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Manuscript blurb for Sojourner Truth’s Narrative
Harriet Beecher Stowe rocketed to celebrity with the publication of Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1852), selling 300,000 copies during its first year in print. Abolititionist and feminist Sojourner Truth saw an opportunity. Truth asked Stowe to write a promotional statement that would bring notice to her autobiographical Narrative. She and Stowe met for the first and only time in 1853. This signed statement appears as an introduction in some copies of the 1853 edition of the Narrative. -
Medical morals, illustrated with plates and extracts from medical works: designed to show the pernicious social and moral influence of the present system of medical practice, and the importance of establishing female medical colleges, and educating and employing female physicians for their own sex
During the Victorian Era, many considered childbirth and midwifery to be unseemly and male midwifery indecent. George Gregory shared these views, and he championed the establishment of female medical colleges so that men would not be needed in “this disagreeable branch of medicine.” In Medical Morals he includes images and quotations from the English translation of J. P. Maygrier’s Nouvelles démonstrations d’accouchemens to illuminate his point. Dr. Maygrier’s comprehensive and beautifully illustrated work on obstetrics portrays the changes in a pregnant woman’s body, documenting labor and delivery. In some of the images, he intended to show a discreet examination of a woman. In Gregory’s later engravings, after Maygrier’s images, the examination takes on a sinister character. -
Simple directions in needle-work and cutting out: intended for the use of the National Female Schools of Ireland: to which are added specimens of the work executed by the pupils of The Female National Model School
The National Female Schools of Ireland were founded in 1835 to teach girls from poor families respectable trades and skills. This book was intended as a teaching aid for courses on sewing, darning, knitting, and embroidery. The descriptive text, arranged by level of difficulty, is followed with hand-sewn examples of thirty-five techniques by the students. Simple Directions was published in several editions starting in 1835.Tags 1800s -
Plas Newydd: Near Llangollen
In the late eighteenth century, aristocrat Eleanor Butler and Sarah Ponsonby, the young orphaned daughter of Chambre Brabazon Ponsonby, abandoned their lives in Ireland and made a home for themselves in Llangollen, Wales, to the disapproval of both their families. Known as the Ladies of Llangollen, they appeared to have understood their relationship as a marriage. They were part of an emerging culture of relationships between same-sex couples. While they lived a life of rural retreat, the Ladies’ celebrity and social status meant that their home Plas Newydd became a salon. They built an extensive library, and there they hosted many of the intelligentsia of the day, including writers such as Wordsworth, Byron, Lady Caroline Lamb, and Anna Seward; physician Erasmus Darwin; potter Josiah Wedgwood; and the reigning Queen Charlotte. -
Letter to Thomas and Mary Ann McClintock
In this intimate letter to fellow abolitionists and suffragists, Lucretia Mott writes with updates on many colleagues and friends. She mentions a visit to Peterboro-Cazenovia, New York, that included time with Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Stanton’s cousin, Gerrit Smith, who was one of the secret six who funded John Brown’s raid. It was over tea at the McClintock house in Waterloo, New York, on 9 July 1848 that Lucretia Mott, Martha Wright (Mott’s sister), Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Elizabeth McClintock, and Mary Ann McClintock decided to organize a women’s rights convention. -
The married woman's private medical companion: embracing the treatment of menstruation, or monthly turns, during their stoppage, irregularity, or entire suppression: pregnancy, and how it may be determined, with the treatment of its various diseases: discovery to prevent pregnancy, the great and important necessity where malformation or inability exists to give birth: to prevent miscarriage or abortion: when proper and necessary to effect miscarriage when attended with entire safety: causes and mode of cure of barrenness, or sterility
English immigrant Anna Trow Lohman, known as Madame Restell, became notorious and financially successful by performing abortions. New York had outlawed abortion unless necessary to save the mother’s life, but abortion practitioners continued to work in the state. Restell was entrepreneurial. She sold patent medicines for birth control and abortion, provided housing for pregnant women, and facilitated adoptions. In 1847, her husband, the radical printer Charles M. Lohman, published a medical companion under the name A. M. Mauriceau. It went through at least nine editions. The book advertised Restell’s patent medicines, as well as condoms. Their business flourished, with branches opening in Philadelphia and Boston. In 1873, the Comstock Law to suppress the circulation of obscene materials was enacted, and in 1878 Restell was personally arrested by Anthony Comstock. Anna Restell committed suicide the morning she was to face charges in court. -
[Poems and illustrations]
This lovely hand-bound manuscript was made by Mary B. Tuckey and others in Cork, Ireland, to be sold at the Boston Anti-Slavery Fair to raise money for the abolitionist cause. The beribboned floral page dedicated to Maria Weston Chapman was drawn by Mary Mannix, the secretary for the Anti-Slavery Societies of Cork. Chapman, organizer of the fair and a Garrisonian abolitionist, wrote Right and Wrong in Massachusetts and edited the annual the Liberty Bell. Frederick Douglass’ acclaimed visit to Cork is commemorated in the volume with a poem in his honor. The strong international bonds of the Abolitionist movement are made evident in this small book. -
Letter to Robert Adams
In 1842 schoolteacher Sophia Foord moved to Northampton, Massachusetts, to join the recently formed utopian Northampton Association of Education and Industry. Founded to promote social reform through cooperative work, the NAEI was race-, class-, gender-and religion-equal. Foord writes that “this has become quite a depot for fugitives,” noting that “the slaves escape so frequently that their masters say . . . the Abolitionists must have ‘a railroad under ground.’” She also describes rather sarcastically a visit to writer and abolitionist Lydia Maria Child. -
Letter to Ellen Nussey
Charlotte Brontë begins this letter to her lifelong friend with an update on her efforts to secure work as a governess. She goes on to relate a visit from the wife of a curate whose husband ruined their family through his drinking and “treated her and her child savagely.” Brontë attests to her own distaste for the curate even before she knew about his abusive character. Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell quotes this section of the letter in her biography of Brontë, noting that it “shows her instinctive aversion to a particular class of men, whose vices some have supposed she looked upon with indulgence.” -
[Flowers]
The collection contains a significant gathering of materials written by and relating to Charlotte, Ann, and Emily Brontë. Charlotte used the newly fashionable style of embroidery known as “Berlin woolwork” to create this needlework in wool yarn on canvas. The style was being promoted at a time when a greater number of women had leisure time that might be devoted to decorative needlework. The single sheet patterns were inexpensive and easy to translate to the canvas. The design relates to a watercolor by Charlotte Brontë, circa 1831–1832, now in the Brontë Parsonage Museum. -
Susan P. Parrott account book
This account book is signed on the front cover by a small blind embossed stamp on the last page indicating the paper was manufactured in Bath (likely Bath, Maine). The entries provide a compelling view into the activities and finances of a mid-nineteenth century seamstress running a small business. Some entries record payments to the women who did piecework for her, including a few African American women. Work done by Elizabeth Moulton, Frances, Mary Ann Ring, Mary Pettigrew, Elizabeth Hillyard, Catherine Anderson, Dorothy Anna Frisbee, and Elizabeth Akerman are recorded between March and November 1845.Tags 1800s -
History of Pennsylvania Hall Which Was Destroyed by a Mob On the 17th of May, 1838
Abolitionists had difficulty finding a place to meet in Philadelphia, and so they raised funds to build a building of their own. It was one of the largest and grandest structures in the city. In 1838 the Anti-Slavery Convention of American Women met twice in the building, insisting that their meetings be attended by black and white participants. This was the second national meeting to be held by women in America. The first, the Anti-Slavery Convention of American Women, was held in New York in 1837, eleven years before the Seneca Falls Convention. Four days after the ceremonies dedicating Pennsylvania Hall, following a speech by Lucretia Mott, a mob burned the building to the ground. -
Letters on the Equality of the Sexes, and the Condition of Woman
Sarah Moore Grimké and her sister Angelina were formidable and vocal anti-slavery activists and agitators for the rights of women. Growing up on a large plantation in South Carolina, Grimké disregarded the law forbidding teaching slaves to read. The sisters moved to Philadelphia, becoming Quakers, though both abandoned Quakerism over its racism and sexism. The Grimké sisters were delegates to the Women’s Anti-Slavery Convention held in New York in 1837 and, with Grace Bustill Douglass, co-founded the Philadelphia Female Anti-Slavery Society. These Letters were addressed to Mary Parker, president of the 1837 convention. -
Fanaticism: its source and influence, illustrated by the simple narrative of Isbella, in the case of Matthias, Mr. and Mrs. B. Folger, Mr. Pierson, Mr. Mills, Catherine, Isabella, &c. &c.: a reply to W.L. Stone, with descriptive portraits of all the parties, while at Sing-Sing and at Third street, containing the whole truth, and nothing but the truth
Feminist and abolitionist Sojourner Truth was one of the towering figures of nineteenth-century America. She was born into slavery in 1797 on a rural farm in Ulster County, New York. At age thirty, she drew strength from her Christian faith and found the courage to escape with her infant daughter. A spiritualist, in 1843 she had a vision and changed her name from Isabella Baumfree to Sojourner Truth. In 1842, she came under the influence of a self-styled prophet, Robert Matthews, who established his “Kingdom of Matthias” on an estate in Sing Sing, New York. It was a questionable enterprise. Isabella was attracted by Matthias’ spiritualism and the promise of egalitarianism, which was unfulfilled. The community disbanded after a trial for murder and sexual impropriety. -
On the Connexion of the Physical Sciences
Mary Somerville was one of the foremost British scientists of the nineteenth century. Though forbidden by her father to study mathematics, she taught herself geometry and algebra in secret, pursuing her interests during a time when scientific education was not yet formalized and scientific pursuits were considered beyond women’s abilities. In 1835 Somerville and Caroline Herschel were the first women elected as honorary members of the Royal Astronomical Society. On the Connexion comprehensively summarizes contemporary knowledge in all areas of the physical sciences. It was publisher John Murray’s best-selling science title to date, was published in ten editions in Britain, and translated widely. -
Plates Illustrating the Geology & Scenery of Massachusetts
Orra White Hitchcock’s geological and botanical illustrations were published to accompany her husband Edward Hitchcock’s Report on the Geology, Mineralogy, Botany, and Zoology of Massachusetts, the first state geology published. She began her career teaching young women at Deerfield Academy, where she met Edward, who became a leading geologist and president of Amherst College. Orra’s work was integral to that of her husband, who atypically always gave her credit for her work. As a scientist herself, she observed and drew hundreds of specimens of native plants, mushrooms, and lichen. She was one of the most important American scientific illustrators of the time. -
An Appeal in Favor of That Class of Americans Called Africans
Lydia Maria Child was one of the most influential writers and reformers in the nineteenth century. Her first novel, Hobomok, about an interracial marriage between a white woman and a Native American, shocked reviewers but was extremely successful. Her Frugal Housewife was the first American cookery book written for a non-aristocratic readership. She published the first juvenile magazine in America and edited the National Anti-Slavery Standard. When she published An Appeal, her literary standing and her income both dropped sharply. Her comprehensive scholarly analysis of the slavery question included a sweeping indictment of racism. -
Frankenstein: or, The Modern Prometheus
Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin's mother Mary Wollstonecraft died following her birth. She was largely educated by her father William Godwin. She was not quite seventeen when she eloped with Percy Bysshe Shelley. Frankenstein is considered to be the first work of science fiction. In this third edition, she recounts for the first time the story of its origin during a ghost story writing contest in a villa on Lake Geneva. The novel explores what it means to be human and the ethical implications of scientific research. This edition is the first with a preface by Mary Shelley and the first with illustrations. -
Manuscript medical certificate
In this fragment of a certificate, Dr. J. H. Fairfax notes that he has examined an enslaved woman named “Alsy, belonging to the estate of R[. . . ?] in the employment of Mr. Charles Mothershead and find her to be labouring under a ‘procidentia uteri, or falling down of the womb,’” a prolapsed uterus. This condition sometimes occurs after childbirth and can be caused by severe beatings. Fairfax determined that Alsy “may be made usefull by the application of an instrument properly adjusted, to keep the part from coming down.” -
Floriana or the Method of Constructing Artificial Flowers
This carefully written and illustrated manuscript teaches in minute detail the methods taught to Matilda St. Clair, now Madame de Rhinfeld, for constructing artificial flowers. Growing up in a convent in France, she was instructed by the nuns in each aspect of creating the flowers: dyeing silks, cutting muslin, and forming each individual petal and leaf. She used this skill to earn her living in England. Her watercolors individually dissect twenty-four different artificial flowers; included is a drawn foldout plate of her tools. The pages of delicately embellished instructions, in floral borders, are accompanied by poetry and commentary related to each flower.
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