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In: 19th Century Women, Daily Life, Education, Motherhood

“Woman’s great mission is to train immature, weak, and ignorant creatures to obey the laws of God; the physical, the intellectual, the social, and the moral.” Catherine Esther Beecher Born in 1800 into the famous Beecher clan which included Harriet Beecher Stowe of Uncle Tom’s Cabin fame and the infamous preacher Henry Ward Beecher, Catherine, as the oldest daughter, took over care of her nine siblings after her mother passed away when she was sixteen. When her fiance died in a shipwreck, she decided to use the money he left her to further the education of women. In 1824, she established the Hartford Female SeminaryRead More →

Ester Howland

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In: 19th Century Women, Business, Daily Life

“…this is the day on which those charming little missives, ycelped* Valentines, cross and inter-cross at every street and turning. The weary and all forespent twopenny postman sinks below a load of delicate embarrassments, not his own.” Valentine’s Day in Essays of Elia by Charles Lamb 1860 (*called) Valentine’s Day was a well-established holiday by the 1860’s, dating back to, it is attributed, the ancient Roman fertility festival of Lupercalia, and to St. Valentine who, it is said, sent the first valentine to the girl who had visited him in prison, signed “From Your Valentine.”  However, it is clear that by the 1860s the religious aspect of the day had been putRead More →