Posted on by Marina Fazio

Summertime Searching

If you had told me last year that my favorite summer job would involve typing citations and searching for historical periodicals about homemaking, I would have thought you were crazy. But here I am, after 10 weeks of work, thankful that I spent part of my time doing this work instead of only doing administrative assistant work at my office job (although the office did give me free chocolate…).

The beginning of the summer started out with a task that seemed a bit overwhelming: writing the provenance note for the book, which gives the original sources for all of the works in the anthology. While citations may seem like an easy task for someone like myself who is constantly putting together works cited pages for papers at school, the fact that I had not personally found all of the sources made things a bit more difficult. My classmates had worked hard throughout the spring semester to gather the works of the authors that they were assigned, and used a combination of different physical and online sources to do so. While this gave us a wealth of information that was more than we could have ever hoped for, it also created some complications for citations. Many works had been published in several places, so I had to determine the original publication. For online sources of periodicals, the page numbers were not always clear or even included, and there is still ONE JOKE for which I have not been able to find a publication date. In addition, Dr. Cole and I had to determine what would be the best way to cite some of our more unique items, such as an unpublished play, in Chicago-Style, because the format is not necessarily made for such works. Similar creativity was employed for our more prolific writers in the anthology: we made detail oriented decisions regarding the manner in which page numbers would be presented in a way that was easy to read without looking cluttered.

In addition to this, I had to opportunity to do more literary recovery for Mary Dorsey, known by her pseudonym Marian V. Dorsey. Dorsey mainly published in periodicals, though much of her writing recovered thus far does not cover current events. Instead, Dorsey focuses on a variety of topics that relate to women’s interests and homemaking: cooking, decorating, and party planning. Many of these would not be out of place today in Real Simple or even Martha Stewart Living, sharing family recipes and explaining how to use plants to decorate a room tastefully. My favorite article, however, is something that would never get past an editor today: “Birthday Parties for Old People.” Though the topic is not something that would be out of place in a magazine today, the title is certainly a product of the time in which it was written.

This summer was an incredible experience for me to be able to learn more about a career path outside of teaching (which I have studied for the last three years), and I am so thankful that I have had the opportunity to further explore a topic that struck my interest in class this past spring.

Posted on by Marina Fazio

Florence Trail

Florence Trail (who is also published under the name Florence Traill) was born in Frederick, Maryland on September 1, 1854.  She was born into a prominent Maryland family, which afforded her a lot of opportunities in her life.  When an illness at age 10 caused impaired hearing, Miss Trail did not let it slow her down. In an interview with the Baltimore Sun in 1928, she said that the support of her mother allowed her to live a normal life.  Her mother had a very active role in her life- she approved all of Miss Trail’s reading, going so far as to BURN books she did not approve of!!!

Image from A Woman of the Century, p. 732.

The same article gives a lot of details about that life, although it seems to be rather extraordinary.  She attended the Frederick Female Seminary, where she graduated at the top of her class and later went on to teach philosophy, evidences of Christianity, and modern history.  She also studied at the Mount Vernon Institute and Peabody Conservatory—obviously, Miss Trail was highly educated. She used her education to help others, teaching at Daughters College in Kentucky, and at another unnamed school in Tarboro, North Carolina.

“Music is an expression of objectless, limitless desires”—from “Music in a Psychological Light” in Trail’s Meanings of Music

The fact that there was a full page of the Baltimore Sun dedicated to her  indicates that she was a prominent writer in her day.  She certainly was active in her community: she was president of the Frederick Female Seminary Alumnae Association, and a member of the Society to Encourage Studies at Home.  In addition to this, she was a member of the Woman’s Literary Club of Baltimore and the Frederick Literary Association according to some articles from the Frederick paper, The News.  Her immersion in literature and education likely led to her interest in writing analytical and historical essays.

Posted on by Marina Fazio

Mary Spear Nicholas Tiernan

Mary Spear Nicholas Tiernan was born on February 14, 1835. Or was it 1836? Was her birthday even in February? Wikipedia thinks so, but the Encyclopedia of Virginia places her birth somewhere in 1836.  Mrs. Tiernan’s early life is particularly difficult to pin down.  As a charter member of the Woman’s Literary Club of Baltimore and an author whose novels are still available for purchase today, I would think more would be known about her. Unfortunately, the details are quite sparse. What I do know: She was the third wife of Charles Tiernan, a member of the State of Maryland Militia in Baltimore. She is did not have any children. Much of her early life was spent in Richmond, Virginia, where her father was a district attorney. According to a death announcement in the Baltimore Sun from January 14, 1891, her wit “brought to bear upon her literary work the advantages of a scholarly education.”  This makes me assume that she did not have any sort of higher education, although I will continue to search for records that could indicate otherwise. In her life, she published short stories in Century Illustrated Magazine, Godey’s Lady’s Book, Harper’s New Monthly Magazine, and Scribner’s Monthly. Her death announcements in The Democratic Advocate of Westminster, MD and The Baltimore Sun state that she was 56 when she passed away from pneumonia on January 13, 1891.  On the anniversaries of the club, the women would decorate her grave, along with the graves of Edgar Allen Poe and Sidney Lanier, according to The Baltimore Sun in 1899 and 1900, which indicates how highly she was respected by the other women.

Mary Spear Nicholas Tiernan. Image from Wikipedia

Her southern upbringing appeared to be quite influential in her writing; in fact, out of the seven short stories and novels I have read by her, all seven of them are set in Virginia!  Each of them also centers around the Confederacy in some way or another- whether it be the inclusion of Confederate soldiers as characters or references to the Yankees in the north, her stories are set firmly in the Civil War. Her characters were described by reviewers in the November 11, 1885 edition of The Baltimore Sun as “pure and innocent” and I think that captures them perfectly.  The majority of her stories center on young women and their suitors, finding an innocent love in the Virginia countryside.  She was praised for her ability to make readers interested in her characters in novels like Homoselle and Suzette. I must say, this is true. Tiernan’s women are witty and interesting. A great example of this comes in Homoselle. The eponymous girl has previously expressed her disdain for her family’s British guest, Mr. Halsey. When Halsey expresses his delight after trying his first mint julep, Homoselle responds: “”The inventor of juleps,’ began Homoselle,– and as it was the first remark she volunteered, Halsey listened with interest,– ‘Like the inventor of the guillotine, is said to have fallen a victim to his own invention.’” Her comment is the perfect combination of intelligent and vaguely ominous, making even modern readers like myself get drawn into her charm and wit.  Her short stories and novels are full of women who are unafraid to speak strongly despite the fact that they are also bound to societal conventions of docility.

Posted on by Marina Fazio

Stickers, Sewing, and Sex Work: A Day at the Maryland Historical Society

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.

Picture courtesy of Jill Fury

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.

 

Picture courtesy of Katie Kazmierski

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.

Picture courtesy of Jill Fury

 

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.

Posted on by Marina Fazio

Science and Fiction

To be completely truthful, I was not extremely excited when faced with the task of transcribing meeting minutes.  I knew that it had some historical significance, and I do believe that making historical documents accessible is a fantastic project, but I thought it would be a mindless activity.  I had done some transcription of files for a summer job, and it was absolutely soul-sucking. However, as I began to read the minutes from the Woman’s Literary Club of Baltimore, I became fascinated with their activities.

Some of the most fascinating minutes I have transcribed thus far came from the 78th meeting.  This meeting was noted to be directed by the Committee on Fiction, so I expected the minutes to include short stories or excerpts from novels written by club members.  Instead, the first work presented was actually a presentation on scientific hypotheses.  Mrs. Fabian Franklin presented an article titled “The Sensation of Color,” explaining the different ideas about sensation and perception of light and color.  What was most interesting was what the secretary recorded about Mrs. Franklin’s presentation: “Mrs. Franklin advanced to a new theory of her own, differing from those mentioned,– and supported it with skill and ability.”  This line, though short, absolutely astonished me.  I had not expected to read that the women in a literary club were presenting their own original scientific theories! I wish the secretary had included more information about the theory, besides saying that it was well presented.  I can only hope that this theory was published and will be recovered by one of my classmates as we continue on with this project.  Otherwise, her ideas will be lost in history.