salutes, cock fights, anvil cannon, and many hours of speeches interspersed with music and prayer. It was an honor and an opportunity to be chosen as the orator for a Fourth celebration. Amelia Bloomer’s…

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Is It Right?

“We have also sometimes felt like yielding up the contest…and thus leave our opponents to reap the full extent of the evils we combat, but then the solemn question comes up, IS IT RIGHT?” –Amelia Bloomer, 1854 “When we fight, we win.” It’s a good motivational slogan. But we know that we don’t always win, especially in the short term. And that “short term” can mean your entire life. And that’s…

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Anne Royall

One of the commonly repeated errors about Amelia Bloomer was that she was the first woman in the USA to have a newspaper. She was the first to edit and publish a political paper by and for women. But there were many women journalists, publishers, and editors in this country before her. Anne Royall (1769-1854) started her writing career when she was 43, after her husband died. He was a wealthy…

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Who will mind the babies?

People joke about this one sometimes, when talking about history. All those silly backward old fogies wondering who would mend the socks and cook the dinner and mind the babies if women got the vote, gained access to higher education and the professions, were elected to office. But it’s a good question. It always was. And we have never committed to answering it. We just don’t care that much…

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Mme Brulon

In her reading for self-education, Amelia Bloomer seems to have studied as much women’s history as she could find. She reported on what she learned in her newspaper, The Lily, and as a result, her readers learned about many historic figures that would be left out of their great-great-grandchildren’s educations. Madame Brulon was one of these, also known as the widow Brulon, who was still alive…

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Looks, deceiving

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The History We "Forget"

In writing a biography of Amelia Bloomer, I found myself constantly bumping up against “forgotten” and “unsung” women of history. It’s a whole category of biographies, podcasts, listicles, etc, to the point of cliche. Bloomer is a slightly odd case, in that she hasn’t been so much forgotten, as misrepresented. She knew it was coming, and went on record many times hoping and praying that, out of…

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Bloomer biography out March 4!

Tomorrow, as I write this! I will celebrate with my usual Tuesday shift at Buffalo Street Books to shelve everyone else’s new titles. And okay, they will probably take my picture with a copy, and I’ll get to see it on the new nonfiction table, a sight I’ve been dreaming of for years. Six years of research and writing went into this, and the reviews are great so far. I’m so happy with it, and…

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Women's Rights Men

According to my publisher, my biography of a woman is almost entirely being preordered by women. Can’t say I’m shocked. What makes anything interesting to us has a lot to do with what we’ve learned to find interesting, and what information we trip across first. Bloomer’s life story has made me much more aware of this. When I first began to study her, it was the first time I began to read…

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Bloomer and the ALA

It’s awards season, and the other day I was reminded of one of the most annoying-to-me examples of Bloomer misinformation out there. I expect a lot of writers to parrot antique assertions. They’ve been doing it to Bloomer alone since 1851. Content must be slung. Pay is scant. Grab whatever semi-authoritative sources you can and whip them back around in time for deadline. What ticked me off…

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Abolitionist / Anti-Slavery Amelia Bloomer

One question that I never completely resolved for myself while studying Bloomer’s life was whether she would qualify as an abolitionist, or as only anti-slavery. I decided to present evidence to the readers, without a definite argument either way. As with any controversial and significant subject, here were many different sets of overlapping beliefs among those opposed to slavery in the 1840s…

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Bloomer and the Spoils System

I did not expect the spoils system to end up in the news. But I do keep saying the current government wants us back in the 1850s so I suppose I should not be surprised. I learned about the spoils system when I researched Amelia Bloomer’s job at the Seneca Falls Post Office. A spoils system is the practice of awarding government jobs to political supporters after an election. In the United…

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Clarina Nichols

When Amelia Bloomer started her “little temperance paper” The Lily in January 1849, she soon began to find other women editors through their papers. There is a great book called The Victorian Internet about the connections people made through the telegraph, but newspapers also offered long distance community and relationships through the post. Cheap standardized postal stamps were a new…

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"Don't You Know Me?"

It’s been a while since I watched It’s A Wonderful Life straight through, but I do love the old thing, despite the heavy-handed angel story line.  I find myself mentally editing my way through a lot of beloved old movies these days, but I still love a good melodrama, and good allegory too. I seem to be alone in one response to it, however:  every single time I see Mary the librarian, I choke…

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The Homes of Single Women

Lately, all the tired talk of childless cat ladies, and young women who refuse to marry, and the wave of gray-haired divorces, has been making me think of Amelia Bloomer’s friend and collaborator, Susan B. Anthony. Anthony “never found the man who was necessary to my happiness,” though she did find women. As a self-supporting woman who knew many other such, she had a useful perspective to offer…

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Bloomers before bloomers

Though my interest in Amelia Bloomer began with the Turkish roots of her trousers, I did not read about Henriette d’Angeville until this past year. Once European men started to wear trousers in the 18th century, that closed-crotch two-legged garment that covers the legs from the waist to the ankles, women put them on at times for many reasons, including disguise, work, and personal gender…

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Let The Women Keep Silence

“Let the women keep silence in the churches: for it is not permitted unto them to speak; but they are commanded to be under obedience, as also saith the law. And if they will learn anything, let them ask their husbands at home; for it is a shame for women to speak in the church.” —1 Corinthians 14:34-35, King James Version. In writing about Amelia Bloomer, whose public career mostly took place…