Adirondack Museum - Women's Work in the Adirondacks

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Victorian magazines and popular novels portrayed women as delicate creatures whose proper place was in the home, sheltered from the vulgar commercial world outside. This was a middle class ideal, however. Reality was quite different for many women, especially those in rural areas like the Adirondacks. Two types of books from the time period illustrate the contrast between the idealized role for women and the more common one.
	In the 1800s prescriptive literature -- the advice book -- was immensely popular. Advice books covered manners and morals or provided detailed instructions for carrying out the many responsibilities of a housewife. John Young's Our Department, published in 1882, was a manual of etiquette or good manners. The book included a section that described the "correct" and elaborate ritual to be followed when making formal calls.
Many Victorians, men and women alike, kept diaries or "day books." The diary of Rosannah M. Wheelock, written in 1858 when she was eighteen, records an actual visit or "call" of a type that was probably common in the Adirondacks. Rosannah had gone into town (Hawkinsville, New York) to purchase a new bonnet. Discovering that the hat wasn't ready, she stopped to visit a friend. Rather than sitting politely in the parlor and conversing for fifteen minutes -- as Mr. Young recommended -- Rosannah pitched in to help with her friend's housework.
Adirondack women kept house with few of the conveniences enjoyed by those in urban areas -- and were breadwinners as well. Poor farming conditions and isolation from the markets and job opportunities found in cities forced everyone in the Adirondacks - men and women alike - to change jobs with the seasons to make ends meet. Previous Next Table of Contents Home