1880s: "Victorian Era"

Talks Upon Practical Subjects cover page. Harland, Marion,“Talks Upon Practical Subjects,” The Josephine Long Wishart Collection: Mother, Home, and Heaven, New York: Warner, 1895

Marion Harland's Talks Upon Practical Subjects

The title page of Talks Upon Practical Subjects begins with this quote: "Health, Strength, and Beauty – the Trinity of Happiness." The author, Marion Harland, was an American woman who published 25 novels and 25 non-fiction works on homemaking and cooking, during the late 1800s and early 1900s. This book, among others, served as a beacon guiding the white wives, mothers, and daughters of the middle class towards their Trinity of Happiness. 

The home was a fundamental aspect of American culture in the 19^th century. Its mode of operation was one of the defining characteristics of the era.[1] It served as the root of moral instruction, and was central to the period’s ideals surrounding domesticity. The paradigm of domesticity in the 19^th century was largely defined by the shifting conceptions of the quintessential woman. Talks Upon Practical Subjects describes the consummate woman at the end of this shift.

According to Susan Cruea, a professor at Bowling Green State University, “At this time [1800’s] upper and middle class women’s choices were limited to marriage and motherhood, or spinsterhood. Both choices resulted in domestic dependency.”^[2] This domestic dependency prompted the emergence of what Cruea calls “The Cult of True Womanhood.” According to this ideology, a ‘true woman’ exemplified: piety, purity, submissiveness, and domesticity.[3]Women were barred from the public sphere on the basis that they were biologically inferior to men.  Simultaneously, women gained control over the private sphere. Because only women possessed the qualities of self-sacrifice and submission, they were accredited moral authority over their family and household.^[4]

However, morality during the late 1800s was not solely theological. At the time, many believed the condition of the body was closely linked to one’s moral, mental, and spiritual aptitude. This meant women were responsible for the family’s mental and physical health. It is for this reason that Marion Harland included nutrition, exercise, how to sleep, bathing and grooming habits, in her book outlining the proper hygiene and self-care. Poor hygiene was believed to be indicative of a larger moral issue, which held women accountable. This distinct correlation between physical and mental health is exhibited throughout the entirety of the book Talks Upon Practical Subjects, and is emblematic of late 19^th century American culture. The text provides insight into societal and gender norms of the white middle class while exemplifying the intersection of religion and science in health practice.

Unfortunately, this guidebook doesn’t discuss the individual experiences of women. Only presenting an idyllic picture void of strife or conflict, the feelings women had about their designated role are non-existent. This artifact is specific to only a fraction of the women living at the time and ommitted among those are: women of the lower class, elite women, working women, and women of color.

Woman's Medical Companion frontispiece and title page. Garbit, Frederick J., “Woman's Medical Companion” The Josephine Long Wishart Collection: Mother, Home, and Heaven, Boston: John P. Dale & Co., 1880.

Frederick J. Garbit's Woman's Medical Companion

Frederick J. Garbit’s 1880 volume, The Woman’s Medical Companion and Guide to Health, portrays advice physicians gave to women. While it claims to be comprehensive, this guide skims over practical aspects of maintaining health while promoting social ideals associated with femininity.

Dr. Garbit’s goal was to “give young women, wives, and mothers the benefit of [his] varied experience; and, by the facts and principles brought to bear upon the daily life in the home, the nursery, the sick room, and the factory or work-room, to afford them the means of preventing, as well as ameliorating and averting, many of the ailments to which the flesh is heir.”^[1]

Despite his goal to help women medically, Garbit’s description of female genitals only includes their functions in childbirth, and makes no mention of sexual intercourse or even hygiene in the pelvic area. He only referred to the external genitalia as “privates,” and described female anatomy using dry, scientific language related to pregnancy.^[2]

He emphasized the difference between bodies of virgins and mothers, and implied that a woman’s anatomy was directly linked to her marital status--since marriage brought motherhood. Garbit’s manual did not provide women with any practical information on maintaining health in the reproductive system outside of marriage and pregnancy.

On the other hand, Garbit used colorful language and detailed illustrations to explore social topics such as dress reform and the qualities worthy of marriage in young woman. Garbit even goes on to compare the physical nature between European and American women, favoring the European and tarnishing the image of the American. As opposed to the European young woman, “roseate, dimple cheeked, and plump,” American women tended to have a “heavily-wrought nervous organization, the pale countenance, fitfully illuminated by the hectic flush, the fretful, fitful restlessness of disposition so unmistakably indicative of physical inability to bear the mental pressure.”^[3]

Although Garbit described his manual as comprehensive, he relied on vague language when referring to gynecological health while making clearr, but biaed, statements about the social status of girls and women.