This past weekend, our class took a trip to the Maryland Historical Society to get a better understanding of the context that the Woman’s Literary Club of Baltimore was writing in.

I LOVE field trips and museums, so I was looking forward to spending the day in a historical society.

Being able to learn about what kind of world these women were writing in has allowed me to better understand what may have motivated women to be writers during this period.  One of the larger exhibits in the Historical Society was dedicated to examples of needlepoint.  The ability to sew was considered a very important skill for women to have, so many spent their time learning how to make needlepoint samplers.  Along with the ability to sew, learning languages, such as French, was also considered a valuable educational pursuit for young women.  Elizabeth Bonaparte, who is the focus of an exhibit at the historical society, had a tutor from France so that she could learn French.  This interest in foreign languages can also be seen in the works of club members, like Florence Trail, who translated Italian poetry for anthologies in English. These pursuits represented what was considered culturally relevant and important for the women of the club, but in different ways.  Needlepoint followed traditional gender roles as an acceptable task for women.  Languages, while also traditionally acceptable, were being used by the women of the club to become more engaged in literacy practices that were often reserved for men, thus going against the cultural norms.

The interest in educational advancement for women was apparent when we had the opportunities to examine some documents from the period.  A course catalogue from the Lutherville Female Seminary included a list of students enrolled at the institution.  I was surprised to discover that some of the students had come from as far away as Florida and Iowa.  The fact that they would travel such a long distance shows that the educational opportunities for women of the period were severely lacking.

One of the more interesting and entertaining things that I learned about the work of women in the period came in the form of a bordello map.  Women’s groups of the period worked towards social reform, promoting a more moral society with better life choices.  In an effort to lead sailors to a pure moral path, they handed out maps of known bordellos near the docks where the sailors worked.  Unfortunately, this plan backfired and essentially gave the sailors a map of where to find prostitutes in the city.  This provided an interesting example of the work being done by women in the period, and also of how that work was received by the general public.

Finally, to fully explain the title of my post, I must mention the best part of the day at the Maryland Historical Society: the stickers. I have loved stickers since I was a child (I collected them!), so getting one of the stickers that are given out for visitors brightened up my rainy day.  It is now displayed proudly next to my Maryland crab sticker on my laptop.