Global Voices from the Women’s Library at the World’s Columbian Exposition: Feminisms, Transnationalism and the Archive 3031424891, 9783031424892

Citation preview

Global Voices from the Women’s Library at the World’s Columbian Exposition Feminisms, Transnationalism and the Archive Edited by Marija Dalbello · Sarah Wadsworth

Global Voices from the Women’s Library at the World’s Columbian Exposition

Marija Dalbello  •  Sarah Wadsworth Editors

Global Voices from the Women’s Library at the World’s Columbian Exposition Feminisms, Transnationalism and the Archive

Editors Marija Dalbello School of Communication and Information Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey New Brunswick, NJ, USA

Sarah Wadsworth Department of English Marquette University Milwaukee, WI, USA

ISBN 978-3-031-42489-2    ISBN 978-3-031-42490-8 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-42490-8 © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors, and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, expressed or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. Cover illustration: Chicago History Museum / Alamy Stock Photo This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Switzerland AG. The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland Paper in this product is recyclable.

Contents

1 Global  Voices from the Women’s Library at the World’s Columbian Exposition: Feminisms, Transnationalism and the Archive  1 Marija Dalbello and Sarah Wadsworth Part I Reading (Across) the National Collections  19 2 A  Comparative and Structural Analysis of European Works in the Woman’s Building Library 21 Anselm Spoerri, Marija Dalbello, and Janette Derucki 3 What  Did Late Nineteenth-Century Italian Women Write?: The Italian Contribution to the Woman’s Building Library of the World Fair in Chicago (1893) 33 Silvia Valisa 4 Networks  of Texts and Writers: The Swedish Contribution to the Woman’s Library at the World’s Columbian Exposition 53 Johanna McElwee 5 “Spanish Lessons” 73 Noël Valis v

vi 

Contents

Part II Gender and Modernism  89 6 Central  European Collections: The Periphery Challenging the Center 91 Marija Dalbello 7 How  to Be a German Woman: Mixed Messages at the Columbian Exposition115 Lynne Tatlock 8 The  New Woman in the White City: Writing from Great Britain in the Woman’s Building Library135 Sarah Wadsworth 9 The  Norwegian Ideals of Modern Womanhood and Identity Construction through the Women’s Library155 Marianne Martens Part III Close Readings: Authoring Female Agency 175 10 Fatma  Aliye’s Invisible Authorship: A Turkish Muslim Woman Writer’s Challenge to Orientalism and Patriarchy177 Enaya Hammad Othman 11 The  “Native New Woman”: Material Culture and the Indian Novel in the Women’s Library at the World’s Columbian Exposition195 Jackielee Derks 12 From  Private Lives to Public Spaces: Nineteenth-Century Peruvian Eclecticism at the Chicago World’s Fair211 Elena González-Muntaner

 Contents 

vii

13 French  Authors in the Women’s Library at the World’s Columbian Exposition: A Stage of Feminism, Still Traditional Works227 Martine Poulain 14 The  Library as Exhibition243 Christine Giviskos Index253

Notes on Contributors

Marija Dalbello  is Professor of Information Studies at Rutgers University, USA. Her research and teaching span the history of books and reading, history and theories of knowledge, and the study of archival inscription from the phenomenological, aesthetic, and affective perspectives. Her publications focus on text/image relations, history of the book and libraries, and textual scholarship and bibliography. She studies migration and historical sensoria of migration. She co-edited Visible Writings: Cultures, Forms, Readings (2011) with Mary Shaw, A History of Modern Librarianship: Constructing the Heritage of Western Cultures (2015) with Wayne A.  Wiegand, and Reading Home Cultures Through Books (2022) with Kirsti Salmi-Niklander. She co-edited several interdisciplinary special issues of journals, most recently on “Archaeology and Information Research” (2019). She is a highly commended Winner of the 2012 Emerald Literati Award for her article, “A Genealogy of Digital Humanities,” published in The Journal of Documentation. She chaired the Board of the Society for the History of Authorship, Reading, and Publishing. She is part of a research team funded by the KONE Foundation grant, T-bone Slim and the Transnational Poetics of the Migrant Left in North America (2022–2023). Jackielee Derks  is a data and systems specialist at Marquette University, where she earned her PhD in British and global Anglophone literatures. Her research focuses on intertextuality and sociopolitical engagement in the work of women writers from various historical contexts, including the African diaspora and former British colonies. ix

x 

NOTES ON CONTRIBUTORS

Janette  Derucki  is a data research specialist at Reaching Across Illinois Library System (RAILS), a regional multitype library system serving northern and west-­central Illinois. Janette holds a Master of Information degree with a concentration in Data Science from Rutgers University. Her work includes research examining Illinois school libraries, service inequities in multitype library systems, and the role of libraries as economic drivers. Christine Giviskos  is Curator of Prints, Drawings, and European Art at the Zimmerli Art Museum, Rutgers University. She has curated numerous exhibitions focused on nineteenth-century European art, culture, and society from the Zimmerli’s wide-ranging graphic arts collection, most recently Set in Stone. Lithography in Paris, 1815–1900, The New Woman in Paris and London, c. 1890–1920, and Meet Me at the Fair: Universal Expositions in Paris. She holds MA and PhD degrees in Art History from the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University. Elena González-Muntaner  is Associate Professor of Spanish and Latin American Literature in the Department of Global Languages and Cultures at the University of Wisconsin, Oshkosh. Her research focuses on nineteenth- and twentieth-­century Latin American women’s narrative and the representation of feminine identity. She is interested in the approach of women to gender issues, education, and patriarchy and has published articles on the works of Mercedes Cabello de Carbonera, Teresa de la Parra, and Gioconda Belli. She is working on lesser-known novels by the Puerto Rican author Carmela Eulate Sanjurjo. Marianne  Martens  PhD, is an associate professor at Kent State University’s School of Information. As a dual citizen of Denmark and the USA, her work is international in scope. Her research examines the interconnected fields of young people’s literacy, youth services librarianship, and publishing for young people—from historical perspectives to a focus on digital youth. She is the author of Publishers, Readers and Digital Engagement (Palgrave Macmillan) and The Forever Fandom of Harry Potter (Cambridge University Press). You can read more about her at mariannemartens.org. Johanna McElwee  is Senior Lecturer in English at Uppsala University, Sweden. She is the author of The Nation Conceived: Learning, Education, and Nationhood in American Historical Novels of the 1820s (2005). Johanna is working on a project exploring the contacts between Swedish and American writers in the mid-­nineteenth century.

  NOTES ON CONTRIBUTORS 

xi

Enaya Hammad Othman  is an associate professor in the Department of Languages, Literatures and Cultures at Marquette University. Her research interests focus on women’s identities and gender power relations, particularly in the contexts of cultural encounter. She is also the founder and President of Arab and Muslim Women’s Research and Resource Institute (AMWRRI), a non-profit community organization in Milwaukee (Wisconsin), USA. Her research and community work aim to document and analyze Arab and Muslim women’s experiences by bringing history, migration, and feminist studies together. She is the author of Negotiating Palestinian Womanhood: Encounters Between Palestinian Women and American Missionaries, 1880s–1940s. Martine Poulain  has led a dual career as a researcher and library curator. She has directed several libraries, among them the Library of the National Institute for the History of Art. She was editor in chief of the Bulletin des Bibliothèques de France and the head of the Research and Studies Department in the Bibliothèque publique d’information, Centre Georges Pompidou Library in Paris. As a sociologist and a scholar, she published many books and papers on the sociology of reading and the users of libraries, the history of reading, and libraries and censorship in the twentieth century. She authored Looted Books, Supervised Readings: French Libraries Under the Occupation (Gallimard 2013). Anselm  Spoerri  holds a PhD from MIT and is an associate teaching professor at the School of Communication and Information at Rutgers University. The central focus of his research is how to crystallize complex data into insight by means of visualization and novel interaction methods. A co-authored paper about how to visualize what is most controversial in Wikipedia received widespread media attention. He was also the lead designer of the interactive web-based tool DataVis Material Properties, which transforms the way students learn about material properties. The tool received a PROSE Award—eProduct/Best in Physical Sciences & Mathematics in 2017. Lynne  Tatlock PhD Indiana University, is Hortense and Tobias Lewin Distinguished Professor in the Humanities; Director, Comparative Literature; and Chair, Germanic Languages and Literatures at Washington University in St. Louis. She has published widely on German literature and culture, including Jane Eyre in German Lands: The Import of Romance,

xii 

NOTES ON CONTRIBUTORS

1848–1918 (2022), Distant Readings: Topologies of German Culture in the Long Nineteenth Century (coeditor, 2014), German Writing/American Reading: Women and the Import of Fiction, 1866–1917 (2012), and Publishing Culture and the “Reading Nation”: German Book History in the Long Nineteenth Century (2010, editor) Noël Valis  teaches at Yale University and is the author of Lorca After Life, The Culture of Cursilería: Bad Taste, Kitsch, and Class in Modern Spain (winner of the MLA’s Katherine Singer Kovacs Prize), Sacred Realism: Religion and the Imagination in Modern Spanish Narrative, and other studies. She is the recipient of the Victoria Urbano Academic Achievement Prize, for her lifetime scholarly work in Hispanic women’s and gender studies, a Guggenheim and NEH (National Endowment for the Humanities) Fellow, a former member of the NEH’s National Council on the Humanities, and a corresponding member of the Royal Spanish Academy. Silvia  Valisa  is Associate Professor of Italian Studies at Florida State University. Her research focuses on the ideologies and technologies of modernity. She is the author of Gender, Narrative and Dissonance in the Modern Italian Novel (University of Toronto Press 2014) and coeditor of La carta veloce. Figure, temi e politiche del giornalismo italiano dell’Ottocento (FrancoAngeli 2021; with Morena Corradi). Her current book project explores nineteenth-century print culture in Milan, Italy. She created the digital project Il secolo, on the most successful nineteenth-­century Italian national daily, and co-founded Ottocentismi, an interdisciplinary network of Italian Studies scholars. Sarah  Wadsworth is Professor of English at Marquette University, Milwaukee, WI, USA, where she also serves as director of Marquette University Press. She is the author of In the Company of Books: Literature and Its “Classes” in Nineteenth-­Century America (2006) and co-author, with Wayne A. Wiegand, of Right Here I See My Own Books: The Woman’s Building Library at the World’s Columbian Exposition (2012). She has published widely on nineteenth-century U.S. literature, book history, children’s literature, and women’s writing. She is a consulting editor for the interdisciplinary journal Nineteenth Century Studies and is working on a monograph about Henry James and his friendships with women, including Violet Paget (Vernon Lee) and Lucy Lane Clifford, both represented in the British contribution to the women’s library at the World’s Columbian Exposition.

List of Figures

Fig. 2.1 Fig. 2.2 Fig. 2.3

Number of titles contributed by eight European countries 23 Identification and preservation of titles, by countries 23 Identification and preservation of titles, by types of bibliographic source 24 Fig. 2.4 Document types, by countries 25 Fig. 2.5 Categorization by themes and subjects 26 Fig. 2.6 Number of unique creators 27 Fig. 2.7 Creators by type of responsibility 27 Fig. 2.8 Top-contributing creators and range of and average contributions, by country 28 Fig. 2.9 Percentage of authors writing using pseudonymous 28 Fig. 2.10 Percentage of creators with a presence in the Wikipedias29 Fig. 4.1 (a) Draft of the translation of the report about Swedish women’s activities in Literature and Art. This translation was made by Rosalie Olivecrona (see her memoir Strödda tankar och minnen (Scattered thoughts and memories) (2005, p. 116) and included in the collected reports, which covered the areas of (I) Education, (II) Philanthropy, (III) Literature and Art, (IV) the Public Service, Trade, and Business. These reports were sent to the Board of Lady Managers at the Columbian Exposition. The draft belongs to the papers of the Fredrika Bremer Association, archived at the Swedish National Archives. Photo: Emre Olgun, Swedish National Archives. (b) The collected reports in which the draft displayed in (a) is included. This particular copy of the reports belongs to the collections of Uppsala University Library, Sweden. Photo: Uppsala University Library 57

xiii

xiv 

List of Figures

Fig. 4.2

A thank-you note received by Lotten von Kræmer. Upon receiving her biographical account, the librarian standing in for Edith Clarke, Mary Louise Davis, sent a personal thank-you note to Kræmer. This note is to be found in Kræmer’s personal papers, archived at the National Library of Sweden. Photo: Jens Östman, National Library of Sweden 62 Fig. 6.1 The Bohemian Voice, 1 September 1893, 2(1)97 Fig. 6.2 (a, b) Cover and dedication from Marianne Nigg’s, Biographien der österreichischen Dichterinnen und Schriftstellerinnen (“Biographies of Austrian Women Poets and Writers” 1893) 103 Fig. 7.1 Publication dates of German texts in the Woman’s Building Library relative to 1892 (n = 258) (Source: Clarke, Edith E., comp. (1893). List of Books Sent by Home and Foreign Committees to the Library of the Woman’s Building, 70–73. Graph created by Grace Klutke.) 119 Fig. 7.2 (a) Birth year distribution of German authors represented in Woman’s Building Library (n = 273); (b) age of German authors represented in Woman’s Building Library at time of text’s publication (n = 285) (Source: Clarke, Edith E., comp. (1893). List of Books Sent by Home and Foreign Committees to the Library of the Woman’s Building, 70–73. Graph created by Grace Klutke) 121 Fig. 8.1 Members of the Committee on Women’s Work. Official Catalogue of the British Section (xxiv) 138 Fig. 8.2 Categorization of selected genres in the British collection (Official Catalogue, composite illustration)146 Fig. 9.1 Historical progression of women’s rights in Norway 159 Fig. 14.1 (a) World’s Columbian Exposition, Woman’s Building Library, Historic Architecture and Landscape Image Collection, Ryerson and Burnham Art and Architecture Archives, Art Institute of Chicago. (b) Length of Lace, Italy, seventeenth century. Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Gift of the Estate of Helen Crocker Russell. (c) World’s Columbian Exposition, Woman’s Building, Historic Architecture and Landscape Image Collection, Ryerson and Burnham Art and Architecture Archives, Art Institute of Chicago. (d) Sarah Prideaux, Brown goatskin tooled in gold, book cover for Charles Perrault’s Contes de ma Mère l’Oye (1900). Special Collections, Princeton University Library. (e) Alice Cordelia Morse, Cream cloth covered boards with gold, green, and blue

  List of Figures 

decoration, book cover for Washington Irving’s The Alhambra (1892). Museum Accession, transferred from the Library. Image copyright ©Metropolitan Museum of Art. Image source: Art Resource, NY. (f) Ceiling painting for Woman’s Building Library (Howe, 1893, p. 136). (g) Associated Artists, Pomegranate Textile, c.1883. Woven Silk. Metropolitan Museum of Art, Gift of Mrs. Boudinot Keith Fig. 14.2 (a) Postcard of the Woman’s Building (recto), World’s Columbian Exposition, 1893. Chicago Historical Society. (b) Photograph showing the Interior of the Main Room of the Woman’s Library, Woman’s Building, World’s Columbian Exposition from Campbell’s Illustrated History of the World’s Columbian Exposition (1894, pp. II, 367). Courtesy of Smithsonian Libraries and Archives. (c) Madeleine Lemaire, Cover illustration for Maud Howe Elliot, Art and Handicraft in the Woman’s Building (1893). Library of Congress, Washington, DC. (d) Union Pacific souvenir print of Woman’s Building, 1893. Larry Zim World’s Fair Collection, Archives Center, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution. (e) Woman’s Building stereograph, 1893. Stereoscopic Thornwood Series Gems. Private collection

xv

245

249

List of Tables

Table 3.1 Distribution in percentage of the titles of the Collection (N = 216) Table 4.1 Genres included in the Swedish contribution; 140 works in total Table 4.2 The number of writers represented at the Woman’s Library who wrote for the different women’s periodicals Table 6.1 Authors and documents Table 6.2 Types of works, Bohemian collection Table 6.3 Types of works, Austrian collection Table 8.1 Books from Great Britain enumerated by Library of Congress Main Classes Table 9.1 Types of works identified

37 63 64 100 107 109 148 162

xvii

CHAPTER 1

Global Voices from the Women’s Library at the World’s Columbian Exposition: Feminisms, Transnationalism and the Archive Marija Dalbello and Sarah Wadsworth

Long recognized as a cultural watershed and touchstone of modernity, the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair (World’s Columbian Exposition) became the site of the first large-scale international library of writing by women. Located in the Woman’s Building, the result of years of planning and cooperation by women’s organizations in 24 countries from North America, South America, Europe, Asia, and the Middle East, the Library of the Woman’s Building contained more than 8200 titles. Among them

M. Dalbello (*) School of Communication and Information, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, New Brunswick, NJ, USA e-mail: [email protected] S. Wadsworth Department of English, Marquette University, Milwaukee, WI, USA e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 M. Dalbello, S. Wadsworth (eds.), Global Voices from the Women’s Library at the World’s Columbian Exposition, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-42490-8_1

1

2 

M. DALBELLO AND S. WADSWORTH

were about 3400 entries in the international women’s collections other than  the United States. Twenty-three countries, predominantly from Europe, sent representative collections of books to the Woman’s Building Library. This historical archive mirrors the multiplicity of women’s movements and the many distinctive versions of feminism that informed them at an international scale. Despite its magnitude and cultural importance, however, the Library in the Woman’s Building has, until recently, remained a largely unexplored source for understanding the internationalism and transnational character of women’s history and cultural modernism. As an artifact of transatlantic print culture focalized through a global event, the Library lies at the intersection of international women’s culture, women’s movements, international women’s writing and world’s fairs, specifically, the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair, or World’s Columbian Exposition. Despite a growing interest in women’s bibliography, women’s writing, women’s culture of low modernism, and nineteenth-century women’s movements, libraries remain unique phenomena too rarely considered from global perspectives historically. Until the publication of this edited volume, their international dimensions have remained largely unexplored. The chapters in this volume represent contributions by 14 feminist scholars of different national and disciplinary traditions. Their arguments and analyses address the wide-ranging expressions of women’s creativity and innovation before the turn of the twentieth century. The chapters offer an understanding of what united and distinguished women’s experience in these countries. They also offer an understanding of women’s contribution to the world’s literary, scientific, philosophical, economic, historical, and other publications up to 1893. Women’s involvement lay in shaping the displays in their contributions as authors of both canonical and little-­ known works on women’s emancipation and many other topics, and in their labor as educators, writers, and activists in their national contexts. The publications assembled at the Fair were largely recent works, identifying key contemporary authors and offering a snapshot of international women’s networks from that time. These networks, which had been predominantly but not exclusively transatlantic, shared an aspirational, future-­ oriented, progressive view characteristic of this era, and reflected the complexity of national traditions and histories and the multiplicity of women’s movements internationally. At the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, these networks encompassed several generations of women that this pivotal library brought into focus. The already-­established women’s movements and proto-feminist traditions distinguished

1  GLOBAL VOICES FROM THE WOMEN’S LIBRARY AT THE WORLD’S… 

3

themselves through calls for suffrage. They built on preexisting “mothers of the matrix” and “domains of woman-to-woman international connectedness” as well as institutions—including those associated with abolitionists, utopian thinkers, and literary celebrities in addition to women participants in religious “outreach” and evangelism (McFadden, 1999, 4; 49). The chapters in this collection addressing specific aspects of the national collections show the relationship between such movements and the cultural modernism that arose concurrently with that era’s gender politics alongside images of the “New Woman.” Even if the term “New Woman” is not explicitly stated in some national representations, the emergent spirit of the “new era” pervaded the tenor of the women’s movements. The end of the nineteenth century, a historical moment that coincided with the height of optimism in industrialism, was characterized by shifting ideas around gender and the changing roles of women in society. Modernism and globalism in the context of international women’s culture and activism overlapped with calls for class justice and social reform. The strands revealed through analyses of what was represented in the Library show a progressive orientation. Our analyses uncovered different and distinct versions of feminism within a broader discourse of conflicting ideologies. Some versions were based on conformist nineteenth-century values of domesticity and philanthropy, while others were rooted in more radical gender ideologies and reformist movements. Yet they all valued women’s emancipation and translated this shared value into pragmatic concerns that varied with the local settings. Our methodologies in conducting these analyses relied on feminist bibliographic traditions and prior work with women’s archives to recover traces of the proto-feminist matrix of ideas in a “matriarchive” of women’s writings. Because the contents of the Library were dispersed after the Fair, they could only be reconstructed from surviving bibliographies and, for the most part, located in digital collections and online archives. We relied on a compilation contemporary with the Fair, a short-title catalog compiled by Edith E.  Clarke (1893), the librarian appointed to head a team of catalogers to process the documents sent by state committees in the US and international women’s groups who represented women’s achievements globally. Next, we outline the structure of the book and give an overview of chapters, followed by a note on historiography and shared methodological frameworks and approaches. Further, we review the context in which

4 

M. DALBELLO AND S. WADSWORTH

transnational modernisms, women’s literature, and the early global women’s movements were reflected in the Woman’s Building and in the broader context of the Fair.

The Structure of the Book The book is organized in three parts. The chapters focusing on the national collections are placed within the social constructs that linked the selections of books, authors, works, and/or genres to social actors, female agency, and modernism. This Introduction (Chap. 1) considers the findings and links the analyses of the chapters focusing on nationality, country, or language group and those focusing on individual authors to comparative views. Two overview chapters frame the collection, both with strong visual components. They offer two “meta” views that complement the analyses through data visualizations (Chap. 2) and immersion in the visual culture of the Woman’s Building and its Library (Chap. 14). These chapters “bookend” the analyses presented in the remaining chapters by framing them in the opening and closing of this volume. The first part, “Reading (Across) National Collections,” engages two levels of interpretation by analyzing the collections representing different countries holistically and identifying the salient characteristics of each country’s collection. In Chap. 2, A Comparative and Structural Analysis of European Works in the Woman’s Building Library, Anselm Spoerri, Marija Dalbello, and Janette Derucki offer a synoptic view across the eight largest national collections, presenting comparative analyses through analytic visualizations. The next three chapters focus on specific national collections. In Chap. 3, Silvia Valisa explores the list of books sent from Italy: 220 texts assembled by Alice Howard Cady and Fanny Zampini Salazar. Her chapter reveals vibrant women’s participation in culture and science and concludes that the books show a great heterogeneity of content and varied ideological positions. In Chap. 4, Johanna McElwee focuses on the networks of texts and writers within the Swedish contribution to the Library, revealing the uniqueness of their selection strategy and the controversies that accompanied the process. She calls attention to the prominence of women’s rights activist and pacifist Fredrika Bremer and her “brand of feminism based on the ideals of liberalism and Lutheran Christianity” (McElwee, Chap. 4). In Chap. 5, Noël Valis reads Spain’s contribution of approximately 500 volumes and uncovers a projected desire to reach national and international audiences. One of her findings,

1  GLOBAL VOICES FROM THE WOMEN’S LIBRARY AT THE WORLD’S… 

5

echoed in other chapters, concerns the relative obscurity of the selected works and writers. This obscurity may reflect the fact that the national selections comprised only a fraction of the women activists and writers of their time and represented what came to be more common strands of feminism as well as the less dominant strands that came to epitomize enduring or exceptional ideas. Together, the analyses of national collections in this section confirm the inherent diversity of transatlantic women’s movements of the time (McFadden, 1999, p. 40). The second part, “Gender and Modernism,” identifies transitional dimensions of women’s movements. The authors analyzed the collections to understand the relationship between specific and representative constructions of domesticity, labor, and identities. In Chap. 6, Marija Dalbello focuses on Central European collections (Austrian, Bohemian, and Polish)—encompassing the only two Slavic-language collections and the only two representing the Habsburg Empire in the Library. The Imperial “Austrian” selection of 17 authors (24 works) presented writing of a cosmopolitan leisured class of women. The Bohemian selection of 69 authors (and nearly 300 works) represented activists for women’s rights whose work intersected with calls for national and class justice. The chapter analyzes the center-periphery dynamics in the tensions between the Slavic and the German-speaking realms of the Habsburg Empire and identifies different cultures of female modernism and their contrasting ideologies. In Chap. 7, Lynne Tatlock analyzes the collection sent by Imperial Germany. Foregrounding the concept of Bildung, she reveals ambiguity and ambivalence in the representations of fictional and historical roles that “intertwined women’s domestic lives with historical processes outside the home” (Tatlock, Chap. 7). In Chap. 8, Sarah Wadsworth focuses on the works sent by Great Britain, attending to the organizational activities behind the collection as well as the composition of the collection itself. Poised between a culminating moment of the nineteenth century and the turn to the twentieth, the British collection was a site of historical canon formation as well as innovation, a duality reflected in the contrast between the oldest literary artifacts and early New Woman writings, including one of the first such novels: Olive Schreiner’s The Story of an African Farm. In Chap. 9, Marianne Martens focuses on 161 titles by 60 Norwegian authors and sorts them into descriptive categories of literature, domestic arts, “feminist works,” children’s literature, Norwegian language, nostalgia, and religion, which she analyzes as distinct yet interconnected genres of women’s writing. In the structure of the corpus, she locates explicitly feminist works

6 

M. DALBELLO AND S. WADSWORTH

at the intersection of the national and women’s movements. She identifies how the key institutions of the early Norwegian women’s movement were linked to the Skuld discussion group, and Nylænde, the flagship journal of the Norwegian Women’s Rights Association and the Women’s Suffrage Association. The third part, “Close Readings: Authoring Female Agency,” foregrounds discrete subsets of texts and individual authors within the context of specific national literatures. In Chap. 10, Enaya  Hammad Othman focuses on Fatima Aliye, an élite Ottoman woman writer whose works represented Turkey’s contribution to the Library. Her analysis draws out the complexities of feminism in the Ottoman Empire through Aliye’s life and career and her diverse publications, which engaged deeply with Muslim religious themes and the social contexts in which she lived. In Chap. 11, Jackielee Derks focuses on the “Native New Woman” through an analysis of the only novel by an Indian woman included in the collection representing Great Britain, Krupabai Satthianadhan’s Saguna (1892). Presenting her analysis against a backdrop of British travel writing about India and novels in which there are references to Indian material culture— specifically the Indian or Kashmir shawl—she demonstrates how Satthianadhan’s novel manifests a distinctly Indian version of female agency even as it embraces specific aspects of British culture that offered women greater autonomy. In Chap. 12, Elena González-Muntaner focuses on the Peruvian novelist Mercedes Cabello de Carbonera, the sole representative of her country’s literature in the Woman’s Building Library. Through historical and biographical contextualization combined with readings of three of the five novels by Cabello de Carbonera on display in the Library, she shows that the novelist, who advocated female education and participated actively in the literary society of Lima, navigated harsh criticism as well as popular success as she boldly exposed gender double standards and experimented with an increasingly Naturalistic approach. Together, these chapters marshal significant themes emerging from the Woman’s Building Library, revealing inherent Orientalist perspectives alongside views on the Fair from the colonial peripheries and the global South. In Chap. 13, Martine Poulain focuses on the largest collection at the Fair, the one thousand books representing France. Her critical analysis of what the French Ladies’ Committee (Comité des dames) selected reveals a structure of traditional and conformist representations of women. She analyzes five core writers representing France, who often wrote pseudonymously in an interplay of masculine and feminine identities. The chapter

1  GLOBAL VOICES FROM THE WOMEN’S LIBRARY AT THE WORLD’S… 

7

analyzes their work not only through the discourse of women’s rights and women’s writing but also through the misogynist reception of their work. In addition, she identifies the more progressive authors absent from the collection. Finally, in Chap. 14, titled The Library as Exhibition, Christine Giviskos curates an immersive synthesis in two interconnected sections that organize two distinct “visual visits” to the Fair. She focuses, respectively, on the visuality and textures populating the interiors of the Woman’s Building and the print culture mediating the visual experience of the Fair. The “tour” of the Building and its library space is conveyed through a visual experience that includes the exteriors of books, highlighting the materiality of books as well as the material culture that the authors of other chapters describe. The second part focuses on visual culture and the Woman’s Building as a motif in advertisements and illustrations—the visual records that have shaped its enduring memory. Together, the chapters offer in-depth or synoptic overviews of all the national selections represented at the Fair. These include in-depth views of the Central European collections of Austria, Bohemia, and Poland, by Marija Dalbello (Chap. 6); France, by Martine Poulain (Chap. 13); Germany, by Lynne Tatlock (Chap. 7); Great Britain, by Sarah Wadsworth and Jackielee Derks (Chaps. 8 and 11); Italy, by Silvia Valisa (Chap. 3); Norway, by Marianne Martens (Chap. 9); Peru, by Elena González-­ Muntaner (Chap. 11); Spain, by Noël Valis (Chap. 5); Sweden, by Johanna McElwee (Chap. 4); and Turkey, by Enaya Hammad Othman (Chap. 10). Complementing those chapters is the analysis by Anselm Spoerri, Marija Dalbello, and Janette Derucki (Chap. 2), which compares the selections sent by the eight countries that together account for the largest proportion of texts in the Library (Austria, Belgium, Bohemia, France, Holland, Germany, Great Britain, and Spain). Although not addressed in separate chapters, we recognize that Finland and Japan were represented by a single entry each: the Unionen Alliance for the Cause of Women in Finland. Women and Women’s Work in Finland and Japanese Woman’s Commission. Club Record, respectively (Clarke, 1893, p. 59, 82). Both countries sent reports arising from women’s organizing. Similarly, although we do not dedicate a separate chapter to Arabia, we note that it was represented by a single “work on astronomy by Everett, in Arabic” (Clarke, 1893, p. 55). Together with Brazil, Canada, China, Cuba, Greece, and Portugal, these contributions account for a small number of titles, usually one or two documents. Some of these titles were translations of women’s works in English or translated by women rather

8 

M. DALBELLO AND S. WADSWORTH

than representing women’s voices of these countries. Brazil selected the 1892 publication In Amazon Land: Adaptations from Brazilian Writers, with Original Selections, by Martha F. Sesselberg. China was represented by two entries attributed to Sarah Moore Sites (1838–1912): Children’s Bible Picture-Book in Chinese and Story of the Life of J. Wesley in Chinese (Clarke, 1893, p.  59). These are a children’s book illustrated with 80 engravings “in Foochow colloquial” (S. Moore Sites, 1873) and a biography of John Wesley, respectively. Both volumes likely supported the work of China’s Methodist missionaries. The Cuban selection was an anniversary publication on the Spanish “discovery” of America by Christopher Columbus listed under “Rorrero de Miró” (Cuba en le centenario de Colon) but not located so far (Clarke, 1893, p.  59). Canada was represented by two titles and two poets: the collections titled Verses, by Dorothy W. Knight (1881–1913), and Golden Leaves (1893), by Eloise A. Skimings (1836–1921), a poet and composer known as the “Poetess of Lake Huron,” who co-wrote with her brother Richard Skimings (1846–1869) (1890).1 Greece sent five volumes of the women’s magazine Ephemeris ton Kyrion (“The Ladies’ Journal,” 1887–1917) on literature and “household economy, house management, child rearing and the role of women in the private sphere” (CLARIN-EL). Clarke notes that Ephemeris ton Kyrion was “edited by Calirrhöe Parren” (1893, p. 79). Parren (1859–1940) was a Greek reformer and activist ‑representing Greek women at International Women’s Conferences in Paris, 1889, and in Chicago, 1893. In the years following the Chicago Fair, she fictionalized her vision of the “new woman” in Greek society in novels that were serialized in “The Ladies’ Journal” (Heliodromion  2004). Portugal’s French-born feminist writer Alice Moderno (1867–1946) was represented by a book of poetry Aspirações (“Aspirations,” 1886) in French and Portuguese; a romance novel O Dr. Luiz Sandoval (1892); and Trillos, 1886–1888 (1888). Moderno was an animal welfare activist who lived in the Azores, on the island of São Miguel, in an openly lesbian relationship (Duarte, 2010 in Centro de documentação e arquivo feminista elina guimarães; Wikiwand). These selections confirm the recency of the books displayed in the Women’s Library and their focus on women’s movements.

1  Biographical information is from The Database of Canada’s Early Women’s Writers (DoCEWW).

1  GLOBAL VOICES FROM THE WOMEN’S LIBRARY AT THE WORLD’S… 

9

Methodological Framework and Approaches The book exemplifies an interdisciplinary approach that the authors of individual chapters applied in reading or cross-reading the national selections, focusing on the context in which the Women’s Library was assembled through social networks, particular authors and works, or a combination of the two. The linguistic diversity of the Library called for contributions that combine national, comparative, and transnational perspectives by scholars who are comfortable with interpretive close readings and structural analyses. Identifying interconnections in the thousands of texts housed in this historic library selected by the women’s national committees pointed to a range of cultural practices encoded in the collections. Some authors implemented approaches known as a “distant reading” of the thousands of texts in the Library, grounded in a theoretical position inspired by Franco Moretti (2013; PMLA, 2017; Erlin & Tatlock, 2014) and validating aggregative readings applied to this archive of women’s writing. The visualizations and tabulation of interconnections in the contents of works, revealing how collections are structured and reading them alongside authors’ biographies, show how these methods can become complementary historiographic tools for conducting comparative analyses and researching women’s history. Our sources were the collections themselves, as documented at the time of their formation, and in addition to distant reading and data analysis, we relied on conventional historical methods, including bio-bibliographies, archives, and primary and secondary source materials. An extensive print culture that issued simultaneously with the Fair mediated the Fair’s contemporary reception and provided rich material for our work. Among the countless items of this surviving print culture is the source from which we learned about the contents of the Women’s Library, Edith E. Clarke’s List of Books (1893). This published short-title catalog was based on the detailed catalogs (subsequently lost) browsed by visitors to the Woman’s Building Library and represents the sole comprehensive source of information about the books displayed in the Library’s cabinets.2 The List was the bibliographic foundation and a main historiographic source for all the chapters’ authors. The catalog of art and artifacts in the Woman’s Building, edited by Maud Howe Elliott (1893), was another 2  Clarke’s bibliography is replicated in A Celebration of Women Writers digital resource at the University of Pennsylvania.

10 

M. DALBELLO AND S. WADSWORTH

documentary basis for our research, as were the reports and proceedings from the women’s committees involved in organizing women’s exhibits and congresses. Some of these reports were issued by the World’s Congress Auxiliary Woman’s Branch, headed by Bertha Palmer; the principal figure in the organization of the Woman’s Building and its displays, Palmer served as president of the Board of Lady Managers. We also relied on the reports by the Congress’s subsidiary departments as well as on the proceedings of the World’s Congress of Representative Women held in the Woman’s Building (The Congress of Women, 1893; Sewall, 1893). Some of these publications featured speakers and delegates representing the national committees who formed the women’s networks and guided the international selections that we analyzed. Another source was the contemporary women’s press, in the United States and elsewhere, which often echoed the jubilant tone at the Fair—as exemplified by the Nebraska-­ based The Woman’s Tribune, which reprinted a speech given by Mary Lockwood, member-at-large of the Board of Lady Managers, at the 1893 convention of the National American Woman Suffrage Association. In her address, Lockwood declared that “the appointment of foreign committees to co-operate with us has resulted in the most powerful organization that has ever existed among women” (Lockwood, 1893, p. 25). The reception of the Fair was broadly mediated in contemporary print culture, including in numerous published guides in English and other languages that focused on specific aspects of the Fair, ensuring its consumption internationally. A most comprehensive listing of publications and ephemera originating from the Fair are the volumes in the collectors’ catalog Annotated Bibliography: World’s Columbian Exposition, Chicago 1893 (Dybwad & Bliss, 1992; 1999). The listed publications include “official” guides, magazines, newspapers, periodicals, view books, salesmen’s samples, broadsides, photography, engravings, souvenirs, and music.3 The testimony by which the Exposition was publicized through federal publications and internationally comprises more than 5000 entries overall with over 800 listings in the chapters dedicated to “foreign” countries, listed alphabetically (Dybwad & Bliss, 1992, pp.  59–120, 1999, pp.  29–69). The listing of the “foreign country printings” and those focusing on the Woman’s Building demonstrates that print culture was 3  These items have an enduring circulation and value in the used-books market and maintain a vivid connection to the Fair, as exemplified by the four-page menu for the Woman’s Building’s Garden Café for Chicago Day on October 9, 1893 (Dybwad & Bliss, 1997, 1; 48).

1  GLOBAL VOICES FROM THE WOMEN’S LIBRARY AT THE WORLD’S… 

11

integral to the spectacle of this world’s fair. Some of the chapters in this volume include analyses of print culture and discuss how the general press and the women’s periodicals announced or reported on the Chicago exhibition and the Woman’s Building. These journalistic accounts emanate from the foreign-language and English-language immigrant press in the United States. The chapters authored by Johanna McElwee, Marija Dalbello, and Marianne Martens explicitly show the involvement of transatlantic audiences and local immigrant communities in North America in the experience of the event. The photographically captured contemporary visual experience and testimonials echoed the reception of the millions of visitors who visited the Fair during the six months of its duration, from May 1 to October 31, 1893. The chapters’ authors relied on both conventional and digital archives in their analyses of the Woman’s Building Library. They used full-text open access digital editions, applying descriptive methods to understand the structure and content of the collections or linking information from different archives to interpret the contents in light of the organizational structure of women’s networks. The femina bibliographies and digital archives have been institutionalized across national and international feminist projects, which allowed the contributors to find information about often minor figures of the women’s movements from the late nineteenth century. Women’s historical bio-bibliographies and archives made it possible to study the history of transnational feminism comparatively. Like the Woman’s Building assembling the labors of women to bring visibility to women’s contributions in its time, feminist archives and feminist bibliographies fill in the silences in the fragmentary record about the history of women’s activism. Women’s voices resonated in the pages of reports and proceedings of the women’s congresses and their delegates, some of whom were authors of texts displayed in the Woman’s Building. These women built on the work of the women’s committees from the International Women’s Conferences in Paris in 1889, offering an expanding view of the cultural modernisms within women’s movements. Finally, we practiced immersive reading of the Library spaces in the Woman’s Building that featured displays of artifacts. We approached their cross-reading and examined how they were mirrored in the material culture that was the focus of the documents (e.g., in chapters by Dalbello, Derks, Giviskos, Valisa, and Wadsworth). By asking questions about how the displays and the ambiance connect to the contextual readings of the women’s networks that were instrumental in bringing forth the

12 

M. DALBELLO AND S. WADSWORTH

exhibition, we follow the path of foundational scholarly works offering a general view of the Woman’s Building and its Library (Weimann, 1981; Applebaum, 1980, pp. 59–65). Thus, we could practice the new materialism in cultural history approaches by connecting the contents of the books in the Library with the contents of the Woman’s Building, taking into account both the artifacts and their reception.

The Woman’s Building Library in the Context of Scholarship There are many scholarly works that focus on world’s fairs and universal expositions and the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair in particular, yet only a few engage women’s historical role or place of the Woman’s Building.4 Jeanne Madeline Weimann’s The Fair Women (1981) is a classic work that thoroughly researched the historical phenomenon, drawing on primary source materials and extensive archival research. Weimann documents the events that led to the realization of the Woman’s Building, profiling the women responsible for the Building and the exhibits and recording their activities in a chronological, documentary fashion as part of the broader context of the Fair, both locally and internationally. She devoted only one chapter to international women’s committees and books, however (Weimann, 1981, pp. 353–392). Wanda Corn’s Women Building History: Public Art at the 1893 Columbian Exposition (2011) focuses on public art and the history of the Woman’s Building, which epitomized and exemplified America’s Gilded Age. Written for popular audiences, the volume illustrates the visual component of the Building’s architectural display, paintings, and sculptures. T.J.  Boisseau and Abigail M.  Markwyn’s collection of essays Gendering the Fair: Histories of Women and Gender at World’s Fairs (2010) includes two chapters specifically on the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair, one of which focuses on an international, non-Western set of exhibits: Lisa K.  Langlois’s “Japan—Modern, Ancient, and Gendered at the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair,” which juxtaposes the Japanese Lady’s Boudoir in the Woman’s Building with the exhibits in Phoenix Hall, Japan’s official national exhibit. The collection also contains a valuable comparative study of woman’s buildings across several fairs: Mary Pepchinski’s “Woman’s Buildings at European and American World’s Fairs, 1893-1939,” which 4  Typically, such scholarly works focus on the fair itself or the national displays (Boone, 2019; Vallejo, 2012; Vilella, 2004).

1  GLOBAL VOICES FROM THE WOMEN’S LIBRARY AT THE WORLD’S… 

13

examines the architectural, rhetorical, narrative, and spatial strategies through which women were represented by these edifices. Pepchinski demonstrates how these strategies were distinctively realized in the Woman’s Building at the Columbian Exposition, which became a touchstone for subsequent women’s buildings. Focusing on the Woman’s Building Library exclusively are two complementary volumes, both revolving around the US materials—a special issue of Libraries & Culture (2006) edited by Sarah Wadsworth and a monograph focusing on the Woman’s Building Library co-authored by Sarah Wadsworth and Wayne A. Wiegand (2012). The latter, Right Here I See My Own Books: The Woman’s Building Library at the World’s Columbian Exposition, is the only such book concentrating on the Woman’s Building Library and analyzing the formation and content of the Library. It encompasses analyses of the individual, state-based collections contributed by the women’s committees from the United States. Wadsworth and Wiegand analyze works in terms of subjects and genres against the backdrop of women’s culture and social movements, as well as the history and professionalization of American librarianship. These volumes are strongly associated with and complementary to our volume. The published scholarship on women’s international books at the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair includes the analyses of the Italian books by Silvia Valisa (2018) and of the Spanish presence by Noël Valis (2000). The Woman’s Building Library, a landmark venue within the White City and the Chicago Fair, is especially interesting as a site of cultural analysis connecting international fairs with women’s history. By studying these events through the involvement of women’s writing, libraries, and movements, we gain a better understanding of the internationalism of women’s movements, women’s professionalism, and women’s political activism. This approach is exemplified by Karen Offen (2018) in her analysis of the Franco-American women’s network, which was responsible for the selection of the French titles. The question of belonging and engagement of women with citizenship, race, and organized womanhood captures an exemplary “narrow moment” in the history of the nineteenth century that the authors of the chapters in this volume examined through their local content. The Woman’s Building exhibition at the Chicago World’s Fair of 1893 is not a unique event, historically speaking. The Woman’s Pavilion at the 1876 Centennial exhibition in Philadelphia was “the first exposition building entirely planned, funded and managed by women, devoted to

14 

M. DALBELLO AND S. WADSWORTH

women’s interests and accomplishments and women’s work” and without which “the Chicago Woman’s Building of 1893 might never have existed” (Weimann, 1981, pp. 1–2). The Woman’s Building at the Chicago World’s Fair in 1893, however, was not a continuation of the Women’s Pavilion in Philadelphia in 1876 specifically but represents an overall continuity with women’s participation in fairs and universal exhibitions. The Women’s Literary Department at the 1884 New Orleans World’s Fair, with a collection of 1400 items that included women’s writing from England, France, and Germany, was a direct ancestor of the 1893 collection.5 Julia Ward Howe and Maude Howe Elliott, both involved in the 1893 Women’s Building, were its organizers (Tucker, 2021). In the context of the substantive French participation in the 1893 fair, which resulted in a third of all foreign language titles, Martine Poulain (Chap. 13) notes that this large French presence should be considered in the context of Universal Exhibitions held in Paris, notably those organized in 1889 and 1900. All these exhibitions were held within a short interval and manifested a continuous international dialogue. Transnational feminists, often activists in immigrant communities, carried the ideas across the Atlantic before and in succession to the 1893 Chicago Fair through the work of the women’s congresses (McFadden, 1999, p.  184; Maddux, 2019). Several generations of women were involved with these movements. For example, the Swedish women’s rights activist and foremother and pioneer for the Swedish women’s movement in the nineteenth century, Fredrika Bremer, toured the United States in the 1850s (Weimann, 1981, p. 7). Thus, the Fair was situated within existing international networks and conversations about the contributions of women that the Woman’s Building expressed most explicitly. Its library was an expression of these global voices and reflected the expressions of women’s emancipation internationally (although with a strong European and transatlantic bias). Thus, rather than merely recording canonical displays, the Library documents the processes by which women who exchanged their ideas and made selections variously positioned themselves in the discourse of women’s emancipation. Those whose works were included remind us of those who were excluded. As Elena González-Muntaner points out (Chap. 12), some authors were either not invited or not included in the conversations. The 5  Adams, K., & Howard, J.T. This Beautiful Sisterhood of Books: A Digital Recreation of the Women’s Literary Department from the 1884 New Orleans World’s Fair.

1  GLOBAL VOICES FROM THE WOMEN’S LIBRARY AT THE WORLD’S… 

15

goal of achieving visibility is the central argument taken by Silvia Valisa (Chap. 9) in her review of the Italian women’s networks. The selections by France represented the conformist nature of the women’s movements prioritized at the Fair (Poulain, Chap. 13). Sweden was represented by pacifist and reformist social movements (McElwee, Chap. 5). Bohemia and Norway emphasized national differentiation and cultural affirmation of smaller nations within larger formations (Dalbello and Martens, in Chaps. 6 and 9). This is a reminder that the women’s movements intersected with other political and personal disagreements, widely documented in the conflict between the suffragist wing and the Isabella Association with the dominant group represented by the Board of Lady Managers (Weimann, 1981, pp. 55–72). The national displays in 1893 were a manifestation of the context in which women writers were active in the local and international arena, revealing a vision of transnational feminism in which connections among works, authors, and women’s networks with political structures link the national collections.

Conclusion The chapters in this book cover women’s movements and feminist ideologies across the European continent and in transatlantic and colonial interactions but also represent views from the global South and Middle East. While there is more to do, we have shown that the women’s movements at the turn of the nineteenth to the twentieth century were diverse and interconnected through women’s networks that were tight and based on personal relationships. A women’s library with a global scope required a multilingual and multidisciplinary perspective, and we believe that this collaborative approach could be applied to other phenomena of interest to women’s history and gender studies, cultural studies, history of libraries, literary studies, book history, and comparative and world literature. We acknowledged the cultural contributions of women collectively and explored them individually and in dialogue with one another around the pressing issues affecting women through historical, multidisciplinary, international, and transnational lenses. We hope that this book will have a broad audience interested in exploring international women’s movements through an intersection of work by scholars practicing women’s history, cultural and library history, literary studies, sociology, and data visualization.

16 

M. DALBELLO AND S. WADSWORTH

Acknowledgments  This book has been long in the making after Wayne A. Wiegand approached Marija Dalbello to organize a book on the foreign titles around 2008. She immediately invited Sarah Wadsworth, who had previously collaborated with Wayne, as co-editor. Our project was rebooted during the pandemic closures in 2020 with the support of a Women’s Leadership Interdisciplinary Summer Pilot Grant from the Institute for Women’s Leadership at Marquette University received by Sarah Wadsworth. The book is the result of that effort, with many of the originally invited authors contributing to this volume. The history of this edited collection is also linked to other scholarly artifacts, including a digital humanities project inspired by “distant reading” approaches (Moretti, 2013) to enable a comparatist search, of which an online demo was realized by Marija Dalbello in collaboration with Nathan Graham, with research support by Elizabeth Taylor and Laura Helton. This digital artifact, 1893.rutgers.edu (2011–2016), is preserved in digital fragments and offline. The snapshots from three captures are accessible at the Internet Archive. The initial analyses led to conference presentations, posters, invited talks, and research data shared with some of the collaborators in preparation of their chapters, as acknowledged in each chapter. Others built or combined these analyses with their own data sets, some of which will be preserved in institutional repositories. Also leading to the current collection was a symposium co-organized by Wayne A. Wiegand and Sarah Buck Kachaluba, The Woman’s Building Library at the 1893 World’s Fair: A Cameo in History, held at Florida State University, on March 23, 2012, which included the two presentations on the international collections by Silvia Valisa and Marija Dalbello.

References Works in the Woman’s Building Library Ephemeris ton Kyrion. (n.d.). Knight, D. W. (1893). Verse. Brockville, ON. Moderno, A. (1886). Aspirações, primeiros versos, 1883–1886. Moderno, A. (1888). Trillos, 1886–1888. Tip. Popular. Moderno, A. (1892). O Dr. Luiz Sandoval: Romance. Typo-Lyth. Minerva. Moore Sites, S. (1873). The Children’s Bible Picture Book: In Foochow Colloquial. Sesselberg, M. F. (1893). In Amazon Land: Adaptations from Brazilian Writers, with Original Selections. Putnam. Skimmings, E. A., & Skimings, R. (1890). Golden Leaves. Star. Retrieved November 4, 2022, from https://www.canadiana.ca/view/oocihm.12983/1 Tucker, S. (2021). Julia Ward Howe, Maud Howe, and an Archival Legacy: Recordkeeping and the Library of Women’s Books at the 1884 Cotton Centennial. Libraries: Culture, History & Society, 5(1), 1–23.

1  GLOBAL VOICES FROM THE WOMEN’S LIBRARY AT THE WORLD’S… 

17

Other Works Cited 1893.rutgers.edu. Retrieved November 20, 2022, from https://web.archive.org/web/ 20220000000000*/ http://1893.rutgers.edu/2011/06/15/explore-­the-­archive A Celebration of Women Writers. Retrieved November 8, 2022, from https://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/_collections/exposition/exposition.html Adams, K., & Howard, J. T. (n.d.). This Beautiful Sisterhood of Books: A Digital Recreation of the Women’s Literary Department from the 1884 New Orleans World’s Fair. Retrieved October 9, 2023, from https://thisbeautifulsisterhood.org Applebaum, S. (1980). The Chicago World’s Fair of 1893: A Photographic Record. Dover Publications. Boisseau, T. J., & Markwyn, A. M. (Eds.). (2010). Gendering the Fair: Histories of Women and Gender at World’s Fairs. University of Illinois Press. Boone, M. E. (2019 [2020]). “The Spanish Element in Our Nationality”: Spain and America at the World’s Fairs and Centennial Celebrations, 1876–1915. Pennsylvania State University Press. Centro de documentação e arquivo feminista Elina Guimarães. Duarte, C. L. Alice Moderno. 2010. Retrieved November 5, 2022, from https://www.cdocfeminista.org/alice-­moderno-­1867-­1946-­2 CLARIN:EL portal. Ephemeris ton Kyrion – Abstracts. Retrieved November 5, 2022, from https://inventory.clarin.gr/corpus/984 Clarke, E.  E. (1893). List of Books Sent by Home and Foreign Committees to the Library of the Woman’s Building. World’s Columbian Exposition. Corn, W. M. (2011). Women Building History: Public Art at the 1893 Columbian Exposition. University of California Press. Dybwad, G. L., & Bliss, J. V. (1992). Annotated Bibliography: World’s Columbian Exposition, Chicago 1893. The Book Stops Here. Dybwad, G.  L., & Bliss, J.  V. (1997). Chicago Day at the World’s Columbian Exposition: Illustrated with Candid Photographs. The Book Stops Here. Dybwad, G. L., & Bliss, J. V. (1999). Annotated Bibliography: World’s Columbian Exposition, Chicago 1893: Supplement. The Book Stops Here. Eagle, M.  K. O. (Ed.). (1893). The Congress of Women: Held in the Woman’s Building, World’s Columbian Exposition, Chicago, 1893. Erlin, M., & Tatlock, L. (Eds.). (2014). Distant Readings: Topologies of German Culture in the Long Nineteenth Century. Camden House. Heliodromion. (2004). The Sensible Apostle of Woman [sic] Emancipation: Callirhoe Parren: Life and Works. Retrieved November 5, 2022, from https://www. heliodromion.gr/palaio/e-­parren.htm Howe Elliott, M. (Ed.). (1893). Art and Handicraft in the Woman’s Building of the World’s Columbian Exposition, Chicago 1893. Goupil & Co., Bousson, Valadon & Co.

18 

M. DALBELLO AND S. WADSWORTH

Lockwood, M. (1893). Work of the Board of Lady Managers. Woman’s Tribune, 28 January, p. 25. Maddux, K. (2019). Practicing Citizenship: Women’s Rhetoric at the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair. Pennsylvania State University Press. McFadden, M. H. (1999). Golden Cables of Sympathy: The Transatlantic Sources of Nineteenth-Century Feminism. The University Press of Kentucky. Moretti, F. (2013). Distant Reading. Verso. Offen, K. (2018). Rendezvous at the Expo: Building a Franco-American Women’s Network, 1889-1893-1900. In R.  Rogers & M.  Boussahba-Bravard (Eds.), Women in International and Universal Exhibitions, 1876-1937 (pp.  15–33). Routledge. Publications of the Modern Language Association of America (PMLA). (2017). Theories and Methodologies, 132(3), 613–689. Sewall, M.  W. (Ed.). (1893). The World’s Congress of Representative Women: A Historical Résumé for Popular Circulation of the World’s Congress of Representative Women, Convened in Chicago on May 15, and Adjourned on May 22, 1893, under the Auspices of the Women’s Branch of the World’s Congress Auxiliary. Rand, McNally. The Database of Canada’s Early Women Writers (DoCEWW). Retrieved November 5, 2022., from https://dhil.lib.sfu.ca/doceww/. Dorothy Wolters Knight. https://dhil.lib.sfu.ca/doceww/person/2471. Eloise Ann Skimmings. https://dhil.lib.sfu.ca/doceww/person/4031 Valis, N. (2000). Women’s Culture in 1893: Spanish Nationalism and the Chicago World’s Fair. Letras Peninsulares, 13(2–3), 633–664. Valisa, S. (2018). Cosa scrivevano le donne di fine Ottocento? Il contributo italiano alla Woman’s Building Library della World Fair di Chicago (1893). G/S/I Gender Sexuality Italy 5. Retrieved November 18, 2022, from https://www.gendersexualityitaly.com/15-­cosa-­scrivevano-­le-­donne-­di-­fine-­ottocento-­il-­contributo-­ italiano-­alla-­womans-­building-­library-­della-­world-­fair-­di-­chicago-­1893 Vallejo, C. (2012). Seeing ‘Spain’ at the 1893 Chicago World (Columbian) Exhibition. In D.  R. Castillo et  al. (Eds.), Spectacle and Topophilia: Reading Early Modern and Postmodern Hispanic Cultures (pp.  155–172). Vanderbilt University Press. Vilella, O. (2004). An Exotic Abroad: Manuel Serafín Pichardo and the Chicago Columbian Exhibition of 1893. Latin American Literary Review, 32(63), 81–98. Wadsworth, S. (Ed.), (2006). The Woman’s Building Library of the World’s Columbian Exposition. Special issue of Libraries and Culture, 41(1). Wadsworth, S., & Wiegand, W. A. (2012). Right Here I See My Own Books: The Woman’s Building Library at the World’s Columbian Exposition. University of Massachusetts Press. Weimann, J.  M. (1981). The Fair Women: The Story of the Woman’s Building, World’s Columbian Exposition, Chicago 1893. Academy Chicago. Wikiwand. Alice Moderno. Retrieved November 5, 2022, from https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Alice_Moderno

PART I

Reading (Across) the National Collections

CHAPTER 2

A Comparative and Structural Analysis of European Works in the Woman’s Building Library Anselm Spoerri, Marija Dalbello, and Janette Derucki

In this chapter, we present a synoptic reading of the Woman’s Building Library at the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair, focusing on about 3400 entries that represented 23 countries from around the world. Eight European countries sent more than 90 percent of international works that were displayed in the Library, with France, Great Britain, Spain, Germany, Bohemia, Belgium, Holland, and Austria contributing 2772 items by

A. Spoerri (*) • M. Dalbello School of Communication and Information, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, New Brunswick, NJ, USA e-mail: [email protected]; [email protected] J. Derucki Reaching Across Illinois Library System (RAILS), Burr Ridge, IL, USA e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 M. Dalbello, S. Wadsworth (eds.), Global Voices from the Women’s Library at the World’s Columbian Exposition, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-42490-8_2

21

22 

A. SPOERRI ET AL.

1154 women authors, editors, translators, illustrators, or composers.1 We apply a comparative and structural analysis across the collections that complements the approaches taken by the authors in this volume who focus on individual countries or authors.2 By developing a series of analytic data visualizations, we identified the patterns of representative authorship, content categories, and preservation rates in two complementary sections focusing on works and creators across the European collections.

Works The Woman’s Building Library was intended “not only to hold books but to make people at home in a library atmosphere,” where the visitors could use the catalogs prepared by a professional cataloging team headed by Edith Clarke, a librarian with “full knowledge of women authors,” to learn more about the exhibited works (Weimann, 1981, pp. 357, 359).3 We used the short-title catalog of “foreign titles” compiled by Edith E.  Clarke (1893), a published bibliographic listing contemporary with the Fair and its digital version available at the University of Pennsylvania, to identify the initial list of titles and authors for this analysis. The total number of individual titles for each of the eight European collections is shown in Fig. 2.1. With more than one-third of all titles, France was the largest contributor. Together, France, Great Britain, and Spain contributed two-­thirds of all international titles. Germany and Bohemia also had a notable presence. These collections were, like other physical copies of works contributed to the historical library at the Woman’s Building by the national committees of countries around the globe and the United States’ collections, 1  There were 3056 “unprocessed” entries in the original list based on a short-title catalog of “foreign titles” compiled by Edith E. Clarke (1893) and its digital version available at the University of Pennsylvania. We could identify 2804 titles as the input for our analysis and were able to process almost 99 percent of this input set. 2  The collections from Italy, Norway, and Sweden are covered in separate chapters by Silvia Valisa, Marianne Martens, and Johanna McElwee. The national collections with at most five items were not included in our analysis either. All of those were from countries other than Europe and were addressed in separate chapters by Enaya Othman (Turkey) and Elena González-Muntaner (Peru) and in the editors’ introduction. The chapters dedicated to individual countries by Martine Poulain (France); Sarah Wadsworth and Jackielee Derks (Great Britain); Marija Dalbello (Bohemia and Austria); Noël Valis (Spain); and Lynne Tatlock (Germany) offer in-depth analyses of individual countries covered here. 3  Christine Giviskos comments on the immersive aspects of the Woman’s Building and its library (Chap. 14).

2  A COMPARATIVE AND STRUCTURAL ANALYSIS OF EUROPEAN WORKS… 

23

Fig. 2.1  Number of titles contributed by eight European countries

Fig. 2.2  Identification and preservation of titles, by countries

dispersed after the Fair. We consulted bio-bibliographic sources that offered global coverage, such as WorldCat and English-language Wikipedia and relied on national libraries and Wikipedias in relevant languages to establish the archival record, the “traces left behind,” by the titles and authors included in the eight national collections. Finding the Works and Interpreting Traces The first-order identification of works through the WorldCat bibliographic utility, known for its deep and broad coverage globally, was combined with searches in the respective national libraries for those titles that could not initially be identified. The titles located in these archival records used the search expertise of a trained librarian without any specific or “deep” domain expertise related to the contents of the national collections. Figure 2.2 shows the percentage of titles that could be located using WorldCat and national libraries, respectively, and where the countries are sorted based on those titles not (yet) found.

24 

A. SPOERRI ET AL.

Great Britain, with 99 percent, has the highest percentage of found titles, and Austria, with 83 percent, the lowest percentage. The highest discoverability via the global bibliographic utility WorldCat was achieved and observed for Great Britain, Holland, and Germany, whereas a high level of discoverability was also achieved through searches in the national libraries for the French, Belgian, Bohemian, Austrian, and Spanish titles. Figure 2.3 provides a precise breakdown of how many titles were located in which specific bibliographic resources. In the German context, the German National Library (Deutsche Nationalbibliothek (DNB)) only collects German imprints from 1913 onward. The Working group for the Collection of German Imprints (Arbeitsgemeinschaft Sammlung Deutscher Drucke AG SDD) coordinates and develops a complete collection of all literature published in German-speaking countries and supported our searches. The searches of national libraries included the following: Österreichische Nationalbibliothek (ÖNB) (Austria); Bibliothèque royale (KBR) (Belgium); Národní knihovna ČR (NK) (Bohemia); Bibliothèque nationale de France (BnF) and Catalogue Collectif de France (CCfr) (France); the British Library (BLUK) (Great Britain); Nederlandse Letteren (DBNL) and Koninklijke Bibiliotheek (KB) (Holland); and Biblioteca Nacional de España (BNE) (Spain). What Types of Documents Were Displayed? The broad category of the book is the predominant document type in the national displays, followed by serial publications and musical scores, as shown in Fig. 2.4. When a document could not be found in WorldCat or a national library, the listed title and information that could be found about the listed author were used to try to infer document type. This is

Fig. 2.3  Identification and preservation of titles, by types of bibliographic source

2  A COMPARATIVE AND STRUCTURAL ANALYSIS OF EUROPEAN WORKS… 

25

Fig. 2.4  Document types, by countries

why the percentage of not classified documents is lower than the percentage of documents that could not be found.4 The inclusion of serial publications in the collections of Holland, Belgium, Germany, Bohemia, Spain, and France, and of musical scores (or librettos) in the collections of Belgium, shows that serials and musical culture were being significantly associated with women’s roles and movements, especially in the case of Bohemia and Belgium. These selections indicate the diverse nature of conceptions by the national committees as to the relevant types of women’s contributions. What Were the Documents About? Finding the right level of conceptual aggregation to identify intersecting categories of content and having to classify unique historical genres can be challenging, especially without specific domain expertise. Categories were assigned and aggregated based on the short content description and classifications contained in located library records. This was possible for 73 percent (2022 out of 2772) of the items. Library categories can be anachronistic and misleading when applied to historical forms of writing because they may occlude the fluidity and multiplicity of forms and the distinct preferences or emphases by which women’s movements and national traditions articulated their “feminine” cultural expressions. As shown in Fig. 2.5, the items classifiable as some type of literary work make up the dominant genre in a structural reading across the eight collections. This category includes novels as well as short stories, novellas, 4  This is due to the sparse short-title descriptions in Clarke (1893), the materials lacking identifiable features or fit with classifications or not being found.

26 

A. SPOERRI ET AL.

Fig. 2.5  Categorization by themes and subjects

and feuilletons. Treating poetry as a separate category from literary works was meant to highlight idiosyncratic phenomena and the greater number of documents devoted to poetry in the national collections of Belgium and Spain. The educational works were another dominant category that emerged in the structural reading across the collections, representing high percentages of titles for Belgium and Austria, followed by titles focused on “domesticity,” and juvenile works. The category of “women’s rights” represents a grouping of serials, periodicals, and resources exclusively dealing with activism or women’s emancipation as distinct from education or practices with an emphasis on women. Education and domesticity could overlap with healthcare education or home economics or appear in either combination. These overlapping and multiple categories of what would be considered literary, educational, or pious reflect the nature and structure of materials and the historical cultures of women’s writing we encountered.

Creators There were 1154 unique creators that can be identified by name across the collections. Figure 2.6 shows the number of unique contributors for each country: France, Great Britain, Spain, and Germany have the largest number of contributors. An analysis of creator types shown in Fig. 2.7 points to inclusion of women composers and librettists, illustrators, translators, and editors or compilers among the traditional authors, who comprise most works.

2  A COMPARATIVE AND STRUCTURAL ANALYSIS OF EUROPEAN WORKS… 

27

Fig. 2.6  Number of unique creators

Fig. 2.7  Creators by type of responsibility

Figure 2.8 shows the range of contributions and the average contribution per creator for each country, where Bohemia, with 4.01, has the highest average, followed by France and Spain, which have averages greater than 2. Overall, 57 percent of the creators contributed a single title, 40 percent up to nine titles, and 3 percent about ten or more titles. This pattern points to a great diversity in the selections made and a broad representation of (minor) women authors, but it also points to the anomalous and distinct role of those who were represented by several works. Resulting from the selection bias by the national committees, those could be either more significant, prolific, popular, or canonical figures. Figure  2.8 also shows the names of top-contributing authors in each of the eight collections. Among them are France’s Henry Gréville (1842–1902), a pseudonym of Alice Fleury, who was married to Émile Durand, with 54 titles; Bohemia’s Sofie Podlipská (1833–1897) with 45 titles; and Spain’s Pilar Pascual de Sanjuán (1827–1899) with 28 titles. Represented by much lower numbers of works are Jane Austen (1775–1817) (Great Britain); the French-language Belgian author Marie-Émilie Versträten Wendelen, author of Les femmes remarquables de Belgique (1880), who wrote under the pseudonym Madame Wendelen; Germany’s Annette von DrosteHülshoff (1797–1848); Austria’s Amalie Thilo (b. 1830); as well as the

28 

A. SPOERRI ET AL.

Fig. 2.8  Top-contributing creators and range of and average contributions, by country

Fig. 2.9  Percentage of authors writing using pseudonymous

writer Maria van Ackere-Doolaeghe, who has three works in the Dutch collection while these works and another title are also included in the Belgian collection. Figure 2.9 shows the percentage of authors who wrote under a pseudonym and those writing under their real names. The patterns of pseudonymous writing clustered in Germany, France, Holland, and Austria, which lead in pseudonymous identities by women writers, followed

2  A COMPARATIVE AND STRUCTURAL ANALYSIS OF EUROPEAN WORKS… 

29

by Belgium, Great Britain, and Bohemia, and Spain with the fewest. Many of the authors in the Bohemian group who were represented by more than 25 works wrote under assumed names, possibly those with the most prolific output. The phenomenon may be linked to these individuals’ motivation in crafting an authorative or hidden identity, acts of political invention, fashion, or level of celebrity. Apart from understanding how women’s contributions remained discoverable through bibliographic resources, we wanted to understand whether the women whose works were displayed in the European women’s collections were remembered and integrated with women’s history and within the national traditions. Searching for each of the authors’ names or known pseudonyms using the Google search engine pointed to entries in Wikipedia (including its multiple language versions). As shown in Fig. 2.10, the discoverability of British, German, and Bohemian authors in this ubiquitous public utility was above 50 percent, with more than half the authors having a Wikipedia entry. The fact that more than half of the Bohemian authors have an entry in Czech Wikipedia is noteworthy since it is one of the smaller Wikipedias; this suggests that these Bohemian women authors have been recognized for their valuable contribution to women’s rights intersecting with their role in promoting Bohemian independence (discussed in Chap. 6 by Dalbello). The record of transnational networks of women, discoverable through their works displayed in the national collections, reveals the ongoing subaltern dimension of women’s histories, especially those female activists whose biographies do not have visibility through shared memory systems.

Fig. 2.10  Percentage of creators with a presence in the Wikipedias

30 

A. SPOERRI ET AL.

Conclusion This chapter compared the eight European national collections using data visualization techniques and through the traces left in bio-bibliographic sources that offer global coverage, such as WorldCat and English-language Wikipedia, as well as national libraries and Wikipedias in relevant languages. In future research, this “distant” or “macro” reading approach could be combined and fused with the “close” or “micro” reading approach presented in the other chapters of this book to produce a more nuanced description of the titles and authors included in the national collections and bring to life the full richness of what was presented and included in the national collections. In this chapter, we started from the collections of books assembled by the national committees of 23 countries and considered how they have been refracted through a bibliographic lens (Dalbello, 1999). The titles, and their authors, which became visible at the Chicago World’s Fair, and the “traces left behind” through bibliography and scholarship, were variously integrated into the discourse of women’s emancipation and women’s history. We were working in a critical tradition of “analyzing inscriptions” (Fortun, 2020 [1986], p. ix) left by the Fair in the form of bibliographic records. Our goal has been primarily methodological. We offered snapshots of structural reading across the collections and through the prism of long-term memory infrastructures (bibliographical and biographical records). Our obligation was to read the corpus as a practice of interpretation and as a basis for a stronger critical and political interpretation of this historical artifact. Embedding documents into transnational networks of women and profiling the feminists who led these movements at the end of the nineteenth century as a basis for the feminist histories requires interpretive historical analyses of the national traditions and “sometimes conflicting” traditions in women’s history (Delap & DiCenzo, 2008, p. 53) of “mothers” establishing the early feminist traditions or “sisters” that “disagreed on many issues” (McFadden, 1999, p. 134). Such analyses are the subject of other chapters in this volume.

References A Celebration of Women Writers. Retrieved November 8, 2022, from https://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/_collections/exposition/exposition.html Arbeitsgemeinschaft Sammlung Deutscher Drucke (AG SDD). Retrieved November 25, 2022, from https://www.ag-­sdd.de/Webs/agsdd/DE/Home/ home_node.html

2  A COMPARATIVE AND STRUCTURAL ANALYSIS OF EUROPEAN WORKS… 

31

Biblioteca Nacional de España (BNE). Retrieved November 25, 2022, from https://www.bne.es/es Bibliothèque nationale de France (BnF). Catalogue Collectif de France (CCfr). Retrieved November 25, 2022, from https://ccfr.bnf.fr/portailccfr/jsp/public/index.jsp?success=%2Fjsp%2Fpublic%2Findex.jsp&failure=%2Fjsp%2Fpubli c%2Ffailure.jsp&profile=public Bibliothèque royale (KBR). Retrieved November 25, 2022, from https:// www.kbr.be/en Clarke, E.  E. (1893). List of Books Sent by Home and Foreign Committees to the Library of the Woman’s Building. World’s Columbian Exposition. Dalbello, M. (1999). The Case for Bibliographical Archeology. Analytical and Enumerative Bibliography N.S. 10 (1:1999), 1–20. Delap, L., & DiCenzo, M. (2008). Transatlantic Print Culture: The Anglo-­ American Feminist Press and Emerging ‘Modernities’. In A.  L. Ardis & P. Collier (Eds.), Transatlantic Print Culture, 1880-1940 (pp. 48–65). Palgrave Macmillan. Deutsche Nationalbibliothek (DNB). Retrieved November 25, 2022, from https:// www.dnb.de/EN/Home/home_node.html Fortun, K. (2020 [1986]). Foreword to the Twenty-fifth Anniversary Edition. In J. Clifford, & G. E. Marcus (Eds.), Writing Culture: The Poetics and Politics of Ethnography (pp. i–xxii). University of California Press. Koninklijke Bibiliotheek (KB). Retrieved November 25, 2022, from https://www.kb.nl McFadden, M. H. (1999). Golden Cables of Sympathy: The Transatlantic Sources of Nineteenth-Century Feminism. The University Press of Kentucky. Národní knihovna Č R (NK). Retrieved November 25, 2022, from https:// www.nkp.cz Nederlandse Letteren (DBNL). Retrieved November 25, 2022, from https:// www.dbnl.org Österreichische Nationalbibliothek (ÖNB). Retrieved November 25, 2022, from https://www.onb.ac.at The British Library (BLUK). Retrieved November 25, 2022, from https:// explore.bl.uk/primo_library/libweb/action/search.do?vid=BLVU1 Versträten Wendelen, M.-É. (1880). Les femmes remarquables de Belgique. Burland & Havaux. Weimann, J.  M. (1981). The Fair Women: The Story of the Woman’s Building, World’s Columbian Exposition, Chicago 1893. Academy Chicago. Wikipedia. Retrieved November 25, 2022, from https://www.wikipedia.org WorldCat. Retrieved November 25, 2022, from https://www.worldcat.org

CHAPTER 3

What Did Late Nineteenth-Century Italian Women Write?: The Italian Contribution to the Woman’s Building Library of the World Fair in Chicago (1893) Silvia Valisa

What did Italian women of the late nineteenth century write? The 220 titles sent to the World’s Fair from Italy in 1893 offer a complex portrait of Italian women’s production. The authors included wrote in different genres and disciplines. They contributed in original ways to the culture of their time, always in precarious balance between visibility and obscurity. Although the majority of the contributions are by now difficult, if not impossible, to find, what emerges from a study of the Italian selection is the optimism of a generation of authors, 45 women who became—albeit briefly—the visible protagonists of an event with worldwide reach.

S. Valisa (*) Department of Modern Languages and Linguistics, Italian Studies Program, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL, USA e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 M. Dalbello, S. Wadsworth (eds.), Global Voices from the Women’s Library at the World’s Columbian Exposition, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-42490-8_3

33

34 

S. VALISA

Alongside the presentation of the reconstructed list, I discuss here the origins of the collection and the variety of disciplinary fields. I propose a historical evaluation and contextualization of the list in terms of the criteria and cultural trends that contributed to shape it. I argue that this selection offers a more realistic portrait of female creativity and public presence than a gathering effort based on more official criteria would. Rather than as a marker of unreliability, the qualitative disorder of the Library is to be read as an expression of “anticanonical inclusiveness” (Wadsworth & Wiegand, 2012, p. 213), that is, as an ideological alternative to the historical invisibility of women’s writing.

Genesis and Reconstruction of the Italian Collection The plan for the library, as it took shape in the discussions of the Board of Lady Managers of the Woman’s Building, presided by Bertha Palmer, was to host works written by women from all over the world. Palmer and her colleagues collaborated with the US State Department, with Committees appointed by foreign governments, and international women’s organizations. During a trip to Europe in 1892, for example, Palmer obtained the support of foreign representatives in other pavilions of the Exposition. In Italy, that route did not yield good results: as Palmer wrote to a colleague, the Exposition Commission named by the Italian government “‘absolutely refused’ to develop a woman’s book collection” (Wadsworth & Wiegand, 2012, p. 53). The reasons behind the refusal are not mentioned, but the organizers met with similar opposition in many other countries (ibid.). Since the peninsula’s belated political Unification, in 1861, the government of the Kingdom of Italy enacted very conservative gender policies, in some cases more restrictive of women’s legal and economic rights than the governments of the smaller states that had previously ruled Italy (Montroni, 1995, pp. 380–384; Re, 2001, p. 161). In a predominantly Catholic country, moreover, the Vatican’s staunch opposition to matters such as divorce, female vote, abortion, and female emancipation fostered a conservative attitude toward women’s role overall. The most instrumental collector for the Italian section was Alice Howard Cady (1854–1901), a New Yorker visiting her sister in Italy. Cady “took out circulars, translated them in Italian, had them printed, and distributed at her own expense and given [sic] wide publicity in the Italian press” (Palmer, 1894a, pp. 1–2). She also shipped most of the gathered material to Chicago. In addition to Cady, Fanny Zampini Salazar

3  WHAT DID LATE NINETEENTH-CENTURY ITALIAN WOMEN WRITE?… 

35

(1853–1931), an Italian writer and pedagogue, contributed to the collecting effort and wrote about it; she traveled to Chicago as the representative at the World Congress of Representative Women, held in May 1893, where she gave a lecture on “Women in Modern Italy.” Zampini Salazar, the daughter of an exiled patriot and a British painter, is a multilingual and cosmopolitan subject (she traveled in England and America, wrote for Italian and international periodicals, and authored autobiographies and books on many topics), and an ideal intermediary for an international project such as the Woman’s Building Library. Alongside her, noblewoman Cora Slocomb di Brazzà (1862–1944) lectured at the Congress on the condition of Italian women (1894) (in particular, she discussed her Lace School and other initiatives for women in farming communities), and a third speaker, Mrs. Arthur Pelham (1894), presented on St. Catherine of Siena. Although compelling in their attention to the female experience (Slocomb di Brazzà also spoke in her quality of organizer of a “unique collection of antique laces from all parts of the world exhibited in the Italian section of the Woman’s Building” (Slocomb di Brazzà, 1893, p. 5)), the two lectures do not contribute to our understanding of the collection. In order to analyze and interpret the list of books gathered by Cady and Zampini Salazar—which I will refer to as the Collection from now on—my starting point was the List of Books Sent by Home and Foreign Committees to the Library of the Woman’s Building prepared by cataloger Edith Clarke (1893) (Clarke’s List from now on). I combined this “printed bibliography arranged by state and country” (Wadsworth & Wiegand, 2012, p. 208) with Italian historical and bibliographical references to reconstruct the Collection as accurately as possible. The Italian section of Clarke’s List consisted of 228 entries. The clean, finalized Collection features 220 entries. In the Excel spreadsheet supporting this analysis, which is available for consultation online (Valisa, 2022), the information for each document is distributed in 19 columns. The first 11 columns feature verified bibliographic data including the following: numbering in the original list, name, surname, role (author by default, editor, translator), names and roles of collaborators, title, subtitle, date of publication, place of publication, publishing house, and format (page number, series). The remaining columns include broader (and at times only conjectural) data such as assigned category, historical information, and main bibliographic sources used: DDC categories I assigned and/or the genre of the text; link to the complete text, if available; sources used to retrieve the main bibliographic information (if more than three sources were used, only the three most detailed are indicated); and additional data

36 

S. VALISA

(not available for all records such as birth and death year; geographical location(s); and additional biographical information. By far the most important reference sources are the Catalog of Nineteenth Century Italian Books (CLIO—Catalogo dei libri italiani dell’Ottocento) and the Online Public Access Catalog of the National library System Catalogo del Servizio bibliotecario nazionale italiano. This public catalog (later referred to as Catalogo del Servizio) features Author Profiles (Schede di autorità) that are often the only source of biographic data on the Collection’s women. Other reference works consulted were the Dizionario Biografico Treccani and Attilio Pagliaini’s Catalogo generale della libreria italiana dall’anno 1847 a tutto il 1899.

Chronological Distribution and Main Categories The total dispatch of books, transcripts, scrapbooks, and periodicals sent to Chicago is striking in its currency. The 45 authors are quite a compact group of writers, teachers, journalists, translators, and scholars from the second half of the nineteenth century. While Wadsworth and Wiegand note that “eventually, the Biblioteca Nazionale in Rome sent a number of books, some dating as far back as 1587, written by women in Italian convents” (2012, p. 53), the Collection bears no trace of such texts. This emphasis on the contemporary is unlike other countries: the curators of the (more conspicuous) French selection, for example, juxtaposed the canonical authors Madame de La Fayette (1634–1693) and Marguerite of Navarre (1492–1549) to more contemporary voices. Cady and Zampini Salazar, conversely, selected only living authors and/or coeval works (Cady “personally interviewed” many of them, Palmer, 1894b, p. 2). The majority of their works (191 titles are dated with certainty) run from 1880 to the beginning of 1890, that is, just before the Exposition in Chicago. Regarding the genres, the panorama offered is vaster than could be expected from the label of scrittrici (“women writers”), a term in Italian designating mainly authors of literary works. While strongly literary, the Collection showcases female participation in diverse fields and disciplines— among them not only education, religion, and home economics but also history, folklore, archeology, and malacology (a branch of zoology). Additionally, while most titles are in book format, included are numerous magazines, as well as pamphlets, lecture transcriptions, and a scrapbook— an indication of the inclusive tendency of the curators. Indeed, among the remarkable finds is that about one-tenth of texts included—a scrapbook  (n.d.) by Giulia Cavallari Cantalamessa (1856–1935), the text of

3  WHAT DID LATE NINETEENTH-CENTURY ITALIAN WOMEN WRITE?… 

37

lectures by Luisa Anzoletti (1863–1925) and Natalina Baudino (1883), and about 20 other documents—are not documented by any other source. In Table 3.1 and the analysis that follows, the Distribution of the Titles of the Collection into specific thematic classes is based on the Dewey Decimal Classification (DDC, or CDD in Italian, Classificazione decimale

Table 3.1  Distribution in percentage of the titles of the Collection (N = 216) Categories (DDC classes)

Number of documents

Percentages

Literature

123 Novels (47) Poetic works (29) Collections of short stories (22) Theatrical works (9) Children’s lit (7) Literary texts, unclassifiable (3) Literary criticism (3) and reviews (1) Collections of letters (1) Literary periodicals (1) 46 (30) Education textbooks (24) (On) Education (3) Lectures on Ed. (transcriptions) (3) (11) Lectures on women’s condition (transcriptions) (6) Women’s periodicals (5) (5) 26 Historical lectures (8) Biographies (7) Autobiographies (5) Archeological publications (3) Historical writings (3) 15 Devotional texts (12) Religious themes (3) 6 Malacology treatises (5) Home economics (1) 216 4 (220)

56.42

Social Sciences Education

Sociology

Folklore History

Religion Science Totals Not assigned (Total books sent)

21.2 (13.8)

(5.1)

(2.3) 12

7 2.8 100

38 

S. VALISA

Dewey), which Wadsworth and Wiegand used in their analysis of the American section (2012, p. 118). While problematic when related to the condition of women and women’s studies, DDC is useful in that it corresponds historically to the era in which the list was created. The percentage values that I have established are approximate. For 13 documents, the genre is conjectural (in which case, an asterisk is added at the end of the DDC Category column in the spreadsheet), and for four documents it was impossible to determine. Of the ten main DDC classes, the most relevant are Literature (800; including Novels, Poetry, Short Stories, Letters, and Literary Critique), Social Sciences (300; including Education, Sociology and Folklore), History and Geography (900; including Biography and Archeology), Religion (200), and Science (500; which includes, here ironically appropriate, home Economics). Publication dates are no earlier than 1865. Fifteen books are dated from 1865 to 1879; 16 books date back to 1880 and 1881; 38 titles are dated between 1882 and 1886, and 88 between the years 1887 and 1891. There are 26 titles from 1892, the most prolific, while only 8 titles from 1893 (arguably because the collection was shipped during the first months of that year). For 31 titles, it was not possible to establish a certain publication date; however, they are texts attributed to authors active in the second half of the nineteenth century. Literature The Literature Class is by far the best represented. While the American section contains 45 percent (Wadsworth & Wiegand, 2012, p. 122), the Italian section boasts around 56 percent. The strong tendency toward literary texts in Italian women’s literary production is not surprising, considering the gendering of education in Italy, but also the preference granted to humanistic education in the peninsula. The three most represented authors are Cordelia (Virginia Tedeschi Treves, 1855–1916) with 16 titles, Maria Savi Lopez (1846–1940) with 15, and Carolina Invernizio (1851–1916) with 14. These three could not be more different writers: Invernizio, notoriously called “the honest hen of popular fiction” (“gallina onesta della letteratura popolare”) by Antonio Gramsci (1953, p. 107), and defamed by critics for her formulaic and sensational plots, offers an example of the popularity of serial novels (feuilletons) in Italy, aimed at a broad public, not only women. Savi Lopez’s titles are the expression of a commitment to the presence of women in as many

3  WHAT DID LATE NINETEENTH-CENTURY ITALIAN WOMEN WRITE?… 

39

genres as possible: novels, short stories, children’s literature, but also educational lectures on medieval literature and on the representation of women, and essays on the folklore of various regions (categorized in the Social Sciences section). Cordelia was both an influential editor in the Treves publishing house in Milan and a well-known author. Her first book, Il regno della donna (“The Woman’s Kingdom”, 1879) is a prescriptive novel on the domestic role of women, a position she will revisit over time; her book Piccoli eroi (“Young Heroes”, 1891)—also very traditional in terms of gender roles and women’s education—though forgotten today, was a highly successful children’s book, as popular as Carlo Collodi’s Pinocchio (1883) and Edmondo De Amicis’ Cuore (1886) (Fumagalli, 1906, p. 36). The three authors referenced above adopted conservative, sometimes reactionary positions concerning the female condition, for example in opposition to women’s vote and divorce, the two most debated issues of the time. The Collection, though, also includes writers like Bruno Sperani (pseudonym of Beatrice Speraz, 1843–1923), Emma (pseudonym of Emilia Ferretti Viola, 1844–1929), and Paolina Schiff (1841–1926), who voiced the progressive leanings of the emancipation movement in the late nineteenth century. Sperani (notable both as an author of literary works and as the translator of the works of Émile Zola) is present with seven works, including the social critique Nell’ingranaggio (“In the Machine”, 1885) and the novel L’avvocato Malpieri (“Malpieri, The Lawyer”, 1888), on the electoral debates of the era. Like Sperani, Emma, the author of Una fra tante (“One Among Many”, 1878), a literary work denouncing the 1860 law on the regulation of prostitution, reflects on the social and political changes necessary to improve the female condition. Lastly, Schiff is more academic—she was a professor of German language and culture at the University of Pavia—and at the same time more educational author than the previous two. Her proto-feminist positions emerge in one of her novels, Il profugo (“The Refugee”, 1881), included in the Collection. Fanny Zampini Salazar, the most important meta-presence in the Collection as one of the curators and Chicago speakers, is attested with three texts (in addition to her lecture at the Fair), one text on home economics (1891b, categorized in Science) and two autobiographical works, the first of which, Antiche lotte. Speranze nuove (“Ancient Struggles. New Hopes”, 1891a), is “one of the richest and most intricate accounts of ‘moderate’ Italian feminism fin de siècle” (Contorbia, 1994, p. 19). Zampini Salazar also directed the periodical La Rassegna degli interessi femminili, 1887 (“The Review of Women’s Interests,” included in the

40 

S. VALISA

Collection), “the most serious and cohesive” periodical among those that contained ideas of “moderate emancipation” (Pieroni Bortolotti, 1973, pp. 130–131). Her works reflect her overall role as a mediator and spokesperson interested in showcasing different trends and orientations. In her Chicago lecture, Zampini Salazar openly criticizes Italy’s stifling economic and cultural system: “That women are competent to take part in public affairs of any kind is still a hard thing to establish in Italy …. They are not considered fit to work and are not much trusted” (1894, p. 161). She criticizes the Catholic church’s rejection of progressive policies for women, but also its refusal to recognize the newly born Italian state (Italy was unified in 1861; Rome was annexed in 1870, to the Pope’s dismay)— a refusal that generated, both in women and in men, a “general indifference to all that concerns politics” (ibid., p. 158). She also underlines that in gathering the texts to send to Chicago, one of the biggest obstacles she encountered was the writers’ modesty: “I found that many women had not sent their books, simply because of that timidity which they could not overcome.” She continues by explaining that “woman’s intellectual work is not encouraged in Italy, not even by those who should regard it as a duty, and so, without encouragement or organization to that end, one band of distinguished, cultivated women could not manage to send all their intellectual productions” (ibid., p. 162). While it is not clear if her reference to a “band of distinguished … women” (ibid., p. 162) was meant to be specific, there are a few women whose absence from the list is conspicuous, in particular in the literary field. According to the 1906 survey, the five most read authors of the era were Neera, Bruno Sperani, Cordelia, Matilde Serao, and Marchesa Colombi (Fumagalli, 1906, pp. 26–32). Of these women, three are absent. In these important years, Neera (pseudonym of Anna Radius Zuccari, 1846–1918), Marchesa Colombi (pseudonym of Maria Antonietta Torriani, 1840–1920), and Matilde Serao (1856–1927) contributed essays, short stories, and novels; they weighed in on the condition of women in magazines and newspapers in very visible ways. Serao, a journalist and writer, the co-founder of Naples daily Il mattino (which still exists today), was renowned internationally. Neera’s “Trilogy of the Young Woman”—Teresa (1886), Lydia (1888), L’indomani (“Tomorrow”, 1889)—is the most important series of novels on women published in the 1880s. Marchesa Colombi’s etiquette manual La gente per bene (“The Well-Mannered People”, 1878) was already on its 23rd edition in 1893. The reason for their absence is not clear. It could be the hurried way the

3  WHAT DID LATE NINETEENTH-CENTURY ITALIAN WOMEN WRITE?… 

41

collection was put together, the lack of encouragement that Zampini Salazar alludes to, or a direct refusal by those authors to be included in a separatist initiative. None of them, for example, had accepted an invitation to lecture at the Beatrice Exposition in Florence in 1890, an initiative exclusively devoted to female talent by scholar Angelo De Gubernatis. The absence of many Italian writers at that event, however, cannot be explained with a single reason or attitude (Baccini, 1904, p. 241). More work is needed on the genesis and context of these events, as well as on the trends and networks of Italian female intellectuals, writers, and lecturers in the last part of the nineteenth century. Social Sciences: Education, Sociology, Folklore After Literature, the most represented class is Social Sciences, with 46 titles (around 21 percent) to be divided in turn into three subclasses: Education, Sociology, and Folklore. About one in seven of the texts exhibited in Chicago have a pedagogical purpose. Some of the authors included (Nina Fumis,  1891; Maria Sanga Nardi, 1893; Giovanna Vittori, 1883, 1890 and 1893 among others) have left few traces in Italy’s education history. Among the historical material, two titles, Da Romolo a Colombo (“From Romulus to Columbus”, n.d.-a) and Da Carlo VIII a Garibaldi (“From Charles VIII to Garibaldi”, n.d.-b) by Maria Bobba (1843–1904) are indicative of the biographical approach characteristic of post-Unification school textbooks, often organized around the “presentation of quick biographical profiles of the most representative figures” (Ascenzi, 2008, p. 64). From 1876 on, with the arrival of the Historical Left (Sinistra storica) to power in the recently Unified country, the government promoted the visibility of republican and pro-democracy figures such as Garibaldi and Mazzini, which were previously rarely mentioned (Ascenzi, 2008, p. 70). Along with the pedagogical contributions aimed at female students (textbooks and study aids) we find documents attesting women’s participation in the national debate on women’s education, and on education in general. For example, Costanza Giglioli Casella  (1841–1932)’s Studio intorno alle scuole professionali e industriali femminili (“Study on professional and industrial schools for women”) was published in 1889  in a series edited by the Italian Minister of Agriculture, Industry, and Commerce. In her Ancora sulla riforma delle scuole normali (“More reflections on the reform of women’s secondary education,” 1881), the

42 

S. VALISA

pedagogue Giovanna Vittori discusses the need for reform in secondary education (Casalena, 2003, p. 358). On the one hand, right after the Unification “the official instructions to the elementary school teachers who were to implement the new programs stated that ‘for women, culture must have as its only goal domestic life and the acquisition of those notions required for the good government of the family’” (Re, 2001, p. 160). On the other, women did work outside of the house, primarily—but not exclusively—as educators and needed a modern training platform to visibly participate in the life of the nation. Vittori’s conspicuous presence in the Collection (10 titles) is an example of the diverse ways in which women confront women’s education and women’s professionalization beyond the domestic realm. As a teacher, Vittori authored a textbook, Lezioni di storia per le scuole secondarie feminili (“History lessons for women’s secondary schools”, 1893) and multiple study aids for her students (a dictionary of geographical terms, 1891b and a compendium to Manzoni’s canonical novel The Betrothed,  1880). As an education activist, she contributed to the discussion on women’s secondary education. As an author and journalist, she translated a play from German, wrote a biography of Queen Margherita of Savoy (1891a) and a lecture on “Italian heroines and female patriots” (1890) (catalogued under Sociology), delivered at the previously mentioned Beatrice Exposition. Vittori also wrote “Geographic and mythological notes” (1883), a small compendium to one of the standard textbooks on Roman history at the time, by Francesco Bertolini (Ascenzi, 2004, pp. 175–177, 187). In this last case, her annotations create a veritable textual and authorial circuit of mediation between the male author of reference and the female students in women’s institutes, not included in Bertolini’s intended readership. Perhaps what’s most interesting is that Vittori is present with a number of titles disproportionate to her historical visibility. The reason emerges in Zampini Salazar’s lecture. In it, she offers a discouraged assessment of women’s education: Considering woman’s education in modern Italy, I have not much to say. We have public schools for elementary work, higher schools for girls, but a lack of competent teachers for them, and normal schools for those wishing to become teachers; but no proper training college for them, and the course of study is defective in nearly every department. (Zampini Salazar, 1894, p. 160)

3  WHAT DID LATE NINETEENTH-CENTURY ITALIAN WOMEN WRITE?… 

43

The only true educational successes, she reports, are tied to private initiatives, often almost in spite of the authorities. Among them, she mentions “a daily school, kept by the Misses Vittori, daughters of a most superior woman …. Their school is considered one of the very best in Naples” (ibid., p. 160). While the Vittori sisters did not leave any trace in the official history of the Italian educational system and of the pedagogical initiatives of Unified Italy, Zampini Salazar restitutes us the work of Giovanna Vittori (and her sister Carmelina, n.d., a writer and translator as well) as a markedly positive moment in the educational efforts for women in Italy. The second section of Social Sciences is Sociology, a discipline also consisting of documents (books and periodicals in this case) that “specifically addressed the role of women” in society at the time (Wadsworth & Wiegand, 2012, p. 137). The periodicals included present diverse positions. In their work on the nineteenth-century post-Unification women’s periodicals, Bochiccio and De Longis hold that “the periodical press was one of the main ways of turning women into the mediators of acculturation processes” (2010, p. 14). They note, alongside Franchini, that instead of organizing around “single and specific areas of interest,” as was often the case with periodicals for men, publications like these were conceived around gender as an epistemological category (ibid., p. 14). They were conceived, in other words, to propose very heterogeneous genres and to be structurally open, in the best cases, to diverse contributions and points of view. Vincenzina De Felice Lancellotti (1856–1898), editor of the Catholic periodical Vittoria Colonna. Periodico scientifico-artistico-letterario per le donne italiane (“Vittoria Colonna. Scientific-artistic-literary periodical for Italian women”) (De Felice Lancellotti, 1890–1912), voiced the most conservative positions on the condition of women among the periodicals included in the Collection, emphasizing sacrificial motherhood, domesticity, and female submission (Carrarini & Giordano, 2003, pp. 407–408). Both her Vittoria Colonna and the lecture included (on “Divorce and Woman”) put forth, for example, a complete opposition to divorce, in accordance with the Catholic Church’s position. Different is the case of La Missione della donna. Periodico letterario educativo (“Woman’s Mission. Literary-Educational Periodical,” of which the years 1892–1893 were sent to Chicago). Although the editor, Olimpia Saccati Mencato (n.d.), was opposed to divorce, she made space for conflicting opinions in her periodical, for example a pro-divorce speech by Virginia Olper Monis published in 1880 (Pieroni Bortolotti, 1973, p. 136). Missing in the Collection

44 

S. VALISA

is the most progressive women’s periodical in Italy, La Donna. Periodico d’educazione compilato da donne italiane (Beccari, 1861–1891). Founded and edited by Gualberta Alaide Beccari between 1868 and 1891, it advocated for women’s political participation and broader access to higher education. Some of the contributors to this emancipationist biweekly, though, Paolina Schiff and Giulia Cavallari Cantalamessa among them, are attested in the Collection. Broadly speaking, within the ideological landscape that emerges out of Cady and Zampini Salazar’s assemblage of documents, the fact that one can find both the rigidly patriarchal periodical directed by De Felice Lancellotti and the explicitly feminist lectures by Schiff on women’s vote and against, if not divorce, then traditional submission of women to men, is a sign of the wide range of positions included. The Collection is the result of an impulse to visibility not constrained by a single ideological directive, but rather by an attempt to exemplify the diverse positions and attitudes of Italian female intellectuals and writers. In addition to the periodicals already cited, the title La Regina Margherita sul Ghiacciaio del Lys (“Queen Margherita on the Lys Glacier,” 1891) is a reprint of a piece featured in Cornelia (1872–1880), a moderate Florentine periodical founded by Aurelia Cimino de Folliero (or Folliero de Luna, 1827–1895) in 1872 (Coen, 1997). Although Cornelia is not included in the Collection as such, another title included, Questioni sociali (“Social Questions” 1882), proposes a selection of articles published in it by Cimino de Folliero (1827–1898). In these, “she examines the female question in Italy and abroad in a simple and direct style and insists on the necessity of giving women an adequate education that would permit them to collaborate with men towards a positive development of the country” (Coen, 1997). Several titles focus on women’s political, creative, and intellectual talent through the centuries. In the periodical I mentioned, Vittoria Colonna by De Felice Lancellotti, for example, there is a section dedicated to “Centennials of the Births and Deaths of Some Famous Women 1890-1891”—followed, however, by a more crowded section devoted to illustrious men. To this genealogical trend (De Giorgio, 1992, pp. 6–8) belong several other texts (two by Cimino Folliero) devoted to Queen Margherita of Savoy (1851–1926). In these years, “between two hundred and fifty and three hundred writers produced literature dedicated to the building of Margheritism” (Stewart-Steinberg, 2007, p. 112), a term that indicates the devotion to the Italian Queen as an exemplary female leader.

3  WHAT DID LATE NINETEENTH-CENTURY ITALIAN WOMEN WRITE?… 

45

As a political subject, Margherita supported moderately reformist initiatives, for example the “Society for the Culture of Women” (Società per la coltura [sic] della donna), promoted by a well-known writer, translator, and educator, Grazia Pierantoni Mancini (1841–1915), included here with several literary works. The Queen is an essential model (synchronic, in this case, rather than diachronic) for the legitimization of female professionals (public speakers, teachers, journalists, and scientists) and their public roles. The third subcategory of Social Sciences includes texts catalogued as Folklore. Although quantitatively minimal (one text by Emma and four by Maria Savi Lopez), these titles attest to the presence of female scholars in the field of folklore studies, a disciplinary area then gaining recognition. Savi Lopez was “an international researcher of popular traditions and legends” (Catalogo del Servizio author profile) with transnational visibility. Her illustrated Leggende delle Alpi (“Legends of the Alps”, 1889) is included in the Collection in both the Italian original and the German translation (Alpensagen, n.d.). Similarly, the work of Pierantoni Mancini Dalla mia finestra (“From My Window”, 1881) is featured in the original Italian but also in German and French translations (Vom Fenster Aus, 1883 and De ma fenêtre, 1885). These women move in a broader professional context than the national one and want this to be acknowledged in their Chicago presence. History This class includes historical lectures, biographies, autobiographies, and archeological publications. Of the eight historically themed lectures/conferences, four celebrate specific events (for example the fourth Centennial anniversary of Columbus’ “discovery,” the raison d’être for the Chicago Fair) and four are devoted to women from the historical-biographical point of view, another example of the genealogical-legitimizing impulse I referred to for the Sociology class. This “inclination to create positive models instead of insisting on marginalized female characters” (Frau & Gragnani, 2015, p. 39) is a strategy aimed at promoting inclusion and female visibility in nonconflictual ways. Three documents authored by Countess Ersilia Caetani Lovatelli (1840–1925) cover archeological themes. Caetani Lovatelli, a noted expert of Roman epigraphy, was one of the most illustrious examples of female erudition of this period  (1888,

46 

S. VALISA

1889, 1891); in 1879, she was the first woman admitted to the Accademia dei Lincei (De Gubernatis, 1879, pp. 649–650). Religion The fourth category includes the explicitly devotional titles and texts that deal with conservative Catholic religious themes for a total of 15 titles or around seven percent of the Collection. It is a relatively low number, confirming the moderate leaning of the list but also the general trends in post-­ Unification Italy (Ragone, 1999, p. 16). In fact, the distinction between genres begins to dissipate “already in the seventies” when religious “production had started to consistently open towards modern fictional and novelistic genres,” often creating uncertainty about genre categorization (Piazza, 2009, pp. 10–11). It is very likely, in fact, that some of the educational texts and of the children’s literature included in the List espouse Catholic views. The two most prolific writers in this category are Maddalena Albini-Crosta (1844–1916), a conservative Catholic that wrote prayers, meditations, religious poems, and essays, and Vincenzina De Felice Lancellotti, the editor of the periodical Vittoria Colonna but also the author of prayers and sacred poetry. Science In their study of European women occupied in scientific fields, Mary R. S. and Thomas Creese describe the works of 20 female Italian scientists of the nineteenth century, 3 of whom “were especially productive during the middle years of the nineteenth century—conchologist Marchesa Marianna Paulucci, botanist Contessa Elisabetta Fiorini-Massanti, and astronomer Caterina Scarpellini” (2004, p. 188). Of these, the first is included in the Collection. An internationally famous scholar of mollusks, Marquise Paulucci (1835–1919) is present with five titles, one of them published in French. She is the only representative of a relatively large group of women of the era visibly engaged in scientific research, yet rarely recognized as significant contributors in those fields. The sixth title included in this class is Elementi d’economia domestica (“Home Economics Handbook” 1891) edited and translated by Zampini Salazar. It is an important reminder of DCC’s outdated classifications of the “sciences,” as well as, for us, an ironic nod to the fact that, had the decision been left in

3  WHAT DID LATE NINETEENTH-CENTURY ITALIAN WOMEN WRITE?… 

47

the hands of the Italian government, these women would have never showcased their nondomestic talents outside of the private realm and of their home country.

Which Quality? The Ideal Women’s Library This brief analysis traced some of the organizational criteria of the Collection: emphasis on the contemporary, commitment to a diversity of ideological positions, variety in disciplines, and anti-canonical stance. If we consider the origins of the collection, though, two external factors—a short deadline and the extension of the social networks of the two curators, Cady and Zampini Salazar—might have been more influential than any other. In her speech, Zampini Salazar acknowledges the imperfection of the collection: “Because of the fact that the productions of Italian women are not as fully represented as they might have been in this great international exhibition, you must not judge us by our display” (1894, p. 162). And undoubtedly, we cannot consider this Collection representative in the sense of being comprehensive. At the same time, who should be the judge of the Collection’s relevance? In debating who deserved the award for the best collecting effort out of all the foreign entities involved, for example, Palmer was adamant: to give it “either to the Italian government or to any Italian literary society” instead of to Cady, which would have been “a burlesque” (Letter to A. T. Britton of July 27, 1894a, p. 1). More than anecdotal, this statement points at the structural bias these women operated within, and to the paradoxical freedom and agency they carved out for themselves within the institutional vacuum. In other words, if the titles, genres, and themes traced cannot be considered statistically relevant, and the organizational principles are conditioned by gender bias and logistical difficulties, I consider this apparent lack of comprehensiveness among the most important legacies of the Collection. About the texts included, one could say what Chiosso writes about educational texts of this period: from a canonical standpoint, they were “considered cultural products of scarce or no quality” (2013, p. 118). Many of these publications were, because of the gender of the author, or the genre of the publication (or both) excluded a priori from long-term cultural conservation and preservation. Indeed, in the case of more than 20 texts, this is the only trace they ever left. As for the authors whose names and works we find elsewhere, the majority still belong to that literary “undergrowth” (to borrow the title of Frau and Gragnani’s 2011 work, Sottoboschi letterari) that is essential to recover if we want to

48 

S. VALISA

contribute to a less limited and limiting vision of women’s writing. The effort carried out by Cady and Zampini Salazar succeeded in recreating a vibrant female community engaged in different forms of writing, well beyond the canonical, institutional roles assigned to women. The heterogeneity of the list should be recognized as a precious counter-model to curated, predefined, or essentializing groupings; it is an object of study whose disorder is essential, as it is indicative of both the vital, dynamic reality that is women’s writing and the material and symbolic obstructions hampering its existence. Acknowledgments  An earlier version of this chapter was published in g/s/i gender/sexuality/Italy, 5 (2018). I thank Zoe D’Alessandro for her help with the English translation, and Hannah Schwadron for her generous input on the database. This research was born from an invitation by Sarah Buck Kachaluba and Wayne Wiegand to explore this mysterious list, and from the energy of Marija Dalbello and Sarah Wadsworth, whom I thank for their support over the years. Part of the research for the database and the chapter was conducted at the Newberry Library, in Chicago, and at Pavia’s Biblioteca Universitaria, Italy. I thank the teams of both institutions for their competence and generosity.

References Works

in the

Woman’s Building Library

Baudino, N. (1883). Dissertazione nelle conferenze pedagogiche. Bobba, M. (n.d.-a). Da Romolo a Colombo. Bobba, M. (n.d.-b). Da Carlo VIII a Garibaldi. Caetani Lovatelli, E. (1888). Thanatos. della r. Accademia dei Lincei. Caetani Lovatelli, E. (1889). Antichi monumenti illustrati. della r. Accademia dei Lincei. Caetani Lovatelli, E. (1891). Miscellanea archeologica. della r. Accademia dei Lincei. Casalena, M. P. (2003). Scritti storici di donne italiane. Bibliografia 1800–1945. Olschki: Florence. Cavallari Cantalamessa, G. (n.d.). Poesie [scrapbook]. De Felice Lancellotti, V. (Ed.) (1890–1912). Vittoria Colonna. Periodico scientifico-­ artistico-­letterario per le donne italiane. Antoniana. Ferretti Viola, E. (1878). Una fra tante. Brigola.

3  WHAT DID LATE NINETEENTH-CENTURY ITALIAN WOMEN WRITE?… 

49

Fumis, N. (1891). La mia scuola, libro di lettura per la 2. e 3. classe delle scuole popolari. Del Bianco: Udine. Giglioli Casella, C. (1841–1932). Studio intorno alle scuole professionali e industriali femminili. In Annali dell’industria e del commercio. Eredi Botta. Pierantoni Mancini, G. (1881). Dalla finestra. L. Vallardi. Pierantoni Mancini, G. (1883). Vom Fenster Aus. Tr. Helene Lobedan. Spemann. Pierantoni Mancini, G. (1885). De ma fenêtre. Tr. Josephine Colomb. Hachette. Saccati Mencato, O. (1892–1893) [1874–1902]. La Missione della donna. Periodico letterario educativo. Tipografia Paganelli. Sanga Nardi, M. (1893). In campagna, libro di lettura per le scuole rurali. Massa: Milan. Savi Lopez, M. (1889). Leggende delle Alpi. Loescher. Savi Lopez, M. (n.d.). Alpensagen. Tr. Ruhemann. Schiff, P. (1881). Il profugo. Galli. Speraz, B. (1885). Nell’ingranaggio. Sonzogno. Speraz, B. (1888). L’avvocato Malpieri. Galli. Tedeschi Treves, V. (1879). Il regno della donna. Treves. Tedeschi Treves, V. (1891). Piccoli eroi. Treves. Vittori, G. (1880). Una lettura alle mie allieve, impressioni sui caratteri dei Promessi sposi. Morano. Vittori, G. (1881). Ancora sulla riforma delle scuole normali. Morano. Vittori, G. (1883). Annotazioni geografiche e mitologiche sulla storia romana del Francesco Bertolini. Morano. Vittori, G. (1890). Le eroine e le patriotte [sic] italiane. Civelli. Vittori, G. (1891a). Margherita di Savoia. Bideri. Vittori, G. (1891b). Vocabolarietto di geografia comparata d’aiuto allo studio della storia orientale, greca, romana. Cosmi. Vittori, G. (1893). Lezioni di storia per le scuole secondarie feminili. Dell’Unione. Zampini Salazar, F. (1891a). Antiche lotte. Speranze nuove. Tocco. Zampini Salazar, F. (Ed. and Trans.). (1891b). Elementi d’economia domestica. con prefazione del prof. Luciano Armanni. Sansoni. Zampini Salazar, F. (1887). La Rassegna degli interessi femminili. della R. Accademia dei Lincei.

Other Works Cited Ascenzi, A. (2004). Tra educazione etico-civile e costruzione dell’identità nazionale. L’insegnamento della storia nelle scuole italiane dell’Ottocento. Vita e Pensiero. Ascenzi, A. (2008). La costruzione dell’identità nazionale attraverso i manuali di storia dell’Ottocento. In A. Ascenzi & L. Melosi (Eds.), L’identità italiana ed europea tra Sette e Ottocento (pp. 61–81). Olschki.

50 

S. VALISA

Baccini, I. (1904). La mia vita, ricordi autobiografici. Albrighi-Segati. Beccari, G. A. (1861–1891) La donna. Periodico morale ed istruttivo: Compilazione di donne italiane. P. Prosperini e fratelli Salmin. Bochiccio, G., & De Longis, R. (2010). La stampa periodica femminile in Italia. Repertorio 1861–2009. Biblink. Carrarini, R., & Giordano, M. (2003). Bibliografia dei periodici femminili lombardi (1786–1945). Editrice Bibliografica. Catalogo del Servizio bibliotecario nazionale italiano. On-line Public Access Catalog. OPAC SBN. Istituto Centrale per il catalogo unico delle biblioteche italiane. Chiosso, G. (2013). Libri di scuola e mercato editoriale. Dal primo Ottocento alla Riforma Gentile. FrancoAngeli. Clarke, E. (1893). List of Books Sent by Home and Foreign Committees to the Library of the Woman’s Building, World’s Columbian Exposition. World’s Columbian Exposition. CLIO. (1991). Catalogo dei libri italiani dell'Ottocento (1801–1900). Editrice Bibliografica. Coen, V. (1997). Aurelia Folliero De Luna. In Dizionario Biografico Treccani. Vol. 48. Retrieved August 2022, from http://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/ folliero-­de-­luna-­aurelia_(Dizionario-­Biografico) Collodi, C. (1883). Pinocchio. Felice Piaggi. Contorbia, F. (1994). Croce e lo spazio femminile. In E.  Genevois (Ed.), Les femmes-écrivains en Italie (1870–1920): ordres et libertés (pp.  15–31). La Sorbonne Nouvelle. Creese, M. R. S., & Creese, T. (2004). Ladies in the Laboratory II: West European Women in Science, 1800–1900, A Survey of their Contributions to Research. Scarecrow Press. De Amicis, E. (1886). Cuore. Treves. De Giorgio, M. (1992). Le italiane dall’Unità a oggi. Laterza. De Gubernatis, A. (1879). Dizionario biografico degli scrittori contemporanei. Le Monnier. Frau, O., & Gragnani, C. (2011). Sottoboschi letterari: sei case studies fra Otto e Novecento: Mara Antelling, Emma Boghen Conigliani, Evelyn, Anna Franchi, Jolanda, Flavia Steno. Firenze University Press. Frau, O., & Gragnani, C. (2015). Nineteenth Century Women Writers Between Marginality and (Aspirations of) Inclusion. A Puzzling Balance. In P. Sambuco (Ed.), Italian Women Writers, 1800–2000: Boundaries, Borders, and Transgression (pp. 31–43). Fairleigh Dickinson University Press. Fumagalli, G. (1906). I libri più letti dal popolo italiano. Primi resultati della inchiesta promossa dalla Società bibliografica Italiana. Società Bibliografica italiana. Gramsci, A. (1953). Letteratura e vita nazionale. Einaudi.

3  WHAT DID LATE NINETEENTH-CENTURY ITALIAN WOMEN WRITE?… 

51

La donna italiana descritta da scrittrici italiane in una serie di conferenze tenute all’Esposizione Beatrice in Firenze. (1890). Civelli. Montroni, G. (1995). Le strutture sociali e le condizioni di vita. In Storia d’Italia 2. Il Nuovo stato e la società civile (pp. 329–426). Laterza. Pagliaini, A. (1905). Catalogo generale della libreria italiana dall’anno 1847 a tutto il 1899. Associazione tipografico-libraria italiana. Retrieved August 2022, from https://www.google.com/books/edition/Catalogo_generale_della_ libreria_italian/EqW7pWgwOkwC?q=&gbpv=1#f=false Palmer, B. “Letter to Mr. A.T.  Britton.” July 27, 1894a. World’s Columbian Exposition, Board of Lady Managers records [manuscript], 1890–1904, bulk 1890–1894. Vol. 17. Chicago Historical Society. Palmer, B. “Letter to Janet Jennings.” June 18, 1894b. World's Columbian Exposition, Board of Lady Managers records [manuscript], 1890–1904, bulk 1890–1894. Vol. 17. Chicago Historical Society. Pelham, A. (1894). St. Catherine of Siena. 1347-1380. In M. C. O. Eagle (Ed.), The Congress of Women (pp.  697–703). Monarch Book. Retrieved August 2022, from https://books.google.com/books?id=orhAAQAAMAAJ&pg= PA576#v=onepage&q&f=false Piazza, I. (2009). Buoni libri per tutti. L’editoria cattolica dei generi letterari nel secondo Ottocento. Unicopli. Pieroni Bortolotti, F. (1973). Alle origini del movimento femminile in Italia. 1848–1892. Einaudi. Radius Zuccari, A. (1886). Teresa. Galli. Radius Zuccari, A. (1888). Lydia. Galli. Radius Zuccari, A. (1889). L’indomani. Galli. Ragone, G. (1999). Un secolo di libri. Storia dell'editoria in Italia dall'Unità al post-moderno. Einaudi. Re, L. (2001). Passion and Sexual Difference The Risorgimento and the Gendering of Writing in Nineteenth-Century Italian Literature. In A.  Ascoli & V. Henneberg (Eds.), Making and Remaking Italy. The Cultivation of National Identity Around the Risorgimento (pp. 155–200). Berg. Serao, M. (Ed.). (1892). Il Mattino. Naples. Slocomb di Brazzà, C. (1893). A Guide to Old and New Lace in Italy: Exhibited at Chicago in 1893. W. B. Conkey Co. Slocomb di Brazzà, C. (1894). The Italian Woman in the Country. In M. C. O. Eagle (Ed.), The Congress of Women. Held in The Woman’s Building, World’s Columbian Exposition, Chicago USA 1893 (pp.  576–578). Monarch Book. Retrieved August 2022, from https://books.google.com/books?id=orhAAQ AAMAAJ&pg=PA697#v=onepage&q&f=false Stewart-Steinberg, S. (2007). The Pinocchio Effect: On Making Italians, 1860-1920. University of Chicago Press.

52 

S. VALISA

Torriani, M. A. (1878). La gente per bene. Morano. Valisa, S. (2022). What Did Late Nineteenth Century Italian Women Write? Appendix 2022. List of the Books Sent to the Chicago World Fair from Italy in 1893. FSU Diginole. https://purl.lib.fsu.edu/diginole/research_repository_ submission-­1664910882. https://doi.org/10.33009/FSU_1664910882 Wadsworth, S., & Wiegand, W. A. (2012). Right Here I See My Own Books: The Woman’s Building Library at the World’s Columbian Exposition. University of Massachusetts Press. Zampini Salazar, F. (1894). Women in Modern Italy. In M. K. O. Eagle (Ed.), The Congress of Women. Held in The Woman’s Building, World’s Columbian Exposition, Chicago USA 1893 (pp.  157–164). Monarch Book. Retrieved August 2022, from https://books.google.com/books?id=orhAAQAAMAAJ &pg=PA157#v=onepage&q&f=false

CHAPTER 4

Networks of Texts and Writers: The Swedish Contribution to the Woman’s Library at the World’s Columbian Exposition Johanna McElwee

In January 1893, a Swedish women’s periodical, Idun, announced a contest that challenged participants to come up with as many words as possible, using the letters in the Swedish word for motherland, “fosterland.” This contest was a follow-up to a previous contest (Idun 1892, 5(42): 332) where participants were asked to compose an essay describing how a single woman could travel from Sweden to the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago, all expenses detailed. The winner of the word contest would receive a trip to the Exposition, all expenses paid, according to the plan presented in the winning essay from the previous contest. The

All translations in this chapter are my own, unless otherwise noted.

J. McElwee (*) Department of Scandinavian Languages, The Language Workshop, Institutionen för nordiska språk, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 M. Dalbello, S. Wadsworth (eds.), Global Voices from the Women’s Library at the World’s Columbian Exposition, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-42490-8_4

53

54 

J. MCELWEE

response exceeded any expectations the organizers might have had. Contributions came pouring in; ads were posted in newspapers offering to sell uncommon words generated from “fosterland.” All in all, Idun received 5800 contributions, and the organizers had to postpone the announcement of the winner in order to go through all the word lists (Idun 1893, 6(10): 76). The winner had compiled a list of 17,034 words (!), out of which c. 15,000 were approved (Idun 1893, 6(15): 116).1 Idun’s contest suggests the contemporary interest in the Exposition. The choice of word for the contest—motherland—reveals what was felt to be at stake for the women, and men, involved. The Swedish contribution to the Woman’s Building at the Exposition was organized by the leading women’s organization at the time, the Fredrika Bremer Association, named for the Swedish writer Fredrika Bremer (1801–1865). Since it was generally agreed that it was possible to determine the degree to which a country was civilized by its treatment of women, much was at stake as the exhibit was put together.2 Thus, the Swedish exhibit at the Woman’s Building presents an idealized image of Sweden reflecting the way the organizers wanted the country to be perceived, and, as such, it is characterized both by what was included and excluded. The collection of works sent to the Woman’s Library presents a snapshot of the Swedish female literary arena and the women’s movement in the 1890s as the women affiliated with the Fredrika Bremer Association would like it to be, highlighting those issues they felt to be most pressing at the time. In addition, as this chapter will show, an investigation of the Swedish works selected for the Woman’s Library reveals the close network of women working for the Woman Question in Sweden at the time, as they not only wrote works of their own but also introduced and reviewed, promoted and criticized, the 1  See Idun 6(4) to 6(17) (1893) for an unfolding of events surrounding the contest. The governess Stina Bengtsson won the contest, but decided not to travel to the Exposition. She received a sum of money instead (Idun 1893 6(17): 133 and 6(33): 260–261). 2  At one of the preparatory meetings of the Swedish Ladies Committee for the Columbian Exposition, the then president, Rosalie Olivecrona, emphasized the importance of participating in the Exposition since it would prove Sweden’s high degree of civilization: “It has rightfully been said that the position held by women is a good measurement of a nation’s level of civilization […] the Swedish woman holds a relatively advanced position, both as regards the respect she enjoys as well as the opportunities available for education and making an income.” (“Det har med rätta blifvit sagdt, att en god måttstock för bedömandet af ett folks odling är den ställning, som intages af dess kvinnor [. . .] den svenska kvinnan intager en relativt god plats, så väl med hänsyn till den aktning hon åtnjuter, som ock till de undervisningstillfällen och de förvärfskällor, hvilka stå henne till buds.”) (Dagny 1892, 7(3): 80).

4  NETWORKS OF TEXTS AND WRITERS: THE SWEDISH CONTRIBUTION… 

55

works of each other. In short, many of the works selected for the Woman’s Library have been discussed in some capacity by one or several of the other authors represented at the Library.

Preparing for the Exposition Preparations for the Exposition were officially launched with a meeting in Stockholm in March 1892, after the Fredrika Bremer Association had received an invitation on behalf of the women of Sweden. The meetings and preparatory work that followed were covered both in the periodical Dagny, the mouthpiece for the Fredrika Bremer Association, and the weekly magazine Idun. Thus, women around the country could follow the proceedings, and they were also encouraged to become involved, both by collecting money to fund the expedition and by sending items for display. One of the subcommittees formed under the Swedish Ladies’ Committee was responsible for Literature and Science (Dagny 1892, 7(3): 83). In the reports in Idun and Dagny on the progress of the committees, little is said about the Woman’s Library and nothing is mentioned about the work of selecting titles for the library. However, one important task of this committee was to develop a bibliography covering everything written by Swedish women. Karin Alcyone Adlersparre (1851–1938) and Elvira Huss (1847–1926) had prepared a bibliography of Swedish women authors and their works for the World’s Fair in Vienna in 1873: The Woman in Swedish Literature. A Bibliographical Attempt by Two Ladies (Qvinnan inom svenska litteraturen. Bibliografiskt försök af två damer). This bibliography, retitled The Woman within Swedish Literature until 1893. A Bibliography Developed for the World’s Fair in Chicago (Kvinnan inom svenska litteraturen intill år 1893. En bibliografi utarbetad med anledning af världsutställningen i Chicago),3 was updated for the Chicago Exposition by Sigrid Leijonhufvud (1862–1937) and Sigrid Brithelli (1855–1924) and aimed to present a complete picture of Swedish women’s literary activities throughout history, starting with the devotional texts composed by Saint Birgitta in the fourteenth century and ending

3  The bibliography has been digitized by Gothenburg University and is available at http:// hdl.handle.net/2077/33651

56 

J. MCELWEE

with works published in 1893.4 The introduction to the bibliography was translated into English and included in the reports sent by the Swedish Ladies’ Committee to the Board of Lady Managers of the Columbian Exposition (see Fig. 4.1a, b). In November 1892, a bazar was held in Stockholm to give the public a preview of the Swedish exhibition in the Woman’s Building, and also earn money for the travels and transport of objects for the exhibits. For visitors, most of whom would not have the opportunity to travel to Chicago, this bazar offered a chance not only to look at the items destined for the Exposition but also to get a taste of the festivity and ambience of the actual Fair. In an article in Idun, the reader is taken on a tour through the exhibits and the writer enthusiastically calls the bazar “A Swedish women’s Chicago Exposition in advance!”5 The guide in Idun gives most attention to handicraft exhibits, which is representative of the overall coverage of the preparations in both Idun and Dagny. However, an exhibit of books destined for the Woman’s Library is also mentioned: On a tasteful shelf, about sixty volumes representing the foremost works by Swedish female authors are presented, exhibiting their contributions to literature and science. This library will be significantly expanded for the Chicago Exposition […]. As a representative personality of the Swedish woman’s contributions in the field of spirituality, the portrait of Fredrika Bremer in oil is suspended above this literary exhibit […]. The great authoress is also represented as a bust by Mrs. Anna Hierta Retzius. (389)6

In this way, the image of Fredrika Bremer, one of the best-known Swedish authors internationally in the nineteenth century, is represented twice in this exhibit. 4  The introduction preceding the bibliography actually starts even earlier in history as it suggests that the beginnings of women’s literary contributions could be traced on the rune stones of the Viking Age. 5  Idun 1892, 5(49): 389–392. “En svensk kvinnlig chicagoexposition på förhand således!” (389). 6  Idun 1892, 5(49): 389–392. “På en smakfull bokhylla representera ett sextiotal band af svenska författarinnors förnämsta verk deras inlägg i litteratur och vetenskap. Till chicagoutställningen kommer detta bibliotek att betydligt kompletteras […] / Som en representativ personlighet för den svenska kvinnans inlägg på andliga fält höjer sig öfver denna litterära utställning Fredrika Bremers porträtt i olja […]/ Den stora författarinnan finnes för öfrigt representerad äfven i skulptur i en byst af fru Anna Hierta Retzius” (389).

4  NETWORKS OF TEXTS AND WRITERS: THE SWEDISH CONTRIBUTION… 

57

Fig. 4.1  (a) Draft of the translation of the report about Swedish women’s activities in Literature and Art. This translation was made by Rosalie Olivecrona (see her memoir Strödda tankar och minnen (Scattered thoughts and memories) (2005, p.  116) and included in the collected reports, which covered the areas of (I) Education, (II) Philanthropy, (III) Literature and Art, (IV) the Public Service, Trade, and Business. These reports were sent to the Board of Lady Managers at the Columbian Exposition. The draft belongs to the papers of the Fredrika Bremer Association, archived at the Swedish National Archives. Photo: Emre Olgun, Swedish National Archives. (b) The collected reports in which the draft displayed in (a) is included. This particular copy of the reports belongs to the collections of Uppsala University Library, Sweden. Photo: Uppsala University Library

58 

J. MCELWEE

Fig. 4.1  (continued)

This foregrounding of Bremer reflects the characteristics of the collection of Swedish works for the Woman’s Library as a whole. The spirit of Bremer did indeed suffuse the collection, and even if she is represented by fewer titles at the Library than several of the other authors included, her work, especially her novel Hertha (1856), was a catalyst for the Swedish women’s movement and the foundation of the first women’s periodical, Home Review.7 At the request the Board of Lady Managers for the Exposition, one of the founders of Home Review, Rosalie Olivecrona 7

 “Home Review” is Rosalie Olivecrona’s translation of Tidskrift för hemmet.

4  NETWORKS OF TEXTS AND WRITERS: THE SWEDISH CONTRIBUTION… 

59

(1823–1898), wrote an account of the Swedish women’s social situation that was published in two issues of The Woman’s Journal (1892, 23(17): 20).8 In this account, the publication of Hertha is presented as a turning point, “the work of a pioneer” (1892, 23(17): 136), and Olivecrona contrasts the contemporary situation for women with what it was when the novel was published, almost 40  years earlier. This view of Bremer as a pioneer for the Swedish women’s movement has persisted and, as McFadden points out in her study of the transatlantic women’s movement of the nineteenth century, Bremer can also be considered one of the foremothers of the international women’s movement (2009, p. 134). Established in 1884, the Fredrika Bremer Association promoted a brand of feminism based on the ideals of liberalism and Lutheran Christianity. The Association sought to strengthen legal rights for women, but was in favor of reforms, not revolution. In other words, they advocated gradual changes that would allow women to mature into the role of citizens with equal rights to men (Manns, 1997, pp. 86–89). Bremer herself was a member of the uppermost segments of society, as were most of the leading members of the Association, which meant that many of the women’s rights issues that they promoted were concerns mainly of socially privileged women, even if they also engaged with issues related to working-­ class women (ibid., p. 65).9 In the early 1890s, the Association had local chapters throughout Sweden, even if its headquarters were located in Stockholm (as they are still today).10

The Writers Fifty-three writers have contributed to the Swedish works at the Woman’s Library and many of the writers on the list also wrote for the periodicals that were included in this selection and are, thus, represented there as  This request is mentioned in Idun 1892, 5(13): 102.  The social background of the women involved in the Fredrika Bremer Association, as well as in the Swedish exhibits at the Exposition, reflects that of the American women involved. See, for example, Boisseau (2000) for a discussion of how the social progress of women celebrated at the Exposition essentially was that of white, middle-class women, effectively ignoring women who did not fit this mold. 10  In the Association’s annual report for 1891, published as an appendix to Dagny 1892, 7(4), representatives of the local chapters are listed. 8 9

60 

J. MCELWEE

well. In addition, many of the writers representing Sweden were advocates of the brand of women’s rights promoted by the Fredrika Bremer Association and also belonged to the same organizations working for women’s rights, as well as benevolent societies, and attended the same literary societies and salons.11 In this web of different organizations, Sophie Adlersparre (1823–1895) stands out, both as a frequent participant and as someone responsible for initiating several of them. With 16 titles, she is also the author with the far most entries on the list of works sent to the Woman’s Library. A friend and admirer of Bremer, Adlersparre was a driving force behind many of the women’s rights efforts of the second half of the nineteenth century. In fact, if Bremer is to be considered as the foremother of the Swedish women’s movement, Adlersparre was its heart and, by the 1890s, its grand old dame. Adlersparre was one of the founders of the Fredrika Bremer Association, as well as co-founder and editor of Home Review and Dagny, and wrote extensively for both periodicals, often under the pen name Esselde. As Nordenstam shows, Home Review became an important agent on the literary scene as it introduced and reviewed new publications, not least by women, and Adlersparre significantly shaped the literary arena of the second half of the nineteenth century (2014, p.14). The many interconnections between writers on the list of authors represented at the Woman’s Library suggest a close network, where individuals contributed their own texts and discussed and promoted each other’s works and personae. Nine titles on the list are biographies, 7 are of women, but 29 of the women on the list (55 percent) have had their biographies published in Idun.12 In one of their first issues, Idun’s editors announce that they are planning to include a “portrait gallery of female personages, who in one way or the other have distinguished themselves, for example by exhibiting notable feminine qualities in the field of literature or science, as educators, etc.” (Idun 1888, 1(1): 1).13 Over time, most issues of Idun  Gurli Linder’s (1918) nostalgic account of the social life of the Stockholm bourgeoisie in the last decades of the nineteenth century offers insight into the many connections that those involved in the women’s movement shared. 12  All issues from 1888 to 1895 have been included. 13  “ett helt porträttgalleri af qvinliga personligheter, som på ett eller annat sätt gjort sig bemärkta, t. ex. för framstående qvinliga egenskaper, på literaturens eller vetenskapens område, såsom uppfostrarinnor o.s.v.” (1) 11

4  NETWORKS OF TEXTS AND WRITERS: THE SWEDISH CONTRIBUTION… 

61

opened with a biographical article introducing the life and accomplishments of an individual, mostly a woman, suggesting a very conscious effort of presenting role models and making accomplished women visible. Bertha Palmer (1849–1918), the president of the Board of Lady Managers at the Columbian Exposition is portrayed this way (Idun 1891, 4(40): 313–314), so is Sophia Hayden (1868–1953), the architect of the Woman’s Building (Idun 1892, 5(19): 145–146). Most of these portraits, however, depict nineteenth-century Swedish women, such as Bremer (Idun 1890, 3(1): 1–3) and Adlersparre (Idun 1892, 5(1): 1–2). The fact that a majority of the Swedish authors who contributed works to the Woman’s Library have been portrayed in Idun not only indicates their status as role models but also points to the network they were part of and the operations of this network. These biographical portraits, including actual portraits so that readers could see what they looked like, suggest a very conscious effort of promoting women identified as role models for other women to be impressed by, feel a sense of connection to, and maybe even a wish to emulate. The portraits in Idun have an interesting parallel in the ambition of the Woman’s Library to present biographical information about the women who contributed works to the Library. As explained by one of the Swedish contributors, Lotten von Kræmer (1828–1912), the authors represented in the Woman’s Library were contacted by its librarian, Edith Clarke, with a request for a short biographical account of themselves (see Fig. 4.2).14 According to Wadsworth and Wiegand, visitors to the Library were not allowed to take the books off the shelves and browse through them. The books were to be viewed only, and, for those visitors craving more, bibliographical information about the works as well as biographical information about the authors were provided (2012, pp. 22–23). Here, too, then, details of the lives of accomplished women, in this case authors, have been foregrounded and the biographical and bibliographical information would have presented an opportunity to connect with the writers represented in this library. This way, visitors were invited to take part in—and be impressed by—the scope of women’s writing, as well as the lives of the writers, and to view these as closely connected. 14  Kræmer mentions this in a self-portrait she wrote for Idun. In her presentation, she has incorporated an account she wrote in English for the Woman’s Library at the request of Clarke, this time translated into Swedish (Idun 1895, 8(37): 289–292).

62 

J. MCELWEE

Fig. 4.2  A thank-you note received by Lotten von Kræmer. Upon receiving her biographical account, the librarian standing in for Edith Clarke, Mary Louise Davis, sent a personal thank-you note to Kræmer. This note is to be found in Kræmer’s personal papers, archived at the National Library of Sweden. Photo: Jens Östman, National Library of Sweden

The Works All in all, there are 143 entries on the list of Swedish works sent to the Woman’s Library. This list contains 139 works attributed to 53 writers, as well as volumes of two periodicals, Home Review and Dagny, together with reports from the first women’s rights organization, Föreningen för Gift Qvinnas Eganderätt (The association of married women’s right of ownership), devoted to furthering the legal rights of married women. It also contains a report prepared for the Exposition presenting the

4  NETWORKS OF TEXTS AND WRITERS: THE SWEDISH CONTRIBUTION… 

63

contemporary social situation for Swedish women, Öfversigt af den svenska kvinnans sociala ställning utgifven i anledning af Verldsutställningen i Chicago (Overview of the social situation for Swedish women published on the occasion of the world’s fair in Chicago). Most of the Swedish works selected for the Exposition were published in the second half of the nineteenth century. A total of 107 works (75 percent) were published in the 1880s and 1890s. Only one work, Queen Kristina’s (1626–1689) Lettres choisies (1759), predates the nineteenth century, but there are two eighteenth-century authors on the list, Hedvig Charlotta Nordenflycht (1718–1763) and Anna Maria Lenngren (1754–1817). Their contributions, in both cases collections of poetry, were published in the nineteenth century, however. The focus, then, seems to be on presenting the status quo of contemporary Swedish women’s literary activities, which of course is in line with the ambition of world’s fairs to foreground what is modern and cutting edge. As the diversity of genres included in the collection suggests (see Table  4.1), one aim seems to have been to show the scope of Swedish women’s literary activities. The works include not only novels, poetry, and Table 4.1  Genres included in the Swedish contribution; 140 works in total1 Genre Artwork Biography Children’s literature Collection of letters Collection of songs Folklore History Novel Pamphlet Periodical article/essay Play Poetry Report from women’s organizations Scientific article Short-story collection Travel literature Volumes of periodicals Since many of the texts included in the selection belong to more than one genre, it is not possible to provide exact numbers for how many texts belong to each category. However, short-story collections, novels, and scientific articles together make up more than one-third of the works 1

64 

J. MCELWEE

drama but also scientific articles, political pamphlets, and the first (and by 1893 only) doctoral dissertation written by a woman, Ellen Fries’s (1855–1900) monograph in history, Bidrag till kännedom om Sveriges och Nederländernas förbindelser under Karl X Gustafs regering (1883, Contribution regarding the connections between Sweden and the Netherlands during the reign of King Charles X Gustaf). The list includes 26 articles, of which 15 are scientific articles in botany and zoology, published by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. Of the other 11 articles, 10 were originally published in Home Review and Dagny by the same author, Sophie Adlersparre. Even if it is mainly Adlersparre’s articles that have been included in the selection for the Woman’s Library, at least 32 of the 54 authors (59 percent) wrote for one of the four major periodicals of the women’s movement in the second half of the nineteenth century.15 Considering that the collection also includes some authors whose activities predate the era of the women’s periodicals, the number is even more striking. Two women’s periodicals have been included on the list of works sent to the Woman’s Library: Home Review and Dagny. Twenty-eight of the 54 writers on the list of works wrote for either or both of these journals and/or for Idun. Fifteen writers on the list also wrote for another well-known women’s periodical at the time, Forwards (Framåt) (see Table 4.2). Forwards was fairly short-lived (1886–1889), but during its short existence it caused a great stir among women’s rights advocates. It was the mouthpiece for the Gothenburg women’s movement, which had a more radical approach to Table 4.2  The number of writers represented at the Woman’s Library who wrote for the different women’s periodicals Periodical Home Review Dagny Idun Forwards

Number of writers writing for each periodical 21 19 18 15

15  These periodicals are Home Review (Tidskrift för hemmet, 1859–1885), Dagny (1886– ongoing, but from 1914 under the name Hertha), Forwards (Framåt, 1886–1889), and Idun (1887–1963). The periodicals have been digitized by Gothenburg University and are available online: http://www2.ub.gu.se/kvinn/digtid/

4  NETWORKS OF TEXTS AND WRITERS: THE SWEDISH CONTRIBUTION… 

65

the furthering of women’s rights, compared to the gradual changes embraced by the Fredrika Bremer Association. These periodicals were an important venue in which the works of women writers were introduced, reviewed, and discussed. In the bibliography of Swedish women’s writings, The Woman within Swedish Literature until 1893 (Leijonhufvud & Brithelli, 1893), information about the authors’ contributions to periodicals has been included, showing the importance of the periodicals, not only for the women’s movement but also for women’s literary activities in general.16 As Nordenstam (2014) points out, the periodical press made it possible for women to claim their share of the public space in the nineteenth century. When Adlersparre and Olivecrona, both of whom would play decisive roles in the women’s movement in the second half of the nineteenth century, founded Home Review in 1859, their goal was not primarily to entertain, but to advance women’s position in society, as well as to educate. Over time, reviews of contemporary literature were given increasingly more space in the periodical (Nordenstam, 2014, pp.  12–14). In fact, many of the literary works selected for the Woman’s Library had been introduced and/or reviewed in the periodical and its successor Dagny. Also, in many cases the reviewed  writers themselves contributed pieces to the same periodical, sometimes within same issue.17 Furthermore, several of the short-story collections included on the list also contain titles previously published in one of the periodicals. In other words, the works on the list of contributions to the Woman’s Library are more closely linked than what first meets the eye as many of them appear and/or are discussed side by side in the same periodicals, revealing how the women’s periodicals created a network of both texts and writers. As these literary texts were published in the context of other texts discussing child-rearing and housekeeping, together with accounts of how proposals for new laws regarding women’s rights had been treated by the Parliament or opinion pieces polemicizing against repressive marriage 16  Titles of articles are not listed in this bibliography. When authors have contributed to a periodical, the name of the periodical is listed, as well as the year(s) in which the contribution(s) were made. The numbers presented in Table 4.2 are based on the information provided in Leijonhufvud and Brithelli (1893). 17  For example, in Home Review (1885, 27(5)) Ernst Ahlgren’s (pseud. for Victoria Benedictsson) debut novel Pengar (1885, Money) is introduced and reviewed by Esselde (pseud. for Sophie Adlersparre) (234–247) and Ahlgren herself contributes a short story (260–263).

66 

J. MCELWEE

laws, for example, the mix of genres could be viewed as a percussion box, in which the different texts resonated, repelled, and harmonized with each other. For many of the writers of the 1880s, a period referred to as the Modern Breakthrough in Swedish literature, literary texts were supposed to be political, following the lead of the Danish critic Georg Brandes (1842–1927), who argued that literature and the arts should be a forum for debating societal problems. Publishing their pieces in the context of other texts, other genres, but with a common goal, to shed light on and improve the situation for women, would have increased their impact. In the same way, the combination of texts sent to the Woman’s Library suggests a new context in which different texts in different genres together form a whole, which in this case is an image of how the Fredrika Bremer Association would like the Swedish women’s movement to be perceived abroad. The significance of the women’s periodicals is revealed not only in what was included in the Swedish selection for the Library, it is also apparent in what was left out. A consideration of the most prolific women writers of the time strengthens the impression that it was predominantly women involved in the women’s periodicals who were picked for the Woman’s Library. In her study of Swedish female literary writers of the 1880s, Heggestad lists the authors with the most literary publications (books) at the time. The most prolific writer, Louise Stjernström (1812–1907), published 14 works in the 1880s. She was not among the writers selected for the Woman’s Library, nor did she write for any of the women’s periodicals. Alfhild Agrell (1849–1923; pseud. Lovisa Petterqvist) and Anne Charlotte Leffler (1849–1892) share the second place with 12 titles each, followed by Josefina Wettergrund (1830–1903; pseud. Lea) with 8 works, Octavia Carlén (1828–1881) and Mathilda Roos (1852–1908) each with 7 titles, and then Sara Pfeiffer (1829–1913) and Jenny Ödmann (1847–1917) with 6 titles each (Heggestad, 1991, p. 45). Four out of these eight writers (Agrell, Leffler, Wettergrund, Roos) were represented at the Woman’s Library. As revealed by Leijonhufvud and Brithelli’s bibliography, The Woman within Swedish Literature until 1893, one characteristic that these four authors share and the others lack is that they also wrote for one (or several) of the major women’s periodicals. The periodical Forwards constitutes another example of an exclusion from the list that suggests that the Swedish contribution reflects one specific network of women writers. Forwards aimed to be an arena for presenting a variety of viewpoints on the Woman Question, including those

4  NETWORKS OF TEXTS AND WRITERS: THE SWEDISH CONTRIBUTION… 

67

markedly different from the moderate views of the Fredrika Bremer Association (Stenberg, 2014, p. 52). As only those periodicals associated with the Fredrika Bremer Association, Home Review and Dagny, were sent to the Woman’s Library, the Swedish women’s movement was portrayed as more unified than it actually was. This unified image of the Swedish women’s movement conveyed by the selection for the Woman’s Library is reflected in several histories of the Swedish women’s movement written a decade later. In her historiographical study of four historical overviews of the women’s movement published in the early twentieth century, Manns (2000) finds that these overviews present the women’s movement of the nineteenth century as liberal, moderate, and operating in the spirit of Bremer and that this image is largely created by ignoring dissenting voices in the movement. In addition, Bremer’s Hertha is portrayed as a foundational work in these historical accounts (Manns, 2000, pp. 20–21), just as Olivecrona foregrounded this novel in her account of Swedish women written for the Exposition (The Woman’s Journal, 23(17): 136). Thus, the Swedish selection for the Woman’s Library and the histories of the women’s movement written later on concur in their characterization of the Swedish women’s movement and in identifying Bremer as its central figure and Hertha as a foundational text, this way solidifying the brand of women’s rights activism promoted by the Fredrika Bremer Association as the dominant narrative of the Swedish women’s movement.

The Issues When Hertha was published in 1856, it caused an uproar and Bremer was blasted in the press. Three decades later, many of the issues raised by this novel were no longer considered controversial and women had won decisive victories, such as access to higher education and legal enfranchisement for unmarried women at the age of 21. However, whereas unmarried women had gained civic rights, the rights of married women were lagging behind. Many of the efforts of the women’s movement in the 1870s and 1880s were thus focused on bringing the legal rights of married women up to speed with those of unmarried women, and several of the texts selected for the Woman’s Library deal with the social, economic, and psychological consequences of married women’s lacking legal rights.18  Leffler’s play Sanna kvinnor (1883, True women) is one example of a work sent to the Woman’s Library that treats this topic. 18

68 

J. MCELWEE

Closely connected to the question of marriage was an issue that proved to be divisive among women’s rights advocates at the time: the double standards regarding men’s and women’s sexuality, where men and women were expected to adhere to different moral codes. While the double standards regarding sex were generally condemned, one branch of women’s rights advocates, many of whom belonged to the more radical women’s rights activists in Gothenburg (the second biggest city in Sweden, then and now), argued that women should be able to assume the same sexual and moral behavior as men. More moderate women’s rights advocates, like those of the Stockholm-based Fredrika Bremer Association, generally argued that men should be made to follow the same requirements of sexual restraint women were subjected to (Manns, 1997, pp. 80–86). The question of sexual and moral equality is addressed in several of the works sent to the Woman’s Library, both in fictional accounts and articles. Novels like Ernst Ahlgren’s (pseud. for Victoria Benedictsson, 1850–1888) Pengar (1885, Money) address the vulnerability and powerlessness of married women, as well as the consequences of keeping young women in ignorance about sexuality, while men are allowed to sow their wild oats before marriage. Arguing that men should conform to the same sexual and moral behavior as women, Adlersparre addresses this burning question in her opinion piece “Om sedlighetsfrågans ståndpunkt i de skandinaviska länderna under år 1888” (“As things stand on the question of sexual and moral behavior in the Scandinavian countries in the year 1888”), which was published as a pamphlet and distributed freely to Dagny’s subscribers. It might seem surprising that this text was included in the selection for the Woman’s Library since Adlersparre’s outspokenness on the issue actually led to her being replaced as editor of Dagny in 1888. However, its inclusion indicates a certain acceptance of differences of opinion.19 In a similar vein, Forestier suggests that the two founders and editors of Home Review, Adlersparre and Olivecrona, used their differences of opinion regarding women’s rights as an “editorial strategy” (2021, p.  548) that enabled them to present different standpoints and in this way appeal to a broader audience. However, as Forestier points out, the take on the Woman Question presented in Home Review is still that of the uppermost 19  Another example of this acceptance is the inclusion of Ann Charlotte Leffler’s works, as the predominant opinion, voiced in Dagny and Idun, seems to have been that Leffler was very talented, but morally misguided (see, for example, her unsigned obituary in Dagny 1893, 8(1): 16–23).

4  NETWORKS OF TEXTS AND WRITERS: THE SWEDISH CONTRIBUTION… 

69

segments of society (ibid., p. 549), and so the variety of viewpoints only goes so far. One of the most discussed texts on the topic of moral and sexual equality, Stella Kleve’s (1864–1942, pseud. for Mathilda Malling) short story “Pyrrhussegrar” (“Pyrrhic victories” 1886) is not included in the selection for the Woman’s Library. One reason is probably its explicitness—the periodical Forwards was much criticized for publishing the piece—but also because it takes a different stand on the issue than the leading voices of the Fredrika Bremer Association. Much along the lines of contemporary male writers, like August Strindberg (1849–1912), Kleve’s short story argues that sex is necessary for the physical and mental health of an individual and that lack of it could even lead to disease and death, which is what happens to the female protagonist of the story. Whereas Kleve, too, argued for moral and sexual equality, her proposed solution was the opposite of that of moderate women’s rights activists. Adlersparre wrote a critical response about the story in Dagny as well as a Gothenburg newspaper (Stenberg, 2014, p. 58). The selection for the Woman’s Library, however, only shows one side of the debate. Just as the male writers that many of the works included polemicize against (like Strindberg) are only present through the arguments presented against their writings, the same is true for Kleve’s more radical take on women’s equality.20

To Chicago and Beyond The work of the Swedish committee charged with the task of presenting women’s work in Literature and Science was viewed as one of patriotism, but it was also one of displaying existing relationships and forging new ones. The works on the list of Swedish titles represented what was felt to be the best that Sweden had to offer by way of women’s writings, but is also a tale of friendships and patronage, as well as class affiliation. In the end, the list of works sent to Woman’s Library is characterized as much by what is there as by the voices left out. It reveals the mechanisms of history-­ writing, which give particular individuals and works a front seat, while others are perhaps not even allowed on board. As this collection of books traveled westward, in boxes marked with the Swedish flag and the words “Swedish Ladies” (Dagny 1893, 8(2): 53), it embarked on a journey to 20  One example of a work sent to the Woman’s Library that takes the opposite stand from Kleve is Amanda Kerfstedt’s (1835–1920) Eva (1888).

70 

J. MCELWEE

strike up new relationships with writings of women across the world. The story of the commingling of these global voices, how women writers have been inspired, provoked, and empowered by their sisters abroad, has only begun to be told.

References Adlersparre, K.  A., & Huss, E. (1873). Qvinnan inom den svenska litteraturen. Bibliografiskt försök af två damer. Utgifven af redaktionen af “Tidskrift för hemmet” [The Woman in Swedish Literature. A Bibliographical Attempt by Two Ladies. Published by the editors for “Home Review”]. Retrieved July 8, 2021, from https://litteraturbanken.se/författare/HussE/titlar/QvinnanInom Svenska/sida/1/faksimil Boisseau, T.  J. (2000). White Queens at the Chicago World’s Fair, 1893: New Womanhood in the Service of Class, Race, and Nation. Gender & History, 12(1), 33–81. Dagny. Göteborgs universitetsbibliotek. Retrieved July 8, 2021, from http:// www2.ub.gu.se/kvinn/digtid/03/ Forestier, E. (2021). Constructive Conflict in Swedish Feminist Periodical Culture: A Critical Reassessment of Sophie Adlersparre and Rosalie Olivecrona’s ‘Editorial Schism’ in Tidskrift för hemmet (1859-1885). Women’s History Review, 30(4), 533–554. Heggestad, E. (1991). Fången och fri: 1880-talets svenska kvinnliga författare om hemmet, yrkeslivet och konstnärsskapet [Captive and Free: Swedish Women Writers of the 1880s on the Home, Working Life, and Artistry]. Avdelningen för litteratursociologi vid Litteraturvetenskapliga institutionen, Uppsala University. Idun. Göteborgs universitetsbibliotek. Retrieved July 8, 2021, from http:// www2.ub.gu.se/kvinn/digtid/07/ Leijonhufvud, S., & Brithelli, S. (1893). Kvinnan inom den svenska litteraturen intill år 1893 [The Woman Within Swedish Literature Until 1893]. Retrieved July 8, 2021, from http://hdl.handle.net/2077/33651 Linder, G. (1918). Sällskapsliv i Stockholm under 1880- och 1890-talen [Social Life in Stockholm in the 1880s and 1890s]. P.A. Norstedt & Söner. Manns, U. (1997). Den sanna frigörelsen: Fredrika-Bremer-förbundet 1884-1921 [The True Liberation: The Fredrika Bremer Association 1884-1921]. Symposion. Manns, U. (2000). “Så skriver vi historia. Den svenska kvinnorörelsen ur ett historiografiskt perspektiv” [How We Write History. The Swedish Women’s Rights Movement from a Historiographical Perspective]. Tidskrift för genusvetenskap, 4, 5–27.

4  NETWORKS OF TEXTS AND WRITERS: THE SWEDISH CONTRIBUTION… 

71

McFadden, M. H. (2009). Golden Cables of Sympathy: The Transatlantic Sources of Nineteenth-Century Feminism. The University Press of Kentucky. Nordenstam, A. (2014). Introduktion: Äldre tidskrifter  – Tidskrift för hemmet [Introduction: Older Periodicals  – Home Review]. In A.  Nordenstam (Ed.), Nya röster: Svenska kvinnotidskrifter under 150 år [New Voices: Swedish Women’s Periodicals During 150 years] (pp. 7–18). Gidlunds förlag. Olivecrona, R. (1892). Condition of Women in Sweden. The Woman’s Journal (Ed.), 23(17), 136 and 23(20):156. Retrieved July 4, 2022, from http://id. lib.harvard.edu/aleph/002490378/catalog Olivecrona, R. (2005). Strödda tankar och minnen upptecknade av R.O. [Scattered Thoughts and Memories Written Down by R.O.] Published by Agneta Olivecrona and Gertrud Gidlund. Stenberg, E. (2014). Tidskriften Framåt: Två åsiktsriktningar möts i unika debatter [The periodical Forwards: Two Sets of Opinions Meet in Unique Debates]. In A.  Nordenstam (Ed.), Nya röster: Svenska kvinnotidskrifter under 150 år [New Voices: Swedish Women’s Periodicals During 150 Years] (pp.  49–67). Gidlunds förlag. Wadsworth, S., & Wiegand, W. A. (2012). Right Here I See My Own Books: The Woman’s Building Library at the World’s Columbian Exposition. University of Massachusetts Press.

CHAPTER 5

“Spanish Lessons” Noël Valis

Spain’s contribution to the Woman’s Building Library at the Columbian Exposition was impressive, comprising approximately 500 volumes. While one scholar thought these were largely rare books and manuscripts found in convents, with few contemporary authors, Edith Clarke’s List of Books Sent by Home and Foreign Committees (1893) reveals that most were nineteenth century.1 Included were novels and poetry, instructional manuals and devotionals, ladies’ journals and children’s stories, biographies, and other texts. Although few of these writers are known today, their numbers are astounding. Yet this is a fraction of the nearly 2800 names María del Carmen Simón Palmer documented in her bio-bibliographical catalogue of nineteenth-century Spanish women authors (1991). This chapter 1  See Weimann (1981, p.  375); also, Maud Howe Elliott, who said, “Spain sends us a treasure of old and rare books and priceless manuscripts” (1894, p.  135); and Valis (2000–2001, pp. 648–650). All translations are my own.

N. Valis (*) Department of Spanish and Portuguese, Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 M. Dalbello, S. Wadsworth (eds.), Global Voices from the Women’s Library at the World’s Columbian Exposition, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-42490-8_5

73

74 

N. VALIS

explores how we can approach such collections through what I discuss as textual and category closeness, in a series of contextualizing approximations, beginning with how the collection came together in the first place; next, examining how it can be parsed; then, drawing nearer to specific texts of one subset—pedagogy—that establish their own closeness through common interest. A substantial category of writings centers on female instruction. Many of these authors were teachers, including a private tutor (Ángela Grassi): Matilde García del Real y Álvarez Mijares, Francisca de Paula and Teresa de Jesús Gil Lobo y Calvente, Adela Ginés y Ortiz, Dolores Aleu y Riera, Manuela Aniorte y Paredes de Sales, Casilda and Antonia F. de Arciniega y Martínez, Julia de Asensi, María Bascuas y Colón, Felipa Máxima and María Paula de Cabeza, Consuelo Calderón y Pérez del Camino, Micaela Ferrer de Otálora, Purificación Feltrer y Muntión, Enriqueta Lozano de Vilches, Dolores Martí de Detrell, Sarah Lorenzana Couto, Ángela Grassi, Luciana Casilda Monreal de Lozano, Elisea Passaráns, Carmen Ruiz y Alá, Dolores Sivilla y Prats, Gregoria Urbina y Miranda, Eloísa Valderrama Sánchez, María Orberá y Carrión, Pilar Pascual de Sanjuán, María Carbonell Sánchez, Libia Costa y Méndez, Luisa Escudero, Casimira Sierra y Orenga, Adela Riquelme de Trechuelo, Carmen Rojo y Herráiz, María Belén Peña Meléndez, Matilde Ridocci y García, and Dolores Vallés y Ribot de Rovira. Many authors are identified as teachers on the title page of their publications, an editorial practice no doubt meant to convey authority and respectability. (The reference works of Criado y Domínguez, Simón Palmer, and Ballarín Domingo et al., along with internet searches, confirmed the teaching status of others.) Others, like Concepción Arenal, Sofía Tartilán, Emilia Serrano (Baronesa de Wilson), and Pilar Sinués de Marco, were not teachers but considered pedagogues (see Criado y Domínguez, 1889, pp. 191–192). All 36 deserve to appear as individual names. One other teacher-author, Encarnación Martínez de Marina, was part of the collection, though she does not appear in Clarke.2 Others, such as María Ana Poveda, Josefa Herreros de Tejada, and Francisca Ayesa de Sanquirico, were probably teachers, given a didactic character of their work similar to that of many teacher-authored publications. In addition, Emilia Velasco de Yeves, who co-authored a home economics manual, was married to a school director, 2  Her name appears in the Biblioteca Nacional list of books provided to the women’s organizing committee, the Junta de Señoras (Relación, 1894, p. 411).

5  “SPANISH LESSONS” 

75

and Antonia Rodríguez de Ureta was an inspector of public instruction. In all, I have identified 113 texts as pedagogy-oriented, bearing in mind overlaps with other writings, and have subdivided them into five categories: literature (258), religion (63), other (40), essay (17), and journals (10). This distinct pedagogical turn reflects broader concerns that the Spanish contribution as a whole embodied: the desire, first, to tutor diverse audiences, national and international, in female achievement and, second, to link that achievement to a cultural project of national significance. The entire collection was one vast instructional tool predicated on the liberal notion that education was the key to bringing a backward Spain into the modern world. That women, among the most disadvantaged groups in Spanish society, should take the lead in this mission is rich with irony but also ambivalence. That this aim of modernization was not necessarily visible in Chicago also must be addressed. The message these writers sent was a mixed one. On the one hand, they tended to center on domestic realms, but, on the other, these were mostly professional women keenly interested in female education, suggesting a national sphere of influence. A closer examination of these texts, as a subset contextualized within Spain’s total contribution to the Woman’s Building Library, allows us to explore more fully the implications of this specific imagined community of women writers during a period of marked historical-cultural change for a once-imperial, now-marginalized power soon to be crushed in the Spanish-American War of 1898 (see Valis 2000–2001). Dealing with such a large corpus is challenging. The numbers alone preclude in-depth analysis of most individual texts, while the generic sameness of manuals, readers, and primers presents other difficulties. The close reading used to interpret literary works is not especially helpful here. Recently, scholars have examined noncanonical literature through a different lens, which Franco Moretti dubbed “distant reading,” where “distance … is a condition of knowledge: it allows you to focus on units that are much smaller or much larger than the text: devices, themes, tropes—or genres and systems” (2013, pp. 48–49). Such a process, he proposes, is more capacious, permitting analysis of large swaths of texts, including those Margaret Cohen describes as “the great unread” (Moretti, 2013, p. 45). In distant reading, however, you end up not so much with devices, tropes, and themes as with patterns or modelings of them, which still require attention to the text (Armstrong & Montag, 2017, p. 618). All this

76 

N. VALIS

suggests that what we really do is zoom in (as in a close-up) and zoom out (as in a wide shot) in reading texts. In other words, close and distant reading is about what we see and what we do not see on the page. What we do not see is everything in its entirety, whether within a singular text or a whole series of texts. Moretti’s condition of knowledge is a matter of perspective: one that is conditioned by another kind of distance, that of time and space. Because we cannot grasp everything, the number of texts examined is in some ways immaterial. That is, there is no inherent virtue to a large or a small subset of texts because our view will always be partial, in both senses of the word, whether the approach is close, far, or somewhere in between. Rather than debate a methodology with irresolvable contradictions, I propose we shift the angle of understanding to something I call “closeness” as an alternative to “close reading,” especially in examining groups of texts. Closeness does not preclude close reading (or other kinds of reading) but works through a series of approximations to get closer to texts. A specific collection of books is a library within a library that we pluck off the shelves. Our very first approximation is digital, whether we hold a volume in our hands (or fingers, i.e., digits) or view it on a screen. Our relationship with books is physical and visual; we value the appearance, weight, and feel of books. We are close to them. Many of the books from the Woman’s Building Library and certainly from the Spanish contribution, all dispersed after the Fair closed, are now digitized, but that does not eliminate closeness; rather, it creates a new form of virtual intimacy that marries us to the screen. Indeed, without the digitization efforts of the National Library of Spain, Google Books, HathiTrust, and other entities, this project would have been impossible to carry out. That of course is only the first step in drawing near to books. Analysis is another step closer. To analyze, you have to focus on an object, to get close to it. Here, I would like to stress two distinct kinds of approximation: textual closeness and category closeness. The latter is what we do when we consider collections and their subsets. In other words, it is not distant reading that we practice here, but category closeness, which allows us to take different shots or images, of varying focal angles and ranges, put them together to form a new grouping, and make sense of the grouping. It would be difficult to achieve category closeness, however, without textual closeness. Most important, by breaking apart the notion of closeness, we foreground our own relationship to the collection even as we recognize not only its distinctiveness but its place in the larger scheme of things through our successive, unfolding approximations to the collection. No matter how

5  “SPANISH LESSONS” 

77

close we get, however, we do not grasp all the components in their entirety. Incompleteness, whether textual, cultural, or historical, is built in, despite the apparently finite nature of the object of study. To situate the Spanish contribution, and the pedagogical subset, within the Woman’s Building Library, the first task in seeking category closeness is to identify who organized the collection and how it was assembled. The Spanish women’s committee, or Junta de Señoras, was a mix of aristocrats and upper-class commoners, with the Queen Regent as titular head and the indefatigable Countess of Superunda (Isabel Queipo de Llano y Gayoso, principal lady-in-waiting to the Infanta Isabel de Borbón), who managed the project, as vice president. There were at least two writers among them, Emilia Pardo Bazán and Faustina Sáez de Melgar, as well as Carmen Rojo Herráiz, a teacher and director of the Escuela Normal Central de Maestras in Madrid, one of the most significant educational institutions for women.3 Publications by all three appear on Clarke’s List. Despite a rushed, late start, the committee pulled together, between 15 January and 8 March 1893, an impressive array of handicrafts, regional costumes, laces, fans, mantillas, textiles, paintings, manuscripts, and books, gathered throughout the provinces by local ladies’ committees (Valis, 2000–2001, pp. 637–639). Pardo Bazán (1851–1921), whose realist novels are now in the Spanish literary canon, was tasked with publicizing the enterprise. She composed the circular that outlined the kinds of objects the Junta sought, starting with manuscripts, books, and other publications, including those written in Catalan and Galician, of which there were ultimately 12 (Pardo Bazán, 1893a, p. 3, 1893b, p. [2]). The Junta decided to exhibit the objects first in Madrid before shipping them to Chicago, a move applauded by the press (Anon., 1893, p. [3]; Reparaz, 1893, p. 163). Pardo Bazán also had a hand in this effort, specifically in setting up the books and manuscripts, excepting, she noted to the poet Carolina Coronado, the volumes provided by the National Library of Madrid (Biblioteca Nacional, or B.N.) and the Palace Library (Biblioteca de Palacio) (Pardo Bazán, 1893b, p. [2]; Pardo Bazán, 1981, p. 170; Anon., 1893, p. [3]). 3  Other committee members included the Countess de Torre-Arias, the Marchioness de Comillas, the Duchess de Bailén, Señora de Cos-Gayón, the Marchioness de Monistrol, the Marchioness de Zafra, Doña María de Beruete de Moret (Countess de Muguiro), Carmen Avial de Eguilior (later Countess de Albox), the Marchioness de Aguilar de Inestrillas, and the Duchesses de Alba, Tarifa, and Osuna (Pardo Bazán, 1981, p. 164; Anon., 1893, p. [3]; García López, 1893, pp. [1–2]).

78 

N. VALIS

The National Library (B.N.) assembled the lion’s share of books: 283, to be precise, each volume meticulously documented in the Catálogo de la Sección Española, or catalog, and in the Relación de los expositores españoles premiados, a record of all the Spanish exhibitors awarded prizes. In the Catálogo, the Junta de Señoras is credited with presenting the 283 books, while the B.N. appears as the facilitator. But in the Relación, the only prize winner mentioned was the B.N. The Relación erased not only the role of the Junta de Señoras in this instance, but, as it turns out, the entire Catálogo section of Trabajos de la mujer, or Women’s Work, placing all its award-winning entries in other categories and thereby diluting the collective impact of female achievements (Relación, 1894, p. 96). For example, although Pardo Bazán and Carmen Rojo’s books won prizes listed under the same Department L (an expansive Liberal Arts category) as the B.N. collection did, they were awarded (and recorded) separately, even though they were also part of the same B.N. collection (Relación, 1894, pp. 380–381, 451).4 Moreover, Rojo was recognized for both her embroidery and publications, which fell into Group 149 (primary, secondary, and superior education; designs, dressmaking, etc.), Class 843 (domestic and industrial training for girls), rather than Group 150 (literature, books, libraries, journals), Class 854 (books and literature), into which the B.N. collection and Pardo Bazán books were placed. Categories were sometimes confusingly inconsistent. Nearly all the B.N. entries can be found in Clarke. So where did the remaining books (those in Clarke but not in the B.N. list) come from? The Palace Library provided 11 volumes and 15 manuscripts to the Countess de Superunda, not all in Clarke, but the Catálogo, which also includes books not from the B.N., offers additional answers.5 The Infanta Doña Isabel loaned 11, of which at least 4 were pedagogical; the Marquesa de Alquibla, 12, of which 7 were by the writer-teacher Enriqueta Lozano de Vilches and 1 by another writer-teacher, Eloísa Valderrama Sánchez; the  Awards were given both to individuals and collections, a practice Bertha Palmer found frustratingly inconsistent (Letter from Bertha Potter Palmer to Janet Jennings, dated 18 June 1894, Board of Lady Managers Papers, Vol. 17, Box 6.5, Chicago History Museum). (With grateful acknowledgment of the Chicago History Museum and Ellen Keith.) 5   See Exposición Universal (1893.Chicago), ARB/21, CARP/3, doc. 82–86, Real Biblioteca del Palacio Real, for the handwritten list of books and manuscripts sent to Chicago, along with the pertinent correspondence and certificate of registration. I suspect most of the manuscripts ended up in the Spanish pavilion of the Woman’s Building, as they are not in Clarke. I am grateful to the Real Biblioteca of the Palacio Real (Madrid) and to Pablo Andrés Escapa, for these materials. 4

5  “SPANISH LESSONS” 

79

Baronesa de Cortes, “twenty-four books by different women writers”; the Condesa de Llobregat, several manuscripts; Carmen Rojo, a “collection of literary works by various women authors”; and the Condesa de Superunda, who offered the largest number, 55, “by different women writers,” as well as 3 works of St. Teresa of Ávila (Catálogo, 1893, pp. 830–832, 838, 872, 883, 885). Sixteen female-authored volumes in the Catálogo are absent from both the Clarke and B.N. lists. Where did they end up? Twenty authors in the Catálogo and Clarke are not in the B.N. listing, meaning their books come from an as-yet-unidentified individual or group, or from the writers themselves.6 Bertha Palmer, president of the Board of Lady Managers, spoke of four Spanish-language collections of books that were given awards at the Fair, emphasizing the Countess de Superunda’s role in gathering them: “one loaned by the National Library, one collected by Madame Pardo Bazán, another collected by the Countess Superunda, who next to the Queen was the Chairman of the efficient right-arm of the Spanish Committee, and a collection of Cuban books sent by the Countess Mortera.” “[I]t was at [Superunda’s] instigation and under her authority,” she wrote, “that the other collections were made.” Palmer was aggravated that Superunda received no recognition from the Awards Committee, while three others did: Adela Dupuy de Lôme, Pardo Bazán, and the Countess de la Mortera.7 Yet the 26 items from the Palace Library do not account for all of Superunda’s contribution (the 55 books noted above), which obviously came from somewhere else. 6  Of the 20, only Lozano de Vilches and Valderrama Sánchez can be identified as part of the Marquesa de Alquibla collection. The provincial Junta de Señoras of Zaragoza contributed four volumes by F.G.L. and Manuela Aboud; neither author is in Clarke or B.N. Were these the “literary treatises” sent by the same committee, according to the Official Catalogue (Handy, 1893, p. 140)? 7  Letter from Bertha Palmer to Mr. A.T.  Britton, dated 27 July 1894 (Board of Lady Managers Papers, Vol. 17, Box 6.5, Chicago History Museum); also, Wadsworth and Wiegand (2012, p. 207); and Palmer (1894, pp. 182–185), for her attempts to gain recognition for passed-over foreign exhibits. My warm thanks to Sarah Wadsworth for providing a copy of Palmer’s letter. Dupuy de Lôme was awarded for the B.N. loan (though the Relación de los expositores españoles gives her no credit); Pardo Bazán, for six works, the same selection that figures in the B.N. list (Relación, 1894, pp. 413, 451), though she also collected the books of other writers (Pardo Bazán, 1893b, p. [2]); and de la Mortera, for a collection of Cuban books, which were not apparently exhibited in the Woman’s Building Library, but in the Spanish pavilion, noted as “Woman’s Auxiliary Board, Havana. Volumes of prose and poetry” (see Handy, 1893, p. 77; also, Relación 1898, p. 33, in which de la Mortera appears as an award winner).

80 

N. VALIS

Nor does Palmer mention the efforts of the Baronesa de Cortes, the Condesa de Llobregat, the Infanta Isabel, the Marquesa de Alquibla, or Carmen Rojo (these last two, members of the Junta). Muddying the waters further, the Official Catalogue of the Fair includes but a partial list of writers, some in Clarke, some not. These last-named were also in the Catálogo and, I suspect, possibly placed in the Spanish pavilion of the Woman’s Building, rather than the Library (or incorporated later, after Clarke’s initial cataloguing). Add to this the unspecified numbers of books, along with the missing names of authors, in some instances, and the picture of Spain’s contribution to the Woman’s Building Library, while voluminous, also appears incomplete and on occasion unclear, complicated by the hastily done, misspelled, spotty entries, duplicates, and multiple editions indicated in Clarke’s List. Some books never got catalogued at all, arriving too late; others show up on more than one list and, apparently, more than one place on the fairgrounds. We simply do not know where some of the approximately 500 volumes came from. This is all another way of saying we do not see the entire collection and what we have are the paper remains, fragments of a collection that spins off in different directions, according to the list, catalogue or category description, and no doubt went home in a great burst of dispersal. Thus, the category closeness we seek must contend with both the organic and imposed organizational complexities of two entities, the Library and the Fair, not to mention the shortcomings of participating individuals and groups, the constraints of time, and the vagaries of categories themselves. Like the other collections in the Woman’s Building Library, the Spanish one is a category filled with other categories, in which literature (mainly novels and poetry) dominates and religious texts figure significantly. Sixteen nineteenth-century writers alone contributed anywhere from five to 28 volumes apiece, for a total of 218 books: nearly half the collection. Five of these were teachers, one an inspector of public instruction, and all but four Criado y Domínguez included in his list of pedagogues.8 Of the 8  The 16 are Rosario de Acuña, Concepción Arenal, Joaquina García Balmaseda, Fernán Caballero (Cecilia Böhl de Faber), Eva Canel, Carolina Coronado, Ángela Grassi, Enriqueta Lozano de Vilches, Luciana Casilda Monreal de Lozano, María Orberá y Carrión, Emilia Pardo Bazán, Pilar Pascual de Sanjuán, Antonia Rodríguez de Ureta, Faustina Sáez de Melgar, María del Pilar Sinués, and Emilia Serrano; the teachers: Grassi, Lozano de Vilches, Monreal de Lozano, Orberá y Carrión, Pascual de Sanjuán; the inspector, Rodríguez de Ureta.

5  “SPANISH LESSONS” 

81

16, four have only grown in stature since: Pardo Bazán, Carolina Coronado, Fernán Caballero, and Concepción Arenal. (Additionally, four works represented the extraordinary Galician poet, Rosalía de Castro.) The collection also pays homage to the pioneering early wave of Romantic poets, of which there are 11.9 Most of the publications are from the mid-­1850s on. It is also worth pointing out what is not in the collection. The radical freethinker Rosario de Acuña is included, but not her most controversial work, the anticlerical play El padre Juan (1891), which the authorities shut down. Neither is the educator Bertha Wilhelmi de Dávila, who forcefully advocated for a woman’s right to a profession (1891, 1893).10 Nor the feminist gynecologist, Concepción Aleixandre. The militant feminists Ángeles López de Ayala, Amalia Domingo Soler, and Teresa Claramunt are also missing. By contrast, most authors included were more socially conservative. Omissions aside, the collection was historically unparalleled, as Pardo Bazán observed (1893a, p. 3). No doubt the Woman’s Building Library contained “scores of texts that fall outside the purview of traditional libraries” (Wadsworth & Weigand, 2012, p. 7), but remarkably, many volumes came from one of Spain’s most prestigious institutions, the National Library, as well as from the Palace Library. Whatever the reasons for acquiring them, the B.N. still holds these books, in a physical and now a digitalized format. Emphasizing needlework over books, nonetheless, Pardo Bazán understood the national importance of the exhibit. “Bear in mind,” she wrote, “that this is the first time in Spain the work of women has been considered worthy of special attention” (1981, p.  163; Valis, 2000–2001, p. 654). Tellingly, she linked the exhibit to a recent event, the October 1892 debates on female education at the Congreso Pedagógico 9  The 11 are: Robustiana Armiño, Dolores Cabrera y Heredia, Encarnación Calero de los Ríos, Carolina Coronado, Amalia Fenollosa, Gertrudis Gómez de Avellaneda, Ángela Grassi, Enriqueta Lozano de Vilches, Maria Josepa Massanés, Victoria Peña y Amer, and María Verdejo y Durán. 10  Wilhelmi de Dávila was closely associated with the influential reformist Institución Libre de Enseñanza (the Free Institution of Education). Her Aptitud de la mujer, first delivered as a lecture at the Congreso Pedagógico Hispano-Portugués-Americano in 1892 (Cuarto Centenario, 1894, pp. 117, 119), probably appeared too late for inclusion in the Library, but the manuscript was available, as another conference participant, Emilia Pardo Bazán, would have known. Her report on Granada’s first school colony for children of the poor, which she directed, was also missing.

82 

N. VALIS

Hispano-Portugués-Americano, in which she and many women teachers participated. “Both occasions are new,” she observed, “and to my knowledge, absolutely without precedent” (1893a, p. 3). For Pardo Bazán, this confluence was symptomatic of something larger: the global women’s movement itself. By associating the two events, Pardo Bazán was, in effect, suggesting that the Chicago exhibit was as much a teaching moment as the conference. In contrast to “La Exposición de Trabajos” (1893), her newspaper article (and the circular) promoting the exhibit privileged books over traditional women’s work. Significantly, third on the circular’s list of desirable contributions to the Fair was a request for objects and data related to the state of female education (Pardo Bazán, 1893a, p. 3). This category alone helps explain the presence of so many pedagogically informed texts, but the condition of Spanish women and girls does far more, as reformer Lucas Mallada’s withering 1890 critique of their “wretched and monumental ignorance” contends (1994, p.  55). Perhaps the most startling statistic is this one: an 81.2% illiteracy rate among Spanish women in 1887 (Scanlon, 1982, p. 172). An aristocratic Carlist, Catalina de Alcalá, spoke just as passionately on the subject during the Exposition: I do not wish to leave the impression that there is no longer any intellectual individuality or personal ambition among my countrywomen. Their meager advantages, their scanty education, their few chances to mingle on equal terms with the talented and good of the opposite sex have brought down upon them a long night of darkness. But we shall emerge from the shadows. (1894, p. 649)11

Why so many teachers on Clarke’s list (28 are on the B.N.’s as well)? For starters, in 1857 the Moyano Law established limited compulsory education, sparking an immediate increased need for largely single-sex schools, instructors, and teaching materials, especially for girls. The first national teacher training college for women (Escuela Normal Central de Maestras, Madrid) was established in 1858. Political reforms of the liberal Revolution of 1868 stimulated creation of the Escuela de Institutrices (School for Governesses) and the Asociación para la Enseñanza de la Mujer (Association for the Education of Women), as well as two influential 11  The Carlists were ultra-monarchist and ultra-Catholic. De Alcalá was an instructor at Minnesota State University.

5  “SPANISH LESSONS” 

83

pedagogical conferences in 1882 and 1892. Most importantly, despite notable deficiencies of female instruction and social roadblocks, women teachers embraced solidarity and professionalism alike. Protestations of modesty aside, their very public presence in schools, conferences, and associations spoke to an emerging professional awareness.12 These women had a mission, as a brief exercise in textual closeness suggests. Many were socially conservative, favoring domestic piety, but all advocated for the dignity and enlightenment of women, and in this sense were agents of change (see Ballarín Domingo et al., 2000, p. 341).13 In this, you cannot separate teachers from nonteachers. Was pedagogy also a social “instrument of ideological control,” as has been argued for what were mostly writers of the bourgeoisie (Sánchez Llama, 2000, p.  180)? Class bias cannot be dismissed, but the larger picture should reflect the delicate path these women walked, between convention and change, and the imperatives of biography. Dolores Aleu y Riera (1857–1913), for example, was attacked, verbally and physically, as a medical student at the University of Barcelona. An ardent feminist, she characterized women’s lives as enslaved and a “continual martyrdom,” though her own story is inspirational, as her distinguished mentor-teacher Juan Giné y Partagás clearly thought (Aleu y Riera, 1883, p. 18).14 In turn, Aleu found solidarity in two other women represented in Chicago, Concepción Arenal (1820–1893) and Sofía Tartilán (1829–1888).15 She cited them as voices of authority in her published dissertation on female hygienic-moral education. Arenal helped her see the contradictions of women’s lives and histories; Tartilán, the injustice of dismissing women as “better at being bad than doing good” (Aleu y Riera, 1883, p.  24). Another teacher, Matilde García del Real (1856–1932), dedicated two pedagogical essays, written in 1880, to Arenal, perhaps the most influential intellectual of the period in the fields of philanthropy, penal reform, pedagogy, and female education. Nineteen of Arenal’s volumes were on display in Chicago. 12  For more on women teachers and educational reform in Spain, see Scanlon (1982), Capel Martínez (1986), Jagoe (1998), and Ballarín Domingo et al. (1999, 2000). 13  Domestic piety, in tandem with the “genteel tradition,” was not unique to Spanish women writers. See Brown (2006); and Sorby (2006), for the case of U.S. authors. 14  See Giné y Partagás’s letter to her (in Aleu y Riera, 1883, pp. 13–16). A practicing physician, Aleu y Riera also taught home economics at the Acadèmia per a la il.lustració de la dona. 15  Aleu y Riera quoted from Arenal’s classic essay, La mujer del porvenir (surprisingly not in Clarke), and Tartilán’s Páginas para la educación popular (one of three works in Clarke).

84 

N. VALIS

And yet the most referenced figure in many of these texts has no name, only a profession: women teachers. Only mothers and children are cited more. It is said, García del Real wrote, that women teachers need have little talent and but mediocre intelligence. She begged to differ: “The teacher, then, is not required to be a genius, but ought to demonstrate a clear, profound intelligence that can at the same time take on with genuine interest the small things and multitude of details that shape the life of a child” (1885, p. 12). Among the subjects an educator should teach were “the biographies of the benefactors and perfecters of humanity, infinitely more worthy of being known and admired than the so-called great kings and great warriors, who in general have been nothing more than oppressors, sacrificing those whom they were obliged to protect and improve physically and morally” (García del Real, 1885, pp. 15–16).16 Unsurprisingly, García del Real also saw the profession of teaching in a similar light. Teaching was a noble, but in general disdained endeavor, she observed. “Let us aspire to perfection always, considering our mission as a sacred priesthood and not as a job or means to earn money” (1885, p. 20). She was not alone. The prolific Pilar Pascual de Sanjuán (1827–1899) thought a teacher’s influence extended well beyond the classroom to improving society.17 If we lift the cloak of convention and didacticism informing these texts, we can appreciate more fully how a teacher’s work was, for Pascual de Sanjuán and others, “transcendental,” requiring utter commitment and belief in their mission (Pascual de Sanjuán, 1864, pp. 6, 9). Like other educator-writers, she spoke directly to her colleagues, using her books to promote a personal teaching community of national consequence. Pascual de Sanjuán had something else in common with García del Real. Alongside intelligence, García del Real placed one other foundational quality as “equally worthy and important,” though far too often completely neglected, in teachers: sentiment. Education, García del Real wrote, was “essentially love.” For this reason, too, “the teacher must possess a profoundly delicate and cultivated feeling, capable of understanding and feeling beauty in all its manifestations, in real life or art, as in the moral universe” (1885, p.  17). But as Pascual de Sanjuán observed, a 16  Thus, Luciana Casilda Monreal highlighted the liberal heroine Mariana Pineda as an “example of civic virtue,” despite reservations about women’s involvement in politics (1892, pp. 57–59). 17  There were 22 titles by Pascual de Sanjuán, plus six duplicates, in Chicago.

5  “SPANISH LESSONS” 

85

sentimental education was also intended for students. This largely meant inculcating moral sentiments but did not preclude aesthetic appreciation. She found much schooling too rigid, with little unstructured time for students and teachers alike, and recommended creating gardens in schools and taking walks so that students could admire nature, artistic monuments, people at work in the countryside or in the city (1889, p. 9). Above all, she sought to animate the cultivated imagination, tempering exuberance with education (1889, p. 203). For this, Pascual de Sanjuán observed, teachers should remember what books they liked during that “delicious oasis in the desert of life” that is childhood. To write for children, “I need to identify with childhood, to see as a child sees, to feel as a child feels” (1864, pp. 8, 9). Just as Pascual de Sanjuán sought intimacy with childhood, another kind of relationship can be detected in the closeness these women established from one text to the next, speaking to one another as teachers and as women: a community that can only be suggested within the limitations of this chapter. Those ties were linked, in the end, to the teacher-student bond that all these women valued. The degree to which our own closeness to this collection within a larger one exists depends on us seeing it as a series of approximations, in which category closeness is joined to textual closeness. The visitors to the Woman’s Building Library only saw the display of books. Even for us the collection these women made has remained mostly invisible, their history, ideas, and lives having been first dispersed and then erased. But in reconstructing that history for the first time and reopening the pages of these books, we can begin to see what a remarkable enterprise of devotion and love these women imagined.

References Works

in the

Woman’s Building Library

Aleu y Riera, D. (1883). De la necesidad de encaminar por nueva senda la educación higiénico-moral de la mujer. Tesis de doctorado. Precedida de una carta del Dr. D.  Juan Giné y Partagás. Tipografía “La Academia” de Evaristo Ullastres. García del Real y Álvarez Mijares, M. (1885). Dos ensayos pedagógicos. “La educadora de la infancia.” “Observaciones sobre la educación moral del niño.” Imprenta de Álvarez Hermanos.

86 

N. VALIS

Monreal, L. C. (1892). La educación de las niñas por las biografías de españolas y americanas ilustres (4th ed.). Establecimiento Tipográfico de Susany y Compañía. Pascual de Sanjuán, P. (1864). Preceptos morales para la infancia (2nd ed.). Librería de Juan Bastinos e Hijo, Editores. Pascual de Sanjuán, P. (1889). La educación del sentimiento. Librería de Hernando/ Librería de Bastinos.

Other Works Cited Anon. (1893). La mujer española en la Exposición de Chicago. La Época (Madrid) 9 March: [3]. Armstrong, N., & Montag, W. (2017). The Figure in the Carpet. PMLA, 132(3), 613–619. Ballarín Domingo, P. (1999). Maestras, innovación y cambios. Arenal, 6(1), 81–110. Ballarín Domingo, P., Caballero, Á., Flecha, C., & Vico, M. (2000). Maestras y libros escolares. In A. Tiana (Ed.), El libro escolar, reflejo de intenciones políticas e influencias pedagógicas (pp. 341–376). UNED. Board of Lady Managers. (1894). Board of Lady Managers Papers, Vol. 17, Box 6.5, Chicago History Museum. Brown, C. G. (2006). Publicizing Domestic Piety: The Cultural Work of Religious Texts in the Woman’s Building Library. Libraries and Culture, 41(1), 35–54. Capel Martínez, R.  M. (1986). La apertura del horizonte cultural femenino: Fernando de Castro y los Congresos Pedagógicos del siglo XIX.  In Mujer y sociedad en España (1700–1975) (2nd ed., pp. 109–145). Ministerio de Cultura, Instituto de la Mujer. Catálogo de la Sección Española, publicado por la Comisión General de España. (1893). Imprenta de Ricardo Rojas. Clarke, E. E., comp. (1893). List of Books Sent by Home and Foreign Committees to the Library of the Woman’s Building. World’s Columbian Exposition. Criado y Domínguez, J. P. (1889). Literatas españolas del siglo XIX: Apuntes bibliográficos. Imprenta de Antonio Pérez Dubrull. Cuarto Centenario del Descubrimiento de América: Congreso Pedagógico Hispano-Portugués-Americano. (1894). Librería de la Viuda de Hernando y Compañía. de Alcalá, C. (1894). Women in Spain for the Last Four Hundred Years. In M.  W. Sewall (Ed.), The World’s Congress of Representative Women (Vol. 2, pp. 644–649). Rand, McNally and Company. Elliott, M. H. (1894). The Library. In M. H. Elliott (Ed.), Art and Handicraft in the Woman’s Building of the World’s Columbian Exposition. Chicago, 1893 (pp. 133–137). Rand, McNally and Company.

5  “SPANISH LESSONS” 

87

Exposición Universal. (1893). Chicago, ARB/21, CARP/3, doc. 82-86, Real Biblioteca del Palacio Real, Madrid. García López, A. (1893). La mujer española en la Exposición de Chicago. La Época (Madrid) 27 February: [1–2]. Handy, M.  P. (Ed.). (1893). Official Catalogue: World’s Columbian Exposition. Part XIV: Woman’s Building. W.B. Conkey Company. Jagoe, C. (1998). III.  La enseñanza femenina en la España decimonónica. In C. Jagoe, A. Blanco, & C. E. de Salamanca (Eds.), La mujer en los discursos de género: Textos y contextos en el siglo XIX (pp. 105–145). Icaria. Mallada, L. (1994). Los males de la patria y la futura revolución española (F. J. Flores Arroyuelo, Ed.). Alianza. Moretti, F. (2013). Distant Reading. Verso. Palmer, B. P. (1894). Addresses and Reports of Mrs. Potter Palmer. Rand, McNally and Company. Pardo Bazán, E. (1893a). La mujer española en la Exposición de Chicago. La Vanguardia (Barcelona) 10 February: 3. (Orig. El Imparcial [Madrid], 8 February 1893). Pardo Bazán, E. (1893b). Carta de Emilia Pardo Bazán. El Liberal (Madrid) 30 March: [2]. Pardo Bazán, E. (1981). La Exposición de Trabajos de la Mujer. In L.  Schiavo (Ed.), La mujer española (pp. 163–172). Editora Nacional. Relación de los expositores españoles premiados en la Exposición Universal de Chicago de 1893, publicada por la Comisión General de España. (1894) Imprenta de Ricardo Rojas. Relación de los expositores de las islas de Cuba, Puerto Rico y Filipinas premiados en las Exposiciones Universales de París de 1889 y Chicago de 1893, publicada por la Comisión General Permanente de Exposiciones. (1898) Imprenta de Ricardo Rojas. Reparaz, G. (1893). Nuestros grabados. La Ilustración Española y Americana, 15 March, p. 163. Sánchez Llama, Í. (2000). Galería de escritoras isabelinas: La prensa periódica entre 1833 y 1895. Cátedra. Scanlon, G. M. (1982). Revolución burguesa e instrucción femenina. In Nuevas perspectivas sobre la mujer: Actas de las Primeras Jornadas de Investigación Interdisciplinaria (Vol. 1, pp. 163–173). Seminario de Estudios de la Mujer, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid. Simón Palmer, M. del C. (1991). Escritoras españolas del siglo XIX: Manual bio-­ bibliográfico. Castalia. Sorby, A. (2006). Symmetrical Womanhood: Poetry in the Woman’s Building Library. Libraries and Culture, 41(1), 5–34. Valis, N. (2000–2001). Women’s Culture in 1893: Spanish Nationalism and the Chicago World’s Fair. Letras Peninsulares, 13(2–3), 633–664.

88 

N. VALIS

Wadsworth, S., & Weigand, W. A. (2012). Right Here I See My Own Books: The Woman’s Building Library at the World’s Columbian Exposition. University of Massachusetts Press. Weimann, J. M. (1981). The Fair Women. Introduction by Anita Miller. Academy Chicago. Wilhelmi de Dávila, B. (1891). La primera colonia escolar granadina. Granada. Wilhelmi de Dávila, B. (1893). Aptitud de la mujer para todas las profesiones. Fortanet.

PART II

Gender and Modernism

CHAPTER 6

Central European Collections: The Periphery Challenging the Center Marija Dalbello

To name one’s archive is a perilous matter; it can suggest that these texts “belong” together, and that the belonging is a mark of one’s own presence. What I offer is a model of the archive not as the conversion of self into a textual gathering, but as a “contact zone.” (Ahmed, 2015, p. 14)

Several textual gatherings represented Central European women’s writing in the “contact zone” of the 1893 Chicago exhibition and the Woman’s Building Library. They included the Austrian, Bohemian, and Polish alongside a sizeable German collection. Bohemia and Poland contributed the only Slavic collections, with Bohemia’s representing a striking 10 percent in the overall number of titles sent by the international women’s

M. Dalbello (*) School of Communication and Information, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, New Brunswick, NJ, USA e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 M. Dalbello, S. Wadsworth (eds.), Global Voices from the Women’s Library at the World’s Columbian Exposition, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-42490-8_6

91

92 

M. DALBELLO

committees. According to the Library’s official catalogue, there were 23 Austrian, 280 Bohemian, and 1 Polish title (Clarke, 1893, pp.  55–59, 84).1 The Austrian and Bohemian contributions were from the Habsburg monarchy, then the largest political formation in Europe. That multicultural empire of 30 million people speaking 20 languages was characterized by ethnic and religious diversity, multilingualism, and fluid identities. The empire was “pervaded by crisis” of fragmented identities but stabilized through dynastic fictions and the unifying figure of Emperor Franz Josef.2 The self-invention among Czechs, Slovaks, and Moravians who pursued national revivalist movements in the Northeast—like Croatians’ Illyrian idea in the Southeast—relied on the Herderian notion of a nonpolitical nation identified by a national language, a tendency that threatened to fragment the empire.3 However, the national strife and conflict of nationalities “raged most intensely in Bohemia” (Johnston, 2000, p. 265). The two collections from the Habsburg monarchy epitomized the tensions of the empire’s German and Slavic realms. They also documented the transformations of gender and its cultural history, and inscriptions of female modernisms (Schwartz & Thorson, 2010, p. 28). The two national collections held contrary aspirations: of an imperial cosmopolitanism in the case of Austria; and of secessionist nationalism in Bohemia’s case. The collections were shaped by the forces of the center-periphery dynamics. They refracted the multiple peripheralities of inside and outside, and of the dominant and subaltern, creating the space in which these distinct female modernisms intersected. The narrative of transcending division and “peaceful spatial co-existence” at the Fair made it possible for “overlapping cultural structures” to exist simultaneously (Boussabha-Bravard & Rogers, 2017, p. 1; Mitterbauer, 2017, p. 8). In the Woman’s Building Library, the “peaceful spatial co-existence” of the competing Bohemian and Austrian displays was ensured—at least for the duration of the Fair.

1  Maria Lasocka’s (1851–1904) epistolary collection Wspomnenia rodzine (“Family memories” 1892) in Polish, French, and Italian, with a Geneva imprint, represented Poland. 2  This atmosphere in the realm of attitudes and values, aesthetics, and material culture has been widely documented by cultural historians (Mitterbauer & Smith-Prei, 2017; Dalbello, 2002, p. 68, 2005; Morton, 1979; Schorske, 1981). 3  Among the historians who addressed this aspect of nationality and the empire were Robert Okey (1986, pp. 82–83) and Godfried van Benthem van den Bergh (2018).

6  CENTRAL EUROPEAN COLLECTIONS: THE PERIPHERY CHALLENGING… 

93

The Creation of the Austrian and Bohemian Collections In 1891, the women’s magazine “Neuzeit” (“New Age”), edited by Marianne Nigg and F.M. Wendt, announced the formation of special committees for the World Congress and informed its readers about the exhibition being dedicated to “women’s work” (“Frauenarbeit”).4 A later issue featured an announcement of the Woman’s Building (“Frauen-­ Gebäude”) and the formation of women’s organizing committees (“Frauencommissionen”) from different countries.5 These transnational networks were forged through personal and social connections, women’s congresses, and salons and featured important “transmitters” of information such as the president of the Board of Lady Managers (henceforth, BLM), Bertha Palmer (Mitterbauer, 2017, p.  8). Palmer was invited to speak in Paris on behalf of the BLM on the “policy on exhibits for the Woman’s Building” at the upcoming World’s Fair. Her Paris visit resulted in the formation of a French women’s board in 1892 charged with collecting of exhibits for the Exposition (Weimann, 1981, pp.  108–109). Afterward, Palmer made a two-week trip to Vienna to visit her sister Ida, whose husband, Frederick Grant, was the American ambassador there. Her reception in Vienna was “cooler than it had been in Paris,” and she was “informed by a government official that Austrian women were conservative and would attend only to their social duties” (Weimann, 1981, p.  109). Yet she was able to meet with the Princesses Metternich and Windisgratz, two aristocrats interested “in the promotion of peasant arts and crafts” who had “opened a salesroom in Vienna for peasant crafts— rugs, basketry” and were “eager to send these things to Chicago and open new markets” (ibid.). They persuaded Archduchess Marie Therese of Austria to chair the Imperial Ladies Commission of Austria. She served as one of five Foreign Lady Commissioners (Howe Elliott, 1893, p.  9). Palmer’s report to the BLM in October 1892 sums up the visit: The difficulties in our way in Austria seemed insurmountable, and I have until a very recent time been very doubtful about the success of the strenuous efforts made there, on our behalf, by our Minister and his wife, as well 4  The item was carried in the issue of 10 November 1891: 244–245. This monthly magazine continued the Lehrerinnen-Wart, a monthly dedicated to the interests of female teachers. 5  The announcement appeared on 10 January 1892: 9–10.

94 

M. DALBELLO

as myself. I have recently had the pleasure of receiving a cable informing me of the appointment of a strong committee of women ... This is the more gratifying, as Austria is one of the most conservative strongholds of Europe. (Weimann, 1981, pp. 137–138)

The secessionist narrative represented by the Bohemian women’s collection in the Woman’s Library—in which peripherality, gender, and class intersected—was the work of émigrés from the Habsburg Empire bolstered by the international women’s network and cooperation of the BLM through the World’s Congress of Representative Women. The Congress was convened in Chicago 15–22 May 1893, beginning two weeks after the opening of the Fair on 1 May. The Bohemian delegate Josefa Humpal Zeman was at the Congress by request of the “leading newspaper men of Bohemia to keep this Congress before the eyes of our women”; the other delegate, Karla Machova, addressed the “wretched condition” of industrial women laborers (Sewall, 1893, pp. 28–29, 562).6 Humpal Zeman’s patriotically intoned speech, “The Women of Bohemia,” addressed the Bohemian collection: The Bohemian women exhibited and donated to the Woman’s Building three hundred and twenty books, all original, not one translated, written exclusively by women. This is a good showing, when we remember that the nation is continually in a fierce struggle for self-preservation; that until recently no avenues of higher education were opened to women, and that the nation is comparatively small, of only five million inhabitants. The German women had only five hundred copies, and the French women only seven hundred. But not only do the Bohemian women write poetry, novels, and drama; they have made very successful attempts in scientific and educational literature, some having written well in history, hygiene, physiology, geology, travels, and as art critics. There is one remarkable fact which I wish to note in closing, and that is that all the students of the University of Prague are very friendly to the attempts made by women pleading for admission. The women of Bohemia have done this work quietly; they are pressing toward the same mark to which the women of the whole civilized world are directing their desires and ambitions; but whatever they do, for whatever they may long, they never forget their obligation to the nation, and are first patriots and then women. (Humpal Zeman, 1893, p. 129)

6  Humpal Zeman (Josefa Humpalová-Zemanová in Czech) (1870–1906) was an immigrant and transatlantic feminist activist.

6  CENTRAL EUROPEAN COLLECTIONS: THE PERIPHERY CHALLENGING… 

95

At the conclusion of the Fair, the Library Committee Chair, Mary Lockwood, reported that “Bohemia has made us a present of its 307 books.”7 These sources diverge in the exact number of donated books. The Bohemian Voice, an English-language immigrant newspaper based in Omaha, Nebraska, mentions the Bohemian display of embroidery and books in the woman’s pavilion and the Bohemian Day in the contribution “Č eský den-Bohemian Day”: Yonder in the woman’s building we find a modest but remarkable collection of popular Bohemian embroidery, donated by Mrs. Náprstek of Prague to the city of Chicago, which speaks highly of the native artistic spirit of the common women of Bohemia and Moravia. In the same building we find a collection of 300 volumes of books written by Bohemian women, a brilliant testimonial of the intellectual activity and progress of the women of that nation, only recently awakened from a death-like stupor of nearly 200 years, during which period the Bohemians were not even permitted to cultivate their language and literature. (1 September 1893: 3–7; 5)

The involvement of Bohemian-Americans in the Woman’s Building Library marks it as a contact zone for women’s and national emancipation. The article, “Bohemia at the World’s Fair,” resonates with the desire for marking presence and differentiation: “In vain would an impatient visitor to the fair search the pages of any of the official catalogues for the title ‘Bohemia’ ... Non est, that is the verdict pronounced upon Bohemia both by the Austrian government and the Fair authorities” (Král, 1893, p. 12). The invisibility of Bohemia in the Habsburg Monarchy (Schwartz & Thorson, 2017, p. 29) was due to oppressive actions of the Austrian government, including the following: preventing “Bohemians from throwing off the Austrian disguise” and having an “independent Bohemian building at the fair grounds—for the world might learn that Bohemia possesses her own culture and is entitled to the first place among the nations of Austria”; Bohemia being “robbed of political independence and now form[ing] a part of that disjointed country known as the Austro-Hungarian monarchy”; and the appropriation of its industrial heritage at the “respective Austrian sections at the Fair” that were “readily credited by the visitor to an imaginary ‘Austrian’ nationality” (Král, 1893, pp.  12–13). A strong exception was the Woman’s Building, where women of Bohemia gained a prominent place, which was explained to the readers of The Bohemian Voice in these words: 7

 Source: Report of 21 July 1893 (5) as quoted in Wadsworth and Wiegand (2012, p. 52).

96 

M. DALBELLO

Bohemian women, who are certainly more progressive than their sisters in Austria or Germany have appealed to the Board of Lady Managers for separate space in the Austrian section of the Women’s Building [sic]; the request was granted in Chicago, but refused in Vienna, they declined to place their exhibits under the Austrian flag and decided to send only a few characteristic exhibits to Chicago. In order to secure them an independent position, they have donated their exhibits to Mrs. Bertha H. Palmer in trust for a women’s museum to be erected in Chicago. Bohemian peasant women have sent two hundred pieces of embroidery of exquisite designs with motives [sic] taken from nature’s realms, the school of nature being their only educator. These embroideries are exhibited in the north-east corner of the Gallery of Honor, in cases numbered eleven and fourteen. On the other hand, Bohemian women writers exhibit three hundred and seven volumes of literary works, including novels, books on the art of cooking, education, physical training, history, hygiene, journals, a book of travels, and several musical compositions. This is a very creditable showing. The men of Bohemia have not been as fortunate as their sisters, for the former are obliged to pose as ‘Austrians’—a term wholly unknown to ethnology. (Král, 1893, p. 13)

The Woman’s Building held exceptional political significance for women’s emancipation and for “gendering of competing Habsburgian presences” in two separate displays (Ingram, 2010). The crowds of visitors could witness the Bohemian-Austrian rivalry at the Fair through the separate festivities of their national days. The description in the Chicago Tribune referred to the “lusty” two-hour procession of the Bohemian Day, commented on the spotting of the “ensigns of Austria” (13 August 1893, p. 2), and boasted how the Austrian Day “paled into utter insignificance before Bohemia’s great day” (21 October 1893, p. 1). The Bohemian Voice (1 September 1893) reported that among those “prominently associated with the success of the Bohemian Day at the World’s Fair on August 12, 1893” was Antonín Dvořák and that the Bohemian women of Chicago were represented by Barbara Pitte (Fig. 6.1).8 The Bohemian Voice informed the Bohemian-American audience of ongoing events and the “Old Vienna” (Alt Wien) attraction erected in the Midway Plaisance to represent the 60 buildings of the principal street in Vienna of a century before (1 May 1893: 14). In the Viennese daily press, 8  Dvořák, then director of the National Conservatory of America, composed his New World Symphony (No. 9) in 1893. For illustration, cf. The Czech and Slovak American Genealogical Society of Illinois (CSAGSI).

6  CENTRAL EUROPEAN COLLECTIONS: THE PERIPHERY CHALLENGING… 

Fig. 6.1  The Bohemian Voice, 1 September 1893, 2(1)

97

98 

M. DALBELLO

shipping companies were advertising trips to Chicago.9 The Wiener Abendpost (Nr. 189 Beilage zur Wiener Zeitung) (19 August 1893, p. 4) reported on the participation on Austria Day of the Austro-Hungarian colony of Chicago, who were greeted by General commissar Palitschek von Palmforst in the Industrial Building (emphasizing his Bohemian background). Framing the exhibition were the official publications for German-­ speaking audiences. These were exemplified by Unsere Weltausstellung (“Our World Exhibition”), which reproduced photographs of the “women’s palace” (“Frauenpalast”) exterior, interiors, displays of women’s arts, and the speakers’ platform (1894, pp.  74, 78–79, 551, 554); “Old Vienna”; and an imperial collective exhibit of Austrian inventions, including “the Austrian” Nikola Tesla’s display of alternating current (ibid., pp. 96, 337–351, 429, 440). That official narrative emphasized the shared, “our,” world exhibition—contrary to objections in the American Bohemian media, which considered the Austrian display to be appropriative.

Authors The Austrian collection of 17 authors and the Bohemian collection of 68 authors reflected the process by which they were assembled: the Austrian by imperial sponsorship and the Bohemian by its grassroots character and solidarity through which the Exposition’s organizers enabled its women’s presence and visibility.10 These two groups and the two collections could thus be interpreted as forming a textual community in the contact zone of contemporary women’s movements.11 Identifying patterns of individual authors’ productivity and situating them in the historical context reveals generational and center-periphery dimensions of the two collections. Most of the Bohemian authors were represented by one or two titles and five women authors by ten or more documents. A small group of authors was responsible for 47 percent of all displayed works. These core  One appeared in Neues Wiener Tagblatt, 19 August 1893, p. 10.  Of the 69 authors, 68 were women, 1 with a male co-author for one work. Additionally, four undifferentiated works were by anonymous authors or collective works. 11  The authors’ bio-bibliographic profiles, dates of first editions, alternative names, and participation in women’s networks were inferred from WorldCat Identities, Wikidata, Österreichische National Bibliothek’s Ariadne project, “Frauen in Bewegung 1848–1938,” Literarische Landkarte der deutschmährischen Autoren, Gerritsen Women’s History Collection of Aletta H. Jacobs, the Transdifferenz project, and Marianne Nigg’s Austrian women writers’ biographies (1893). 9

10

6  CENTRAL EUROPEAN COLLECTIONS: THE PERIPHERY CHALLENGING… 

99

authors included: Sofie Podlipská (1833–1897); Alzbeta Pechová (Eliška Krásnohorská) (1847–1926); Věnceslava Lužická (Anna Srbová) (1835–1920); Karolina Světlá (1830–1899); and Božena Němcová (Barbara Pankel) (1820–1862). Nearly half of the Austrian collection (10 out of 23 documents) consisted of works by the following four authors: Amalie Thilo (b. 1830);12 Thusnelde Vortmann-Sienkiewicz (1846–1912);13 Marie Knitschke (1857–1940);14 and Paul Marie Lacroma (Marie von Egger-Schmitzhausen) (1852–1929). Table  6.1 shows the author and document ratios based on Clarke’s List (1893) and authors that represented the core nodes of each group’s “textual gathering” (Ahmed, 2015, p. 14). The Austrian authors “E., A.,” Elfriede Jaksch (b. 1849), Knitschke, Lacroma, and Irma von Troll-Borostyáni (1847–1912) were also included in the German collection. There is no overlap between the Bohemian and Austrian authors. Bohemian Authors In her address at the Congress of Women in May 1893, Bohemian-­ American activist Humpal Zeman surveys a feminist history of Bohemia and the female figures of its past golden ages (1893, pp. 127–130). Her women include the “laboring class of women,” middle-class women, and foreign nobility. They all figure in the ideology that defines women’s contributions as an evolving activation of the nation, at the core of which were language and literacy. She compares Bohemian women to “violets that blossom in the bosom of our forests” and notes that the women of Bohemia live “hidden within the sacred walls of their homes,” “doing their work quietly”; consequently, “the ‘old embroideries’ prove the high artistic talents of women, for the designs are all made by women copying the creations of nature in their beautiful embroidering” (ibid., pp. 127, 128, 129). The floral analogy in the image of the quiet work of women resonates with the Woman’s Building’s setting and establishes a genealogy for the nineteenth-century ideology of national awakening: 12  Wikidata, s.v.; Blumesberger (2002, p. 1379, section 10612); She was a member of the Verein der Schriftstellerinnen und Künstlerinnen Wien (est. 1885) (Nigg 1893, pp.  55, 136). For an article in Dutch on Thilo, who was known internationally, see Hirsch in Gerritsen Women’s History Collection of Aletta H. Jacobs. 13  Transdifferenz, s.v. 14  Literarische Landkarte, s.v.; WorldCat Identities, s.v.

100 

M. DALBELLO

Table 6.1  Authors and documents Bohemian collection Documents Authors (N = 69) (N = 280) Over 40 Podlipská (45) 30–40 Krásnohorská (Pechová; including Krásnohorská and Dvorskýb) (35) 20–30 Lužická (28) 10–20 Světlá (13), Němcová (12) 9 Č ervinková-Riegrová (9) 8 Jesenská (8) 7 Preissová (7), Studničkova (7), Viková-Kunetická (7) 6 Geisslova (6), Hanušová (Kleméña) (6) 5 Dumková (5), Klimšová (5), Novákova (5), Sokolova, V. (5) 4 Hansgirgová (4), Muehlsteinova (4), Procházková (4) Anonymous/Collective works (4) 3 Ledvinková (3), Rettigová (3) 2 Antonie, M. (Pedálova) (2), Hartmanová (2), Kramattová (2), Náchodská (2), Perwolfová (2), Pešková (2), Ružičková (2), Stránecká (Kerschnerová) (2), Triwaldová (2), Tichá (Němcová-Tichá; including Valtrová and Tichá (2) 1 Baštová-Stejskalová (1), Č acká (Pichlová) (1), Č adová (1), Č ervinková z Harasová (1), Duchacká and Taubenek (1), Dvoráková-Mráčková (1), Emingerová (1), Fantová (1), Fryšová (1), Gintlová (1), Grossmannová-Brodská (1), Havelková (1), Homutovná z Cimburka (1), Hrdina (1), Huebnerová (1), Jelenová (1), Kecková (1), Krátka (1), Lužanská (1), Malá (1), Melišová-Körschnnerová (1), Myslíkovná z Chudénic (1), Pittnerová (1), Podhajská (1), Prokšová (1), Reháková (1), Rudová-Machotková (1), Schieblová-Vavrová (1), Šimáčková (1), Skuherská (1), Sojková (1), Sokolavá, B. (1), Tesarová (1), Wanklová (1), Wisniowskych Zapové, z (1) Austrian collection Documents Authors (N = 17) (N = 23) 3 Thilo (3), Vortmann (3) 2 Knitschke (2), Lacroma (Egger-Schmitzhausen) (2) 1 E., A. (1), von Fritsch (1), von Gerold (1), Godei (1), Grünwald-Zerkowitz (1), Igar, Schack von (pseud of Jaksch) (1), Kwaysser (1), Nigg, ed. (1), Prato, K. pseud. tr. (1), Prockesch (1), Themer (1), Troll-Borostyáni (1), Wiechovsky (1)

Percent (Authors)a 8.7

10.1

5.8 4.6 2.9 16

52.2

Percent (Authors) 26 17 57

Four undifferentiated works by anonymous or collective works were not calculated in author percentages Harantova žena by Eliška Krásnohorská and František Ivan Dvorský (1881)

a

b

6  CENTRAL EUROPEAN COLLECTIONS: THE PERIPHERY CHALLENGING… 

101

It is however this century that best unveils to us the hearts of our women. Standing by the side of our poets, they went from village to village, from house to house, awakening the people to new life and new courage, carrying with them literature, and teaching the peasants how to read and write. This is the time that Mme. Bozena Nemcova [sic] formed her little salon, and, like Madame de Staël, gathered about her the best sons of Bohemia, inspiring, helping and teaching them. She was the “good star” of the brave men who tried to resurrect the nation from a death of more than two centuries. (ibid., p. 128)

Humpal Zeman identifies Božena Němcová and two contemporaries, Světlá and Pechová, as key reformers. These women were all also the core authors in the Bohemian display. Němcová, sometimes referred to by the descriptive title the “Slavic Grimm,” was born in Vienna as Barbara Pankel. Her adoption of a Slavicized name signaled an association with the Czech national revival and pre-1870s era. Her 2 novels and 10 works of legends and fairy tales were published posthumously, and, while discrepant with the overall generational pattern that favored contemporary authors in the Woman’s Building Library, she had become an established canonical figure by 1893.15 Světlá and Pechová were activists in women’s emancipation. Both were involved with the Prague-based American Ladies’ Club (Amerikanischer Klub der Damen or Americký klub dam). The club was cofounded in 1865 by Světlá (who also chaired it), Anna Náprstkova (1788–1874), and her son Vojtěch Náprstek (1826–1894), who emigrated to the United States after the revolution of 1848 (Frýdková, 1994; Křápková, 2007).16 Němcová was also part of the Náprstkova circle. The Club’s members included Pechová, Lužická, and Podlipská, all of whom were represented by the highest number of documents in the Bohemian collection. The Bohemian embroideries “donated by Mrs. Náprstek of Prague to the city of Chicago” (The Bohemian Voice, 1 September 1893, p. 5) indicate further associations between the American Ladies’ Club and the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair. Pechová was a poet, singer, editor of Woman’s Journal (Ženské listy), librettist, translator, and author of works on women’s emancipation 15  WorldCat lists over 1340 works by and about Němcová. Her Czech and Slovak short stories, legends, and fairy tales and a novel  Babička (“The Grandmother”  1855) are still popular and widely translated. 16  Ariadne project “Frauen in Bewegung,” s.v.

102 

M. DALBELLO

(Humpal Zeman, 1893, p. 129). Pechová’s, or Henriette Pech’s adopted name, was Eliška Krásnohorská. A single entry to “Ženské listy redace Krásnohorské, 1875-92” is found in the Bohemian section of Clarke’s List (1893, p. 59). Pechová (Krásnohorská) founded the women’s secondary school and “Minerva” society in Prague with Podlipská, who was Světlá’s sister and another prolific author. Lužická was a member of women’s associations, wrote for Czech magazines for women, and was engaged with reform of female education and crafts. At a time when religion and patriarchal morality limited women’s emancipation, the American Ladies Club’s members brought together freethinkers, Catholics, and Protestants of two generations of reformers oriented toward national and women’s emancipation in the Habsburg Empire. Their adopted Slavicized names were often folkloric, etymological, or descriptively evocative of natural phenomena. This form of idiosyncratic self-invention emphasized an imagined common Slavic culture while embracing a peripheral “foreignness” by contrast with German names. The practice recreated and reorganized cultural space. As citizens of the Habsburg Empire speaking Slavic languages, they were responding to an intensified Magyarization or Germanization following the establishment of the Dual Monarchy of Austria-Hungary (1867–1918) (Johnston, 2000, p. 265). Austrian Authors Unlike the Bohemian collection, which reflected personal ties among its core authors, the Austrian collection does not lend itself to such a reading. Yet, the Austrians belonged to an identifiable class of German-language women writers embedded in the structures of power through wealth and kinship from across the Habsburg realm. Nigg’s Biographien der österreichischen Dichterinnen und Schriftstellerinnen (“Biographies of Austrian Women Poets and Writers”) was dedicated to Palmer and all the women’s committees of the World Fair in Chicago (Fig. 6.2). The volume offers extensive information for all but two authors from the Austrian display but none from the Bohemian (1893). Detailed, chatty, and personal, the biographies might have been solicited directly from Nigg’s subjects—as if she interviewed or corresponded with them.17 She 17  Based on unedited residual phrasing “Ich bin ...” (“I am ...”) in the first person in one entry (Nigg, 1893, p. 50).

6  CENTRAL EUROPEAN COLLECTIONS: THE PERIPHERY CHALLENGING… 

103

Fig. 6.2  (a, b) Cover and dedication from Marianne Nigg’s, Biographien der österreichischen Dichterinnen und Schriftstellerinnen (“Biographies of Austrian Women Poets and Writers” 1893)

104 

M. DALBELLO

Fig. 6.2  (continued)

introduced Marie Lacroma (Marie von Egger-Schmitzhausen) as “La Donna Italiana,” a German-writing Italian (“deutschscreibenden Italierin”), focusing on her fame, lifestyle, writings, and the pseudonym “Lacroma” (1893, p.  19), a name taken from the island of Lokrum across from

6  CENTRAL EUROPEAN COLLECTIONS: THE PERIPHERY CHALLENGING… 

105

Dubrovnik in Croatia.18 In her own biographical entry, Nigg details her education and how she compiled the almanac dedicated to the imperial jubilee (Jubiläums Almanach) (1879). The almanac was included in the Austrian collection. The canonical authors represented by multiple works in the Austrian selection—Thilo, Vortmann-Sienkiewicz, Knitschke, and Lacroma— belonged to the Habsburg monarchy’s elites, whose idea of citizenship and cultural habits connected the wealthy middle class and nobility. Thilo was a teacher and writer born in Gliwice (Gleiwitz, in Upper Silesia in today’s Poland); she was director of the women’s lyceum in Wroclaw (Breslau), which was known in the German-speaking and wider networks of women’s movements in the 1870s in Central and Western Europe. Her pedagogical writings were included in the Austrian selection. Vortmann-­ Sienkiewicz, who was born in Trieste and resided in Lviv, Graz, Moscow, and Merano (Italy), was represented by a book of poems, a humorous drama, and the story of Thusnelde. Knitschke, a German-speaking Moravian from Šumperk (Mährisch Schönberg) in today’s Czechia, was represented by a humorous play and a book of mixed genres titled Erlebtes und Erdachtes (“Experienced and Imagined”,  1892). Despite shared advocacy of access to higher education, special education, and moral education for women (“Frauenbildung”), these women writers resided in parallel networks. Wilhelmine Wiechowsky (1834–1925) was born in Prague and known for writing a history of women’s movements in Prague (Wiechowsky, 1899). She was one of the authors included in the Austrian collection with a volume of English translations and adaptations of short stories (Wiechowsky, 1879) prepared for the German Pedagogical Society in Prague (Deutschen pädagogischen Vereine), which she co-founded.19 The representation of a generation of reformers and middle-class women educators of a Central European circle was typical of the “pervasive habitus of the educated and transnationally active members of the intellectual bourgeoisie (Bildungsbürger)” (Mitterbauer & Smith-Prei, 2017, p. ix). Through relocation and travel, they resided in and traversed different parts of the monarchy—Trieste, Zagreb (Agram) and Opatija (Abbazia) in Croatia, Brno (Brünn) in Moravia, Hermannstadt in Siebenbürgen, and Ljubljana (Laibach) in Slovenia, as well as Prague or 18  Nigg states that she chose the pseudonym to honor Archduke Maximilian, later Emperor of Mexico (1893, p. 19), who bought the island in the second half of the nineteenth century. 19  Ariadne project “Frauen in Bewegung,” s.v.; Blumesberger (2002), s.v.

106 

M. DALBELLO

Pressburg. Their concept of Bildung (“cultivation”) was based on cosmopolitanism (Mitterbauer, 2017, p.  6), and they advocated for access to higher education and moral education for women through special programs in the general education system and philanthropy.

Content and Themes of the Collections Tables 6.2 (Bohemian) and 6.3 (Austrian) provide an analysis of the content of the collections. The sampling of 56 percent (158 out of 280 total) of the documents in the Bohemian collection for which content could be classified in terms of subcategories and translations of works appears in Table 6.2. All documents in the Austrian collection were assigned to subcategories and appear in Table 6.3. Nonfiction, comprising cookbooks, child-rearing manuals, and books relating to textiles, was the largest category (37 percent) in the Bohemian collection. Folklore (15 percent) was also particularly strong. The selection reveals that the Bohemian identity was rooted in an emancipatory discourse of revival, collecting, and storytelling, and the role of women as carriers of tradition is consistent with the emphasis on domesticity and motherhood, as represented by specimen books with instructions for knitting, lace making, and sewing. Other categories reveal this generation of reformers’ focus on pedagogy and instruction—consistent themes across the two collections. By contrast, literary fiction, short stories, and poetry were dominant themes of the elite cosmopolitan women’s writing in the Austrian selection (shown in Table 6.3). The two national collections, with their contrary aspirations of an imperial cosmopolitanism in the Austrian case, and of secessionist nationalism in the Bohemian, were coded spaces. The labyrinths of lace and needlework defined the visual spectacle in the Woman’s Building. Consistent with an overall ideology of the Woman’s Building that was backward-­looking in its “emphasis on private philanthropy,” the “lace and embroidery [were] exercises in nostalgia” (Miller; in Weimann, 1981, p. viii). The links to peasant arts were intentional. Of the photographs in the official catalogue of the arts and crafts in the Woman’s Building (Howe Elliott, 1893), nearly half (104 out of 259) showed textile crafts. Decorative and ornamental aesthetics were emblematic of the aspirations of the women who organized the exhibits in the woman’s pavilion, and textiles were primarily understood as women’s “design labor” and the conventional expression of an inherently female subtle decorative sense, expressing domesticity. We may connect the

6  CENTRAL EUROPEAN COLLECTIONS: THE PERIPHERY CHALLENGING… 

107

Table 6.2  Types of works, Bohemian collection Bohemian collection Types of works Nonfiction Cookbooks (14)

Child-rearing manuals (including orphan care), instructions for mothers (12) Embroidery, knitting, lace, sewing, specimen books, patterns (9)

Physical exercise (5) Schoolbooks (4) Instructional manuals for household, etiquette (4) Lectures, philosophical treatises (3) Women’s rights, education (3) Conversation guides (1) Games to play, exercises (1) Medical treatise (1) Reports (1) Literary texts Stories (fiction) (20) Poetry (11) Authors’ collected works (5)

Titles (N = 158)

Percent 37

Domestic cooking—lectures, 1885–1891; Czech cookbook; Poultry; 586 meals / dishes with eggs; Fruits; Food and drink for patients; Quick cookbook’ Home cookbook. Ed. 2, 14; Treatise on veal; Prague Cookbook by Karolina Vavrova; Czech national cookbook; Practical Czech cookbook for every household School for mothers; On the functioning of the mother in the family; Guardianship of poor and abandoned youth; Outline for the development of childcare; Healthy children; Foundlings in Bohemia; Instructions for well-behaved little children Patterns of embroidery of Slavic people in Moravia; Moravian ornaments; National embroideries of Moravians; Moravian-style embroidery; Patterns of knitted stars, inserts and lace; Patterns for knitting (gridded, nets, braids); Specimens Moravian-Slovak, printed from drawings …; Our sewing Everyday exercises; Gymnastics for children; Gymnastics for girls; Gymnastics at home; Floor exercises Orthography for normal schools; Learn!; History Guide for girls as future housewives; Domestic housekeeper; Housekeeper of our times; Guide for girls as future housewives Two popular lectures; On human misery Matrix of schools and citizenship; Czech women’s issues; Girl’s struggle in Bohemia Conversations in French Games with Mice [?] On Strumabronchotomy Committee of charitable ladies in Prostejov 29 Various titles Various titles Various titles (continued)

108 

M. DALBELLO

Table 6.2 (continued) Bohemian collection Song books and nursery-rhymes (4) Novels (3) Plays (includes puppetry) (3) Verse (2) Humoresque (1) Translation (1) Folklore Fairy tales (16) Folktales, proverbs, legends, fables (8) Biography and serials Biographies, autobiographies (memoirs), collective biographies (9) Almanacs (2) Women’s and girls’ magazines (7) Music Opera (librettos) (8)

Singing for nursing homes and kindergartens; Fifty songs for nursing homes; Christmas songs and carols Various titles Various titles Various titles Humoresque Lord Byron’s Childe Harold 15 Various titles (some tales by Brothers Grimm) Turnovske tales; The pearls of Czech storytelling; Tall tales and legends 14 Writings of a Czech noblewoman from mid-seventeenth century; Marie Riegrova, her life and works; Biography of Bernard Bolzano, Czech mathematician; Auto-­ biography of Frantisek Palachek; On the road of life; Biography of Božena Němcová Almanac for Czech women and girls; Consonance, almanac Various titles 5 Various titles

Note: “Various titles” is used whenever the translation of specific titles was omitted. All translations in this table are my own.

activities of writing featured in the Library with needlework, the hybrid arts within the woman’s sphere. Alice C. Morse emphasizes women’s “remarkable faculty for designing” when she discussed the design of book-covers for then-popular “railroad novels” as offering expression in “some tangible form” (Morse; in Howe Elliott, 1893, p.  75). Different modalities of design labor are exemplified by upper-class women’s sensibilities through their promotion of peasant arts. The Austrian peasant handicrafts found in the displays were “brought to the market” by the aristocratic women whom Bertha Palmer met in Vienna (Weimann, 1981, p. 109). Their design labor lay in knowing how to commodify and commercialize peasant arts. The donation of “a modest but remarkable collection of popular Bohemian embroidery” by Mrs. Náprstek, “which speaks highly of the native artistic spirit of the common

6  CENTRAL EUROPEAN COLLECTIONS: THE PERIPHERY CHALLENGING… 

109

Table 6.3  Types of works, Austrian collection Austrian collection Types of works

Titles (N = 23)

Literary works and fiction Novels Eine Heimstätte; Licht, mehr Licht; Formosa; Thusnelde (“socialer Roman”) (4) Schwank Die Tante aus der Provinz (humorous story) (1) Collections of Das Gretchen von heute; Märchen-Buch stories (2) Lyrical works Bergskrystalle; Lyrisch-satirische Nadelstiche (2) Other Erlebtes und Erdachtes; Bagatellen (novellas, feuilletons) (2) Nonfiction Pedagogy (6) Leitfaden zu einem methodischen Unterricht in den weiblichen Handarbeiten; Ein Wort über d..... Gruppenund Massenunterricht in den weiblichen Handarbeiten; Methodik des Unterrichts; Der Einfluss der [sic: von] Erziehung; Lehrplan einer höheren Töchterschule; “Hellas” [public lectures, presentations] Home Die Haushaltungskunde (translation); Handbuch der economics (2) Haushaltungskunde Other Travelogues Eine Herbstfahrt nach Spanien (1) Almanacs (1) Jubiläums Almanach Unidentified Mit Gott; Die Mission unseres Jahrhunderts (2)

Percent 48

35

17

women of Bohemia and Moravia” (The Bohemian Voice, 1 September 1893, p. 5), offers the background for the interpretation of Slavic rural needlework. The emphasis was on women’s labor, the simple beauty of a rural past, and Bohemian ethnic creativity. The invisibility of the exploitation of embroiderers and lace-makers at the Fair, however, haunts these decorative displays. The knots, stitches, and symmetries of lace and embroideries were created in the repetitive movements of women laborers’ hands.

110 

M. DALBELLO

The theorist of modernist architecture Adolf Loos—a proponent of modernist design, born in Brno, Moravia—visited the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair. In the 1908 iteration of his essay “Ornament and Crime,” aimed at Art nouveau and historicism, he introduces the figure of a Slovak embroiderer. He interprets the ornamented patterns of her embroideries as organic aesthetic objects. Yet when the objects were transferred to decorate the homes of the elites—to be aestheticized and romanticized while becoming their object of exploitative, self-fashioning connections—the “crime of the ornament” comes to light: “But in economic respects it is a kind of crime, in that it leads to the waste of human labor, money, and materials” (Loos, 1998, 5; 169). What Loos recognized as a paradoxical connection of “ornament” with “crime,” in which ornamentation codes the crime of unacknowledged and exploitative labor, epitomizes the radical dispossession of women laborers. Lace and crafts, extracted to create the then-dominant representations of womanhood within an ornamental and stifling decorative milieu at the Fair, obscured the true nature of extractive labor that haunted textile arts. The artifacts for wealthy homes produced by peasant women were commodified through philanthropic extraction by Austrian aristocrats. The invisible labors and quiet work of Bohemian women, in intertwined, if separate, worlds of women’s experience, mirrored the invisibility of their nationhood in the Habsburg monarchy. The folkloric revival and themes of needlework were aligned with historicism but also represented an identification with the laboring rural women. Decorated objects, once embedded in the national past, thus assumed an archival dimension in the Woman’s Building. They became traces of peripheral, minor, and subaltern women. At the time, an evolving historical inscription of women’s identities placed the hidden world between oppression and discovery of women in the background; foregrounded were the exceptional and exemplary lives of the educated, writing, and publishing women whose works appeared in the Woman’s Building Library.

Conclusion The female expressions showcased in the Bohemian and Austrian displays crystallized creativity “authorized through writing” (Ahmed, 2015, p. 14) and two different if interrelated feminisms. The displays were a contact zone for the new gender order in which women became the producers of

6  CENTRAL EUROPEAN COLLECTIONS: THE PERIPHERY CHALLENGING… 

111

culture “as members of ladies’ committees, workers, professionals, philanthropists or feminists” shaping the public spaces of the Woman’s Building (Boussabha-Bravard & Rogers, 2017, p.  4). The politics of culture by which the Bohemian women could dissociate from the Habsburgian center at the Fair involved a reversal of inside and outside, rearticulating centrality and marginality, but it also questioned invisibility and the societal status quo. Acknowledgments  The author would like to thank Lydia Jammersnegg of the Österreichische Nationalbibliothek, Ariadne—Frauen- und genderspezifische Information und Dokumentation for her research help and Anselm Spoerri for commenting on drafts of this chapter.

References Works

in the

Woman’s Building Library

Knitschke, M. (1892). Erlebtes und Erdachtes. Selbstverlag. Krásnohorská, E., & Dvorský, F. I. (1881). Harantova žena: truchlohra v 5 jedn. J. Otto. Lasocka, M. (1891 [1892]). Wspomnienia rodzinne. M.  Elpidine. Retrieved September 26, 2022, from https://polona.pl/item/wspomnienia-­rodzinne,O TY0NzI3NTk/4/#info:metadata Wiechowsky, W. (1879). Märchen-Buch. Tempsky. Retrieved September 26, 2022, from https://digital.onb.ac.at/OnbViewer/viewer.faces?doc=ABO_% 2BZ121619005 Ženské listy. 1873–1918. Praha: Ženský Výrobní Spolek Č eský. Retrieved September 26, 2022, from https://digital.onb.ac.at/OnbViewer/viewer.faces?doc=ABO _%2BZ10844790X

Other Works Cited Ahmed, S. (2015). The Cultural Politics of Emotion (2nd ed.). Routledge. Ariadne. Frauen in Bewegung 1848–1938: Amalie Thilo. Retrieved September 26, 2022, from https://fraueninbewegung.onb.ac.at/node/2965; Anna Náprstkova. Retrieved September 26, 2022, from https://fraueninbewegung. onb.ac.at/node/419Anna Náprstkova; Wilhelmine Wiechowsky. Retrieved September 26, 2022, from https://fraueninbewegung.onb.ac.at/node/8578 Blumesberger, S. (2002). Handbuch österreichischer Autorinnen und Autoren jüdischer Herkunft 18. bis 20. Jahrhundert. Saur.

112 

M. DALBELLO

Boussabha-Bravard, M., & Rogers, R. (2017). Introduction: Positioning Women in the World’s Fairs, 1876-1937. In Women in International and Universal Exhibitions, 1876–1937 (pp. 1–24). Taylor & Francis. Clarke, E.  E. (1893). List of Books Sent by Home and Foreign Committees to the Library of the Woman’s Building. World’s Columbian Exposition. Dalbello, M. (2002). Franz Josef’s Time Machine: Images of Modernity in the Era of Mechanical Photoreproduction. Book History, 5, 67–103. Dalbello, M. (2005). Print Culture in Croatia: The Canon and the Borderlands. Vjesnik bibliotekara Hrvatske, 48(3–4), xlvii–lii. Frýdková, M. (1994). Vojta Náprstek a Americký klub dam. Historický obzor, 5(10), 234–237. Gerritsen Women’s History Collection of Aletta H. Jacobs. Amalie Thilo. In: Hirsch, Jenny. MENGELWERK: Het samenwerken van Huisgezin en School Herfrieda Ons Streven: Courant Voor Nederlandsche Vrouwen, Apr 16, 1873; 16, 62. Howe Elliott, M. (Ed.). (1893). Art and Handicraft in the Woman’s Building of the World’s Columbian Exposition. Goupil &, Bousson, Valadon &, Successors. Humpal Zeman, J. (1893). The Women of Bohemia. In M. K. O. Eagle (Ed.), The Congress of Women: Held in the Woman’s Building (pp.  127–130). World’s Columbian Exposition. Ingram, S. (2010). Czech Mates: Locating and Gendering the Competing Habsburgian Presences at the 1893 Chicago Columbian Exhibition. In A. Schwarz & J. Szapor (Eds.), Gender and Modernity in Central Europe: The Austro-Hungarian Monarchy and Its Legacy (pp.  65–79). University of Ottawa Press. Johnston, W. M. (2000). The Austrian Mind: An Intellectual and Social History 1848–1938. University of California Press. Král, J. J. (1893). Bohemia at the World’s Fair. The Bohemian Voice, 2(1), 12–13. Křápková, P. (2007). Americký klub dam (Amerikanischer Klub der Damen). Masaryk-University, Dipl.-Arb. Retrieved September 26, 2022, from http:// is.muni.cz/th/146369/ff_b/AmerickyKlubDam.doc?lang=en Literarische Landkarte der deutschmährischen Autoren. Marie Knitschke. Retrieved September 26, 2022, from https://limam.upol.cz/Authors/Detail/99 Loos, A. (1998 [1908]). Ornament and Crime: Selected Essays. Selected and with an Introduction by Adolf Opel. Tr. Michael Mitchell. Ariadne. Mitterbauer, H. (2017). Beyond Aesthetic Borders: Theory - Media - Case Study. In H. Mitterbauer & C. Smith-Prei (Eds.), Crossing Central Europe: Continuities and Transformations, 1900–2000 (pp. 3–26). Toronto University Press. Mitterbauer, H., & Smith-Prei, C. (Eds.). (2017). Introduction to Crossing Central Europe: Continuities and Transformations, 1900–2000 (pp. viii–xviii). Toronto University Press. Morton, F. (1979). A Nervous Splendor: Vienna 1888/1889. Penguin Books. Neues Wiener Tagblatt, 19 August 1893.

6  CENTRAL EUROPEAN COLLECTIONS: THE PERIPHERY CHALLENGING… 

113

Neuzeit. 10 November 1891; 10 January 1892. Nigg, M. (1893). Biographien der österreichischen Dichterinnen und Schriftstellerinnen. Verlag Julius Kühkopf. Okey, R. (1986). Eastern Europe 1740–1985: Feudalism to Communism (2nd ed.). University of Minnesota Press. Schorske, C. E. (1981). Fin-de-Siècle Vienna: Politics and Culture. Vintage Books. Schwartz, A., & Thorson, H. (2010). The Aesthetics of Change: Women Writers of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy. In H. Mitterbauer & C. Smith-Prei (Eds.), Crossing Central Europe: Continuities and Transformations, 1900–2000 (pp. 27–49). University of Toronto Press. Schwartz, A., & Thorson, H. (2017). The Aesthetics of Change: Women Writers of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy. In H. Mitterbauer & C. Smith-Prei (Eds.), Crossing Central Europe: Continuities and Transformations, 1900 and 2000 (pp. 27–49). University of Toronto Press. Sewall, M. W. (1893). The World’s Congress of Representative Women: A historical résumé for popular circulation of the World’s Congress of Representative Women, convened in Chichago on May 15, and adjourned on May 22, 1893, under the auspices of the Women’s Branch of the World’s Congress Auxiliary. Rand, McNally. The Bohemian Voice (Omaha, Nebraska). (1893). 1 May 1893, 1(9). Retrieved September 26, 2022, from https://digitalcommons.unomaha.edu/bohemian/3. 1 September 1893, 2(1). Retrieved September 26, 2022, from https://digitalcommons.unomaha.edu/bohemian/7 The Czech and Slovak American Genealogical Society of Illinois (CSAGSI). Bohemian Day Columbian Exposition. Retrieved September 26, 2022, from https://csagsi.org/bohemian-­day-­columbian-­exposition Transdifferenz. Thusnelda Vortmann-Sienkiewicz. Retrieved September 26, 2022, from https://transdifferenz-­datenbank.univie.ac.at/index.php?id=6& param1=181 Unsere Weltausstellung: eine Beschreibung der Columbischen Weltausstellung in Chicago, 1893: mit über 1000 der besten, aus 15,000 Meisterwerken der Photographie sorgfältig ausgewählten Illustrationen Weitere Beteiligte Weltausstellung, 1893, Chicago, IL (1894). Klein. https://doi.org/10.11588/ diglit.3684#0003. van Benthem van den Bergh, G. (2018). Herder and the Idea of a Nation. Human Figurations, 7(1). http://hdl.handle.net/2027/spo.11217607.0007.103 Wadsworth, S., & Wiegand, W. A. (2012). Right Here I See My Own Books: The Woman’s Building Library at the World’s Columbian Exposition. University of Massachusetts Press. Weimann, J. M. (1981). The Fair Women. Introduction by Anita Miller. Academy Chicago. Wiechowsky, W. (1899). Frauenleben und- Bildung in Prag im 19. Jahrhundert. Frauen-Rundschau.

114 

M. DALBELLO

Wiener Zeitung (Wiener Abendpost Beilage zur Wiener Zeitung), 19 August 1893, Nr. 189. Wikidata. Amalie Thilo. Retrieved September 26, 2022, from https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q103598297 WorldCat Identities. Marie Knitschke. Retrieved September 26, 2022, from https://worldcat.org/identities/viaf-­27817136

CHAPTER 7

How to Be a German Woman: Mixed Messages at the Columbian Exposition Lynne Tatlock

In 1893, Wilhelmine von Hillern’s novel Ein Arzt der Seele (1869; A Physician of the Soul) arrived in Chicago for display in the Woman’s Building Library, where it stood alongside over 300 additional books by German women.1 From its place in the collection, this female Bildungsroman offered a troubling story of women’s aspirations. An unloved child early learns that she is “only a girl” and later that, as a woman, she cannot be admitted to the university to study science.2 Having finally recognized that she is not physically and emotionally fit for scientific pursuits, the heroine, Ernestine, appears to vanish happily ever after into 1  “German” refers here to German-language publications by women located in Imperial Germany as opposed to such publications by women located in other German-speaking territories. 2  “Nur ein Mädchen,” the title of the first chapter, sounds the novel’s central problem.

L. Tatlock (*) Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO, USA e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 M. Dalbello, S. Wadsworth (eds.), Global Voices from the Women’s Library at the World’s Columbian Exposition, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-42490-8_7

115

116 

L. TATLOCK

domesticity and motherhood. Despite this conservative turn in the plot, Hillern (1836–1916) later explicitly rejected the idea that her novel was antifeminist. Those who understood it to take a stance against the emancipation of women, she insisted, missed her intention to depict the suffering caused by—in a modern paraphrase—social constructions of gender, a concept for which she did not yet have a name (Hillern, 1906, p. v). The book’s final page supports her claim, when the protagonist pronounces “bitter” the “medicine” that has brought her to woman’s destiny. But the conclusion does not dwell on Ernestine’s suffering, hinting  instead at a better future for her newborn daughter. This daughter may never require this bitter medicine, because her mother, as her father’s research assistant, will show her how to strike a balance as a woman and as a scientist. To what then could and should German women and girls aspire in 1893? In keeping with the spirit of the U.S. Board of Lady Managers, the Imperial German committee had set out to dispel the stigma of the phrase “only a girl” at the Columbian Exposition yet did not abandon cherished ideas of natural “feminine” roles. The German women’s library likewise dignified these roles while also opening up new vistas for women. If Ernestine’s daughter had made the journey to Chicago, she would have found, next to her mother’s story, books that promoted the joys of women’s domestication, reinforcing what Ruth-Ellen Boetcher Joeres terms the “mystification of gender roles” (1998, p. 16). Others, however, highlighted professions newly porous to women. Some did both, thus encapsulating the mixed messaging that characterized the German book collection overall.

National Display in an International Context By the opening of the Fair, the second German Reich had celebrated the 22nd anniversary of its proclamation. While initially many national liberals had optimistically understood German unification and newly centralized government as liberation from the oppression of local princes and an opportunity for reform, that optimism proved premature. As the architect of the new Prussian-led empire, Chancellor Otto von Bismarck (1815–1898) engineered the defeat of the liberals in the German parliament, initiated the so-called Kulturkampf against the Catholic populace, passed the anti-socialist laws to block organized labor, and ramped up German colonial efforts. Yet Bismarck had been forced to resign in 1890 as he and the third emperor, William II, increasingly came into conflict. Under William’s

7  HOW TO BE A GERMAN WOMAN: MIXED MESSAGES AT THE COLUMBIAN… 

117

“personal rule,” Germany was becoming in many respects more authoritarian, politically conservative, and internationally belligerent. Nevertheless, German society, like much of the Western world, was experiencing significant social change, in part, through women’s participation in public life as never before. The suspended present time of the “other space” of the Fair, this heterotopia, highlighted precisely such uneven developments in women’s possibilities within and across nations and empires.3 “Our world exposition” (Unsere Weltausstellung 1894, p. 3)! With the possessive pronoun in its title, a German-American book about the Fair in effect co-opted the U.S. exhibition for the German homeland: “[Germany’s] truly dazzling exhibit put all other foreign nations in the shadow.”4 In this same triumphalist, nationalist vein, its brief mention of the Woman’s Building praises the successful efforts of the German committee, under the leadership of Anna Schepeler-Lette (1829–1897), to establish “woman’s natural and most honorable calling” as “the field of education.”5 Helene Correll’s official report on the Fair likewise underscored this aim when it identified the school exhibit as the core of the German contribution to the Woman’s Building (1894, 2:1255). If the task of the German committee was, as an article in the German periodical Frauen-Reich: Deutsche Hausfrauenzeitung explained, presenting to the world “the state of national work by women as vividly and clearly as possible,” then pedagogy took preeminence.6 The feminist author, translator, and activist Jenny Hirsch (1829–1902) and the writer and salonière E. Vely (pseud. of Emma Simon; 1848–1934) undertook the assembly of books for the German library.7 The principles of their selection are not documented—one contemporary implied that they

3  See Wadsworth and Wiegand (2012, pp. 4–6). As Lisa K. Langlois, observes, furthermore, “More than mere entertainment, nineteenth-century international expositions promoted competition among imperialist powers that displayed the goods, technologies, and cultures of their respective imagined nations and colonies” (2010, pp. 57–58). 4  “wahrhaft überwältigende Ausstellung stellte alle andern auswärtigen Nationen in Schatten…” (Anon. Unsere Weltausstellung 1894, p.  3). Unless indicated otherwise, all translations from the original German are the author’s. 5  “der natürliche und ehrenvollste Beruf für die Frau,” “das Erziehungswesen” (Anon. Unsere Weltaussstellung, 1894, p. 80). 6  “den Stand ihrer nationalen Frauenarbeit möglichst anschaulich und übersichtlich”; (Anon. Die Frauen und die Columbus-Weltausstellung, 1892b, p. 223). 7  See Elliott (1893, p.  215) and also Anon., Die erste öffentliche Versammlung des Deutschen Frauen-Komittee’s” (1892a, p. 244).

118 

L. TATLOCK

had none.8 Nevertheless, a closer look at the collection reveals emphases, if not a systematic application of explicit principles. Exhibiting a strong interest in education and instruction in many fields and recursively sounding the cultural ideal of Bildung, the German women’s collection resonated with the German contributions to the Woman’s Building overall. And from the German perspective, it was cause for national pride. As Correll reported, within the “variegated geography” of the Woman’s Building, “German women writers shone with 300 volumes of their intellectual work.”9 German women’s achievement, as documented by a sizable portion of the book display, was indeed broadly pedagogical in theme, genre, and gesture—books growing out of Fröbel’s kindergarten movement, cookbooks, pamphlets on women’s lot by feminists, books highlighting possible careers for women, and advice books teaching and cementing traditional middle-class mores.10 Narrative fiction—novels and stories, including juvenile fiction—constitutes ca. 49% of this German library; it too conveys pedagogical messages. The biographical structure of much of the fiction, like Hillern’s Arzt, is implicitly instructive and normalizing; it focuses on romance, marriage, and motherhood, occasionally with  According to Max Osborn, Vely and Hirsch circulated a questionnaire that was completed by 415 women writers and then summarized for the Fair in a “very confused arrangement” (sehr wirren Anordnung). He reproduces their results in print and then sneers at them: they provide new evidence of “female illogic” (weibliche Unlogik). Works by some of the most important women writers were missing at the Fair, he further complains. Osborn’s own summary of “women in literature and the press” is organized historically, beginning around 1300, with attention to genre, affiliation, and (literary) quality, and includes Austrian writers, such as Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach, as well as writers located in Imperial Germany. In the Library’s assembly of recent works, he might reasonably have missed, for example, the respected writers Isolde Kurz and Ilse Frapan, whom he includes in his own overview (Osborn, 1896, pp. 266–267). 9  “bunte Geographie,” “deutschen Schriftstellerinnen mit 300 Bänden ihrer Geistesarbeit glänzten” (Correll, 1894, 2:1258 and 2:1256, respectively). 10  The synoptic view of the collection is based on the titles included in List of the Books Sent by Home and Foreign Committees to the Library of the Woman’s Building, 70–73, which are recorded by title and author/pseudonym only. Together with Grace Klutke, my undergraduate research assistant sponsored by Global Studies at Washington University in St. Louis, I tracked down the missing information, noting both the original publication date and that of the most recent edition prior to 1893. We assigned a broad generic classification to each work, based on multiple bibliographic sources. The database we created also includes the birth and death dates for most of the authors included. I thank Grace for her tireless work during the academic year 2020–2021 locating and entering information into the database, completing the calculations, and producing the three graphs included here according to my specifications. 8

7  HOW TO BE A GERMAN WOMAN: MIXED MESSAGES AT THE COLUMBIAN… 

119

unconventional framings. Louise von François’s Die letzte Reckenburgerin (1871; The last Reckenburg Woman), for example, tells the story of Eberhardine von Reckenburg, who remains single. Her successful child-­ rearing, however, concludes triumphantly in her foster daughter’s marriage, and thus the novel ultimately reaffirms the marriage script that it initially foregoes. In foregrounding (foster) motherhood, moreover, the novel harmonizes even singlehood with a prevailing idea of women’s maternal role, a concept that, as Ann Taylor Allen shows, at this time informed German feminist discourse generally as it addressed “child-­ rearing, family, and the state” (1991, p. 2). On the whole, the collection does not constitute a historically informed comprehensive and inclusive stocktaking of German women’s achievements within print culture over the course of the century, pedagogical or otherwise. Rather, it favors more recent publications, particularly fiction, from the 1880s and early 1890s, delivering something like a snapshot of then current women’s writing in print without regard to quality or impact. Over 60% of the books included had been published or republished within five years of the Fair and in that sense simply reflected what was currently on the market (see Fig.  7.1). The collection, for example, includes the 70.00%

Percent of Texts Published

60.00% 50.00% 40.00% 30.00% 20.00% 10.00% 0.00%

0-5 years

6-10 years

11-15 years

16-20 years

20+ years

Publication Years Before 1892 Percent of Texts

2 per. Mov. Avg. (Percent of Texts)

Fig. 7.1  Publication dates of German texts in the Woman’s Building Library relative to 1892 (n = 258) (Source: Clarke, Edith E., comp. (1893). List of Books Sent by Home and Foreign Committees to the Library of the Woman’s Building, 70–73. Graph created by Grace Klutke.)

120 

L. TATLOCK

prolific Fanny Lewald (1811–1889) only in the form of her last novel, Die Familie Darner (1887; The Darner Family), a work that meanwhile has, unlike her earlier fiction, autobiography, and feminist essays, fallen into oblivion. Some of the “recent” books in the collection, on the other hand, had first appeared before 1873 yet remained current by virtue of new editions. As one such rejuvenated novel, Hillern’s Arzt had appeared in its second edition in 1886. For all its allegiance to the present-day market, the collection may nevertheless have been stuck in the mindset of earlier decades in some respects, as 75% of the authors were born before 1850 while 89% were 35 or older upon the first publication of their respective books. (See Fig. 7.2.) While some of the books take up the question of working-class women’s education, most imagine middle-class girls and women as their target audiences—both as readers and as cultural agents. Through their projections of girls’ and women’s lives, these books tell their readers how to be German, middle class, and female and in so doing, in the aggregate, send mixed messages. In its attempt to provide a temporal frame for thinking about German middle-class women’s lives, Louise Otto’s (1819–1895) optimistic essay collection Frauenleben im deutschen Reich (Women’s Lives in the German Empire, 1876), one of the older publications in the collection, provides a useful lens through which to consider this varied messaging. In grouping Otto’s essays under the rubrics past, present, and future, the anthology operates with an idea of progressive historical development that invites comparison with the individual life trajectories mapped out in the German collection’s fiction and advice books. The German ideal of Bildung, moreover, tends to underpin these developmental models. Bildung as self-formation is famously formulated and illustrated in Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s novel Wilhelm Meisters Apprenticeship (1795–1796). Here the male protagonist through Bildung aspires to develop his talents and expand his field of action and self-realization to become a “public person,”11 one who finds “fulfillment in institutional structures” (Boes, 2012, p. 7)—and specifically, in the nineteenth-century Bildungsroman, those institutional structures constituting and supporting the nation. While, as Tobias Boes has shown, nineteenth-century fictions of male Bildung often depict failure, women’s access to this model of selfformation was by comparison severely limited from the start. Indeed, women seemed destined to seek such fulfillment only privately within the  “öffentliche Person” (Goethe, 1977, 7: 290).

11

7  HOW TO BE A GERMAN WOMAN: MIXED MESSAGES AT THE COLUMBIAN… 

121

(a) 30.00%

Percent of Authors

25.00%

20.00%

15.00%

10.00%

5.00%

0.00% 1790-1799 1800-1809 1810-1819 1820-1829 1830-1839 1840-1849 1850-1859 1860-1869 1870-1879 1880-1889 Birth Years Percent of Authors

2 per. Mov. Avg. (Percent of Authors)

Percent of Authors in Age Bracket

(b)

18.00% 16.00% 14.00% 12.00% 10.00% 8.00% 6.00% 4.00% 2.00% 0.00% 20–24 25–29 30–34 35–39 40–44 45–49 50–54 55–59 60–64 65–69 70–74 75–79 80–89

Auhtors’ Ages at Their Text’s Original Publication Percent

Fig. 7.2  (a) Birth year distribution of German authors represented in Woman’s Building Library (n = 273); (b) age of German authors represented in Woman’s Building Library at time of text’s publication (n = 285) (Source: Clarke, Edith E., comp. (1893). List of Books Sent by Home and Foreign Committees to the Library of the Woman’s Building, 70–73. Graph created by Grace Klutke)

122 

L. TATLOCK

institution of the family, the so-called germ-cell of the state (Keimzelle des Staates).12 Hillern’s novel, like the books to which we now turn, wrestles with such boundaries. Six selections from the Library invested in girls and women’s self-­ formation and representing a range of genres permit a closer look at the spectrum of positions. Together they reproduce the ambivalence and ambiguity of Hillern’s novel and suggest the tone of much of the collection. Moreover, these stories of women’s training and self-formation bring into relief how such lives were imagined as intertwined with the German nation as a nation among nations at the century’s end.

Looking to the Past to Think About the Future In speaking to readers via an explicit temporal frame, Otto’s Frauenleben gently cajoles women out of complacency, myopia, and self-limitation. Its first section, labeled “Past,” is part memoir, part history lesson. Five essays recall habits of being from Otto’s youth: women’s lives before the invention of the match, the home sewing machine, and the train. Focusing on aspects of domestic life, Otto seeks to make visible the continuum between the home and the world. The essay “Fashion” demonstrates how in past decades fashion, far from frivolous, expressed group identity, political allegiance, and global shifts. The advent of separates, thanks to the fashionable Garibaldi blouse styled like men's shirts, for instance, supported women's growing independence. Its loose cut addressed the need for freer movement, Otto writes, and put gymnastics and other excercise, which were becoming acceptable for women, within easier reach. Anticipating ridicule of women’s fashions, especially by male readers, Otto asserts fashion as a product of national and international, even global history, and impresses upon her readers that the donning of fashion connects the wearer to these histories. The Crimean War, for example, prompted the return of the Turkish shawl and the wearing of burnouses. As she makes the case for domestic life belonging to history and thus registering change, she dismantles alternate imaginings by which girls and women live in an unchanging, self-­ reproducing present time outside of history and politics.

 See Tatlock (2016).

12

7  HOW TO BE A GERMAN WOMAN: MIXED MESSAGES AT THE COLUMBIAN… 

123

As Otto repeatedly demonstrates with ostensibly innocuous domestic examples, historical change profoundly affects women’s lives, and women themselves have participated in these processes. Her chapter on sewing, however, turns from historical description to direct expression of her present-­day political aims: “Equal rights for all! The equal right to develop one’s own talents, to activate one’s powers, no barriers to independent growth!”13 In demanding the right to cultivate one’s talents and independent development, Otto lands on Goethe’s formulation of Bildung as it had influenced imaginings of male self-formation. Lina Morgenstern’s Frauen des 19. Jahrhunderts (1888–1889, 1891; Women of the Nineteenth Century) likewise looks to the past to reveal progress. As Morgenstern (1830–1909) outlines in the foreword to the first volume, her biographical anthology showcases the unfolding of women’s lives within the community, state, and nation (Morgenstern, 1888, 1:3). It highlights the mutually enhancing connections of individual and collective realized through historical women’s outwardly directed self-formation. Morgenstern’s opening summary of the history of the nineteenth century paints a picture of the discovery of the rights of all individuals and their concomitant responsibilities to the state. Particularly the wars against Napoleon inspired German women to serve, enabling them to overcome their reluctance to leave the home: “For the first time they crossed the threshold of domestic activity, which until then had been their only world, to become members of charitable organizations for the purpose of working together…. Those women, who united patriotism and charitable activity, must be regarded as the path breakers of laboring in communal solidarity.”14 In some respects, as the international scope of Morgenstern’s 155 biographies reveals, Norwegian, Swedish, English, American, French, and Russian women had been trailblazing for German women. At the same time, Morgenstern portrays all European women’s movements as  “Gleiches Recht für Alle! Gleiches Recht auf Entwickelung der eignen Anlagen, auf Bethätigung der Kraft, keine Schranken für die selbständige Entfaltung!” (Otto, 1876, p. 48). 14  “Sie trat zum ersten Mal über die Schwelle des häuslichen Wirkens, das bisher ihre einzige Welt gewesen … in Wohltätigkeitsvereinen zu gemeinsamen Wirken … Jene Frauen, welche Vaterlandsliebe und Wohlthun vereinigten, sind als Bahnbrecherinnen des Arbeitens in der Gemeinsamkeit zu betrachten” (Morgenstern, 1888, 1:8). 13

124 

L. TATLOCK

emerging from or at least occurring in tandem with the birth of the national idea. The anthology’s first portrait, a biographical sketch of the iconic mother of the German nation and biological mother of the first emperor of the Second Reich, Queen Louise of Prussia (1776–1810), effectively puts that nation front and center, and indeed the vast majority of Morgenstern’s “women of the nineteenth century” are German. As a feature of her sketches of women dentists, scientists, musicians, composers, writers, translators, volunteer workers, activists, royalty, and others in public life, Morgenstern often includes their domestic arrangements, reminding readers that these women also kept house and reared children. Words such as “häuslich” (domestic) and “echt weiblich” (truly feminine) occur frequently throughout the 1158 numbered pages of the three volumes. Women, that is, in Morgenstern’s biographical narratives, never entirely abandoned the domestic space delineated by the threshold they had crossed into public life. Rather, they continued to cultivate some of its values both privately and publicly. Morgenstern, founder of the Association of German Housewives (1873; Allgemeiner deutscher HausFrauenverein) and editor of the Housewives Newspaper (Hausfrauenzeitung), elsewhere advocated on behalf of housewifery as a dignified profession requiring training, skill, and a living wage (for those who kept house for others). In both her writing and social activism, she underscored and valorized women’s command over food and its distribution as a critical social function. In her conception of women’s work, housewifery crosses the line traditionally separating the private from the public sphere. In understanding women’s work as belonging to history, she and other women across the political spectrum, as Nancy R.  Reagin has outlined, helped to cement the allegiance of domesticity and national identity in Imperial Germany (Reagin, 2007).15 In the end, Morgenstern’s three-volume work does not seek to denaturalize women’s domestic roles; rather, her biographies suggest that these roles are of a piece with public activity. In this respect the work underscores Allen’s observation that, for some feminists, domestic material roles could provide a “model of empowerment and ethical autonomy” (Allen, 1991, p. 2) and, moreover, influence public policy. Morgenstern’s biographies, with their iterative interweaving of women’s public activity and domestic lives, model a continuum that reevaluates traditional social demarcations.  On Morgenstern and housewives’ associations, see Reagin (2007, pp. 25–29).

15

7  HOW TO BE A GERMAN WOMAN: MIXED MESSAGES AT THE COLUMBIAN… 

125

Stuck in the Present Reconstructions of historical women’s lives perforce tie them to the present. As Morgenstern explains, past accomplishments prepare the ground for achievement by present-day women. Summarizing her purpose in the foreword to the second volume, she speaks of erecting an “enduring monument” (bleibendes Denkmal) to those women of “our” century who serve as shining examples to posterity and whose stories prove good reading in the present; in so doing she imagines historical examples for the present that in turn project ideal selves into an as-yet-unknown future (Morgenstern, 1889, 2:3). The anthology begins with women born in the eighteenth century and active in the nineteenth; later entries include women still living at the time of its publication, several of whom, such as Hirsch and Schepeler-Lette, served on the German women’s committee. Throughout the anthology, Morgenstern speaks from her standpoint in the present, asserting herself as narrator and editor in the form of footnotes and commentary including personal reminisces. Especially when she adduces recent facts, she sounds more like a journalist concerned with the unfolding present than a historian researching the receding past. This turn to present time, in which many of her subjects remain active, signals continuity and momentum. By contrast, frustration and disapproval color Otto’s account of the 1870s in the section labeled “Present.” Here the essays aggressively—and sometimes scornfully—identify deficits in girls’ education and the marital household. The housewife, whom industry and invention have relieved of drudgery, has turned to frivolous entertainment and silly fashions instead of improving her mind and finding ways to be useful—fashion here proves a distraction from serious purpose rather than a connection to history. As a result, women are bored and unfulfilled. Moreover, having been told that their main purpose in life is to love and be loved and then discovering that their husbands have little time for them, they are disappointed in marriage. Like their elders, girls too waste time on fashionable clothing and dainty needlework. Unmusical bourgeois girls are forced to spend endless hours on music lessons, one among many pointless sedentary activities that endanger their bodies and minds. Even dolls invite criticism: eyes that open and close, accessories, and fancy doll clothes direct girls’ activity and desire toward trivialities. Such lack of meaningful pastimes and stimuli to the imagination impedes the achievement of self-reliance and

126 

L. TATLOCK

independence.16 Past progress toward these goals seems stymied in this snapshot of an impoverished present day. But Otto has her eye firmly on the future and does not linger over these disappointments. She assembles portraits of the past with its quirks and the present with its deficits to project a promising future for women. Twenty years later, in the year before the Fair, Anna Klapp (b. 1840) proved equally harsh on the subject of contemporary middle-class girls. Her advice book on careers for women, Unsere jungen Mädchen und ihre Aufgaben in der Gegenwart (1892; Our Young Girls and their Tasks in the Present), opens with a cautionary tale. Two former schoolmates, one married and the other newly engaged, meet after nine years. The latter, Agnes, brings home to the privileged, happily married Bertha the fact that women cannot count on marrying and thus must support themselves with their labor. Agnes then proceeds to recount the fate of two schoolmates whose failure to prepare to earn a living has cast the one into crushing poverty as a widow and mother of two and consigned the other to pointless and lonely singlehood. Klapp never voices the possibility that some women might wish never to marry; instead, in this joyless volume, she warns that women who expect to be supported by husbands will be disappointed. The essays on professions that follow enlighten readers about options available to women, comprising medicine, teaching (including kindergarten), professional gardening, charity, photography, glass painting, trade, and business. Yet only those for whom science is a true calling will succeed in newly opened male-dominated fields. Women, Klapp cautions, should take care not to denigrate the areas in which women have traditionally excelled (housewifery, teaching) in favor of new opportunities afforded by advanced study. In the end, she believes, most women need to choose professions within their “actual feminine sphere.”17 Women’s traditional work must therefore be reevaluated for the purpose of better pay and status. In her laudable avocation of fair pay, Klapp does not entertain the possibility that women work for any reason other than economic necessity. A work of fiction and an advice book, both of which had appeared decades earlier and yet were still in circulation in the early 1890s, offered fairgoers a much narrower view of possibilities for women. Ottilie 16  Independence and self-reliance are typically male coded in this period. See Hausen (2012, p. 24). 17  “eigentlichen weiblichen Sphäre” (Klapp, 1892, p. 113). I have elsewhere adduced these books and others to highlight the nineteenth-century pressure to marry and hence the appeal of romance plots (Tatlock, 2022, pp. 25–28).

7  HOW TO BE A GERMAN WOMAN: MIXED MESSAGES AT THE COLUMBIAN… 

127

Wildermuth (1817–1877), a popular fiction writer for women and girls, wrote in 1859 at length of marriage as the destination of women’s self-­ formation in her Heimat der Frau (1859; Woman’s Homeland). One of the oldest works in the German collection, this anthology of three novellas was circulating anew in Wildermuth’s collected works, published, like Klapp’s advice book, in 1892. Heimat der Frau belies its idyllic title. It recounts three cautionary stories of women who go awry at the critical point of their self-formation, that is, when they choose a husband, which Wildermuth sees as the most important decision a woman will ever make. In painting pictures of connubial disasters, these novellas depict the poor judgment and the character flaws that lie at the root of the wrong turn. As unhappy as all these marriages are, Wildermuth does not entertain the possibility of happy singlehood, since women’s “homeland,” the destination where they will be safely sheltered and blissfully comfortable, is, after all, marriage. Apparently, when this homeland does not fulfill its promises, women have only themselves to blame. Wildermuth weighs challenges of marriage frankly and warns against expecting more from marriage and husbands than they can realistically deliver. Yet she imposes high expectations on wives. The putative realism of Wildermuth’s Heimat echoes the joylessness of Klapp’s volume. Unlike Klapp, however, who envisions a broader sphere of activity for women while not dwelling on marriage, Wildermuth provides no exit from the mystified homespace. Caroline S. J. Milde’s (1830–1903) advice book Der deutschen Jungfrau Wesen und Wirken (The German Maiden’s Essence and Effect) first appeared in 1869 ten years after Heimat and in the same year as Hillern’s Arzt. By the time of the Fair, it had been published in its lightly reedited ninth edition (1890). The original designation “German” invoked a national community that was coming to be and yet, in the words of Benedict Anderson, also “loom[ed] out of an immemorial past” (Anderson, 2006, p.  11). In 1869, Prussia and its allies among the other German lands had just defeated Austria; war with France and the establishment of empire was imminent. Within this imagined national community, Milde describes and reinforces gendered social arrangements according to which middle-class girls and women lead lives largely turned inward toward family, lives that unfold outside of history even though they are markedly socialized. Addressing the cultivation of virtues, the unlearning or managing of unpleasant qualities and emotions such as anger, and practical concerns such as hygiene, manners, and household tasks as critical to self-formation, the book assumes a stable society in which women’s lives

128 

L. TATLOCK

are inscribed in separate spheres whose dictates must be recursively fulfilled day in, day out. In her introductory remarks, Milde nevertheless emphasizes individual disposition, declaring, as if echoing Wilhelm Meister, that education and upbringing should not place obstacles to the free unfolding of a girl’s inborn disposition, her talents and inclinations; girls need not all be educated in the same way. Yet she steers her girls toward a different goal. Goethe imagined the male subject becoming a public person, socialized so as to play a role in national life and institutions; Milde formulates the endpoint of female Bildung in terms of lofty aesthetic ideals calibrated to the domestic sphere (Milde, 1890, p. iv). Insisting on both the practical and the ideal, she describes women’s education and self-­ formation in terms of domestic spaces and social and family obligations under the rubrics “heart,” “mind,” “house,” and “world.” “World” does not fulfill the promise it would hold for the male subject. Eighteen sixty-nine, the year of the book’s first appearance, coincided with the publication of John Stuart Mill’s Subjection of Women, which the aforementioned Hirsch translated into German in the same year.18 A section labeled “Beruf und Frauenemanzipation” (Calling and Women’s Liberation) suggests that in 1869 Milde was not unaware of a society in motion. Milde concedes that the educated woman should follow current events yet warns that she must never actively intervene in political affairs, for such activity gainsays woman’s inmost being. Dealing with the harsh judgments of the world, Milde advises, requires restricting one’s encounters with it and remaining steadfast in the conviction that God’s judgment matters most. In the end, Milde’s German girl has little leeway to become the individual evoked at the book’s outset. When two decades later, she published her own advice book, Amalie Baisch (1859–ca. 1904) could have found Milde’s book still in circulation and largely unchanged in its eighth edition (1888). Like Milde, conceiving of her Aus der Töchterschule ins Leben (1889; From the School for Young Ladies into Life) as for a “German” public, she introduces the anthology with a poem by Oskar von Redwitz exhorting “German women in every realm” to adorn themselves with the “jewel of true German femininity.”19 18  While some women’s translations into German are included in the German library, Hirsch’s translation of Mill does not number among the books selected. Instead, her work is represented by her history of the Lette-Verein, a German educational organization located in Berlin devoted to the applied arts, and three works of fiction. 19  “deutsche Frauen in jedem Reich,” “Edelstein echter deutscher Weiblichkeit” (Baisch, 1890, p. [vii]).

7  HOW TO BE A GERMAN WOMAN: MIXED MESSAGES AT THE COLUMBIAN… 

129

She then promises to guide her young readers toward what will make them and others happy. Her opening gambit acknowledges the fact that the age of steam and electricity makes new demands on both sexes. The education of girls’ grandmothers is thus inadequate. The Darwinian “struggle for existence” requires abandoning the feminine reticence of earlier times. Baisch initially presents the past as drearily limited but then changes her tone, promising to restore to German women what emulation of male “education of the intellect” (Geistesbildung) in modern times has led them to forego, namely, the “education of the heart and soul” (Herzens- und Gemütsbildung) (Baisch, 1890, p.  9). An assortment of genres—stories, letters, essays, exhortations—offers homely, traditional wisdom encapsulated in pithy running page headers. Part 1 focuses on the social and private spaces, the institutions, and activities that shape middle-­class girls’ lives. Part 2 appears to change course again when, like Klapp, Baisch does encourage readers to imagine a broader field of action suitable to modern times, including professions once unavailable to women. Yet Part 2 repeatedly gives with one hand and takes with the other. In fact, grandmother’s voice prevails from the start in Morgenstern’s contribution to this section of the volume: in “The Domestic Calling,” 12 letters from a fictional grandmother, Lina, push her granddaughter, Else, to accept the abiding truth that domestic duties are paramount in women’s lives. We never hear Else’s voice or learn why she so urgently requires this homespun wisdom. Still, Part 2 does advance an argument in favor of girls’ education similar to Klapp’s: girls need a means of earning a living should they remain single or be widowed. In reviewing possible professions, the essays in this section adduce expanded spheres of activity and more abundant sources of income for women and thus acknowledge a changing society. Yet they also urge girls not to overestimate their talents and remind them of the need to regulate their behavior since society constantly judges their actions. Marriage remains preferable to being out in the world. Especially in the masculine-coded professions, such as medicine or the arts, only the most talented and exceptional women succeed, they warn. These essays allow for no range of outcome in the practice of professions, by which the merely hardworking and dedicated, the merely moderately talented, could earn a living. They leave the now-obvious point unspoken, namely that all of those fields were populated by moderately talented men who had not needed to prove themselves at every turn. Baisch includes remarks by Franziska Tiburtius (1843–1927), one of the first two women admitted to the medical profession, that return us to

130 

L. TATLOCK

Hillern’s Ernestine and her daughter’s imagined visit to the Fair.20 Reading this chapter, the daughter might have had the impression that little had changed since 1869: women who wish to pursue science must not only be intellectually acute but also physically strong. Tibertius thus echoes the hard lesson that Ernestine learned when she pursued science to the point of physical collapse, namely nature and culture locate women in the domestic sphere. Exiting this circumscribed domain is fraught with difficulty and endangers femininity at every turn. Girls should rein themselves in, Tibertius warns, to avoid encountering or becoming “such unnatural monstrosities” as the unfeminine bluestockings who dare to compete with men.21 To judge from these books, Imperial Germany was dotted with pitfalls. Within the home, girls and women had fallen prey to frivolity and luxury. Wasting time, they failed to find avenues of self-improvement and useful ways of serving their husbands and communities. Their activities in the home did not engage and develop their imagination, help them manage their negative feelings, or teach self-sufficiency. Yet venturing beyond the family circle also imperiled them and alienated them from their “natural” attributes and roles. Laboring under the insistent claims of reality, most of these texts ultimately offer few expanded and appealing prospects even when they address the need to prepare women to support themselves. Otto and to some extent Morgenstern, however, in the end bypass the present to reanimate stirrings from the past, imagining a happier national future of which German women are a part.

Anticipating the Future “The future is ours,” Otto declares in the final section of Frauenleben.22 From the bookshelves of the Woman’s Building, she prophesied a bright future in which German women would get the vote, speak in public, play a role in government alongside men, have equal opportunity in education (even if through separate but equal institutions), and gain access to the professions, regardless of marital status. In her vision, when wedded, these future women lived in marriages based on equality, love, and free choice that did not foreclose public life or a profession. Otto’s concluding essay in effect envisions what Hillern’s “happy ending” could not yet formulate 20  A short treatise included among the German books sent to the Fair argues, by contrast, for the need for female teachers and doctors (Philadelphos, 1891). 21  “solch widernatürlichen Ausgeburten” (Baisch, 1890: 428). 22  “Die Zukunft ist unser” (Otto, 1876, p. 267).

7  HOW TO BE A GERMAN WOMAN: MIXED MESSAGES AT THE COLUMBIAN… 

131

and what most of the other books reviewed here likewise failed to entertain: future German women will have the same rights as men to develop and perfect their talents and to activate them freely. Without naming Goethe, Otto, in her concluding section, in effect claims the possibilities of Goethean Bildung for women. The promise of women one day to realize their talents and to have a voice in the Second German Reich had ancient roots, according to Otto, in the First German Reich, the Holy Roman Empire of the German States. In this political formation, German women did have a voice and a vote: “The princely abbess had a seat and a vote like the princely abbots in the Imperial Diets—and the dignity of the assembly did not suffer in the least from that state of affairs.”23 An ancient paradigm, coded as national, prefigured an inclusive future in Otto’s temporal framing. In the Woman’s Building, books by German women spoke to being and becoming. Their ambivalence and contradictions reflect larger tensions at the Exposition arising from the intersection of ideas of progress and future rights and nationally based display in an international venue that celebrated the status quo and encouraged competition among nations. The Woman’s Building itself had meanwhile visibly inserted “the second sex” into the troubled (inter)national mix. The message received, the ability to imagine change, self-sufficiency, new rights and duties, and an expanded and rich sphere of activity for women, depended of course on where one was standing.

References Works

in the

Woman’s Building Library24

Baisch, A. (1889) 1890. Aus der Töchterschule ins Leben. Ein allseitiger Berater für Deutschlands Jungfrauen (5th ed.). Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt. Klapp, A. (1892). Unsere Mädchen und ihre Aufgaben in der Gegenwart. L. Oehmigke’s Verlag. 23  “Auf den deutschen Reichstagen hatte die gefürstete Aebtissin Sitz und Stimme gleich dem gefürsteten Abt – und darunter litt die Würde der Versammlung am Wenigsten” (Otto, 1876, p. 259–260). 24  In cases of works that appeared in multiple editions, I adduced an edition that appeared in the preceding years as close to 1893 as I could locate, speculating that the most recent editions were likely those actually present at the Fair. The original date of publication is indicated in parentheses.

132 

L. TATLOCK

Lewald, F. (1887) 1888. Die Familie Darnier, 2nd ed. Otto Janke. Milde, C. S. J. (1869) 1890. Der deutschen Jungfrau Wesen und Wirken (9th ed.). C. F. Amelang. Morgenstern, L. (1888–1889, 1891). Die Frauen des 19. Jahrhunderts: biographische und culturhistorische Zeit- und Charactergemälde. 3 vols. Verlag der Deutschen Hausfrauenzeitung. Otto, L. (1876). Frauenleben im deutschen Reich: Erinnerungen aus der Vergangenheit mit Hinweis auf Gegenwart und Zukunft. Moritz Schäfer. Philadelphos, D. (1891). Zur Frauenfrage. Heutiger Stand der Frauenfrage mit besonderm Bezug auf Dr. C.  Pelmans Broschüre: Nervosität und Erziehung. Warum ist die Frau als Lehrerin und Arzt unentbehrlich? L. Oehmigke. von François, L. (1871) 1878. Die letzte Reckenburgerin. Otto Janke. von Hillern, W. (1869) 1886. Ein Arzt der Seele (4th ed.). Otto Janke. Wildermuth, O. (1859) 1892. Heimat der Frau. Union Deutsche Verlagsgesellschaft.

Other Works Cited Allen, A. T. (1991). Feminism and Motherhood in Germany, 1800-1914. Rutgers University Press. Anderson, B. (2006). Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism. Verso. Anon. (1892a). Die erste öffentliche Versammlung des Deutschen Frauen-­ Komittee’s zur Beschickung der Columbus-Weltausstellung in Chicago 1893. Frauen-Reich: Deutsche Hausfrauen-Zeitung, 22(19), 244–245. Anon. (1892b). Die Frauen und die Columbus-Weltausstellung in Chicago. Frauen-Reich: Deutsche Hausfrauen-Zeitung, 20(19), 223. Anon. (1894). Unsere Weltausstellung: Eine Beschreibung der Columbischen Weltausstellung in Chicago, 1893. Fred Klein Company. Boes, T. (2012). Formative Fictions: Nationalism, Cosmopolitanism and the Bildungsroman. Cornell University Press. Clarke, E. E., comp. (1893). List of Books Sent by Home and Foreign Committees to the Library of the Woman’s Building. World’s Columbian Exposition. Correll, H. (1894). Frauenarbeiten. In Amtlicher Bericht über die Weltausstellung in Chicago, 1893 (pp. 1253–1263). Reichsdruckerei. Elliott, M. H. (1893). Art and Handicraft in the Woman’s Building of the World’s Columbian Exposition, Chicago, 1893. Boussod, Valadon. Hausen, K. (2012). Die Polarisierung der “Geschlechtscharaktere”: Eine Spiegelung der Dissoziation von Erwerbs- und Familienleben. In Geschlechtergeschichte als Gesellschaftsgeschichte (pp.  19–49). Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht.

7  HOW TO BE A GERMAN WOMAN: MIXED MESSAGES AT THE COLUMBIAN… 

133

Joeres, R.-E. B. (1998). Respectability and Deviance: Nineteenth-Century German Women Writers and the Ambiguity of Representation. University of Chicago Press. Langlois, L.  K. (2010). Japan—Modern, Ancient, and Gendered at the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair. In T. J. Boisseau & A. M. Markwyn (Eds.), Gendering the Fair: Histories of Women and Gender at World’s Fairs (pp. 56–74). University of Illinois Press. Osborn, M. (1896). Die Frauen in der Litteratur und der Presse. Richard Taendler. Reagin, N.  R. (2007). Sweeping the German Nation: Domesticity and National Identity in Germany, 1870-1945. Cambridge University Press. Tatlock, L. (2016). Zwischen Bildungsroman und Liebesroman: Fanny Lewalds Die Erlöserin im literarischen Feld nach der Reichsgründung. Der Bildungsroman im literarischen Feld: Neue Perspektive auf eine Gatting. Ed. Elisabeth Böhm and Katrin Dennerlein. Studien und Texte zur Sozialgeschichte der Literatur 144. De Gruyter. 221-238. Tatlock, L. (2022). Jane Eyre in German Lands: The Import of Romance, 1848-1918. New Directions in German Studies 34. Bloomsbury. von Goethe, J. W. (1977). Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre. Goethes Werke (E. Trunz (Ed.), 9th ed.). Beck. von Hillern, W. (1906). Introd. In Ein Arzt der Seele (5th ed., pp. v–viii). Otto Janke. Wadsworth, S., & Wiegand, W. (2012). Right Here I See My Own Books: The Woman’s Building Library at the World’s Columbian Exposition. University of Massachusetts Press.

CHAPTER 8

The New Woman in the White City: Writing from Great Britain in the Woman’s Building Library Sarah Wadsworth

The tendency of the present day is to organize …. —Lady Ishbel Aberdeen, “Encouragement of Home Industries” (1894, 745).

Among roughly 600 British volumes in the Woman’s Building Library, a single book of fewer than 300 pages might easily have escaped notice, despite the bright red spine that was the only visible portion of its newly manufactured cover. Dwarfed by the imposing double- and triple-deckers popular in Victorian England, this book, authored by a woman named Beatrice Potter (1858–1943) and titled Co-operative Movement in Great Britain (1891), was the fruit of years of cutting-edge socioeconomic research. In fact, Potter, who published as Beatrice Webb after her

S. Wadsworth (*) Department of English, Marquette University, Milwaukee, WI, USA e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 M. Dalbello, S. Wadsworth (eds.), Global Voices from the Women’s Library at the World’s Columbian Exposition, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-42490-8_8

135

136 

S. WADSWORTH

marriage in 1892, was a key figure in the socialist movements of late Victorian and Edwardian Britain who later coauthored such works as The History of Trade Unionism (1894), A Constitution for the Socialist Commonwealth of Great Britain (1920), and The Decay of Capitalist Civilization (1923). Although inconspicuous, Potter’s contribution to the Library, in which she introduced the term collective bargaining, would have an impact far out of proportion to the book’s modest size. I begin with Potter’s text because its emphasis on the power of collectivity speaks to the British contribution to the Woman’s Building Library writ large. In this chapter I foreground the role of organizing and networking to explore the collection as both a process that unfolded through the two years leading up to the Fair and the product of a pivotal moment in women’s history on the cusp of transatlantic modernity. I first introduce the women who assembled Great Britain’s literature exhibit to consider how their methods and priorities shaped the collection. I then turn to the collection itself to examine its spatial, topical, and temporal contours. Stretching back centuries while anticipating the decades ahead, the British collection consolidated a canon of early English women’s writing even as it made space for the emerging New Woman. In doing so, the British exhibit helped institutionalize women’s literature while fostering the kinds of transatlantic networks that would aid women’s pursuit of progress on an international stage.

Forming the British Collection When, in her role as president of the Board of Lady Managers, Bertha Palmer traveled to Europe to promote the not-yet-completed Woman’s Building, a goal critical to her mission was the initiation of women’s committees all across Europe to organize international exhibits. She hoped to catalyze this process through the support of influential women in each country she visited. To that end, through the assistance of the U.S.  Ambassador to Great Britain, in London she met with Princess Christian of Schleswig-Holstein (1846–1923), the third of Queen Victoria’s five daughters, known before her marriage as Princess Helena. While Queen Victoria identified closely with prevailing notions of domesticity and cultivated her public image as devoted wife and mother, four of her daughters, including Princess Christian, advocated women’s rights (Baird, 2016, p. 397). Among other efforts, Princess Christian encouraged medicine as a suitable career for women and in 1887 became president of the British Nurses Association (Baird, 2016, p. 437). Now in her 47th year, she

8  THE NEW WOMAN IN THE WHITE CITY: WRITING FROM GREAT… 

137

assumed the presidency of Great Britain’s Committee on Women’s Work, which, as Sir Henry Trueman Wood, Secretary of the Royal Commission for the Chicago Exhibition, noted had “full control of all the arrangements of the Women’s Section” and a grant from the British Royal Commission “for the purpose of defraying the expenses” (Wood, 1893, p. xi). By March 1892, committee members “[had] been selected to superintend the representation of the work of English women at the Exposition, and to co-operate with the Board of Lady Managers” (“England at the World’s Fair”, 1892, p. 8). By the year’s end, Millicent Garrett Fawcett (1847–1929) reported, the committee, which ultimately consisted of 30 women (including Fawcett) and a secretary, “endeavoured […] to carry out the desire expressed to them by Mrs. Potter Palmer, when she addressed them in London [the previous] summer and explained that it was the wish of the Board of Lady Managers to gather together at Chicago a record of what women had done” (1893, p. 396). Mary Lockwood, member-at-large of the Board of Lady Managers, described it as “a committee of power” (“Work of the Board of Lady Managers” 1893, p. 25), and indeed it was: 19 of the women had titles, and members had substantial experience in the areas they had been appointed to oversee (Fig.  8.1). Two had met with Palmer in London: Lady Ishbel Aberdeen (1857–1939), who would become the driving force behind the creation of an Irish Village at the Exposition where traditional handicrafts made by Irish women could be purchased (Eagle, 1894, p.  743), and Baroness Angela Georgina Burdett-Coutts (1814–1906), whose wide-ranging philanthropies included promoting practical education for women. Several were published authors whose books would be shelved in the Woman’s Building Library alongside Queen Victoria’s published journals about her life in the Highlands: these author-organizers included Fawcett, author of Political Economy for Beginners (1889a) and Some Eminent Women of Our Time (1889b); Annie Allnutt Brassey (1839–1887), author of two volumes of travel writing; and Alice Mary [Mrs. J.  E. H]. Gordon (1854–1929), author of Decorative Electricity, with a Chapter on Fire Risks (1891). Politically, committee members held diverging views on the Woman Question, with Fawcett and Lady Somerset, the newly elected president of the British Women’s Temperance Association, embracing suffrage, while Lady Aberdeen held a gradualist position that identified her as a moderate  (Strong-Boag, 2014, pp. 135–140). Others aligned with the Queen in opposition to it. After the Exposition, Burdett-Coutts would graciously acknowledge the work

138 

S. WADSWORTH

Fig. 8.1  Members of the Committee on Women’s Work. Official Catalogue of the British Section (xxiv)

of her subcommittee, expressing “indebtedness to the small Committee of Ladies who have been with me in the general organization requisite to set on foot all inquiries [into women’s philanthropical work requested by Princess Christian]” and gratitude for their “intimate knowledge of philanthropic work [… ,] large amount of time and labour[, and] invaluable assistance” (1893, p. vii). At an October 1892 meeting of the Board of Lady Managers, Palmer, who “deplored any hint of suffrage or radicalism” (Strong-Boag, 2014, p.  142), noted that “the members of the English committee […] have been chosen with singular discretion”; she praised their expertise, affirming, “each chairman is a power in herself, as well as perfect mistress of her own line of work” (1894, p. 23). Such specialized knowledge was crucial, as general committee members would head up a raft of subcommittees through which each exhibit would be realized (Wood, 1893, p. xi). At its meeting on 3 March 1892, the committee had “assigned charge of various branches of women’s exhibits,” including Irish and Scottish home exhibits, philanthropy, education, hospitals and nursing, and women’s art. Ultimately, it also supervised subcommittees devoted to fine arts,

8  THE NEW WOMAN IN THE WHITE CITY: WRITING FROM GREAT… 

139

handicrafts, lace, needlework, and literature. The latter, led by Alice Mary [Mrs. J. E. H.] Gordon, oversaw the British contribution to the Woman’s Building Library (Wood, 1893, p. 431). The official catalogue of the British Royal Commission indicates that the Literature subcommittee comprised, in addition to Gordon, Mary Augusta [Mrs. Humphrey] Ward (1851–1920), Lucy Lane [Mrs. W. K.] Clifford (1846–1929), and two additional members, Mrs. Green and Miss Kingsley, who were almost certainly Alice Stopford Green (1847–1929) and Rose Georgina Kingsley (1845–1925), with Miss Gayford (first name unidentified) serving as Honorable Secretary. In a letter to the Times, published on 5 January 1893, Gordon mentions two additional committee members: scientist Agnes Clerke (1842–1907) and novelist Charlotte Yonge (1823–1901), a pairing that may have been intended to strike a balance between women’s prominence as readers and writers of novels and the desire to gather a wide array of materials, including women’s under-­ recognized scientific contributions.1 The committee lost no time in gathering books: in June 1892, just three months after the general committee’s formation, the World’s Columbian Exposition Illustrated II announced that “the first consignment of books from abroad have arrived.” The shipment consisted of four books on religion by Constance Howell, who enclosed a letter “saying she had been requested by an auxiliary of the Board of Lady Managers to contribute the writings to the library of women’s books” (World’s Columbian Exposition Illustrated II, 85). Three of the books—A Biography of Jesus (1883), The Afterlife of the Apostles (1884), and A History of the Jews (1885)—were juveniles bearing the subtitle Written for Young Freethinkers; the fourth was A More Excellent Way (1888), an autobiographical novel with socialist themes (Hapgood, 1996, pp. 44–46). In her letter to the Times, Gordon appealed broadly “for any information or suggestion as to old books of women that are out of print, and for the gift of any books on scientific or educational subjects, and for the loan of any manuscripts of celebrated women, or autograph letters.” The Library was to house “the best books written by women of all nations,” and members of the Literature committee were “anxious that English women’s writings 1  In identifying “Miss Kingsley,” I have relied on Lundberg (2003) for a chronicle of Rose Kingsley’s activities at this time and Frank (2005) for an account of her cousin Mary Henrietta Kingsley. I am greatly indebted to Talia Schaffer for pointing me to Rose Kingsley. For Gordon’s involvement in this committee, see Gooday (2008), 187.

140 

S. WADSWORTH

should be well represented.” To encourage a diversity of topics, she added, “fiction has been limited to 100 novels and about 25 stories” (1893, p. 8). Members of the Literature subcommittee were well situated for the task of collecting, documenting, and organizing such materials. Ward, whose novel Robert Elsmere (1888) had made a splash a few years earlier—Lady Aberdeen reportedly “devoured” it (Strong-Boag, 2014, p.  120)—was industrious, public-spirited, well-known, and highly respectable: in a chapter titled “Respectable Genius: 1890-1900,” John Sutherland, her modern biographer, writes, “the dominant tone of Mrs. Humphrey Ward’s mind and conduct in the 1890s was one of deafening ‘Respectability.’ Appearance—or ‘what people will think’—was her fetish” (1990, p. 191). With reference to the period 1889–92, Ward’s daughter Janet Penrose Trevelyan observed that while “[u]p to this point [Ward] had hardly taken any part in London committees,” “public work […] was to claim henceforth […] a large share of [her] life” (1923, p. 81). Looking back, Fawcett would write that although she questioned the sincerity of women who opposed suffrage, she made “an exception” for Ward. In Fawcett’s estimation, Ward “was so constituted as to be able to believe at one and the same time that women were fundamentally incapable of taking a useful part in politics, but that she herself was an exception to the rule, for she took a deep interest in the whole political life of her country as it developed before her, and sought, both by speech and by writing, often with considerable effect, to influence its direction” (1924, p. 123). A close friend of Ward’s, Clifford was the widow of mathematician William Kingdon Clifford (Chisholm, 2002, p. 125); after his death, she had become widely known as a novelist, well-regarded for her sympathetic characters and gentle humor (Meyer, 1894, pp. 136–137), as evidenced in her novel Aunt Anne (1892), one of three books she authored that would be sent to Chicago. A writer even before widowhood, Clifford regularly held literary salons that drew such prominent figures as Leslie Stephen, Frederick Macmillan, Henry James, and Vernon Lee [Violet Paget] (Demoor & Chisholm, 1999, pp.  12–13). A renowned historian in her own right, Alice Stopford Green was the widow of John Richard Green, a clergyman and historian who had strongly influenced Ward. In the spring of 1891, she had delivered a series of lectures (as had Beatrice Potter) at University Hall, a settlement Ward established to promote “an improved popular teaching of the Bible and the history of religion” adapted to “the needs of the present” (Trevelyan, 1923, pp.  81–87). While the lectures would develop into her two-volume study Town Life in the Fifteenth

8  THE NEW WOMAN IN THE WHITE CITY: WRITING FROM GREAT… 

141

Century (1894), her biography Henry the Second (1892) was among those chosen to represent British women’s writing in Chicago. Like Clifford, Green was a popular, well-connected literary hostess (“Alice Stopford Green” n.p.; “Alice Stopford Green”, 1929, p. 6); she was also a public intellectual and “writer-activist” who would make her mark in the movement for Irish independence (Ní Bheacháin and Mitchell, 2020, pp. 78, 80–81). Rose Kingsley, a daughter of Charles Kingsley and sister of the novelist Lucas Malet (Mary St. Leger Kingsley Harrison), had published volumes of travel writing and juvenile histories and would go on to publish books on gardening and French art (Lundberg, 2003, 33). Agnes Clerke was a celebrated astronomer and classicist—visitors to the library in the Woman’s Building could find her Familiar Studies in Homer (1892) next to The System of the Stars (1890) and A Popular History of Astronomy in the Nineteenth Century (1893). Charlotte Yonge authored many popular works of fiction and history for young people, including The Daisy Chain (1888) and The Heir of Redclyffe (1891). All these women except Kingsley were represented in the display of British women’s writing by books they had published.2 Ranging from novels to children’s stories to history to literary criticism to technical and scientific works, their contributions fall neatly into place within the ordered eclecticism of the Woman’s Building Library.

Displaying the British Collection The women’s library was designed to showcase books as objects for an ambulatory audience of fairgoers. Book arts on display included fine bindings in embroidered velvet and tooled leather by Helen Bayly, Susanna Firth, Sarah T. Prideaux, and other British women; original illustrations by Kate Greenaway, Julia Pocock, and others; and three fine editions of Dame Julianna Berners’s (b. 1388) Boke of St. Albans (Weimann, 1981, pp. 372, 375). Pride of place went to autographs and manuscripts, which appeared “in cases in the centre of the room” (Roberts-Austen, 1893, p. 152): these included writings by  Frances Burney, Maria Edgeworth, Jane Austen, Charlotte Brontë, George Eliot, and Elizabeth Gaskell (Weimann, 1981, 2  Although Rose Kingsley’s publications are not listed among those in the Woman’s Building Library, the British collection did indlude two novels by her sister, Lucas Malet, and a volume of letters and reminiscences by her father, Charles Kingsley, edited by her mother, Frances Eliza Greenfell Kingsley.

142 

S. WADSWORTH

p. 375), a selection of texts from which the outlines of a canon of British women writers clearly emerge. Consolidating this canon, Helen Blackburn, suffragist and editor of the Englishwoman’s Review, curated a collection of engravings and photographs of women writers (Fawcett, 1893, p. 398), featuring Burney, Edgeworth, Austen, Mary Lamb, Sarah Trimmer, Anna Laetitia Barbauld, Mary Russell Mitford, Letitia Elizabeth Landon, Jane Walsh Carlyle, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Charlotte Brontë, Gaskell, Eliot, Christina Rosetti, and many others. Photographs of Ward and Clifford completed this gallery of celebrated British women writers (Fawcett, 1893, pp. 460–461). Like the portraits, the manuscripts intermixed living writers with historical figures. In a letter of 19 March 1892, Palmer had written to Ward (with similar appeals to other popular writers): “As one of the most prominent women of the present day, I believe you will be interested in the plans and aims of the Board of Lady Managers […], and I venture to hope that we may be fortunate enough to secure your active cooperation.” She included “a few circulars” regarding “the scope of our work and our wishes in relation to this great undertaking” and requested: In this connection we hope to display all the original manuscripts of the great books that have been written by women, and I write to ask if it would be possible for you to allow us to exhibit “Robert Elsmere” as it appeared from your pen. If you should decide to allow this to be done, I beg that you will communicate with the commission of English women recently appointed to take charge of the exhibit of women’s work in England. (1892)

In this way, Palmer aided the subcommittee’s efforts by encouraging renowned women writers to lend their manuscripts. In turn, these authors’ publications populated the Library’s shelves. In rare instances (notably that of Austen), single titles appeared in multiple editions, with recent and reprinted editions attesting to their enduring popularity. Altogether, Fawcett summarized, “the sub-section on Literature includes a select library of 600 volumes from among those which Englishwomen have added to the literature of their country, and also some rare first editions and some very interesting manuscripts of books and music” (1893, p. 398).3 3  The disparity between the 600 volumes Fawcett reports and the approximately 500 titles indexed in Clarke’s List of Books (1893) can be accounted for by the presence of numerous multivolume works.

8  THE NEW WOMAN IN THE WHITE CITY: WRITING FROM GREAT… 

143

The position assigned to Great Britain’s collection drew criticism, however, as it did not align with a sense of their nation’s global prominence and the centrality of Britain to the larger project of representing women’s writing. Reporting on the British exhibits, Florence Roberts-Austen, who had been placed in charge of decorating the Woman’s Building’s vestibule (Fawcett, 1893, p.  397), lamented, “near the Congress Room is the Library, where our English books will be found in, I am sorry to say, rather a dark corner” (1893, p. 152). The collection’s physical presence was less imposing than its organizers might have wished for another reason as well: the U.S. contribution was roughly eight times as large. Scanning shelf labels and spines of books, visitors would have readily discerned that the Library consisted predominantly of English-language texts and, moreover, that most of these volumes lined shelves bearing the names of North American states. The effect of this arrangement, if not the intention, was the upending of a cultural hierarchy that historically had subordinated American literature to that of Britain as a small and recent offshoot of an august tradition—as Burdett-Coutts put it, “the poetry and prose of past centuries, and the first achievements of Englishmen in the dim twilight of scientific discovery, are a common heritage of both nations” (1893, p. xxi). Now, in the context of a library assembled by women and centering women’s texts, a hierarchy that had often been challenged in manifestos by American men defending their nation’s cultural status and independence was abruptly and materially inverted owing to a kind of home-court advantage on the part of the Board of Lady Managers.4 This inversion did not pass unnoticed and even prompted push-back against what may have been taken as an implicit slight. In fact, as an English-language corpus displayed in a largely English-speaking nation with British colonial roots, Great Britain’s collection would have had a higher profile than other collections its size in the eyes of many visitors by virtue of its historical and cultural ties to the United States—ties that may have compensated for any perceived insufficiencies of size, location, or lighting. Such was the view of Burdett-Coutts, who suggested that the contributions of all the United States descended from British literature, with which it shared a common heritage, while contributing to it through a joint inheritance. Continuity existed between them on the basis of a 4  The commingling of British and American texts is evidenced in the exhibit of the Women’s Literary Department of the 1884 New Orleans World Fair, an important precursor to the 1893 Women’s Library. See Adams and Howard (n.d.).

144 

S. WADSWORTH

common language, religion, and literature, and derived, she suggested, from shared racial and ethnic roots. In the past fifty years the genius of both, sometimes divided, sometimes intermingled, has kept the light burning. To the sacred lamp of literature American authors have added a peculiar radiance of their own, and the field of discovery and invention has been illuminated by the splendid achievements of American research. And as in these two great branches of progress we are at once inheritors and fellow-workers, so the philanthropic work of Englishwomen, commingled by practice and example with the work of American women, must, I feel, have an absorbing interest for those who, like ourselves, have drawn their national being from the Anglo-Saxon race. (1893, p. xxi)

In a paper delivered at the Congress on Women, May Rogers reciprocated the sentiment from an American perspective, declaring, “while foreign fiction may have an emotional and artistic fascination, we cherish our English novels for more reasons than those of entertainment. It is the history of the manners and customs and daily life of the English speaking people here and in the mother country” (1894, p. 589). If Burdett-Coutts reveals something of the workings of cultural imperialism, Rogers indicates how the racial, ethnic, and linguistic identities of a white majority were reasserted and solidified through cultural allegiance to the Anglo-­ Saxon “mother country.”5 Even as the United States’ historical roots in British colonialism underlay this allegiance, colonialism and imperialism in the recent past and present shaped the collection in other ways. Unsurprisingly, only a few of the British titles were published outside the metropolitan center—a text on nursing and one on education published in Christchurch, New Zealand and two books published in Madras, India (see Chap. 11). In titles devoted to travel, however, one finds legion references to distant parts of the Empire. Alongside accounts of European leisure trips—The High Alps in Winter, or Mountaineering in Search of Health (1883), From the Pyrenees to the Channel in a Dog-Cart (1887), Untrodden Peaks and Unfrequented Valleys, a Midsummer Ramble in the Dolomites (1890), and A Girl in the 5  In another example of the complex interplay between British and U.S. texts in the Woman’s Building Library, the U.S. portion included texts about or set in Britain, including True Love: A Story of English Domestic Life (1891) by African American novelist Sarah E. Farro (Gerzina, 2018).

8  THE NEW WOMAN IN THE WHITE CITY: WRITING FROM GREAT… 

145

Karpathians (1891), for example—and a cluster of touristic guides to less-­ traveled parts of Eastern Europe, such as Untrodden Paths in Roumania (1888), The Land beyond the Forest: Facts, Figures, and Fancies from Transylvania (1888), and Sketches of Life and Character in Hungary (1892), perched volumes directly born of British Imperial projects across Asia, Africa, and the Americas. Some were written by women who traveled overseas in connection with their husbands’ military or diplomatic careers: Sunshine and Storm in the East, or, Cruises to Cyprus and Constantinople (1888) and A Voyage in the “Sunbeam”: Our Home on the Ocean for Eleven Months (1878) by Lady Brassey; Our Home in Cyprus (1880) by Mary Esme Gwendoline Stevenson; Our Viceregal Life in India (1890) and My Canadian Journal, 1872-8. Extracts from My Letters Home Written While Lord Dufferin Was Governor-General (1891) by Harriot Georgina Blackwood; and Station Life in New Zealand (1870) by Lady Mary Anne Barker. Some record the violence of colonialism: for example, A Journal of the Disasters in Affghanistan, 1841-2 (1843) by Lady Florentia Wynch Sale and My Three Years in Manipur and Escape from the Recent Mutiny (1891) by Ethel St. Clair Grimwood. These titles, together with settler-­ colonialist narratives such as Isabella Bird’s A Lady’s Life in the Rocky Mountains (1879), Mary Ann Carey-Hobson’s At Home in the Transvaal (1884), The Story of an African Farm (1883) by South African novelist Olive Schreiner, and Mrs. T. B. H. Stenhouse’s The Tyranny of Mormonism, or An Englishwoman in Utah (1888), map the dimensions of British imperial interests in the later nineteenth century from the perspective of (mostly) upper-class English women. Some, like Mary Carpenter’s Letters … on Female Education in India, Prison Discipline and the Necessity for a Factory Act in India (1877), advocated reform or sought political intervention to ameliorate observed injustices. Only one, however— Kripabai Satthianadhan’s novel Saguna (1891), the focus of Chap. 11 in this volume—does so from the perspective of the colonized. Marked by many such geographical reference points, the collection reflected British writers’ sense of their nation’s self-proclaimed place in a world contested and carved up by competing European powers: a position ironically at odds with the unobtrusive, unassuming, dimly lit space it occupied in the Woman’s Building Library.

146 

S. WADSWORTH

Interpreting the British Collection In their report for the Royal Commission (1893), the Literature subcommittee divided the collection into ten clusters—rare books, books by members of the royal family, and eight groupings loosely defined by genre: Novels; Poetry; Juvenile Books; Historical, Biographical, and Miscellaneous Books; Scientific and Miscellaneous Books; Pamphlets; Travels; and Music. Two of these categories, Pamphlets and Music, were excluded from the global shelf-list prepared in Chicago; from this exclusion, we may conclude that these materials were displayed separately, perhaps on standards or in folios. Two others have a “catch-all” quality (“Historical, Biographical, and Miscellaneous” and “Scientific and Miscellaneous”), while the remaining four—Novels, Poetry, Juvenile Books, and Travels—cohere as well-­ defined genres, signaling their recognizability and importance as cohesive subdivisions of British literature (Fig. 8.2). In selecting which genres to differentiate and which to aggregate, the Literature committee was making important determinations about their reading of the collection. From the succinct, specific subject headings we can conclude that novels, poetry, juveniles, and travel narratives formed its pillars. As enumerated in the Royal Commission’s Official Catalogue, the collection included the work of 34 poets, among them contemporaries such as Michael Field, Christina Rosetti, and E.  Nesbit; 32 writers for

Fig. 8.2  Categorization of selected genres in the British collection (Official Catalogue, composite illustration)

8  THE NEW WOMAN IN THE WHITE CITY: WRITING FROM GREAT… 

147

children; and 23 travel writers. The largest category by a substantial margin, however, comprises fiction: the Official Catalogue lists 70  writers, many of whom authored more than one title in the collection. Despite the subcommittee’s published intention to limit the number of novels to 100, the count comes in at about 135 titles.6 The dominance of fiction is unsurprising. In her World’s Congress paper, “The Novel as the Educator of the Imagination,” Rogers cited the June 1893 issue of The Nineteenth Century as stating that the “per cent of fiction in the Battersea free libraries of England was four-fifths of the circulation” (1894, p. 587). In contrast, the aggregated categories consisted of a great variety of works, some of which stand out as addressing topics unusual for women to write about at this time. These works include scientific and social-scientific research by Agnes M. Clerke, of the Literature Subcommittee, and her sister and fellow astronomer Ellen M.  Clerke, entomologist Eleanor Anne Ormerod, botanist Marianne North, and Egyptologist Amelia Ann Blanford Edwards, along with monographs on political economy by Fawcett, Webb, and others. Table 8.1, which presents the number of titles in the broadest Library of Congress classes, shows that British women’s contributions are also well represented in historical fields, with philosophy, religion, and social and behavioral sciences being the next largest categories. Although few texts appear in the Education category, Language and Literature includes a large number of texts for juvenile readers, many of which served to educate young people. In her introduction in the Official Catalogue, Fawcett noted another distinctive aspect of the British books that, like the size of the collection relative to that of the United States, seemed disproportionate: the overwhelming preponderance of more recent books. Fawcett, who had the task of interpreting the reports submitted by the Committee on Women’s Work and its various subcommittees, attributed the asymmetry to women’s lack of access to education and insufficient intellectual encouragement in earlier times. As a result, she explained, “a very large proportion of the books in this sub-section will, therefore, be found to belong to the present century” (1893, p. 398). The fact that the chronological distribution of texts peaks in the five-year period ending in 1892 can be accounted 6  I arrived at this number by cross-referencing the list of authors under the heading “Novels” in the Official Catalogue with the List of Books (1893) prepared by Edith Clarke. In instances requiring further information to determine which of an authors’ books were novels, I relied on Library of Congress cataloguing data extracted from WorldCat.

148 

S. WADSWORTH

Table 8.1  Books from Great Britain enumerated by Library of Congress Main Classes Library of Congress Main Classes

Number of titles

P—LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE D—WORLD HISTORY & HISTORY OF EUROPE, ASIA, AFRICA, ETC. B—PHILOSOPHY, PSYCHOLOGY, RELIGION H—SOCIAL SCIENCES T—TECHNOLOGY R—MEDICINE N—FINE ARTS Q—SCIENCE L—EDUCATION G—GEOGRAPHY, ANTHROPOLOGY, RECREATION C—AUXILIARY SCIENCES OF HISTORY S—AGRICULTURE Z—BIBLIOGRAPHY, LIBRARY SCIENCE, INFORMATION RESOURCES F—LOCAL HISTORY OF THE AMERICAS E—HISTORY OF THE AMERICAS M—MUSIC AND BOOKS ON MUSIC V—NAVAL SCIENCE A—GENERAL WORKS J—POLITICAL SCIENCE K—LAW U—MILITARY SCIENCE TOTAL

286 73 26 24 18 16 14 14 7 7 5 4 4 2 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 N = 503

Data in this table were derived from Clarke’s List of Books (1893) and indexed with Library of Congress classifications provided to the author by Marija Dalbello from research completed at Rutgers University and supplemented by the author using WorldCat. It does not include texts categorized as “Pamphlets” or “Music” in the Official Catalogue of the British Section. 

for in several ways in addition to increased access to education. These include the expansion of the market for books; improved technologies that reduced costs associated with publishing; increased opportunities for women to write and publish their work; and the relative ease of collecting recent works. In addition, the presence of such a large number of recent titles suggests a deliberate effort to profile current books and living authors, an effort that was undoubtedly facilitated by publishers and authors as a means of promoting their works. Regardless of the reasons, however, one consequence of the marked escalation is that the British

8  THE NEW WOMAN IN THE WHITE CITY: WRITING FROM GREAT… 

149

collection simultaneously extends diachronically along a timeline of women’s literary history that reached back hundreds of years and synchronically across an increasingly broad cross-section of the contemporaneous literary marketplace. The effect, from a literary-historical vantage point, is that the overrepresentation of recent books contributes substantially to a defining aspect of the collection: evidently, Great Britain’s contribution was a product of the fin de siècle in more ways than one. Like the manuscripts, autographs, and portraits of authors, the earliest texts, beginning with Dorothy Pakington, Mary Astell, and Anne Finch in the seventeenth century and including Elizabeth Carter, Mary Latter, Elizabeth Griffith, Hannah More, Clara Reeve, Frances Sheridan, and Mary Wollstonecraft in the eighteenth, point to the role of the British collection in canon-formation. The Literature Subcommittee fashioned British women’s literary history through a museum-like display that helped to build consensus around which texts merited admiration and preservation. The collection thus marks a significant milestone in the construction of British literary history. Moreover, nearly a century before feminist scholars published the revisionist histories that would come to define the field, these women gathered numerous volumes of literary history, including studies of individual authors (Homer, Shakespeare, Dante, Cervantes, Madame de Sévigné, Mary Lamb, George Sand, Emily Brontë, George Eliot, Robert Browning), literary biographies (on Austen, Charlotte Brontë, Charles Kingsley, Robert Browning, Jane Welsh Carlyle), and even a pioneering literary history of an entire genre (Mrs. E. M. Field’s The Child and His Book). Within the largest category of texts, many recent novels anticipate or align with the progressive, first-wave-feminist “New Woman” fiction of the later 1890s and early twentieth century. Displayed on the shelves of the Woman’s Building Library was Schreiner’s The Story of an African Farm, one of the first New Woman novels. Other writers in the British collection associated with New Woman fiction are Vernon Lee (Violet Paget), Lucy Clifford (of the Literature Subcommittee), Lily Dougall, Isabella Ford, Lanoe Falconer (Mary Elizabeth Hawker), Lucas Malet  (Mary St. Leger Kingsley Harrison), Emily Lawless, and Ménie Muriel Dowie. As literary historians have observed, many nineteenth-­ century women used literature as a platform for advocating for women’s rights and participating in debates from which they were otherwise barred. Moreover, as Lynne Hapgood observes, “Novels […] were readily welcomed as bodies of expertise, investing individual authority in the responses

150 

S. WADSWORTH

of their readers. There was no doubt—on the writer’s or the reader’s part—that novels inserted themselves into the political and social process and exerted influence over it” (Hapgood, 1996, p. 43; see also Wadsworth & Wiegand, 2012, Ch. 5). Unfortunately, the backlash against women writers who participated in such debates, however indirectly, could be severe. In a paper she delivered at the Congress of Women, Annie Nathan Meyer objected, “we find the men critics showering anathemas at the authors of ‘Robert Elsmere’ and ‘John Ward, Preacher,’ for bringing into the domain of a novel serious problems and non-emotional material that properly belong rather to the domain of philosophy or theology. […]” (1894, p.  136). Like the discourse of New Womanhood itself, which emerged in the United States in the early 1890s, circulated in the work of a few forward-thinking American women represented in the Woman’s Building Library, and crossed the Atlantic a year later via the North American Review (Livermore, 1891, p.  124; Wadsworth & Wiegand, 2012, pp.  68, 122; Nelson, 2001, p.  9), Meyer’s statement reflects the way fin-de-siécle women’s writing resisted such criticism while simultaneously drawing from and reinforcing transatlantic networks of ideas and action. * * * The report of the Literature subcommittee, with its classification of authors by subject matter and genre, preserves a static image of how its members made sense holistically of the books they had gathered. As this chapter has shown, however, research into the authors, texts, and organizers who brought them together reveals a complementary backdrop of movement, change, growth, and connection. While the display of books was temporary, and the room and the Building itself would be demolished after the Fair, many of the ideas, individuals, and organizations that contributed to it flourished, made contact, shared influences, and continued to evolve. In Chicago, thousands of women visited the Library, viewed surrounding exhibits, and participated in congresses. At one such event, Lady Aberdeen was voted into office as first president of the International Council of Women, considered a safer choice than the more radical Lady Somerset (Strong-Boag, 2014, p. 142), whom Palmer had met two years earlier in London. Other British women gave papers at the World’s Congress of Representative Women: Lady Somerset, who spoke on the British Women’s Temperance Association, Florence Fenwick Miller, on

8  THE NEW WOMAN IN THE WHITE CITY: WRITING FROM GREAT… 

151

the Franchise League and the Royal British Nurses Association, the Countess of Aberdeen, on the Women’s Liberal Federation of Scotland and “Woman as an Actual Force in Politics,” and Helen Blackwell on “The Progress of Women in England.” Many of the women represented in the collection of British texts, including Fawcett, were in the midst of long and distinguished careers with their greatest contributions still ahead of them. Others, such as Potter (Webb), would go on to have remarkable careers that in 1893 had just begun. It seems fitting to conclude by noting that 33  years after the Columbian Exposition, when Britain’s largest library dedicated to women’s studies was officially founded, it arose from the Fawcett Society. Originally called the Women’s Suffrage Committee, this organization was renamed in 1953 in honor of the Women’s Suffrage Committee’s longtime leader, Dame Millicent Garrett Fawcett, whose letters constituted its first archival collection (Murphy, 2016, n.p.). No less fitting, in 2002, after a peripatetic existence, this library, now called the Women’s Library, found a permanent home at the London School of Economics, an institution cofounded by Webb (née Potter)  (Murphy, 2016; Reed, 2019), whose first book, an enduring testament to the power of collectivity, had crossed the Atlantic a century earlier to join in the representation of her countrywomen on the shelves of the Woman’s Building Library. Acknowledgments  I would like to thank Wayne A.  Wiegand, who generously donated his original research notes on the Woman’s Building Library to me; Marija Dalbello, who created and shared a database of titles in the Woman’s Building Library with corresponding bibliographical data; Marc Black for assistance with spreadsheets and data visualization; and Sabrina Black and Melissa Ganz for valuable comments on drafts of this chapter.  Thanks also go to the Institute for Women's Leadership and Office of Research and Innovation at Marquette University for supporting this project through research grants. 

References Works

in the

Woman’s Building Library

Barker, M. A. (1870). Station Life in New Zealand. Macmillan. Bird, I. (1879). A Lady’s Life in the Rocky Mountains (2nd ed.). John Murray. Brassey, A.  A. (1878). A Voyage in the “Sunbeam”: Our Home on the Ocean for Eleven Months. Longmans, Green and Co.

152 

S. WADSWORTH

Brassey, A. A. (1888). Sunshine and Storm in the East, or, Cruises to Cyprus and Constantinople. Longmans, Green. Carey-Hobson, M. A. (1884). At Home in the Transvaal. W. Swan Sonnenschein. Carpenter, M. (1877). Letters … on Female Education in India, Prison Discipline and the Necessity for a Factory Act in India. Printed for private circulation. Clerke, A. (1890). The System of the Stars. Longmans, Green andCo. Clerke, A. (1892). Familiar Studies in Homer. Longmans, Green and Co. Clerke, A. (1893). A Popular History of Astronomy in the Nineteenth Century (3rd ed.). A. C. Black. Clifford, L. L. [Mrs. W. K.]. (1892). Aunt Anne. Richard Bentley & Son. Dufferin, H. G. B. (1890). Our Viceregal Life in India. Chapman and Hall. Dufferin, H. G. B. (1891). My Canadian Journal, 1872-8. Extracts from My Letters Home Written While Lord Dufferin Was Governor-General. John Murray. Fawcett, M. G. (1889a). Political Economy for Beginners (7th ed.). Fawcett, M. G. (1889b). Some Eminent Women of Our Time. Macmillan. Gordon, A. M. [Mrs. J. E. H]. (1891). Decorative Electricity, with a Chapter on Fire Risks. Sampson Low, Marston, Searle, & Rivington. Green, A. S. (1892). Henry the Second. Macmillan. Grimwood, E.  S. C. (1891). My Three Years in Manipur and Escape from the Recent Mutiny. R. Bentley. Howell, C. (1883). A Biography of Jesus Written for Young Freethinkers. Freethought Publishing Co. Howell, C. (1884). The Afterlife of the Apostles Written for Young Freethinkers. Freethought Publishing Co. Howell, C. (1885). A History of the Jews Written for Young Freethinkers. Freethought Publishing Co. Howell, C. (1888). A More Excellent Way. Sonnenschein & Co. Potter, B. (1891). Co-operative Movement in Great Britain. George Allen & Unwin. Satthianadhan, K. (1891). Saguna: A Story of Native Christian Life. Lawrence Asylum Press. Schreiner, O. [Ralph Iron]. (1883). The Story of an African Farm. Stenhouse, T. B. H. [Mrs] (1888). The Tyranny of Mormonism, or An Englishwoman in Utah. S. Low, Marston, Searle & Rivington. Stevenson, M. E. G. (1880). Our Home in Cyprus (2nd ed.). Chapman and Hall. Ward, M. A. [Mrs. Humphrey]. (1888). Robert Elsmere. Macmillan and Co. Wynch Sale, F. (1843). A Journal of the Disasters in Affghanistan, 1841-2. John Murray. Yonge, C. (1888). The Daisy Chain. Macmillan. Yonge, C. (1891). The Heir of Redclyffe. Macmillan.

8  THE NEW WOMAN IN THE WHITE CITY: WRITING FROM GREAT… 

153

Other Works Cited Aberdeen, I. (1894). Encouragement of Home Industries. In M.  K. O.  Eagle (Ed.), The Congress of Women Held in the Woman’s Building, World’s Columbian Exposition, Chicago, U.S.A., 1893 (pp. 743–746). W. B. Conkey Co. Alice Stopford Green. (1929). Woman’s Leader and The Common Cause XXI, issue 18 [June 7], 6. Nineteenth Century Collections Online. Baird, J. (2016). Victoria the Queen: An Intimate Portrait of the Woman Who Ruled an Empire. Random House. Britannica, T. Editors of Encyclopaedia. (2022). Alice Stopford Green. Encyclopedia Britannica, May 26, 2022. Retrieved November 21, 2022, from https:// www.britannica.com/biography/Alice-­Stopford-­Green Burdett-Coutts, A. G. (1893). Preface. In E. Writers (Ed.), Woman’s Mission: A Series of Congress Papers on the Philanthropic Work of Women. S.  Low, Marston & Co. Chisholm, M. (2002). Such Silver Currents: The Story of William and Lucy Clifford, 1845-1929. The Lutterworth Press. Clarke, E. E., comp. (1893). List of Books Sent by Home and Foreign Committees to the Library of the Woman’s Building. World’s Columbian Exposition. Demoor, M., & Chisholm, M. (1999). Introduction: Towards Editing an E(xc)lusive Correspondence. In “Bravest of Women and Finest of Friends”: Henry James’s Letters to Lucy Clifford. University of Victoria. Eagle, M.  K. O. (Ed.). (1894). The Congress of Women Held in the Woman’s Building, World’s Columbian Exposition, Chicago, U.S.A., 1893. W. B. Conkey Co. England at the World’s Fair. (1892). Woman’s Standard. 8 April. Nineteenth Century Collections Online (Retrieved July 19, 2022). Fawcett, M.  G. (1893). Introduction—Women’s Work Committee. In Royal Commission for the Chicago Exposition. Official Catalogue of the British Section (pp. 395–400). William Clowes & Sons. Fawcett, M. G. (1924). What I Remember. T. Fisher Unwin. Gordon, A. (1893). Women-Authors and the Chicago Exhibition. Letter to the Editor. Times (London, England). 5 Jan. p. 8. Times Digital Archive. Hapgood, L. (1996). The Novel and Political Agency: Socialism and the Work of Margaret Harkness, Constance Howell and Clementina Black: 1888-1896. Literature and History, 5(2), 37. Livermore, M. A. (1891). The New Womanhood. The American Advocate of Peace and Arbitration, 53(5), 124. Lockwood, M. S. (1893). Work of the Board of Lady Managers. Woman’s Tribune. 25 January, p. 28. Meyer, A.  N. (1894). Woman’s Place in Letters. In M.  K. O.  Eagle (Ed.), The Congress of Women Held in the Woman’s Building, World’s Columbian Exposition, Chicago, U.S.A., 1893 (pp. 135–137). W. B. Conkey Co.

154 

S. WADSWORTH

Murphy, G. (2016). The Women’s Library at 90. Blog post. 15 June. Retrieved August 17, 2022, from https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/lsehistory/2016/06/15/ the-­womens-­library-­at-­90/ Nelson, C. C. (Ed.). (2001). A New Woman Reader: Fiction, Articles, and Drama of the 1890s. Broadview Press. Ní Bheacháin, C., & Mitchell, A. (2020). Alice Stopford Green and Vernon Lee: Salon Culture and Intellectual Exchange. Journal of Victorian Culture, 25(1), 77–94. Palmer, Bertha Honoré Letter to Mrs. Humphry Ward. (1892). 19 March. Chicago History Museum [CHS]. Vol. 13, Box 4, Board of Lady Managers. Palmer, B. H. (1894). The Growth of the Woman’s Building. In M. H. Elliott (Ed.), Art and Handicraft in the Woman’s Building of the World’s Columbian Exposition, Chicago, 1893 (pp. 17–32). Rand, McNally & Company. Reed, H. (2019). Meet Beatrice Webb—LSE Co-founder and Social Reformer. Blog post. 22 Jan. Retrieved August 17, 2022, from https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/ lsehistory/2019/01/22/beatrice-­webb/ Roberts-Austen, F. M. (1893). Art. II—Chicago Exhibition: The British Section of the Women’s Building. Englishwoman’s Review. 15 July, pp. 151–154. Rogers, M. (1894). The Novel as the Educator of the Imagination. In M. K. O. Eagle (Ed.), The Congress of Women Held in the Woman’s Building, World’s Columbian Exposition, Chicago, U.S.A., 1893 (pp. 586–588). W. B. Conkey Co. Royal Commission. (1893). Official Catalogue of the British Section. London: William Clowes & Sons. Strong-Boag, V. (2014). Liberal Hearts and Coronets: The Lives and Times of Ishbel Marjoribanks Gordon and John Campbell Gordon, the Aberdeens. University of Toronto Press. Sutherland, J. (1990). Mrs. Humphry Ward: Eminent Victorian, Pre-eminent Edwardian. Clarendon Press. Trevelyan, J. P. (1923). The Life of Mrs. Humphry Ward. New York. Wadsworth, S., & Wiegand, W. A. (2012). Right Here I See My Own Books: The Woman’s Building Library at the World’s Columbian Exposition. University of Massachusetts Press. Weimann, J.  M. (1981). The Fair Women: The Story of the Woman’s Building, World’s Columbian Exposition, Chicago, 1893. Academy Chicago. Wood, H. T. (1893). General Introduction. In Royal Commission for the Chicago Exposition, Official Catalogue of the British Section (pp. v–xiv). William Clowes & Sons. World’s Columbian Exposition Illustrated II. (1892). June. 85. World’s Fair Letter. (1893). Woman’s Tribune 10 [5 Aug]: 136.

CHAPTER 9

The Norwegian Ideals of Modern Womanhood and Identity Construction through the Women’s Library Marianne Martens

The Woman’s Building at the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago included 161 books by about 60 Norwegian contributors, or about five percent of the total international collection. This chapter demonstrates how the Norwegian collection constructed a particular identity of Norwegian womanhood—one that combined traditional views on women with a bold, modern, feminist identity committed to women’s rights, suffrage, and unbounded creativity. While rooted in tradition, the books and related materials selected for this collection established the position of these Norwegian women writers as aspirational and committed to a new, egalitarian order. This chapter proceeds as follows: first, I provide a snapshot of women’s lives in Norway during the second half of the nineteenth century; next, I describe how I analyzed the collection. Finally,

M. Martens (*) School of Information, Kent State University, Kent, OH, USA e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 M. Dalbello, S. Wadsworth (eds.), Global Voices from the Women’s Library at the World’s Columbian Exposition, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-42490-8_9

155

156 

M. MARTENS

I present my findings on how this collection constructed the identity of a modern Norwegian woman, committed to equal rights and universal suffrage.

Context for the Norwegian Women’s Collection The exposition celebrated the 400th anniversary of Columbus arriving in America, but Leif Erikson’s presence on the continent before Columbus was a source of pride for Norwegian Americans (Peterson, 2011). Reportedly, Erickson’s journey was celebrated at the Exposition as a reminder that “he had preceded Columbus in the discovery of America” in an event staged by “a group of ‘Vikings’ … Norwegian seamen who had crossed the ocean in a ‘frail bark’ approximating a medieval Viking ship” on August 4, 1893 (Weimann, 1981, p. 559). The Viking show of force also applies to the Norwegian women’s collection, which, as I will demonstrate in this essay, was small but mighty, and written by women who pursued their goals with the tenacity of those would-be Vikings. By 1893, Norway’s women’s movement was fully in progress, and strong feminist threads connect the Norwegian collection. “Skuld,” a secret, invitation-only women’s discussion group (Moksnes, 1984) was a precursor to other Norwegian women’s rights organizations.1 Started in 1883 by Cecilie Thoresen, the first Norwegian woman permitted to take the “artium” exam for university admission in 1882, Skuld’s members were élite women of indirect influence, with marriage and family connections to liberal members of parliament, landowners, and academics. Member Mathilde Schjøtt (1844–1926), a critic in her own right, was married to an editor. Others in the group were yrkeskvinner (“career women”) who worked as telegraph ladies, seamstresses, and journalists, and one was a bookstore owner. Several, such as Jørgine Anna Sverdrup (Gina) Krog (1847–1916), began their careers as teachers.

1  In Norwegian, “skuld” has multiple meanings and connotations. According to Norwegian librarian Jorun Systad the word is connected to Norse mythology, in which the Norns represent the past, the present, and the future and decide the life course and length for every single being. Urðr represents the past, Verðandi the present, and Skuld the future (Systad, 2022).

9  THE NORWEGIAN IDEALS OF MODERN WOMANHOOD AND IDENTITY… 

157

From Skuld to Norsk Kvinnesaksforening to Kvinnestemmeretts Forening2 Norwegian feminists were inspired by the 1848 Women’s Rights Convention held in Seneca Falls, New York and the Dansk Kvindesamfund (Danish Women’s Society), formed in 1871. Skuld represented an initial effort to organize around gender equality. Krog had the idea of forming the Norsk Kvinnesaksforening (NKF) (Norwegian Women’s Rights Association) in 1884. Krog wanted to include men, as she believed that an organization focusing on women’s rights needed male allies. Even though it was Krog who approached state auditor and liberal member of parliament Hagbard Emanuel Berner and his wife Selma about creating this organization, by November 1884, Krog was preempted as NKF’s founding leader when Berner formed the NKF out of a network of families and friends with political connections, set the first agenda, and named himself its leader. While she may have missed the opportunity to lead NKF, Krog quickly rose as a central figure in the Norwegian Women’s Movement. The NKF journal, Nylænde (“New Frontiers”) was launched in November 1884, and Krog was appointed editor where she remained until her death in 1916. Berner opposed voting rights for women in the NKF. In response, in December 1885 Krog launched the Kvindestemmerettsforening (KSF) (Women’s Suffrage Association), which specifically addressed women’s political issues—including voting rights. This time, she excluded men. Krog was an unconventional figure for her time. On an 1880 trip to Bedford College, thirty-year-old Krog met Millicent Garrett Fawcett, leader of England’s National Union of Women’s Suffrage, who would greatly influence her. Following this trip, Krog dedicated the rest of her life to promoting women’s rights (Moksnes, 1984). Bound volumes of all 1892 and 1893 issues of Nylænde available digitally in the National Library include a range of content: short pieces of fiction; news about laws impacting women’s lives; updates on women’s and men’s wage discrepancies; practical information about classes in math, bookkeeping, and sewing offered for women; lists celebrating women who had passed the artium exam (and their grades); information about feminist activity from England, Finland, and the United States pointing to an international exchange of ideas; and most interesting for this chapter, 2  This section was  constructed largely from  Moksnes (1984) and  Haagensen (2020 in SNL), and others cited throughout.

158 

M. MARTENS

information about Chicagoudstillingen (“the Chicago Exposition”). The July 1892 issue announced that the NKF had been invited to participate, and volunteers were needed for a Norwegian committee. The unnamed author (likely Krog) stressed that this exposition was unusual because the organizers specifically sought to demonstrate the impact of women’s work around the world, and that efforts in both England and the United States were already underway. The NKF formed their committee but needed 2000 Norwegian crowns from parliament to participate—which was denied. In the November 1892 issue, an openly angry article (again likely by Krog) compares Norwegian efforts to those from Sweden. While the NKF did its best to provide worthy representation for Norwegian women’s work, clearly “the men’s committee in charge was not sufficiently aware of the importance of the Chicago Exposition in contrast with other world exhibits” (Nylænde November, 1892, p.  282). In contrast, the Swedish King and Queen had provided funding, indicating greater support for women’s work in the neighboring country, and the Swedish effort had been promoted in The Women’s Journal3 in Boston, praising Sweden as a model country for women’s rights. In response: To know what level a country has reached, you just have to look at where women stand in that country. Our country isn’t even going to be represented at this big international event. Apparently, compared to any other country, Norwegian women’s work just isn’t worthy of representation. It might be overstated to use an expression like “national shame,” but in this case, perhaps it is being used in the most correct way? (Nylænde November, 1892, p. 283)

I was unable to find evidence of how and where the Norwegian women eventually found funding, but they clearly attended. A small mention in the January 1, 1894, Nylænde under miscellaneous information states: “The Norwegian Women’s Rights Association received a beautifully-­ written thank you note from the Ladies Committee of the Women’s Building at the Chicago Exposition for its participation” (13). 3  The Women’s Journal was published by the National American Woman Suffrage Association and was edited by women’s rights activists and abolitionists, including Julia Ward Howe, Lucy Stone, Thomas Wentworth Higginson, and others. It was published from 1870 to 1917 (Harvard Library).

9  THE NORWEGIAN IDEALS OF MODERN WOMANHOOD AND IDENTITY… 

159

While nineteenth-century Norwegian women faced limited opportunities and power, a burst of feminist activity in the decade preceding the World Columbian Exposition would change that. Figure 9.1 presents a timeline for Norwegian women’s organizations in the decades before and after the 1893 exposition. The Skuld Discussion Club, the NKF, and the launch of the KSF would eventually lead to Norwegian women gaining universal suffrage in 1913, seven years ahead of suffrage for (white) American women, which was granted in 1920. Lives of Women in Nineteenth-Century Norway Across social classes, women had little presence in the public sphere in nineteenth-century Norway and were mostly bound to domesticity— either as domestic workers, or as those who employed them, and they were considered “umyndig i offentlig sammenheng” (“powerless in public life”) (Seland, 1997, p.  14). Forsørgelses ækteskaber (“convenience marriages”) ensured that a daughter would not be a burden to her family. Life was especially hard for unmarried women, who had few options to earn an income. Single women of all social classes seeking support could move in with married sisters if they had them. Those of low social status could seek work as servants, or in worst cases, become paupers, moving from farm to farm. Future research could delve into an analysis of the marital status of all the women authors included in the collection and the impact of marriage on their careers, but a preliminary scan shows that many successful

Fig. 9.1  Historical progression of women’s rights in Norway

160 

M. MARTENS

women contributors remained largely single their entire lives. Being unburdened of the labor-intensive, traditional roles of wife and mother facilitated the creative successes of children’s author Hendrikke Barbara Wind Daae Zwilgmeyer (1853–1913) (popularly known as Dikken Zwilgmeyer), Aasta Hansteen (1824–1908), Gina Krog (1847–1916), and Anna Georgine Rogstad (1854–1938), who remained single their entire lives.4 Novelist Amalie Skram (1846–1905) was married, divorced, and briefly remarried. Educator and author Hedevig Rosing (1827–1913), who specialized in education of the deaf and mute, was widowed after two years. Playwright and novelist Anna Munch (1856–1932) was twice married but scandalously abandoned her husband (uncle to artist Edvard Munch) and daughter to move to Christiania (Oslo) to pursue an artistic life. Unconventional lives led to personal sacrifices and public disapproval, but afforded women the creative and productive freedom otherwise only available to men. Many contributors were educated and middle- or upper-middle-class and their privilege afforded them opportunities for travel. Gina Krog spent time in England, Canada, and the United States. Aasta Hansteen lived in the United States from 1880 to 1889. During Hansteen’s time in the United States she reported on the American feminist movement for Nylænde, fostering an international feminist exchange. Several authors of the collection had their work translated—especially into other Scandinavian languages and German. The next  section, “Unpacking the Collection” explores how I analyzed the collection.

Unpacking the Collection Researching the Norwegian contributors was like peeling onions, with each layer revealing new information. The research for this project began with Edith E. Clarke’s list of Norwegian titles from the Women’s Library (1894), including books, speeches, and articles. For the women authors, writing under pseudonyms made them appropriately invisible in the public sphere, and in the historical record and they used a variety of ways to identify themselves, including initials, pseudonyms, single first or last names, or husbands’ names. For example, “Margrethe” was the pseudonym used 4  Authors’ lifespans throughout come from The History of Nordic Women’s Literature (NWL), The Store Norske Leksikon (SNL), WorldCat, and in the case of Zwilmeyer, from Sandnes & Krog (1990).

9  THE NORWEGIAN IDEALS OF MODERN WOMANHOOD AND IDENTITY… 

161

by author Bolette Margrethe Gjør. Others, like Antoinette Meyn, alternated between pseudonyms,  she used the common Scandinavian name “Marie,” or “Marie Birch,” or her husband’s name “Holger Birch.” “Munch” was Anna Munch, married to a nephew of the Norwegian Expressionist painter Edvard Munch. “Kieler” was Laura Anna Sophie Müller Kieler. Ovidia Christine Fredrikke Norby used “S.S.” as her pseudonym. Multiple names and variant spellings in Clarke’s List (1893) further complicated the search. For example, in Clarke’s List, Løken was spelled “LOECHEN,” but a search in the National Library provided the Norwegian spelling. Three books on medicinal plants and handicrafts attributed to “FROELICH” and “SOERENSEN” presented another puzzle in Clarke’s List. Just one of the three books appears in the Norwegian National Library database: Norsk Husflid og Sløjd (“Norwegian Handicrafts and Woodwork” 1886), and it is attributed to Jonine Frølich (born Sørensen). I found Frølich’s dates of birth and death (1843–1940) on a genealogical site (Geni.com) but found no other information about her online. The search proceeded in several steps, beginning with authors’ names as they appeared in the catalog, which I organized into a spreadsheet, and then I confirmed names across multiple resources. Next, I added publication dates and English translations of Norwegian titles. Because the organizers of the Women’s Library used the Dewey Decimal Classification system (DDC) to organize the books, I used descriptive categories, loosely based on the DDC, but adding a “Feminist Works” category to collect explicitly feminist women’s writing (see Table 9.1). The National Library of Norway’s digital collection served as the primary source for books and materials from the 1893 collection. WorldCat provided some missing details on book titles, author names, and translations. Other online sources, such as The History of Nordic Women’s Literature (further: NWL, 2012) and the Store Norske Leksikon (“Big Norwegian Encyclopedia”) filled in historical context and gaps around authorial identity and out-of-­ print books. Amazon.com, Goodreads, Google Books, and Wikipedia provided additional clues about the authors’ work, lives, and connections to others in the collection. Finally, I read online journals (including the 1892 and 1893 issues of Nylænde) and sample books from the Norwegian collection. For context, I read biographies of several authors, books about the Norwegian women’s movement, development of the Norwegian language, women’s roles in nineteenth-century Norway, Norwegians in America, and religion.

162 

M. MARTENS

Table 9.1  Types of works identified Categories

Description

Number of items

Percentage of the collection

Norwegian literature Domestic arts

Novels, poems, and plays for adults

80

50

Handicrafts, home and family management, sewing, cooking, gardening Works specifically on suffrage and women’s rights in nineteenth-century Norway Works for children by Norwegian authors Works on grammar, spelling, and vocabulary History of Norway, Norway-Geography and travel Combines Christianity and missionary work Seven miscellaneous books

24

15

16

10

16

10

7

4

6

3

5

3

7 161

5 100

“Feminist works” Children’s literature Norwegian language Nostalgia Religion Miscellaneous Total

In the discussion of categories identified in Table 9.1, selected authors serve as illustrative examples in the findings below. Each item was counted only once and grouped in the category that seemed most dominant. A closer analysis revealed that more items than initially suspected had feminist undercurrents. For example, a work I had grouped under Fiction, Amalie Skram’s novel Forrådt (“Betrayed” 1892), is a sharp critique of marriage. The same was true for books I had classified under Religion: works by Bolette Gjør emphasized social justice, equality, and inclusion, and were rooted in her leadership role within the Norwegian Missionary Movement. Several books were crossover titles, spanning multiple categories. A work by Olaug Løken, Om Renhed og Blufærdighed (“About Purity and Humility” 1887), that I initially thought was a book on religion was actually a speech given at Trondheim’s Women’s Rights Association. While I could not access the speech, given the audience, it likely had very little to do with religion. Even works on Domestic Arts could be considered to have an antielitist, subversive feminist component.

9  THE NORWEGIAN IDEALS OF MODERN WOMANHOOD AND IDENTITY… 

163

The analysis of the Norwegian book collection, organized by the best-­ represented categories demonstrated that the curators included titles for and by women, from books on making and maintaining clothing, housekeeping, cooking, child rearing, and family healthcare; to guidelines for sewing children’s clothing; ironing and starching; and books on flowers and medicinal plants. While these books were ostensibly related to traditional roles, the fact that the Norwegian Women’s Association sought to professionalize such work and the training required to do it gives this content a modern, feminist slant. There were works of literature and children’s literature, books on Norwegian grammar, religious songs, and holiday celebrations. Other books and speeches connected directly to feminist themes emerging in the second half of the nineteenth century, and research revealed that many of the women were already well-known leaders in the Norwegian women’s rights and suffrage movement, and active contributors to Nylænde. For example, Laura Kieler, Olaug Løken, and Aasta Hansteen appear as contributors in the 1892 and 1893 editions of Nylænde, and are also included in the Women’s Library. Whether or not books were grouped in the “feminist” category, much of the collection had explicit or gently concealed ties to the women’s movement. Norwegian Literature Eighty books, or 50 percent of the collection, belong to subgenres of literature including fiction, poetry, and drama, and many authors were connected to the contemporaneous Scandinavian period known as the Modern Breakthrough, to which Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen also belonged. For these women writers, this literary period was infused with feminist thought: “writing in newspapers, journals, and literary works, it was young middle-class women—well-versed in languages, conversation, and good manners—who presented issues pertaining to women’s status as a social problem” (Hjordt-Vetlesen, 2011 in NWL), and novels in this category focused on realistic social issues. Criticism of convenience marriages appears across the works in the collection. Skram’s novel Forrådt (“Betrayed” 1892) exposes “marriages of convenience, girls’ upbringing, and double moral standards” (NWL “Skram” 2012, para. 2), as does Laura Anna Sophie Müller Kieler’s I en Lysengels Skikkelse (“The Figure of an Angel of Light” 1892). Some well-represented authors, such as Bolette Gjør, wrote books that were for both children and adults, and her works

164 

M. MARTENS

for adults are included in the literature category. Works of literature with overtly feminist themes, like those by Anna Munch, whose literary works connected to the explicit feminist theme of “conflict between the sexes” (NWL “Munch” 2012, para. 3), are grouped under “feminist works.” Domestic Arts, Handicrafts, and Home-Family Management The curators sought to demonstrate what women’s work looked like in different countries, and housework was still a dominant category. From Norway, this second largest category in the collection included materials about the domestic arts of sewing, food preparation, gardening, medicinal plants, and handicrafts. Practical works connected to traditional views on women as keepers of children and home included C.  Halvorsen’s Linsömbog, Veiledning i Klipning og Syning af Undertöi (“Guide to Cutting and Sewing Underwear”), and three books by Jonine Frølich: Endel Norske Vildtvoxende Medicinske Planter, Pl. II (“A Few Wild-­ Growing Norwegian Medicinal Plants”). Arguably, books in this category may not have aligned with modern feminist ideals of education, civic engagement, careers, and a presence in the public sphere outside the home promoted in Nylænde. Yet feminist themes appear subversively within the works. For example, Hanna Wisnes (1789–1872), author of Lærebog i de förstkjellige [sic] Grene af Husholdningen (“Guide to the Various Branches of Housekeeping” 1845) wanted to simplify life for Norwegian women. Unlike popular, French-inspired cookbooks available at the time with difficult instructions and hard-to-source ingredients, Wisnes’ hands-on book included easy-to-follow recipes using local ingredients. Her audience was working-class housewives and Wisnes instructed them how to run a household like a self-sufficient business. She emphasized fiscal responsibility, while offering practical guidelines on gardening, butchering, and beer-­ brewing (Bahr Bugge, 2022 in SNL). And Olaug Løken (1854–1925) was a cookbook author, feminist, and member of Norges Husmorforbund (“the Norwegian Housewife Association”), which was a subgroup of the NKF. This group had an important but short-lived goal of professionalizing women’s work by creating home economics classes and professional training for housewives, and building relationships between domestic workers and those who hired them. Twenty-four books (15 percent) related to the domestic arts were included.

9  THE NORWEGIAN IDEALS OF MODERN WOMANHOOD AND IDENTITY… 

165

“Feminist Works” The items in this category had direct connections to the feminist movement and covered topics like women’s suffrage and gender equality. It included articles and speeches by Gina Krog, such as Stemmeret for Kvinder, Foredrag i Norsk Kvindesags-Forening den 27de Nov., 1885 (“Women’s Right to Vote, Lecture at the Norwegian Women’s Affairs Association on 27th Nov., 1885”) or Norske Kvinderssociale og Retslige Stilling, efter Foranstaltning af Norsk Kvindesags-Forening i Anledning Chicagoudstillingen (“Norwegian Women’s Social and Legal Position, Following the Initiative of the Norwegian Women’s Association on the Occasion of the Chicago Exhibition”). Anna Munch’s, 1889 book Kvinder: Et stykke udviklingshistorie (“Women: A Developmental History”) is biographical in scope and tells of personal hardships related to her life-­ choices (NWL 2012, “Anna Munch”). Hanna Butenschøn’s: Har Henrik Ibsen i Hedda Gabler Skildret Virkelige Kvinder?: En Kvinde Røst5 (“Does Henrik Ibsen Portray Real Women in Hedda Gabler?” 1891) is a work of literary criticism and a critique of contemporary marriage. In our opinion, in every marriage, women are more dependent on the man she has married than he is on her. Even the strongest, toughest woman, even a Hedda Gabler, lives more with the man than the man lives with his wife.6 (12)

A contemporary of Krog, feminist leader, and pioneer of deaf education, Danish-born Hedevig Sophie Rosing was also represented in the collection through her seminal work, Nogle Ord om de Dövstumme (“Some Words about the Deaf” 1878). Rosing was the first woman teacher in Copenhagen public schools, the inventor of a methodology for instruction of hearing-impaired people, and founder of Fru Rosing’s Speech School for Deaf Mutes (Sander, 2009 in SNL). From 1865 to 1967, Rosing was married to fellow teacher Anton Rosing, and the collection includes her edited collection of his letters. While Rosing’s books do not directly connect to Feminist works, she was an active member of KSF, and was the first Norwegian woman to earn the same salary as her male 5  Listed as “EN KVINDEROEST, pseud. Har Henrik Ibsen i Hedda Gabler skildret virkelige Kvinder?” 6  “I ethvert ægteskab er nemlig efter vor opfatning kvinden mere afhængig af den man, hun har ægtet, end han af hende. Selv den stærkeste, haardeste kvinde, selv en Hedda Gabler, lever mere ved manden end manden ved hustruen” (12).

166 

M. MARTENS

colleagues.7 Sixteen works (10 percent) specifically addressed the growing feminist movement in Norway, but had I included those with indirect links, such as those overlapping with Literature and Religion, this would have been the largest category. Children’s Literature Another sixteen books (10 percent) of the collection were dedicated to contemporary Norwegian children’s literature. Different from literature for adults, these books featured child protagonists and were written for young people. Norwegian children’s literature was famous for sagas and fairytales,8 and in contrast, the books included were mostly realistic, didactic tales, like three semi-autobiographical books by Dikken Zwilgmeyer from her bestselling “Inger Johanne” series; books by “Bernhoft” (pseudonym for Hermina Bernhoft-Osa), who wrote collections of stories for children including Fra Barnets Verden (“From the Child’s World” 1887) and More fra Barnets Verden (“More from the Child’s World” 1890); and books by Amalie Skram, who wrote radical novels for adults about the institution of marriage, but also Barnefortællinger (“Children’s Stories” 1890) (Engelstad, 2019 in SNL). Norwegian Language Books on—or in—the “Ny Norsk” (“New Norwegian”) language in the collection represented national pride and a subversive linguistic rebellion against the written Danish language used in Norway for most of the nineteenth century. From 1537 until 1814, when the Treaty of Kiel was signed, Norway and Denmark were one country called Denmark–Norway. This period, called “Dansketiden” (“the Danish time”), started with the Reformation, and ended in 1814, when Danish King Christian Frederik was chosen as Norway’s constitutional monarch and Norway formed a union with Sweden.9 Ny Norsk is highly political and connected to national 7  The novels of Camilla Collett, considered an early feminist author, were not included in the collection. But an edited collection, Skrifter (Writings), and a report about a party for Camilla Collett were included, pointing to the foundational influence of her work. 8  An example is oral tales gathered by Peter Christian Asbjørnsen and Jørgen Engebretsen Moe in their 1852 Norske Folkeeventyr (“Norwegian Folktales”) (not included in the collection). 9  The section on Dansketiden is compiled from Weidling and Njåstad (2022 in SNL).

9  THE NORWEGIAN IDEALS OF MODERN WOMANHOOD AND IDENTITY… 

167

identity, and its development is credited to nineteenth-century linguist and botanist Ivar Andreas Aasen (1813–1896) (2022 in SNL). Aasta Hansteen was a painter, writer, feminist and scholar of Ivar Andreas Aasen. Her 1862 book Skrift og Omskrift i Landsmaalet (“Writings and Rewriting in the National Language”) is considered the first book in Ny Norsk written by a woman (Aas et al., 2022 in SNL). Another example by educator and feminist Anna Rogstad, is an 1890 book Modersmaals Undervisningen i Smaaskolen (“Mother Tongue Instruction in Elementary School”). According to Moksnes (1984), Rogstad belonged to the NKF, was a champion of equal education for boys and girls, cofounder of the Norwegian teachers’ union, and a strong supporter of women’s suffrage. She was also the first female member of the Norwegian parliament. Seven books (4 percent) in the collection address Norwegian grammar and spelling. Nostalgia Six books (3 percent of the collection) express nostalgia. Peterson (2011) points out that Norwegian immigrants were nostalgic about their home country, seeing it as a place of “freedom, independence and progress” (8). Nostalgic books included those by Elise Aubert, such as Hjemmefra (“Away from Home” 1885) and Et Juleminde (“A Christmas Memory” 1881 and 188710); “Marie” (Antoinette Meyn)’s Fra Fars og Mors Tid (“From Father and Mother’s Time” 1885); and a book identified by G. Astrid (Charlotte Gotaas) (1814–1887): Skildring af Livet i en norsk Fjeldbygd11 (“Depiction of Life in a Norwegian Mountain Village” 1876). While these books may also have fit within the genres of Literature or Children’s Literature, for a collection presented in a country far from home, it seemed relevant to separate these out as reminders of an idyllic life in Norway.

10  NB: The 1881 edition lists author’s name as “E___e” and the 1887 edition presents her full name, Elise Aubert. 11  The author and title include errors: “G.” is the pseudonym for Charlotte Amalie Gotaas, who was not the author of the book. This book should have been listed as Astrid: Skildring af Livet i en Norsk Fjeldbygd.

168 

M. MARTENS

Religion I aligned five books (3 percent) with religion. Even in the nineteenth century, Norwegian women could obtain positions of leadership in the missionary movement. Several women writers served as leaders, traveled, published, and even held political office within it. One such author was Bolette Gjør, who was both missionary and children’s author.12 She was also one of the key actors connecting the missionary movement to the feminist movement (Nyhagen Predelli, 2001, p. 3). Gjør, a devoted Christian missionary, led a women’s movement within the Det Norske Misjonsselskap (“The Norwegian Missionary Society”) (further: NMS), and was partially responsible for how views on women were modernized within the Christian community. Gjør was responsible for women gaining full voting rights within the NMS by 1904. Gjør wrote fiction with religious themes for children and adults. Four of her included works have religious-sounding titles:13 Præstefruen (“The Minister’s Wife” 1891); De Nykonfirmerte (“The Newly Confirmed” 1889); Missionsbarnet (“The Mission Child” 1892) and an edited collection of letters from Henriette Gislesen, wife of the Bishop: ed. Bispinde Henriette Gislesens Breve Udvalg (1885). Henriette Gislesen taught Gjør about the Women’s Missionary Movement, and inspired her to become a leader in the organization (Norseth, 2022 in SNL). Rogstad’s instructional catechism tool for children obviously belongs under Religion: Ledetraad for Katekismusundervisningen i de to Förste Aar (“Tips for Catechism Instruction During the First Two Years” 1891). I grouped two of Olaug Løken’s (1854–1925) works under Religion but although they certainly focus on religion, they criticize women’s inferior roles within the church: Hvad Lærer Bibelen om Kvindens Stilling? (“What does the Bible Teach Us About the Position of Women?”14 1885) and Om Renhed og Blufærdighed (“About Purity and Humility” 1887). There were seven miscellaneous books in the collection that did not fit into any of the existing categories. These include two works without author attribution, one work that appears to be a report on genealogy, a work of literary criticism, two collections of letters, and a report on a party for author Camilla Collett. Together, the works in the Norwegian  NB: Gjör (as spelled in the collection) is the Swedish spelling of the Norwegian Gjør.  The collection states that “Margrethe” was the pseudonym of Anna Helsing, but in fact “Margrethe” was Bolette Gjør’s pseudonym. 14  This is a speech. 12 13

9  THE NORWEGIAN IDEALS OF MODERN WOMANHOOD AND IDENTITY… 

169

collection provide a complex understanding of modern, feminist nineteenth-­century Norwegian women and a snapshot of their barrier-­ breaking work toward equal rights and universal suffrage, and of the boundaries that restricted them during their lives.

Conclusion Curated and in part written by leading Norwegian feminists of the time, the Norwegian collection in the Women’s Building Library presents a view of Norwegian women leaders who forged new ground while pushing against the contemporaneous limits of gender and circumstance in order to have voice, agency, and authorial identity on an international stage. I started the project by grouping books under the categories reflecting the nineteenth-century women’s preoccupations. But once I began to read the individual works and connected the writing to women’s biographies, I discovered the authors’ connections to each other across feminist networks and realized that there was so much more to both the content of the collection and the women who created it than immediately met the eye. Starting from this collection, entire books could be written about multiple topics herein: on the politics of the Ny Norsk language; on the history of the Norwegian women’s movement; on marriage in nineteenth-century Norway; or the Norwegian literature of the time. The collection reflects feminism emerging on different levels—from the obvious, radical writers like Gina Krog, who was a foundational figure in the Norwegian women’s movement, or authors like Hedevig Rosing or Aasta Hansteen, who were trailblazing leaders in their fields, to the more subtle—those who worked to professionalize housework, or to create more inclusive roles for women in the Norwegian Church. From this snapshot of the Norwegian books contributed to the 1893 Women’s Library, Norwegian women were at the threshold of a progressive, modern female identity—one that was still rooted in traditional roles for married women but that stretched toward equality in the eyes of society, religion, and the law. At this conclusion, many questions remain. We know that at least Gina Krog and Aasta Hansteen had contact with prominent American feminists, and we also know that Norwegian American women had the ability to follow what was happening at home. For example, Gina Krog’s Nylænde was available via subscription in the United States for $1.30 per year (Nylænde, 1892). Norwegian immigrant Ida Hansen started a

170 

M. MARTENS

“Dano-Norwegian-language woman’s magazine” (Gilbertson & Olsen, 2004, p. 9) out of her home in Cedar Rapids, Iowa in 1888 called Kvinden og Hjemmet (“Women and Home”), which regularly addressed suffrage and women’s rights. And Peterson (2011) documents evidence of rural Norwegian immigrants requesting books from home, and of a Norwegian women’s book club organized on the Minnesota prairie. But we do not know much about Norwegian American attendance at the exposition, and certainly, none of the works were translated into English afterward. Ultimately, it may be that the collection is more a symbol of the progressive ideals that were available to Norwegian women in America through women’s groups, Norwegian book clubs and publications across the prairies of the Midwest to its cities, than a driver of that influence. Acknowledgments  Tusind tak for research support goes to Dr. Michelle Tisdel, PhD, Forskningsbibliotekar, Avdeling fag og forskning, Nasjonalbiblioteket, Oslo, Norway. This chapter would never have been possible without your assistance. Tusind tak also to Jorun Systad for brainstorming and good ideas. Thanks to Kent State MLIS students Victoria Slaughter and Meredith Riney for editorial support, and to Athena Salaba, PhD, for expert cataloging help. All translations are by the author, who assumes all responsibility for errors.

References Works

in the

Woman’s Building Library

Aubert, Elise. (1878). Hjemmefra. Malling. Aubert, E. (1881). Et juleminde. P. T. Malling. Butenschön, H.  A. (1891). Har Henrik Ibsen i Hedda Gabler skildret virkelige kvinder?: En kvinde røst. H. Aschehoug (Trykt af det Mallingske bogtryk). Frølich, J. (1886). Norsk husflid og sløjd. Kristiania. Gjør, B. (1885). Bispinde Henriette Gislesens breve udvalg. Malling. Gjør, B. (1889). De nykonfirmerte. Malling. Gotaas, C. (1876). Skildring af livet i en norsk fjeldbygd. Reiersens Forl. Halvorsen, C. [first name unknown]. (1882). Linsömbog, veiledning i klipning og syning af undertöi. Cappelen. Hansteen, A. (1862). Skrift og omskrift i landsmaalet. Werner. Kieler, L. A., & Müller, S. (1892). I en lysengels skikkelse. Wroblewskis Forlag. Krog, G. (n.d.). Kvinders ansættelse i offentlige stillinger i vort land. Løken, Olaug. (1885). Hvad lærer Bibelen om kvindens stilling? .

9  THE NORWEGIAN IDEALS OF MODERN WOMANHOOD AND IDENTITY… 

171

Løken, O. (1887). Om renhed og blufærdighed. Trondhjem. Løken, O. (1897). Madstel og husstel for almindige husholdninger. De Tusen hjems forlag. Munch, A. (1889). Kvinder: Et stykke udviklingshistorie. Kristiania og Kjøbenhavn: ALB. Kammermeyers Forlag. Rogstad, A. (1890). Modersmaals-undervisningen i smaaskolen. Alb. Cammermeyer. Rogstad, A. (1891). Ledetraad for Katekismusundervisningen i de to Förste Aar. Cammermeyer. Skram, A. (1892). Forrådt. I. H. Schubothes Boghandel. Winsnes, H. (1845). Lærebog i de förskjellige grene af husholdningen. Wulfsberg. Zwilgmeyer, D. (1895). Som kvinder er. Cammermeyer’s bookshop.

Other Works Cited Aas, K.  N., Haagensen, T.  K., Finsen, L., & Allkunne. (2022). Aasta Hansten. Retrieved March 31, 2022, from https://snl.no/Aasta_Hansteen “Anna Munch.” Retrieved April 9, 2022, from https://nordicwomensliterature. net/?s=anna+munch Aubert, E. (1885). Hjemmefra: Skildringer og fortællinger. P.T.  Mallings Boghandels Forlag. Bahr Bugge, A. (2022). Hanna Winsnes. Retrieved August 10, 2022, from https://snl.no/Hanna_Winsnes Bull, T. (2022). Ivar Aasen. Retrieved March 31, 2022, from https://snl.no/ Ivar_Aasen Butenschøn, H.  A. (1891). Har Henrik Ibsen i Hedda Gabler skildret virkelige kvinder?: En kvinderøst. H. Aschehoug & Co. Clarke, E.  E. (1893). List of Books Sent by Home and Foreign Committees to the Library of the Woman’s Building. World’s Columbian Exposition. Engelstad, I. (2019). Amalie Skram. Retrieved July 19, 2022, from https://snl. no/Amalie_Skram Geni.com. Jonine Frølich (Sørensen). Retrieved October 16, 2022, from https:// www.geni.com/people/Jonine-­Fr%C3%B8lich/6000000024363555409 Gilbertson, L., & Olsen, K. (2004). Piecing Together a New Home: Needlework in Kvinden og Hjemmet Magazine. In Textile Society of America 9th Biennial Symposium Proceedings. Retrieved August 19, 2022, from https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1429&context=tsaconf Haagensen, T. K. (2020). Gina Krog. Retrieved July 19, 2022, from https://snl. no/Gina_Krog “Hanna Olava Wisnes.” Retrieved March 31, 2022, from https://nordicwomensliterature.net/writers/winsnes-­hanna-­olava

172 

M. MARTENS

Harvard University Library. The Woman’s Journal and Woman’s Journal and Suffrage News. Retrieved November 2, 2022, from http://id.lib.harvard.edu/ aleph/002490378/catalog Hjordt-Vetlesen, I-L. (2011). Modernity’s Female Text. Retrieved October 15, 2022, from https://nordicwomensliterature.net/2011/10/06/modernitys-­ female-­text “Laura Anna Sophie Müller Kieler.” Retrieved April 9, 2022, from https://nordicwomensliterature.net/writers/kieler-­laura-­anna-­sophie-­muller “Marie” (Antoinette Meyn). (1885). Fra Fars og Mors tid (From Father’s and Mother’s Time). P. T. Mallings Boghandels Forlag. Moksnes, A. (1984). Likestilling eller særstilling? Norsk Kvinnesaksforening 1884–1913 [Equal Roles or Special Roles? The Norwegian Women’s Rights Organization 1884–1913]. Gyldendal Norsk Forlag. Norseth, K. (2022). Author, Missionary Leader, and Editor Bolette Gjør. Retrieved July 20, 2022, from https://nbl.snl.no/Bolette_Gj%C3%B8r Nyhagen Predelli, L. (2001). Missionary Women and Feminism in Norway, 1906–1910. NORA – Nordic Journal of Feminist and Gender Research, 9(1), 37–52. https://doi.org/10.1080/08038740117109 Nylænde. (1892). Det norske og det svenske kvindearbejdes repræsentation paa verdensudstillingen i Chicago [Norwegian and Swedish Representation of Women’s Work at the World Exposition in Chicago]. November 1. Nylænde. (1894). Forskelligt [Miscellaneous]. January 1. Peterson, A. (2011). Making Women’s Suffrage Support an Ethnic Duty: Norwegian American Identity Constructions and the Women’s Suffrage Movement, 1880–1925. Journal of American Ethnic History, 30(4), 5–23. Rogstad, A. (1891). Ledetraad for Katekismusundervisningen i de to Förste Aar [Tips for Catechism Instruction During the First Two Years]. Alb. Cammermeyers Forlag. Sander, T. J. (2009). Hedevig Rosing. Retrieved March 31, 2022, from https:// nbl.snl.no/Hedevig_Rosing Sandnes, L. M., & Krogh, I. R. (1990). En hverdagshistorie: Dikken Zwilgmeyer og gla’jenta Inger Johanne [An Everyday Story: Dikken Zwilgmeyer and the Happy Inger Johanne]. Ansgar. Seland, B. (1997). “Ikke saadan som en Kone bør være”– : Kvinneliv og kvinneroller i 1800-tallets samfunn [“Not How a Woman Should Be:” Women’s Lives and Roles in Eighteenth Century Society]. Gyldendal. Store Norske Leksikon (SNL). (2009–2012). Systad, J. (2022), July 12. Personal Correspondence. The History of Nordic Women’s Literature. (NWL). (2012). Amalie Skram. Retrieved November 3, 2022, from https://nordicwomensliterature.net/da/ writers/skram-­amalie-­2/

9  THE NORWEGIAN IDEALS OF MODERN WOMANHOOD AND IDENTITY… 

173

Weidling, T. R., & Njåstad, M. (2022). Norge under dansk styre (1537–1814) [Norway under Danish rule (1537–1814)]. Retrieved July 22, 2022, from https://snl.no/Norge_under_dansk_styre_-­_1537-­1814 Weimann, J. M. (1981). The Fair Women. Introduction by Anita Miller. Academy Chicago.

PART III

Close Readings: Authoring Female Agency

CHAPTER 10

Fatma Aliye’s Invisible Authorship: A Turkish Muslim Woman Writer’s Challenge to Orientalism and Patriarchy Enaya Hammad Othman

At the Columbian Exposition of 1893, the Ottoman state sought to repre­ sent a modernized Ottoman world with significant dedication and meticu­ lously chosen material. Apart from official participation of several Ottoman diplomats and commissioners—including Mavroyeni Bey, Ibrahim Hakki, and Ahmed Fahri Bey—the Ottoman Empire displayed various artistic and architectural works. This repertoire included the ‘Turkish Building’ in the Foreign Buildings section, the Turkish village at the Midway Plaisance, the Turkish Theatre, the photography albums prepared at Sultan Abdul Hamid II’s discretion, and three books by the Turkish writer Fatma Aliye (Heck, 2015, pp. 121–123; Çelik, 2004, pp. 401–402; Williams, 2008, pp. 67–68). Among these, the works of Fatma Aliye (1862–1936), which were displayed in the Woman’s Building Library, stand out in terms of the

E. Hammad Othman (*) Department of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures, Marquette University, Milwaukee, WI, USA e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 M. Dalbello, S. Wadsworth (eds.), Global Voices from the Women’s Library at the World’s Columbian Exposition, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-42490-8_10

177

178 

E. HAMMAD OTHMAN

complexity of their contents, intellectual engagement, and direct responses to Orientalist representations of women while also addressing Muslim audiences. The inclusion of Aliye’s books at the Fair was the first known attempt in American history to introduce a cultured Muslim woman’s literary work to the American public. Indeed, May Wright Sewall, organizer of the World’s Congress of Representative Women, aimed at the participation of Ottoman women in person; she sent a letter to the US embassy in Constantinople to invite women representatives to the Congress (van Os, 2016, p. 18). The invitation was extended to Turkish Sublime Porte, but, reportedly, the mother of the Sultan, “an old lady who rarely left the Palace, did not want to receive such offers again” (Williams, 2008, p. 67). However, Fatma Aliye received a letter directly from Edith Clarke, the cataloguer of the Woman’s Library, inviting her to send her works printed thus far (Çelik, 2004, p. 92). By 1893, Aliye had published three books: Hayal ve Hakikat (1891, Dream and Reality), Muhadarat (1892, Stories), and Nisvan-ı Islam (1892, Women of Islam).1 Even though the catalog does not mention the titles, it acknowledges that three books by Fatma Aliye, or “FATHMA ALIÉ” as originally spelled in the catalog, were dis­ played, confirming that Aliye sent the above-mentioned books  to the Columbian Exposition of 1893. This chapter examines what Aliye’s books potentially symbolized and conceptualized to the Fair audience, the organizers of the Woman’s Building, other American women who spoke at the Fair about the Ottoman and / or Muslim women, and to the Muslim audiences. It elab­ orates on how Aliye’s literary and intellectual activities traverse the paths of modernization and tradition, simultaneously catering to the questions and concerns of both Muslim and Westerner, men and women, and the so-called conservative and progressive audiences, which renders Aliye as a contentious and complicated historical figure. It first presents a biographi­ cal overview of Aliye’s life and situates her work within the historical con­ text and ideological discourses in the Ottoman Empire at the end of the nineteenth century. Then, it delves into Aliye’s approach to women’s issues in her books. Finally, it elaborates on the intersections of Islamic, anti-Orientalist, and feminist discourses in her writing. I integrate

1  For the analysis of the three books in this chapter, the original Turkish texts (republished) have been used. The translation from Turkish to English was conducted by Gülnur Demirci.

10  FATMA ALIYE’S INVISIBLE AUTHORSHIP: A TURKISH MUSLIM WOMAN… 

179

historical research and thematic readings in exploring Aliye’s views, writ­ ings, and activities. The chapter underscores the complexity of Aliye’s multiple identities as a woman, intellectual, and Muslim Turk at a time when the Empire was shrinking into a nation-state and increasingly acquiring a Muslim-Turkish identity. It looks into the reformist and traditionalist aspects of Aliye’s position, which do not necessarily contradict one another but overlap. Arguing against binaries of feminist and nonfeminist labels, which often tend to suffer from anachronist approaches, this chapter situates Aliye within diverse and multiple forms of women’s activism. It locates her writ­ ing within various forms of women’s movements emerging among a web of social and political developments in the Middle East in the late nine­ teenth century and early twentieth century. In advancing her conception of gender roles and rights, Aliye relies on Islamic doctrine which she con­ siders inherently liberatory for women. When she defends women’s rights to the Muslim community, she draws on theological justification and Islamic history. She also frames her arguments within a patriotic discourse and reinforces the image of woman as the educator and bearer of the nation. In addressing the foreign audience, Aliye maintains a comparative logic highlighting the power and autonomy of Muslim women compared to their Western counterparts.

Aliye’s Works and Historical Context Fatma Aliye is often credited as the first published Turkish woman novelist and translator.2 Her fictional and nonfictional writings mostly deal with women’s social identities, their education and employment, marriage, divorce, and the slavery of women and concubinage. She was born in 1862 to an upper-class Ottoman family in Istanbul. Her father, Ahmet Cevdet Paşa (1822–1895), was a prominent statesperson and scholar of history, language, and law. Aliye was educated at home; the tutors hired for her brother, Ali Sedat Bey, taught her French, history, philosophy, lit­ erature, physics, chemistry, and mathematics, while she received Arabic, history, and philosophy lessons from her father (Polat & Derer, 2016, p. 191). By the age of 17, she temporarily lived in Aleppo, Damascus, and Janina (Greece) due to her father’s bureaucratic duties in the provinces 2  While Aliye is often referred to as the first Turkish woman novelist, Zafer Hanım’s Aşkı-­ Vatan was published as early as 1877 (Gunay-Erkol & Bozkurt Timuroglu, 2014, p. 365).

180 

E. HAMMAD OTHMAN

where these cities are located. Her intellectual pursuits, however, faced a major blow when she was married off to Mehmet Faik Bey (1853–1928), a high-ranking military officer, who considered it inappropriate for a woman to read and write novels (Karaca, 2011, p. 94). As Faik Bey’s views changed in the course of time, Aliye revived her literary activities in 1887 (Adak, 2005, p.  191). She began to correspond with Ahmet Mithat Efendi, a prominent and prolific Ottoman author, whose works she had read and adored as a child. In the ensuing years, Ahmet Mithat assumed the role of a spiritual father and mentor for Aliye (Karaca, 2011, p. 94). She first translated George Ohnet’s Volonte (1888), published under the title of Meram (Aspiration, 1890) and with the signature of “A Woman.” This work provoked controversy as to the authorship of the text since crit­ ics believed a woman could not produce the quality of translation the book possessed and asserted that it was Ahmet Cevdet Paşa or Ali Sedat Bey who indeed conducted the translation. For his part, Ahmet Cevdet Paşa suspected that it was Ahmet Mithat, Aliye’s literary mentor, who aided her in her translation and style (Karakaya, 2009, pp.  14–15). In response to the debates, Ahmet Mithat wrote a preface to Aliye’s Stories in which he appreciates the competence and talent of Aliye and Ottoman women (Ahmet Mithat, 2010 [1892]). In 1891, Aliye and Ahmet Mithat published Dream and Reality signed as “A Woman and Ahmet Mithat.” This novella presents not only gen­ dered perspectives from both female and male narrators but also binaristic approaches to Romanticism and Realism, poetry and philosophy, and rea­ son and sentiment. The book also combines various modes of writing such as the letter, journal article, and novel. Stories is the first book Aliye signed with her name. Aliye probes into debates about Muslim women  in her next book, Women of Islam, another hybrid text composed of letters, dia­ logs, essays, and fictional stories. Women of Islam is rather a didactic and argumentative work in which Aliye counters Western women’s percep­ tions of women’s rights and roles in the Muslim world. It was translated into Arabic, and into French by Olga de Labedeff shortly after its publica­ tion (Kızıltan, 1993, pp. 20–21). Aliye’s other prominent books include the novels Refet (1896, Mercy), Udi (1897, Lute Player), Levayih-i Hayat (1898, Scenes from Life); the biographical-historical works Teracim-i Ahval-ı Felasife (1900, Lives of Philosophers) and Nâmdârân-ı Zenân-i ̇ Islâmiyân (1901, Renowned Muslim Women); and her correspondence with Islamic legal scholar Mahmud Es‘ad, Ta’addüd-i Zevcat’a Zeyl (1898, Polygamy). She also wrote in various periodicals such as Tercüman-ı

10  FATMA ALIYE’S INVISIBLE AUTHORSHIP: A TURKISH MUSLIM WOMAN… 

181

̇ Hakikat (Interpreter of Truth), Inkilab (Reform), Mehasin (Beauties), and Hanımlara Mahsus Gazete (Journal for Women). Aliye lived at a time when a myriad of political, cultural, and social transformations and perti­ nent debates were taking place within the Ottoman Empire. Specifically, the strife between the monarchists and the Young Turks, a reformist anti­ monarchy group that emerged in the nineteenth century and increasingly acquired power and authority, was reflected in deep-seated ideological conflicts on various issues, including women’s rights and roles, modernity, and national identity. Women’s empowerment projects within the Ottoman Empire at the turn of the century were mostly spearheaded by the reformist movements, albeit oriented toward serving the ideals of the reimagined family and nation (Akşit, 2010, p.  208). These movements advocated, or rather idealized, the education of women to become better mothers and wives (Durakbaşa, 2000, pp. 105–106). The reformists sup­ ported the empowerment of women to a considerable extent, yet far from being a monolithic community, their later members tended to impede improvements in the social status of women. The fluctuating relationship between Young Turks and feminists, for example, is explicit in the letters Aliye received from her sister Emine Semiye, another influential and pio­ neering Turkish feminist. In her letters, Semiye explains that the Young Turks undermine the feminist movement while appearing to support the rights of women (Kurnaz, 2007, p.  134). In the imagination of the Ottoman intelligentsia of the time, the ideal woman would be educated yet obedient and, more importantly, would serve the intellectual and aes­ thetic satisfaction of the male (Aksoy, 1996, pp. 94–95). Aliye’s stance on women’s rights shares similarities with this ideology in that she promotes women’s rights in a nationalist framework. Yet, embracing the liberties of an artist, in her fictional works she prioritizes the personal and private hap­ piness of women, transcending the preeminence of family and community. Also, her characterization of women contests the stereotypical female characteristics in male-authored novels. In this period, in the Ottoman novel, women were depicted either as victims or evil (Moran, 2003, p. 40). Thus, in her nonfictional works, Aliye seems to align with the dominant patterns of intellectual debates while, in her fiction, she subtly plays with those imposed patterns. Much of the existing literature on Aliye deals with the question of whether she transgressed the boundaries of gender dynamics at the time or reiterated prevailing patriarchal norms. Most scholars have emphasized and celebrated Aliye as a pioneer Turkish feminist and social activist. This

182 

E. HAMMAD OTHMAN

line of inquiry, which looks into the narration, characters, and plots of her novels, provides ample evidence that she delineates a feminist perspective (Akşit, 2010; Findley, 2008; Karaca, 2011; Özdoğan, 2019). However, there are also studies that present Aliye as simultaneously or predomi­ nantly conservative, anti-republican, and a conformist woman. These crit­ ics highlight her conservative and traditionalist demeanor as well as her rejection of Western feminism to argue that Aliye was, rather, undergird­ ing the status quo and its hierarchical gender relations (Canbaz, 2010). Even while affirming the elusive character of her personality and writing, albeit hastily, critical work on Aliye often yields a binary model of women’s activism and situates her within one of the two perceived sides: a progres­ sive feminist or a nonfeminist conservative. A few studies elaborate on the strategies she deployed and historical factors that informed the develop­ ment of her literary career. An article by the literary critic Nükhet Esen stands out in its untangling—or rather speculating on—Aliye’s obligation to abide by Ahmet Mithat’s comments and teachings, which, Esen claims, impeded her from being more outspoken on women’s issues in the begin­ ning of her career (2016, p. 68). Even if it is cogent in its arguments predi­ cated on Ahmet Mithat’s letters to Aliye about her earlier works and the transformation of her fiction in later years, Esen’s approach still requires further elaboration on the articulation of feminist discourse in various ways in the Middle Eastern context. An important element to be consid­ ered in analyzing Aliye’s work is the intersection between local (Arab-­ Muslim-­Ottoman) dynamics and the increasing contacts with the Western world. Aliye became part of these contacts at both individual and profes­ sional levels, which led her to counter Orientalism as well as patriarchy. After the Kemalist revolution in 1923, Aliye relapsed into silence. Some scholars assert that Aliye ceased her literary activities due to political repression as she had maintained a critical stance to the reformist move­ ̇ ments (Izbek, 2002, p. 25). Others predicate this retreat upon personal reasons such as her health condition and, most importantly, her quest to find her daughter, who converted to Christianity and left Turkey for France (Karaca, 2011, p. 95). Aliye died in Istanbul in 1936. The official nation-building narrative of the Turkish Republic, which portrayed the republican regime as the emancipator of women oppressed by the Ottoman state, caused Aliye and Ottoman women’s movements to fade into obliv­ ion in the history and collective memory of the society. Aliye’s works received little or no attention in Turkey until the 1980s and 1990s, when the (Islamic) feminist research rediscovered her oeuvre (Çelebi, 2022,

10  FATMA ALIYE’S INVISIBLE AUTHORSHIP: A TURKISH MUSLIM WOMAN… 

183

p. 5). Further attention has been paid to Aliye since the 2000s. In the last two decades, some of her books, like The Lute Player (1898), Scenes from Life (1898), Mercy (1896), and Enin (1910, Lamentation) have been transliterated from the Ottoman Turkish to the Latin alphabet (Canbaz, 2005, p. 6). Today, Aliye is the only woman featured on Turkish currency, among six notable historical figures to be so honored.

Autonomy of Women In most of her works, Aliye’s female characters first appear as trapped by familial priorities and social norms. Yet, mostly, instead of staying passive victims, they subvert hierarchical gender roles and acquire autonomy over their own lives. In presenting them in this way, Aliye does not take a radi­ cal stance; instead, she portrays characters who seem to follow the tradi­ tional gender paradigms. Even though her plots and characters are laden with controversial connotations, she diligently eschews a radical rejection of the family and marriage as the pillars of society. Yet, the underpinning themes of her fiction continue to question marriage as the only right venue for women. For example, Stories addresses the pressure on women to maintain unhappy marriages and unequal gender roles. In this novel, the protagonist, Fazıla, is introduced as a passive woman who remains silent toward her stepmother’s schemes and oppression. Yet, she becomes a her­ oine who takes alternative paths rather than maintaining her relationship with the husband who betrays her. Similarly, in her later novels, women pursue education, science, teaching, and ironically even slavery as alterna­ tives to marriage. Aliye challenges two types of prevailing stereotypes regarding women: these are, as the literary critic Berna Moran observes, women as entirely passive and victimized, on the one hand, and women as purely and inherently evil on the other hand (2003, p. 40). Aliye’s female characters differ from both types of representations; instead, her women characters are complex individuals. One may argue, as most literary scholars have done, that Dream and Reality is less reflective of Aliye’s characterization of women as self-assured and independent of male protection and love (Canbaz, 2005, p. 8). Not surprisingly, in this, her first fiction, Aliye mimics the prevailing patterns of plot, characterization, and narration. The novella, coauthored by Ahmet Mithat, deals with the issue of arranged marriage from the perspectives of both male and female characters. It is divided into three parts titled ̇ “Statement” (“Ifade”), “Vedat,” and “Addition” (“Zeyl”). The

184 

E. HAMMAD OTHMAN

“Addition” section is further divided into “Vefa” and “Hysteria.” The two main parts of the novella are “Vedat” and “Vefa,” each having a different narrator. “Vedat,” in which the narrator is a friend of the female protago­ nist, Vedat, is authored by Aliye. The novella starts with a letter from Vedat sent to the narrator to inform her friend about her health. From then on, the narrator reflects back on the life of Vedat, a young girl in her twenties whose parents died when she was a child and who has been raised by her grandmother. Yet the wealth of her family is managed by a man, Hüseyin Sabri Bey, a friend of Vedat’s late father. A well-read woman, Vedat is almost always preoccupied with books. Implicitly relevant to this habit, she does not want to get married. Yet, she realizes she is in love with Vefa, the son of Sabri Bey, when one day the two men visit her. Sabri Bey feels “obligated” to provide another guardianship for Vedat as he gets older (Aliye and Mithat, 2012 [1891], p. 41). Accordingly, he arranges the engagement of Vefa and Vedat. However, Sabri Bey dies before their wedding, upon which Vefa gives up marrying Vedat. Vedat becomes ill out of sadness due to their separation and Vefa’s indifference. She starts to heal, though, when she finds “fatherly” love in her doctor, Hami Efendi. When Hami Efendi stops visiting her and sends another doctor, Vedat’s health suddenly worsens and she dies at the end of this section. In the beginning of this part, the narrator introduces Vedat as different from most other women as she is not keen on ornaments and fashion. Instead, she allocates all her time and interest to reading and handcrafts (Aliye and Mithat, 2012 [1891], p. 39). Thus, Vedat first represents the ideal woman the Ottoman intellectuals imagine: educated, well-read, skillful, and occupied with art along with domestic work. Furthermore, she believes that marriage cannot ensure the happiness of women (Aliye and Mithat, 2012 [1891], p. 40). Nonetheless, there is drastic alteration in her character when she becomes a miserable woman due to the lack of a man’s love, which indicates the need for essen­ tial changes in expanding the social sphere of women beyond the roles the reformers assigned or “granted” to women. Vedat exclaims that she is in love with Vefa as soon as she sees him the first time after her childhood and, furthermore, contends that she and Vefa have been in love with each other for ten years (Aliye and Mithat, 2012 [1891], p. 42). The narrator of this part starts to recount how much Vefa and Vedat love and comple­ ment each other. This is expressed through the personalities attributed to each character: “Vefa, if deprived of Vedat, can be likened to wit without any benefit; Vedat, without Vefa, would be like the soul without affection”

10  FATMA ALIYE’S INVISIBLE AUTHORSHIP: A TURKISH MUSLIM WOMAN… 

185

(Aliye and Mithat, 2012 [1891], p. 43). Her confinement to the house­ hold and access only to certain types of books and education illustrate the ineffective outcomes of engaging in the newly assigned occupations for women. At the end of the novella, Ahmet Mithat argues that women should be busy with music, handcraft, and reading to avoid hysteria, which Vedat suffers from. However, Vedat was already portrayed as a character engaged in such activities. In a way, Aliye’s Vedat illustrates that unless the social and public spaces of women are transformed and expanded, occupa­ tions confined to the household will have little or no impact on women. The pathos of separation and unrequited love is similarly expressed through references to her mental health and way of thinking as much as through stylistic ornamentation that expresses her suffering (Aliye and Mithat, 2012 [1891], pp. 45–46). This argument takes the reader to the condition of “hysteria,” traditionally associated with women. Her doctor tells Vedat, “The major issue is not to upset yourself for no reason, a situ­ ation caused by womanhood” (Aliye and Mithat,  2012 [1891], p.  49). Through the affection and lectures of the doctor, Vedat realizes that “the love and care of a husband is not essential for a woman to be happy. The true happiness lies in the sacredness of the love of a father” (Aliye and Mithat,  2012 [1891], p.  50). The fatherly compassion she finds in her doctor and considers as the cure for her illness ironically leads to her death. The part titled “Vefa,” symbolizing reality and reason against fantasy and dream, was penned by Ahmet Mithat, who gave voice to the male character and narrator, Vefa. Similar to the previous section, it starts with a letter, this time written by Vefa and sent to a newspaper, as a response to the narrator of Vedat’s story. Vefa defends himself against the impression that he is responsible for Vedat’s death. He, instead, argues that Vedat died because of her fancies. With a highly analytical and unsentimental tone, he tells the reader that he had gotten engaged to her because of his father’s will and that he would rather devote himself to his studies than get married. He reflects on Vedat’s narrative: “this episode which evokes such strong feeling of pity should indeed lead to drawing significant lessons” (Aliye and Mithat, 2012 [1891], p. 54), epitomizing his overall approach to the story. He lays out how the arrangement of their marriage worked well for their fathers, for whom marriage was a family and business affair rather than based on the agreement of the man and woman. Vefa, offers an individual-based pragmatic instead of prioritizing the benefit of the family and society. He states, “in order to provide remedy for others, I could not have sacrificed myself” (Aliye and Mithat, 2012 [1891], p. 59).

186 

E. HAMMAD OTHMAN

He challenges both the sentimentalism associated with women and the privileging of society over individualism. In doing this, he follows a ratio­ nalist strand of thought, urging, “strongly advise your readers that the century we are entering is no longer the age of dream but the age of rea­ son” (Aliye and Mithat, 2012 [1891], p. 57). Most importantly, Vefa is confident that even though he had sacrificed his “future” and his “compe­ tence” for Vedat, it would still not rescue her (Aliye and Mithat,  2012 [1891], p. 60). He does not further elaborate on this, but his assurance suggests the dire need to look for broader structural changes rather than immediate solutions to what is depicted as the “hysteria” of women. A third section, titled “Hysteria” and also authored by Ahmet Mithat, is a critical reflection on the perspectives of both Vedat and Vefa. With a moralistic and educational perspective, Ahmet Mithat agrees with Vefa that Vedat suffers from hysteria, arguing that women should invest their time in music, handcraft, reading, and traveling rather than “merely dreaming of becoming brides” (Aliye and Mithat,  2012 [1891], pp. 67–68). On the other hand, he also disapproves of Vedat’s dislike for “ornaments and fashion” and not thinking of marriage in the very begin­ ning. Overall, the novella reveals a dialog between the authors and their views on the issues of love, marriage, gender roles, and family. In the novella, Vefa becomes the victim of familial control and arranged marriage until his father passes away, upon which he renounces the marriage deci­ sion. Contrasting with Vefa, who provides rationalist insights into his acts, Vedat, who embodies the romantic opposite, dies of grief upon being abandoned. At face value, the novella reproduces essential gender roles, in which emotional and rationalist  characters correspond to women and men, respectively. Yet, complicating this reading, the male character is portrayed as a victim of arranged marriage and societal norms, which counters the representation of men as agents of their own life decisions. More importantly, the narration suggests that the characteristics of man as rational and woman as sentimental do not stem from essentialized gender traits but are products of different resources, mobility, educational oppor­ tunities, and forms and spaces of sociability provided to women and men. In the section titled “Hysteria,” for example, Ahmet Mithat challenges the convention that hysteria is a women’s disease; instead, he notes that men also suffer from it. The novella thus conveys a shared message by Aliye and Ahmet Mithat that marriage and the protection of a husband should not be a woman’s sole goal.

10  FATMA ALIYE’S INVISIBLE AUTHORSHIP: A TURKISH MUSLIM WOMAN… 

187

Aliye’s novels are deeply concerned with women’s individual happiness and therefore their access to space as a physical and social concept inform­ ing their social, intellectual, and physical spheres. In her nonfiction, Aliye defends women’s right to education and intellectual pursuits as essential mostly for the benefit of society rather than for individual and/or gender-­ egalitarian concerns. On the other hand, in the fictional realms she creates, women characters embrace bolder decisions, denying the roles of mother­ hood and wifehood, thus pursuing individual happiness rather than satis­ fying familial or sociocultural expectations. For example, in Stories, Fazıla sells herself into slavery to escape her unhappy marriage, which, ironically, provides her with emancipation. Thus, she problematizes the notion of female autonomy and happiness around the issues of marriage and slavery. The story suggests that a woman can even favor slavery—when Islamic rules are applied—over marriage if the latter confines women to depen­ dence and passivity. Marriage and family life can also be empowering for women when they provide women with access to the public sphere. As Ayşe Demir explores, one way Aliye’s novels accentuate the power of women is through the act of transforming space. According to Demir, Fazıla is weakened when she is no longer able to have an influence on the space around her upon getting married (Demir, 2013). In Stories, the intricate relations of gender hierarchy, class, female tradi­ tional duties, and female agency are disrupted through the acts of Fazıla. Stories opens with a wedding in a traditional Ottoman house; the delinea­ tion of the clothes, characters, the setting, and the conversations fore­ shadow the customs and issues to be problematized in the following pages. The wedding scene in a way encapsulates the society. Fazıla is one of the guests at the ceremony. She is the daughter of an upper-class family, yet she is oppressed by her father and stepmother named Calibe (Aliye, 2010 [1892], p. 22). Fazıla loves their neighbor Mukaddime, but Calibe con­ vinces her husband to marry Fazıla to Remzi. After marrying him, Fazıla develops affection for Remzi, but the latter betrays her. Similar to Vefa, Remzi is portrayed as a victim of societal pressure that forces him into an undesired marriage (Aliye, 2010 [1892], p. 202). Fazıla is not treated well by her husband and, similar to Aliye’s own experience, has been kept away from her books and piano (Aliye, 2010 [1892], p. 179). Fazıla wishes to get divorced, a request rejected by her father, who says, “No, I gave my daughter to her husband so that she may remain with him till they die (Aliye, 2010 [1892], p. 219). Fazıla thus sells herself as a slave to a family in Beirut. She rises to the position of forewoman as a slave and then

188 

E. HAMMAD OTHMAN

marries Şebib, her master’s son. Meanwhile, Enise, the daughter of the household, falls in love with Mukaddime, who goes to Beirut. Mukaddime recognizes Fazıla and marries Enise only in order to be close to Fazıla. The novel ends with Fazıla’s visit to Istanbul and her father’s realization of the evil schemes of Calibe. Her self-choice for a lower social status against the backdrop of frustration and helplessness in marriage ultimately reunites Fazıla with her household in Istanbul and allows her to regain her presti­ gious and privileged position. Even though Aliye can be read as a conservative figure supporting a certain sociocultural environment based on religious doctrine, her fiction delves into the domestic and social life of women and the traditions that inform these spaces. Aliye’s multifaceted reflections on matters of the slav­ ery and poverty of women in the context of marriage and Islam are a sign of her ability to go beyond the confinements of women into marriage as an institution. Fazıla’s disguise as a slave woman with the name Peyman in order to escape her unhappy marriage is tactfully treated in line with her virtuous and moralist standing in the beginning. Her wish to divorce and her falling in love with three different characters (Mukaddime, Remzi, and Şebib) throughout the novel represent women’s right not to be confined to one assigned life. Slavery here is quite apropos and strong as a way to explore the dimensions and dynamics of female autonomy. It is the lowest social status (although Aliye conceives it as favorable in her Women of Islam as well), yet it reflects the autonomy of Fazıla, contrasting with her marriage to Remzi arranged by her father and Calibe. Ultimately, the nov­ els Dream and Reality and Stories are concerned with women’s autonomy and the space in which they can exert it in different ways. Aliye further probes into these issues in Women of Islam, now in response to the Western perceptions of Muslim-Ottoman women.

Islam, Women, and Orientalism Women of Islam is a dialogical narrative of Aliye’s conversations with Western women travelers in which she contravenes the latter’s understand­ ing of female slavery, veiling, and polygyny in the Muslim world. Aliye was highly cognizant of the way Westerners think about Muslim women; therefore, she developed the dialog in a way that reproduces a Western feminist perspective in an arduous manner. As noted earlier, Aliye accom­ panied women guests in the Ottoman court in Istanbul and women

10  FATMA ALIYE’S INVISIBLE AUTHORSHIP: A TURKISH MUSLIM WOMAN… 

189

travelers in Damascus (Kızıltan, 1993, p. 23). She was also informed about European publications on Muslim women. For example, having read Emil Juliard, Aliye alleges Westerners’ ignorance regarding women’s condition in the Ottoman Empire. She notes, “Europeans who reach as far as the Poles to learn about them write on harems in which they never entered even though they are in the same continent of Europe” (Aliye,  1896, p. 5). In her counterarguments, she frames her points within Islamic doc­ trine. One must remember that she had profound knowledge of Mecelle, the Ottoman civil code drawing on Islamic theology and prepared by a commission chaired by Aliye’s father, Ahmet Cevdet Paşa, and imple­ mented in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries in the Empire (Kızıltan, 1990, p. 294). The central premise of Aliye’s feminist perspective is that Islam granted women rights that were later exploited, manipulated, and abandoned by society. As Fatma Canbaz notes, Aliye proposes a women’s movement built on being reeducated in Islamic history and doctrine and largely skewed to avoid a male–female dichotomy (Canbaz, 2005, p. 21). In this vein, she considers radical feminism as ineffective in answering women’s needs. Aliye, on the one hand, provides examples from the achievements of women’s movements in the West; on the other hand, she underscores that Muslim Ottoman women should turn to Islamic origins in seeking their rights rather than taking Western feminism as an example to follow. In the same vein, Women of Islam opens with the narrator’s expression of perplexity at Europeans’ ignorance of the customs and lives that belong to “us.” The narrator predicates this on Muslim women’s lack of educa­ tion in foreign languages, which prevents them from informing travelers. On the other hand, those who can speak foreign languages are estranged from their own customs and traditions (Aliye, 2012 [1892], p. 33). Thus, Aliye again proposes “a middle way” of modernization. The book consists of three sections. The first section features the dialog between the narrator and her guests, Madam F. and a nun. It revolves around female slavery. The narrator explains to the guests that Islam grants women slaves monthly payment, the right to marry and retire, and the right to appeal to courts if they are treated badly. Aliye draws a very posi­ tive picture regarding the institution of slavery. She claims that if a woman slave is not happy with her owner, it is enough for her to ask to be given to another man. She claims that Circassian girls aspire to become slaves and concubines so much that if their families do not sell them, they resent it (Aliye, 2012 [1892], pp. 44–45). It is of note that the ethnic lines are

190 

E. HAMMAD OTHMAN

striking here; the institution of slavery is equated with Circassian women’s enslavement, and the slave girl of the narrator/host in this section of the book is Habeşi (of dark color or Ethiopian). Slavery is thus defended in the context of the lower socioeconomic standards of the specific underprivi­ leged ethnic groups. The second dialog is with Madam R., a British woman, and focuses on the issues of polygamy and the veil. The narrator argues that polygamy is not an Islamic order but a permission to be taken only under very strict conditions. When these conditions occur, such as the illness of the wife, extreme workload, and the condition of equal treatment of wives, it turns out to be to the benefit of women. The section is replete with references to the “Turkish” household and traditions. Even though the book is on the women of Islam, its content is quite restricted to Turkish women, attire, and cuisine here. In defending polygamy, the narrator contrasts it to adultery, unchastity, and the absence of the right to divorce in Europe. Aliye here adopts not only an anti-Orientalist but also Occidentalist per­ spective in her depictions of women and family in Europe as corrupted and degraded. The third section of Women of Islam addresses conversations between the narrator, two Turkish women, and three foreign women. The section expands on a typical Turkish household introduced in the previous section. In this context, the narrator bemoans regional differences as representative of Turkish women; she challenges her foreign guest when the latter identi­ fies an article of regional rural dress as a Turkish garment. Aliye also expli­ cates the difference between Islamic doctrine and customs, the former allowing women to take active roles in society and the latter confining women to the private sphere. Whether on religious or customary matters, the foreign guests often end up agreeing with the host and almost feeling ashamed of their ignorance and misjudgment. They advance counterargu­ ments only to be exposed as being misinformed. In this sense, the conver­ sations are quite asymmetrical in giving voice to the two sides of the debate. Aliye’s arguments in this book can also be read alongside and against the representation of Muslim women at the Fair by foreigner speakers. Mary Page Wright, Cariclee Zacaroff, Teresa Griffin Viéle, and Esmeralda Cervantes are all Western women who spoke on Muslim women and the Ottoman Empire at the Fair (van Os, p.  18). Among these, Esmeralda Cervantes, a Catalan who was living in Istanbul, corrects some stereotypes about Muslim women, such as their confinement to harems, by quoting Aliye (Cervantes, 1893). In a lecture titled “Woman’s Life in Asiatic

10  FATMA ALIYE’S INVISIBLE AUTHORSHIP: A TURKISH MUSLIM WOMAN… 

191

Turkey,” Mary Page Wright, on the other hand, fully contradicts the por­ trayals by Cervantes and Aliye. Wright begins her lecture with the following statement: “Life is monotonous and sad for woman, especially because: a) They are held to be essentially inferior to man” (1893). Wright highlights the seclusion of women, lack of education, and “the miseries of polygamy.” She asserts that women in Turkey envy the liberties and lives of American women. In this sense, Wright portrays Ottoman women as needing to be rescued from their oppressor. These assertions construct the very themes Aliye objected to in Women of Islam. Wright is also critical of the restrictions on women’s mobility and equal access to resources and spaces. Yet, it is debatable to what extent Aliye’s books were accessible to the Fair’s visitors, or even its organizers and speakers, considering that they were in a foreign language and displayed among thousands of other books (Williams, 2008, p. 198). On the other hand, the very presence of Aliye’s books in the Women’s Library challenged the idea of Muslim women as lacking their own voice. In her advocation of women’s rights, Aliye assertively opposes the idea of importing Western feminism and finds Islamic doctrine sufficient and most appropriate for the empowerment of Muslim women. Her stance illustrates the necessity of avoiding the essentialization of identities in seeking to understand the diversity of women’s activism beyond Western feminism. Her books at the Fair addressed both Muslim and non-Muslim audiences, presenting a Muslim feminist perspective to correct the mis­ taken applications of Islamic teachings in the Muslim world while at the same time educating the Western audience about the misperceptions of women in Islam. Women of Islam, especially, targeted the Western audi­ ence with its content that subverts the Orientalist vision of Muslim women. In promoting women’s rights, Aliye aligned herself with both established and newly emerging ideals of nation and society. As is the case with much of her writing, the three books in the Women’s Library idealized the edu­ cation and empowerment of women.

References Works

in the

Woman’s Building Library

Aliye, F. (2010 [1892]). Muhadarat. Özgür. ̇ Aliye, F. (2012 [1892]). Nisvan-ı Islam. Kesit. Aliye, F., & Mithat, A. (2012 [1891]). Hayal ve Hakikat. Kesit.

192 

E. HAMMAD OTHMAN

Other Works Cited Adak, H. (2005). Gendering Biography: Ahmet Mithat (on Fatma Aliye) or the Canonization of an Ottoman Male Writer. Querelles, 10, 189–204. Akşit, E. E. (2010). Fatma Aliye’s Stories: Ottoman Marriages Beyond the Harem. Journal of Family History, 35(3), 207–218. Aksoy, N. (1996). Batı ve Başkaları. Düzlem Yayınları. ̇ Aliye, F. (1896). Nisvân-ı Islâm ve Bir Fransız Muharriri. Hanımlara Mahsus Gazete, 91-92(2-3), 5–6. Canbaz, F. (2005). Fatma Aliye Hanim’in Romanlarinda Kadin Sorunu. MA Thesis, Bilkent University, Ankara. Canbaz, F. (2010). Fatma Aliye. Timaş Yayınları. Çelebi, B. D.’. A. (2022). Fatma Aliye: At the Intersection of Secular and Islamic Feminism. Women’s Studies, 5, 1–18. Çelik, Z. (2004). Speaking Back to Orientalist Discourse. In Empires of Vision: A Reader (pp. 395–414). Duke University Press. Cervantes, S. E. (1893). Address on the Education and Literature of the Women of Turkey. Delivered Before the World’s Congress Auxiliary. Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2016. Accessed August 20, 2021. https://ia800408.us. archive.org/20/items/addressoneducati00cerv/addressoneducati00cerv.pdf Demir, A. (2013). Women Transforming Space and Communicating a Message through Use of Space: The Case of Fatma Aliye. International Periodical for the Languages, Literature and History of Turkish or Turkic, 8(1), 1221–1228. ̇ Durakbaşa, A. (2000). Halide Edip Türk Modernleşmesi ve Feminizm. Iletiş im Yayınları. Esen, N. (2016). The Authorship of an Ottoman Woman: Fatma Aliye. Yeni Türk Edebiyatı Dergisi, 14, 59–69. Findley, C. (2008). Political Culture and the Great Households. In S. N. Faroqhi (Ed.), An Empire in Transition (pp. 63–80). Cambridge University Press. Gunay-Erkol, Ç., & Bozkurt Timuroglu, S. (2014). Dreams Beyond Control: Women and Writing in the Ottoman Empire Since Asiye Hatun’s Diary. Journal of Research in Gender Studies, 4(1), 364–375. Heck, Ö. G. (2015). Labelling the Ottoman Empire as ‘Turkey’ in the Chicago World’s Fair of 1893. International Journal for History, Culture and Modernity, 3(1), 107–137. ̇ Izbek, K.  K. (2002). Avrupa, Amerika ve Arap Basınında Bir Türk Romanı: ‘Dağarcıktan Ödemeler’. E Edebiyat, 24–26. Karaca, Ş. (2011). Fatma Aliye Hanim’in Türk Kadin Haklarinin Düşünsel Temellerine Katkilari. Karadeniz Araştırmaları, 31, 93–110. Karakaya, D. (2009). “Patriarchal Bargain”: Fatma Aliye’s strategies of writing in Ahmed Cevdet Pasa and His Time. MA Thesis, Central European University, Budapest.

10  FATMA ALIYE’S INVISIBLE AUTHORSHIP: A TURKISH MUSLIM WOMAN… 

193

Kızıltan, M. (1990). Öncü bir kadın yazar: Fatma Aliye Hanım. Journal of Turkish Studies, 14, 283–322. Kızıltan, M. (1993). Fatma Aliye Hanım, Yaşamı-Sanatı-Yapıtları ve Nisvan-ı ̇ Islam. Mutlu Yayınları. Kurnaz, Ş. (2007). Emine Semiye’nin Ablasi Fatma Aliye’ye Mektuplari. Türkbilig, 14, 131–142. Mithat, A. (2010 [1892]). Preface. In Muhadarat. Özgür. ̇ Moran, B. (2003). Türk Romanına Eleştirel Bakış 1. Iletiş im Yayınları. Özdoğan, B. D. (2019). In the Beginning Was “A Woman”: Motivation, Agency, and the Will of Fatma Aliye. Journal of the Ottoman and Turkish Studies Association, 6(2), 55–72. ̇ Polat, F., & Derer, G. (2016). Muhafazakârlık ve Feminizm Kıskacında Bir Isim: Fatma Aliye Hanım. International Periodical for History and Social Research, 15, 185–206. van Os, N.  A. N.  M. (2016). ‘They can breathe freely now’: The International Council of Women and Ottoman Muslim Women (1893–1920s). Journal of Women’s History, 28(3), 17–40. Williams, Z. G. (2008). Triumph of Commercialism: The Commodification of the Middle Eastern Exotica at the World’s Columbian Exposition of 1893. MA Thesis, Bilkent University. Wright, M. P. (1893). Woman’s Life in Asiatic Turkey. In M. K. O. Eagle (Ed.), The Congress of Women Held in the Woman’s Building, World’s Columbian Exposition (p. 305). Board of Lady Managers.

CHAPTER 11

The “Native New Woman”: Material Culture and the Indian Novel in the Women’s Library at the World’s Columbian Exposition Jackielee Derks

Among over 46 nations showcased at the Columbian Exposition, India was represented both along the Midway Plaisance and within the White City. The Midway featured Hindu jugglers and magicians who performed fantastic tricks and illusions alongside the concessions and goods sold at the small Indian Bazaar. Juxtaposed against the Midway’s sensationalized portrait of India, the Indian Pavilion (also known as the East Indies Building) inside the White City presented the nation’s rich and ancient heritage. Here, attendants wearing striking uniforms of red and gold and traditional white turbans served tea in handmade china while tour guides attempted to dispel myths associated with their home country by presenting guests with facts about India. Contrasting with the spectacle of the Midway, the Indian Pavilion’s interior immersed visitors in a carefully orchestrated display of Indian culture. The pavilion was draped with fine

J. Derks (*) Marquette University, Milwaukee, WI, USA e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 M. Dalbello, S. Wadsworth (eds.), Global Voices from the Women’s Library at the World’s Columbian Exposition, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-42490-8_11

195

196 

J. DERKS

silks and elaborately embroidered fabrics accenting a vast array of artifacts and goods, including fine art, musical instruments, woven rugs, and an assortment of garments and accessories (Burris, 2001, pp. 104–114). In contrast to the Exposition’s tendency toward commercialism, the Woman’s Building offered a glimpse into the lives of Indian women at the turn of the century through the nation’s rich material culture. The collection sent by Great Britain, which was overseen by Princess Christian and authorized by Queen Victoria, included a representative example of women’s handicrafts, including jewelry, garments, and accessories made by the women and girls who attended missionary schools throughout the country (Condensed Catalogue of Interesting Exhibits, 1893, p. 130). Among the British contribution to the Woman’s Building Library, which consisted of over 500 books by nearly 300 writers, many well-known names stand out, such as Jane Austen, Maria Edgeworth, George Eliot, Elizabeth Gaskell, Ann Radcliffe, Mary Shelley, and Acton, Currer, and Ellis Bell. However, the library’s catalogue also contains many more obscure titles, including works that are no longer in print. Among the lesser-known titles, India’s presence is most conspicuous in the contributions of the Western travel writers who documented their observations in works such as Ella Rodman Church’s The Wildfords in India (1872), Anna Harriette Leonowens’ Life and Travel in India (1884), Mrs. E.  J. Humphrey’s Gems of India (1875) and Six Years in India (1886), and Mary Thorn Carpenter’s A Girl’s Winter in India (1892). Together, the material goods and travel narratives on display in the Woman’s Building signal British and American women’s engagement with colonial India in works that prioritize their Western perspective. However, a distant reading of over 100 novels from the British contribution to the Library reveals a less visible but quite substantial literary engagement with the Indian subcontinent. Specifically, a keyword search of this corpus foregrounds two primary types of association. The first uses India to account for a character’s absence or appearance in the text. In such instances, characters, primarily men, are found leaving for or just returning from India. In these novels, India exists as a space outside the text’s frame that conveniently facilitates the plot’s development. The second, and most frequent, mode of association occurs when India is connected to a material object found within the British domestic space. Out of the 107 novels studied through this search, 25, including titles such as Jane Eyre (1847), Middlemarch (1871), and Cranford (1853), reference Indian goods at least once. Images of objects imported from India, such

11  THE “NATIVE NEW WOMAN”: MATERIAL CULTURE AND THE INDIAN… 

197

as gowns, handkerchiefs, rugs, lace, and cuts of muslin, silk, and calico are scattered throughout their pages. A targeted distant reading of this corpus, in which I used the corpus linguistic tool AntConc to perform keyword-­ in-context searches of the word “India,” demonstrates how nineteenth-century British women’s writing, much like the exhibits at the Columbian Exposition, accessed India through its material culture. Among the British titles, however, one stands out: Krupabai Satthianadhan’s (1862–1896) Saguna (1892): the only novel included in the Woman’s Building Library that was written by an Indian woman. As such, Saguna subverts Western attempts to define the colonial space. Like many of the books included in the Library, Saguna, which was first serialized in The Christian College Magazine and later published by Srinivasa, Varadachari & Company of Madras, has since fallen into obscurity. At the time of the novel’s publication, however, it received wide acclaim in both India and England. Amid the many reviews included in the second edition (1895), Queen Victoria is quoted praising the novel for “showing the native ‘new woman’ beside the old” (“Opinions on the First Edition,” i). Indeed, Satthianadhan appropriates British literary forms to assert her voice and frame the Indian New Woman. As some critics have noted, Satthianadhan’s own reading, especially that of British women writers such as George Eliot and the Brontës, clearly influenced her writing (Hassan, 2009; Joshi, 2002). However, in this chapter I argue, Satthianadhan does not just replicate Western forms; rather, she evokes and transforms a British mode of female agency through a process of transculturation. The result is a unique mode of female subjectivity that shows how the New Woman concept developed through cultural exchange. In this way, Saguna adds an important dimension to the British collection in the Woman’s Building Library by offering an alternative view of India–– one no longer limited to absence or defined by material culture.

The Kashmir Shawl From fine textiles such as muslin and silk to carpets, trunks, and screens, India manifests in the novels included in the Library through the many goods imported to the British Isles. According to Elaine Freedgood, “the Victorian novel describes, catalogs, quantifies, and in general showers us with things” (2006, p. 1). While these objects remain “largely inconsequential in the rhetorical hierarchy of the text … they suggest, or reinforce, something we already know about the subjects who use them”

198 

J. DERKS

(2006, p. 2). In other words, such objects involve an intricate network of associations that conveys meaning about the characters with whom they are connected. For Indian goods found in British domestic spaces, these associations involve both England’s imperial legacy and the mythical status India held for many British subjects. As Suzanne Daly suggests, when it came to India, the British were “less interested in fact-finding than in myth making, and their success in this endeavor may be measured by the degree to which Indian exports retain the trace of the ‘Oriental’ in the Victorian cultural imaginary” (2011, p. 8). In this way, British literature becomes entangled with the myth Victorian Britain constructed about the Indian, or Oriental, “Other.” Among the many different types of objects found in British novels in the women’s library, the Kashmir shawl emerges as a prominent, often repeated, symbol of British femininity. Over a dozen of these novels refer specifically to an Indian shawl.1 According to Daly, these shawls were “ubiquitous in the domestic novels of the time where they function at once as a marker of respectable English womanhood and as magical and mysterious ‘Oriental’ garments” (2011, p.  12). Daly also acknowledges the colonial history of the shawl by pointing out that they were often brought home by officers in the British Indian army (2011, p. 12). The shawl symbolized the riches and wealth made through aggressive colonial expansion while granting access to the material culture of India, believed to be an archaic and mystical land.2 Not coincidentally, the same type of shawl adorned the walls of the Indian Pavilion at the Columbian Exposition, displaying for fairgoers the exquisite handiwork of India’s weavers. For fairgoers, especially women, the shawls reinforced existing ideas about the Orient and the British imperial project while allowing them to personally access India––or a British Imperial fantasy of India–– through its material culture. Though Kashmir shawls had been traded along established routes throughout Central Asia for hundreds of years, it was the economic arm of British imperialism that brought them to the West. Both the complex 1  Though the Kashmir shawl was specifically from the Kashmir region, it was often referred to in British literature as an Indian shawl (Daly, 2011). 2  As Edward Said’s work makes evident, the idea of the Orient was mostly a European invention full of “romance, exotic beings, haunting memories and landscapes, remarkable experiences.” Said aligns the Oriental, which is very much integral to Victorian material culture, with the ideological and discursive institutions of the British colonial project (1978, p. 1).

11  THE “NATIVE NEW WOMAN”: MATERIAL CULTURE AND THE INDIAN… 

199

history and commodification of the Kashmir shawl are entangled in the item’s symbolic meaning on the pages of the Victorian novel. Since Kashmir shawls were both expensive and rare, having traveled across continents and oceans, they maintained a prominent place in the cultural imaginary. Among British women, Kashmir shawls were a highly coveted item, which meant they were associated with social class and status. Using Charlotte Brontë’s Villette (1853), which was included in the British section of the Woman’s Building Library, Daly demonstrates how respectability was often coded within representations of the Kashmir shawl: “a ‘coarse’ dissolute Irish woman passes for ‘an English lady in reduced circumstances’ and obtains employment as a governess in a respectable Belgian household by virtue of having in her possession ‘a real Indian shawl’” (Daly, 2011, p. 14). In this instance, the shawl is so tightly bound to the image of British womanhood that the Irish woman passes simply because she appears to own one. In a similar example from Gaskell’s Mary Barton (1848) (also included in the British collection), Daly reveals the shawl’s ability to “temporarily unsettle the system of class markers” (Daly, 2011, p. 14). In Gaskell’s novel, Mary’s Aunt Esther trades her “prostitute’s clothing” for a respectable gown and shawl before meeting her niece, “wrapping herself in a mantle of rented respectability” (Daly, 2011, p. 13). In both instances, the shawl is so deeply tied to British femininity and class that such characters are able to hide their true identities within the shawl’s draping folds. Building on Daly’s work, my distant reading revealed a similar correlation between the Kashmir shawl and British upper-class femininity within some of the less-studied novels included in the British collection. The shawl makes an important appearance in Mary Elizabeth Braddon’s novel Lady Audley’s Secret (1862). One of the most popular of Braddon’s works, Lady Audley’s Secret is a sensation novel about a wicked heroine who commits bigamy, abandons her child, attempts to murder her first husband, and sets fire to a hotel to cover her tracks. Upon being discovered and facing judgment, Lady Audley “wrapped herself in an Indian shawl” (Braddon, 1862, p. 397). After pointing out that Sir Michael Audley, her second husband, had spent a hundred guineas on the shawl, the narrator pauses to consider the significance of Lady Audley’s choice: Remember how much she had periled for a fine house and gorgeous furniture; for carriages and horses, jewels and laces; and do not wonder if she clung with a desperate tenacity to gauds and gewgaws in the hour of her

200 

J. DERKS

despair. If she had been Judas, she would have held to her thirty pieces of silver to the last moment of her shameful life. (Braddon, 1862, p. 397)

Despite her undoing, Lady Audley clings to the shawl because it signifies class and status even as she is stripped of both. As a heroine, Lady Audley threatens the concept of British femininity—she has acted with violence and self-interest. Perhaps, most importantly, though, her actions threaten the domestic space. She has failed as both a wife and mother and has disrupted the traditional family unit. Despite this, Lady Audley does not appear interested in vindication or remorse. Rather, she clings to the symbol of her social rise, the shawl, and the bourgeois femininity it signifies. Furthermore, the text links Lady Audley to Judas in a move that underscores her betrayal and greed. The shawl, bound up in Western notions of the Orient, emphasizes her deception. Much like Brontë’s Irish woman who uses an Indian shawl as a disguise, the protagonist of Braddon’s novel demonstrates how the shawl is simultaneously associated with British class status and the darkly mysterious Oriental Other. A similar example from the Library’s collection, Anne Thackeray Ritchie’s Village on the Cliff (1867) explores the shawl’s association with British womanhood and class through a character whose identity and class are once again at odds with the item’s cultural status. In Ritchie’s novel, a young French woman, Reine Chretien, struggles against the weight of her “great Indian shawl.” As she stands outside a church, Reine’s shawl begins to slip from her shoulders. She shields her eyes from the sun with one hand and grips a child’s hand with the other, making the shawl an impractical burden––a piece of finery that disrupts her more practical way of life. However, Dick Butler, Reine’s romantic interest, pulls on the shawl’s mystical connotations and imagines Reine as a martyr draped in Cashmere (Ritchie, 1906, p. 250). For Dick, the shawl adds to his romanticization of Reine as the ideal woman, the Angel willing to sacrifice herself for the domestic space. However, Dick’s image of Reine is unsettled by her own discomfort and frustration with the shawl’s added weight: “‘I shall not be sorry for one if it were, only to get rid of all this,’ said Reine, tugging at her great Indian shawl, ‘and to go back to Petit Port quietly in my own everyday clothes’” (Ritchie, 1906, p. 251). For Reine, the weight of the shawl is synonymous with the weight of British high society life, which she must conform to if she marries Dick. Much like the examples from Brontë’s and Gaskell’s novels, the shawl allows Reine access to higher society, where

11  THE “NATIVE NEW WOMAN”: MATERIAL CULTURE AND THE INDIAN… 

201

she passes amongst upper-class British women. In this way, the shawl is once again implicated in an act of deception. Whereas Lady Audley appears to embrace this duplicity, though, Reine rejects the shawl’s associations with class and the potential for social status. In both instances, the item’s presence in the text plays upon the commodification of the Indian shawl and its association with wealth, status, and femininity. Yet, as Freedgood argues in her study of material culture, such objects accumulate traces of a nation’s conquests, which a culture must simultaneously repress and acknowledge to preserve its past and make way for its future (2006, p. 2). In other words, the material culture of an Imperial nation is implicitly tied to its history of colonial violence. For the Indian shawl, its status within British material culture is tightly bound to the empire’s colonial expansion and its history of exploitation and violence. When the Indian shawl appears draped across the shoulders of a female character in the Victorian novel, it gives an air of Oriental mystique while alluding to British colonial wealth extraction. For Lady Audley, the shawl stands in for the bourgeois life she is forced to leave behind. Similarly, in Ritchie’s novel, the shawl’s presence calls attention to the intrinsic link between bourgeois femininity and British colonialism. Though Richie’s novel problematizes this relationship, it ultimately aligns with Braddon’s novel by turning the Kashmir shawl into a literary trope. As part of the larger collection of British texts in the Woman’s Building Library, both novels demonstrate how the imperial fantasy of India and imperialist/colonialist power dynamics often manifest in the British imaginary through its material culture.

Satthianadhan’s Autoethnographic Novel A closer examination of Satthianadhan’s Saguna reveals how the author exchanges the material culture of the Victorian domestic novel for a version of femininity grounded in her identity as an Indian woman. While the novel as a literary form was taking root in Indian culture, Satthianadhan demonstrated command over the bildungsroman by fictionalizing her own life. The novel opens by introducing Saguna, at the age of fourteen, before shifting to her mother, who was promised as a child bride to Saguna’s father. Before they are married, Saguna’s father converted to Christianity. From there, the novel follows a very similar path to

202 

J. DERKS

Satthianadhan’s own life.3 As Christians, Saguna’s family is part of a religious minority. While her father works to convert others throughout the region, they often face violence and backlash. However, this religious affiliation also contributes to Saguna’s education. As a girl, Saguna pursues education and often resists the traditional roles imposed upon her. She eventually attends a boarding school run by Western missionaries and is later one of the first Indian women to be accepted to the Medical College of Madras. Though Saguna excels, finishing first in several classes, her health fails, and she chooses to return home. The story ends with Saguna accepting a proposal of marriage from a man she loves and then turning her talents toward serving her community. Though this ending aligns with the traditional marriage plot, Saguna’s insistence on pursuing her own education and advocating for the rights of her fellow Indian women reflect the priorities of the New Woman fiction that was taking shape during the period throughout the West. While Saguna conforms to British literary conventions, it also stands out for its willingness to grapple with the issues specifically facing Indian women. Meenakshi Mukherjee points to Satthianadhan’s engagement with topics that were just emerging in Indian literature during the latter half of the nineteenth century, such as “gender, caste, ethnicity, and cultural identity” (2003, p. 102). At a time when the New Woman was taking shape in the British consciousness, Satthianadhan was investigating the plight of women who resisted domesticity (Mukherjee, 2003, p.  102). Priya Joshi ties Satthianadhan’s interest in such issues with her choice to write within the imported framework of the British novel; according to Joshi, the anglophone novel maintains to this day an uneasy position within the Indian canon (2002, p. 173). Despite this tense literary history, I argue that Satthianadhan took ownership of the novel form, both appropriating and remolding it to express her own version of female subjectivity within the context of colonial India. Within the British collection of the Woman’s Building Library, Saguna presents an important 3  Satthianadhan was a prolific writer during her very short career. Her parents, both Brahmins, had converted to Christianity before she was born, and as a child Satthianadhan was educated at a time when girls were just being allowed to attend schools. Satthianadhan went on to become one of the first Indian women accepted to Madras Medical College, where she excelled, finishing in the top of her class and earning several awards during her first year. The demands of medical school coupled with her failing health led Satthianadhan to withdraw; however, after her withdrawal she focused on advocating for the education of young women and girls (Tharu & Lalita, 1991, p. 275).

11  THE “NATIVE NEW WOMAN”: MATERIAL CULTURE AND THE INDIAN… 

203

counternarrative to the novels it was shelved with, which turn to the Kashmir shawl to define British femininity according to its associations with social class and colonialism. Satthianadhan’s engagement with Western conventions is part of a larger phenomenon that results from cultural exchanges within colonized locations. In her study of European travel writing, Mary Louise Pratt examines “contact zones,” which she defines as “social spaces where disparate cultures meet, clash, and grapple with each other, often in highly asymmetrical relations of domination and subordination—like colonialism, slavery, or their aftermaths” (1992, p.  4). Within such locations, modes of representation imported from the metropolis are often appropriated through a process of cultural transmission called transculturation (Pratt, 1992, p. 6). In India, transculturation was most often predicated upon British imperialism. By the early nineteenth century, British education had taken root in India through the establishment of missionary schools and universities such as the Hindu College, established in 1817, evidence of which was on display in the Woman’s Building exhibits. With these official institutions came the English language and Western literary genres, including European forms of poetry, prose, and drama. According to Arvind Krishna Mehrotra, initial attempts at these forms were “by the mere fact of being in English, audacious acts of mimicry and self-­assertion” (2003, p. 6). Acknowledging the tension addressed previously by Joshi, Mehrotra’s assessment calls attention to the agency inherent in choosing to write within the colonizer’s dominant form. While many such writers modeled British novels, poems, and plays, others, including Satthianadhan, actually reshaped and molded European forms. Pratt offers the terms autoethnography and autoethnographic expression, which “refer to instances in which colonized subjects undertake to represent themselves in ways that engage with the colonizer’s own terms” (1992, p. 7). Reading Saguna as autoethnography foregrounds the agency in Satthianadhan’s writing, which not only appropriates Western modes of expression but also remolds them to accommodate the Indian woman’s subjectivity. One of the defining traits of Satthianadhan’s writing, both her fiction and nonfiction, is a steadfast engagement with women’s experiences in India. Satthianadhan interrogates the cultural and religious ideologies responsible for the subjugation of Indian women. In her essay “Women’s Influence at Home” (1896), Satthianadhan links the lack of liberal education with the limited scope of women’s contribution to Indian society and culture outside the domestic space. Satthianadhan gestures toward the

204 

J. DERKS

English trope of the Angel in the House, contending that educated women make better wives and mothers. An educated woman, she argues, can make duty more pleasurable and “the free interchange of ideas with her will enable man to discover yet newer phases of thought” (1896, p. 2). She even turns to the “civilized West” for inspiration and to the British women who had already begun to advocate for their own liberty. In “Female Education” (1896) and “Hindu Social Customs” (1896), Satthianadhan critiques the Hindu religion for the practice of child marriage and the suppression of female education. Throughout her writing, Satthianadhan often blames India’s insistence on defining itself as a religious rather than cultural entity for many of the problems facing Indian women. As a Christian woman, Satthianadhan benefitted from her family’s close ties to the British and American missionaries, and her own education and many of the freedoms she experienced can be attributed to the colonial influence. Therefore, it is unsurprising that Satthianadhan puts forth a version of progress grounded in her encounters with the West. And, yet, Satthianadhan does not just replicate British progressivism; rather, she turns to the West to imagine a future for Indian women that merges aspects of their tradition with the emerging ideologies of early British feminism. In many ways, Satthianadhan’s interrogation of woman’s social status in nineteenth-century India places her alongside many of her British contemporaries, who were exploring woman’s social and political potential through the figure of the New Woman. Throughout Great Britain and the United States, this new concept of womanhood challenged the Victorian status quo and promised to shift nineteenth-century women from the domestic space into the public. Despite this sense of progressivism, feminist critics have pointed out that the New Woman movement was entangled with Western imperial ideologies. For example, Iveta Jusová explains that British women, even those who considered themselves reformers and worked for the emancipation of women in India, did so to further the British empire. Furthermore, their efforts were often imbued with imperialism’s racial bias (2005, pp. 5–8). Similarly, Narin Hassan points out that the New Woman emerged as part of the British project of colonial reform (Hassan, 2009, p. 115). Recent scholarship that brings together the study of women’s literary history and empire has thus uncovered clear links between early feminist thought and the colonial project in India. Though often considered a Western construct, the New Woman arrived in India during a time when the nation was already engaged in intense

11  THE “NATIVE NEW WOMAN”: MATERIAL CULTURE AND THE INDIAN… 

205

debate about the role of women as agents of change and, conversely, protectors of tradition. While Satthianadhan was writing Saguna, the image of the New Woman was taking shape within Indian public consciousness. In writing about the New Woman in India, Susie Tharu and K.  Lalita credit the Sepoy Rebellion in 1857 with a social revolution: “A powerful new female figure can be encountered in text after text of the period. She was in keeping with the now-naturalized Victorian ideals of domestic virtue, patient and long suffering. But the new woman was also self-­confident and autonomous, conscious of her power and of the strength she could find in tradition” (1991, pp. 172–173). The New Woman arrived in India just as the Indian public was looking to women as the bearers of the nation’s tradition and, conversely, the beacon for its potential modernity. It is within this complex social landscape that Saguna emerges with a representation of the “native new woman.”4 Furthermore, Saguna’s engagement with the Western conceptualization of the New Woman demonstrates how autoethnographic texts are constructed in dialogue with modes of representation imported from the metropolis (Pratt, 1992, p. 7). In Saguna Satthianadhan embraces the spirit of the British New Woman but revises this image to better accommodate her own sense of subjectivity. Omitting the material culture of the Victorian domestic novel, she focuses instead on her protagonist’s interiority. Throughout the novel, Saguna extends this sense of interiority into some of the most divisive issues facing Indian society. The novel humanizes the issues of child marriage and sati, or widow burning, by exploring the experiences of India’s women and girls. In the novel’s second chapter, which focuses on Saguna’s mother, Radha, Satthianadhan offers an intimate portrait of a girl who was married while still in the cradle (Satthianadhan, 1895, p. 17). As a young girl, Radha is forced to leave her family, including a younger brother she raised after her mother’s death, when her mother-in-law comes to collect her. Two years later, Radha is unable to make it home in time to see her father before his death. Though Satthianadhan presents Radha’s marriage as one full of mutual respect and love, the anxiety and fear that surround her childhood and the years spent under her oppressive mother-in-law’s control shed light on the traumatic effects of child marriage. She also links child-marriage to the custom of sati, noting that often young girls are married to much older men and left with “the bitter lot of a widow” 4  Queen Victoria, “Opinions of the First Edition,” quoted in Saguna: A Story of Native Christian Life, 2nd edition, i.

206 

J. DERKS

(1896, p. 31). According to Satthianadhan, the abolition of sati cannot be accomplished until the practice of child-marriage is eradicated and young girls are instead educated. Satthianadhan also directly interrogates the practice of sati, a contentious locus of colonial reform during the nineteenth century.5 Saguna explains the tradition, which at the time was almost one hundred years old, through the story of a suttee who is said to haunt the Deccan where Saguna’s family often spends their summers.6 According to the legend, the ghost had once been the beautiful wife of a rich banker who was taught to read and write. Saguna explains that these attributes led to her downfall as “people in their mysterious dread of learning had always held it unnatural for a woman to be clever or in any way learned” (1895, pp. 8–9). When her husband died, the villagers turned on the widow, tearing her from the corpse and stealing her jewels. When the priest decided she would become a suttee, the woman acquiesced. Her decision to participate in sati appeased the crowds, and they immediately began to celebrate her: “She was decorated as a bride for the altar and led to the river” (1895, p. 10). As the priest lights the mandapam, a decorated funeral pyre, the woman rushes through the fire and runs away shrieking. Her ghost now roams the jungles where her screams threaten to bring six months of illness to anyone who hears them. Since then, Saguna explains, the woman’s spirit has been blamed for all sorts of natural and man-made calamities. Satthianadhan’s story foregrounds the cultural superstitions about women and the dangers of knowledge and learning that surround the practice of sati. Framing this custom as a primitive practice, Satthianadhan suggests it can be overcome through education rather than colonial reform. As if foreshadowing Gayatri Spivak’s observation that sati was used to justify imperialism by providing evidence that “white men” needed to save “brown women from brown men,” Satthianadhan presents the issue as one belonging to the Indian people.7 In “Hindu Social Reform,” Satthianadhan points out that British legal intervention was a coercive force that only resulted in evil (1896, p. 33). Instead, she appeals to the 5  As Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak’s work makes clear, the Hindu tradition of sati, which was officially prohibited by the British in 1829, became, and continues to be, a critical site of debate between East and West (1994, pp. 93–94). 6  Though widows who self-immolate are often referred to as Satis, or the singular Sati, Satthianadhan uses suttee (1895, p. 8). 7  Spivak points out that sati increased during the British occupation, which she attributes to resistance to colonization (2010, p. 50).

11  THE “NATIVE NEW WOMAN”: MATERIAL CULTURE AND THE INDIAN… 

207

British to increase educational opportunities for young women and girls through missionary schools and scholarships to colleges abroad. Satthianadhan looks to the colonial influence for aid but ultimately places responsibility for confronting the tradition of sati on her own people. The rest of Saguna juxtaposes images of the child bride and suttee with a portrait of the New Woman as Satthianadhan imagines her. Throughout the novel, Saguna is strong and passionate––she advocates for what she wants and speaks out against the issues facing women throughout India. Saguna’s character aligns well with the British New Woman, who prioritizes education and positions women in the public sphere, where they might pursue education and marry on their own terms. In an interesting gesture toward the New Woman’s influence in India, Saguna initially follows the example set by an American woman doctor who mentors her at the missionary school. It is under this woman’s guidance that Saguna chooses to attend medical school in India and devotes herself to a life of study. However, the end of the novel, which appears to follow the conventional marriage plot, presents us with a version of the New Woman that steps out from the shadow of her British counterpart. Specifically, Saguna chooses to leave medical school after her physical health suffers. Upon returning to India, she decides to marry, a move that ultimately upholds traditional family structures, and trades academic study for a life of service to her community. Though that is where the novel ends, its similarities to Satthianadhan’s own life suggest that Saguna would go on to advocate for the education of young girls and women while enjoying a happy marriage. In sticking so closely to her own story, Satthianadhan prevents the expectations of the British New Woman from consuming her own experiences as an Indian woman. In other words, in writing an ending that trades the feminist independent professional woman for one satisfied with marriage and service, Satthianadhan preserves her own subjecthood and presents a version of the New Woman that is potentially valuable to women across India. Importantly, as she investigates this image of the Indian New Woman, Satthianadhan does so without relying on the symbolism or femininity associated with the shawl. Shawls only appear twice in Saguna, where they are treated as common functional objects. These shawls are of the everyday variety, often worn by both women and men, rather than the opulent and highly decorative Kashmir shawl. In the first of these appearances, Saguna’s sister drapes a shawl around their ailing brother Bhasker to protect him from the cool evening air. In this instance, the shawl acts as a

208 

J. DERKS

protective barrier meant to comfort Bhasker as he nears death. In the second episode, the shawl serves a similar function as Saguna enters the Medical College for the first time: “I covered my head and wrapped my shawl closer around me, for I could see that many eyes were upon me” (1895, p. 213). Here, Saguna’s shawl acts as a shield, protecting her from the intimidating stares of her fellow students. The shawl is linked to Saguna’s intimate emotions; it reveals her own vulnerability as she enters a new territory, suggesting a parallel with her brother’s vulnerability in his illness. Whereas the Kashmir shawl in the British novel carried with it a network of complex social and political associations, for Satthianadhan it is a way to communicate the intricacies of Saguna’s private experiences, hinting at the character’s interiority instead of gesturing outward into the material world. While India’s presence at the Columbian Exposition was established through its material culture, Saguna’s place within the Woman’s Building Library expands upon such representation by offering insight into India’s literary history. Examining Saguna as part of the Library also sheds light on the many ways the novel engages with issues important to women writers during the nineteenth century. A distant reading of the British collection foregrounds the ways in which India was often accessed through its material goods, objects imported through the expansion of the British empire. This distant reading also facilitated a closer examination of the Kashmir shawl’s relationship to both a specific form of bourgeois femininity and the imperial violence of the British empire. However, just as the Kashmir shawl stands out among the wide array of objects mentioned in the British novels in the Library, Satthianadhan’s novel stands out from the other texts in the collection’s catalogue. Saguna presents an important female voice, one full of conviction and a desire to alter the conventions that threaten to constrain her gender. And, despite her extensive engagement with British women writers and the emerging progressivism of the West, Satthianadhan grounds her novel in the Woman Question as it emerged in India. Saguna embodies the priorities that drive Satthianadhan’s political writing, offering readers a version of the New Woman that is deeply embedded in the context of Indian tradition and culture and continues to shape our understanding of India’s literary heritage and the global exchange that produced the nineteenth-century New Woman. Acknowledgment  I am indebted to Marija Dalbello for sharing an Excel sheet of titles in the Woman’s Building Library with corresponding bibliographical data.

11  THE “NATIVE NEW WOMAN”: MATERIAL CULTURE AND THE INDIAN… 

209

References Works in the Woman’s Building Library Braddon, M. E. (1862). Lady Audley’s Secret. Thomas Nelson and Sons, Ltd. Ritchie, A. T. (1906). The Village on the Cliff. Smith, Elder, & Co. Satthianadhan, K. (1895). Saguna: A Story of Native Christian Life (2nd ed.). Srinivasa, Varadachari & Co.

Other Works Cited Burris, J. P. (2001). Exhibiting Religion: Colonialism and Spectacle at International Expositions 1851–1893. University Press of Virginia. Condensed Catalogue of Interesting Exhibits with Their Locations in the World’s Columbian Exposition. (1893). : W. B. Conkey Company. Daly, S. (2011). The Empire Inside: Indian Commodities in Victorian Domestic Novels. University of Michigan Press. Freedgood, E. (2006). The Ideas in Things: Fugitive Meaning in the Victorian Novel. University of Chicago Press. Hassan, N. (2009). Jane Eyre’s Doubles?: Colonial Progress and the Tradition of New Woman Writing in India. In Gilbert and Gubar’s The Madwoman in the Attic After Thirty Years (pp. 111–126). University of Missouri Press. Joshi, P. (2002). Reforming the Novel: Krupa Satthianadhan, the Woman Who Did. In In Another Country: Colonialism, Culture, and the English Novel in India (pp. 172–204). Columbia University Press. Jusová, I. (2005). The New Woman and the Empire. Ohio State University Press. Mehrotra, A. K. (2003). Introduction. In A History of Indian Literature in English (pp. 1–26). Hurst and Company. Mukherjee, M. (2003). The Beginnings of the Indian Novel. In A. K. Mehrotra (Ed.), A History of Indian Literature in English (pp.  92–102). Hurst and Company. Pratt, M.  L. (1992). Imperial Eyes: Travel Writing and Transculturation. Routledge. Said, E. (1978). Orientialism. New York: Pantheon Books. Satthianadhan, K. (1896). Miscellaneous Writings. Srinivas Varadachari and Co. Spivak, G.  C. (1994). Can the Subaltern Speak? In P.  Williams & L.  Chrisman (Eds.), Colonial Discourse and Post-Colonial Theory: A Reader (pp. 66–111). Columbia University Press. Spivak, G. C. (2010). Can the Subaltern Speak?: Reflections on the History of an Idea. New York: Columbia UP. Tharu, S., & Lalita, K. (1991). Women Writing in India 600 B.C. to the Present, Vol. 1. The Feminist Press.

CHAPTER 12

From Private Lives to Public Spaces: Nineteenth-Century Peruvian Eclecticism at the Chicago World’s Fair Elena González-Muntaner

Mercedes Cabello de Carbonera (1842–1909) is considered one of the most important novelists of nineteenth-century Peru. Together with Clorinda Matto de Turner (1852–1909), she helped shape the future of the Peruvian novel. She wrote six novels: Los amores de Hortensia (The Loves of Hortensia, 1884), Sacrificio y recompensa (Sacrifice and Reward, 1886), Eleodora (1887), Blanca Sol (1889), Las consecuencias (Consequences, 1889), and El Conspirador (The Conspirator, 1892); two literary-critical essays: El Conde Leon Tolstoy (Count Leon Tolstoy, 1890) and La novela moderna (The Modern Novel, 1892); and numerous articles published in journals such as La revista de Lima, El correo del Perú, and El Perú ilustrado. In 1891, both Spain and the United States were preparing for the events that would commemorate the 400-year anniversary of Columbus’s

E. González-Muntaner (*) University of Wisconsin Oshkosh, Oshkosh, WI, USA e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 M. Dalbello, S. Wadsworth (eds.), Global Voices from the Women’s Library at the World’s Columbian Exposition, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-42490-8_12

211

212 

E. GONZÁLEZ-MUNTANER

voyage to the Americas. In Spain, the Americanists International Congress, which took place in Huelva in 1892, was one of the foremost events that many Latin American writers aspired to attend. Cabello de Carbonera was invited but did not travel to attend. However, her male counterpart, the writer Ricardo Palma (1833–1919) did, and he spent six months in Spain, participating in events and meeting in person with numerous notable Spanish literary figures of the time (Zorrilla, Campoamor, Pardo Bazán, Valera, and others).1 At the same time, the United States was organizing the Columbian Exhibition. Cabello de Carbonera was selected by the press in Lima as the Peruvian representative to attend the Fair and had intentions to go. In the end she did not, although five of her books did make the journey.2 While the reasons why she did not attend the Fair after all are not clear, a look into what Peru was like in the nineteenth century, both politically and culturally, as well as the role of women writers in the country at that time, may help us better understand both her absence from the festivities and the significance of her inclusion in the Woman’s Building Library.

Crisis and Reconstruction The nineteenth century was, from a political perspective, of critical importance for Peru, a new republic that gained independence from Spain in 1821, went through economic development and relative prosperity during the middle decades of the century, and experienced an economic collapse in the 1870s. Manuel Pardo served as the young nation’s president from 1872 to 1876. During those years education was prioritized, and freedom of press became the norm. Publications on the arts and politics flourished, and the philosophical ideas of Positivism, with its interest in science and progress, were first introduced. Pardo was assassinated in 1876, however, and the decade came to an end with an unwanted war against Chile (1879–1883). During the instability of the 1870s, a group of intellectuals concerned about the future of the country considered new strategies to solve the  Ricardo Palma compiled his memories from this trip in Recuerdos de España (1897).  Out of six novels, only Los amores de Hortensia, the first one she wrote, and Eleodora, were not sent to the Fair. Eleodora is a first version of what later became Las consecuencias; they share the same plot, but the latter was more influenced by Naturalism whereas Eleodora was influenced by Romanticism. Translations are the author’s unless otherwise noted. 1 2

12  FROM PRIVATE LIVES TO PUBLIC SPACES: NINETEENTH-CENTURY… 

213

crisis. Among them were Manuel González Prada (1848–1918) and Francisco de Paula González Vigil (1792–1875), who both believed in science, progress, and education as viable paths out of the stagnation caused by ignorance and old traditions and who also revindicated a place for women in the search for solutions for their country. González Prada focused on the protection and defense of three oppressed groups—workers, Indians, and women—and contributed actively to their emancipation.3 His emphasis on the importance of education for women and his direct, concise, and precise style are present in Cabello de Carbonera’s work. González Vigil also reflected on the importance of the education of women but only because they were mothers and wives of future citizens. He did not demand complete equality for women with respect to voting and work. He defended women but only as long as that did not affect the patriarchal system, and he still considered that the home was the space where women belonged. The superficiality of the feminism among Peruvian liberal thinkers during this period was disheartening, and it is not difficult to imagine what more traditional and conservative writers might have thought. Among Peruvian women writers, only those who were financially well-­ off had the time and means to dedicate their lives to literature. Cabello de Carbonera was one of these women. Born in Moquegua, a village in the South of Peru, she moved in her twenties to Lima, where she married a prestigious doctor, Urbano Carbonera. Cabello was an autodidact and untiring reader. She attended a literary club in Lima where she had the opportunity to meet writers such as Juana Manuela Gorriti (1818–1892), Flora Tristán (1803–1844), Ricardo Palma, and Manuel González Prada. Later, as an economically well-situated widow with no children, she became an active literary figure, in part by attending the literary gatherings that became popular in Lima during the 1870s and 1880s. It was the Argentinian writer Gorriti who contributed significantly to the cultural life of Lima by organizing these gatherings at her home.4 These gatherings provided a great opportunity for women writers to meet, express their opinions, share ideas, and discuss not only problems of their time in 3  Clorinda Matto analyzed the situation of the Indians in detail in her novels Aves sin nido (1889), Índole (1891), and Herencia (1895). 4  Augusto Tamayo Vargas notes that these gatherings peaked between 1876 and 1877 at Gorriti’s home and a decade later at Clorinda Matto’s (Literatura: 170). The content of the presentations can be found in the book Veladas literarias de Lima 1876-1877 (1892), edited by Juana Manuela Gorriti.

214 

E. GONZÁLEZ-MUNTANER

general, but also specific literary ones. All this could happen while they were still enclosed in the only space allowed for them: the home. The gatherings took place fortnightly and followed a well-organized program consisting of poetry reading, conferences, discussions of social, political, or literary topics, and occasionally including piano or voice recitals and children’s participation. Although these gatherings were characterized by an active participation on the part of women, men were not excluded, and it was common for literary figures such as Palma to attend. During these gatherings an incipient concern about women’s issues emerged, leading to the discussion of support for women’s education as the solution to certain social issues. Not all men were supportive, however. Many intellectual men considered women’s pursuit of education to be an invasion of their territory. Women writers in nineteenth-century Peru had to deal with many unpleasant comments regarding them personally and their writings. These often came from society in general, but they also came from certain male writers. Often accused of being pedantic and pretentious, they frequently had to endure direct insults. The most famous attacks to Cabello came from the writer Juan de Arona, who, playing with her name, modified it to create one with scatological resonances.5 The attacks ranged from published insults to her eventual relegation to an asylum on the basis of a questionable mental illness. Cabello and Matto were the most frequent targets. Not only were they the two most prominent novelists of Peru at the end of the century, but they were also good friends who collaborated together and had similar literary interests. While Cabello focused on the capital, Matto addressed more specifically the problems outside of Lima. Even though the literary gatherings at Matto’s home were separated by only a few years from those at Gorriti’s, the war that erupted in between changed the tone and content of the gatherings, making the invasion of male territory even more unforgivable for Matto. She was later excommunicated due to her direct criticism of the clergy and had to leave the country. These events may explain why she was not invited to send her work to the Women’s Library in Chicago as Cabello was. In a similar way, the difficult situations Cabello faced are most likely the main reason why she did not travel to any of Columbus’s 400-year anniversary celebrations. Other reasons probably had to do with the little support she received from the Peruvian government, which had just ended a war 5  “Mierdeces Caballo de Cabrón era” (Sánchez, 1951, p. 103). Mercedes was changed into mierdeces (shit), Cabello into caballo (horse), and Carbonera into Cabrón era (asshole it was).

12  FROM PRIVATE LIVES TO PUBLIC SPACES: NINETEENTH-CENTURY… 

215

with Chile and probably considered that there were more pressing issues to address financially. Although there is not much evidence regarding the reasons why she did not attend, there is proof, however, that she was invited to both those previously mentioned and that she had intentions to go. On 4 February 1893, Cabello wrote a letter to Enrique Losada, director and owner of La Revista Ilustrada, a journal published in New York City.6 In the letter, Cabello explained how, by unanimous vote of the press in Lima, she had been selected as the sole delegate to represent Peru at the Columbian Exhibition. However, she did not have any hope that she would be able to attend since the government of her country had decided, due to budgetary constraints, not to have an official representative at the Fair. The most interesting part of the letter is that she urged Mr. Losada to write about this issue in his journal: I request, Mr. Losada, that you address this issue in your interesting journal, at least by mentioning a few words about how important and useful it would be for these Republics to send female writers that, apart from the intellectual and moral representation, would study the new educational methods used in women’s schools in the great Republic. Regarding the Peru delegation, I would leave it to your kindness and your good judgement, to say what you consider appropriate.7

Afterwards, all we know is that Cabello received from Chicago a couple of certificates from the Fair in recognition of the value of her books.8 But, of course, her work was present, and it was through their work that these  The full letter can be found in Pinto Vargas (2003, p. 685).  “Pídole a Ud. Sr. Lozada, que se ocupe del asunto en su interesante periódico, no sea más que, diciendo cuatro palabras referentes a la importancia y utilidad que había de resultarles a estas Repúblicas, enviando escritoras, que a más de la representación intelectual y moral estudiasen el nuevo método educacionista de las escuelas normales de mujeres en la gran República. En cuanto a la delegación del Perú, dejo a la amabilidad de U. y a su alto criterio el decir lo que más del caso le parezca” (Pinto Vargas, 2003, p. 685). 8  Ismael Pinto Vargas includes the text of the certificates, which stated: “The United States of America by acts of the Congress have authorized the World Columbian Commission at the International Exhibition held in the city of Chicago, State of Illinois, in the year 1893, to decree a medal for specific merit which is set forth below over the name of an individual judge acting as an examiner, upon the finding of a board of international judges, to: Mercedes Cabello de Carbonera, Lima, Peru. Exhibit: Publications. Award for. An interesting collection of books carefully written. The subject matter is well chosen.” It was signed by K. Buenz (President Departmental Committee and G. V. Dal Ferro (Individual Judge) among other signatures (2003, p. 686). 6 7

216 

E. GONZÁLEZ-MUNTANER

writers were able to communicate their ideas, sometimes very carefully, to make sure they were read and accepted. The majority of women who dared to write in nineteenth-century Latin America belonged to the upper class. They were the ones who could relegate domestic chores to the lower classes and had access to education, something not as available to the lower classes. Although certain progress was being made in women’s rights, women writers still constantly had to justify their dedication to literature since their main role was still considered to be that of good mothers and wives. Venturing into a territory where they were not welcome, women writers had to be prudent and very creative with the strategies they would use to communicate as they wished, as we will see in Cabello’s works. Elaine Showalter has analyzed this gradual process in British women’s literature and divided it into three steps or stages: Feminine, Feminist, and Female. The first one (Feminine) would imitate the male-dominant tradition and internalize its characteristics. The second one (Feminist) is the protest against those characteristics. The third one (Female) is a phase of self-discovery, women writers’ search for their own identity (1999, p. 13). Peruvian writers followed this same pattern: they started by recreating the male tradition, using Romanticism as the preferred mode or style. They continued by adopting a drastic change: their protests consisted of denouncing women’s relegation to inferior or restricted spheres, especially those limiting their access to education, a prioritized topic in Cabello’s work. Finally, they looked for new forms of expression: symbols, images, and metaphors filled their pages. And they created new spaces such as the literary gatherings and newspapers and magazines in which they not only participated but were also often the founders and managers. These new spaces offered the best way for their works to be known and their ideas to be heard. Although they presented them with a certain level of insecurity, humility, and even underestimation, that was the only way to be read in a literary world in which they were not fully accepted. According to Showalter, “among the personal reactions was a persistent self-deprecation of themselves as women, sometimes expressed as humility, sometimes as coy assurance-seeking, and sometimes as the purest self-hatred” (1999, p. 21), which explains why these innovative and entrepreneurial women often began their literary gatherings asking for forgiveness for the audacity to read their works. Cabello mentions her “weak efforts” and calls her

12  FROM PRIVATE LIVES TO PUBLIC SPACES: NINETEENTH-CENTURY… 

217

work “small and scruffy” (Gorriti, 1892, p. 6).9 Another writer, Mercedes Eléspuru, asks herself what title she has, to be among those with talent and knowledge, and says she should remain silent (Gorriti, 1892, p.  145). Captatio benevolentiae is a strategy frequently used by these writers who felt the need to present themselves as inferior in order to be accepted in a masculine world. “Cautiously” is the way to describe how Peruvian women approached their incorporation into the literary field, knowing that it may not happen overnight. The reaction from their male counterparts was, as in any transitional period, contradictory. On the one hand, they applauded their efforts; on the other hand, they did not want women to take this to the point that it might risk men’s position in society. Maritza Villavicencio reminds us that Cabello de Carbonera wrote a humorous poem in which she addressed how men felt at the time: […I do not want a WOMAN WRITER. I want a woman who cooks, irons, cleans, mends the stockings, takes care of the children and believes the world ends at their front door. I swear and repeat it: I will never marry a WOMAN WRITER.  What is the use of a woman that instead of taking care of our clothes and table, they talk to us about Byron, Dante and Petrarch, as if those gentleman would teach them how to mend socks or cook a stew. I swear, I do not want a WOMAN WRITER. (1992, p. 56)]10

Cabello de Carbonera’s Work By focusing on three of Cabello’s novels that traveled to the Woman’s Building Library, we will be able to comprehend better how broad the difficulties were for women writers in Peru and how carefully they planned their strategies to make themselves heard. The three were chosen because they correspond to the steps marked by Showalter and each of the three phases into which we could divide Cabello’s novels: Sacrificio y recompensa  “débiles esfuerzos” … “pequeño y desaliñado trabajo” (Gorriti, 1892, p. 6).  “ …no quiero por nada/MUJER ESCRITORA./Yo quiero, decía,/mujer que cocine/ que planche y que lave,/ que zurza las medias,/ que cuide a los niños/ y crea que el mundo/ acaba en la puerta/ que sale a la calle./ Lo digo y repito/ y juro que nunca/ tendré por esposa/ MUJER ESCRITORA./ ¿Qué sirven mujeres/ que en vez de cuidarnos/ la ropa y la mesa/ nos hablen de Byron/ del Dante y Petrarca,/ cual si esos señores,/ lecciones les dieran/ del modo que deben/ zurcir calcetines/ o hacer un guisado?/ Lo juro, no quiero/ MUJER ESCRITORA…” (in Villavicencio, 1992, p. 56). 9

10

218 

E. GONZÁLEZ-MUNTANER

from a beginning, traditional period; Las consecuencias from a protest period in which she denounces women’s lack of education; and Blanca Sol from the transgression period in which she explores new ways of expression and deepens her exploration into Naturalism. Sacrificio y recompensa (1886) Literary critics have found it difficult to ascribe Cabello’s work to a specific literary movement. Sacrificio y recompensa has been considered a novel of manners, ascribed to both Romanticism and realism, and even found by some to have traces of determinism.11 Cabello herself explained in the prologue to the novel that the only realism she was interested in at that point was the real feelings and passions of her characters. However, at the same time, she supported the scientific aspects of the novel and reflected through the narrative voice: “Why can’t the novelist imitate the doctor who investigates how to prevent illnesses? Why can’t he be for his readers what the anatomy instructor is for his students?” (1886, p.  115).12 Although still distant from the Naturalism of Émile Zola in this early novel, Cabello shows some similarities to his work by seeking to adapt an experimental method to literature and considering the importance of a scientific approach as a novelist. Cabello believed in the moral development of society and therefore wanted to set herself apart from the degrading characteristics and the “extreme” territory into which she saw the French taking Naturalism (1948, p. 65). From a moral point of view, she did not advocate the use of vile characters as character types in her work. She considered it to be more useful and productive to look at the good and not dwell on the dark side of human beings: If there is in the soul a noble, beautiful and honorable side, why to look into the vile to find examples that will serve as role models in our creations? To exaggerate the good, almost to the unachievable, will always be more useful

11  Sacrificio y recompensa was a novel of manners according to Luis Alberto Sánchez, 1951, p. 209; ascribed to Romanticism by Mario Castro Arenas, 1965, p. 91; to realism by Mary Garland Jackson, 1982, p. 119; and to determinism by Augusto Tamayo y Vargas (1954, p. 180). 12  “¿Por qué el novelista no ha de imitar al médico que busca y estudia los medios que pueden evitar ciertas enfermedades? ¿Por qué no ha de ser para sus lectores lo que el profesor de anatomía para sus discípulos?” (1886, p. 115).

12  FROM PRIVATE LIVES TO PUBLIC SPACES: NINETEENTH-CENTURY… 

219

than looking into the mud of passions for the most hateful and disgusting and show it to the sometimes unwary reader. (1886, p. III)13

She thought French Naturalism focused only on the negative as if that were the totality of humankind. For her, that was an incomplete picture, since humans also had a positive side, as real as the negative, that writers needed to emphasize. Cabello approached literature as a whole that should encompass all aspects of human existence: the social aspect as well as psychological factors, vices as well as virtues; the totality of positive and negative traits should be brought to the novel, which should represent a faithful copy of the real world (116). The exaggeration of some positive traits is only justified for her if it helps create good role models, although she admits credibility may be compromised. Sacrificio y recompensa takes place over the span of approximately three months.14 The abundant depictions of common life in a Peruvian village, added to the many details of upper-class attendance at ballrooms and the opera, may make readers think that costumbrismo is the best style to describe it.15 Although some aspects of costumbrismo are present, Cabello’s main purpose was to portray the hearts of her characters, deepening their feelings and passions, which would place her closer to the subjectivism of Romanticism. Clearly, Romantic characteristics are numerous in this novel. First, there is a Manichean selection of characters: Álvaro and Catalina are good-hearted and will be rewarded, while Mr. Montiel committed terrible crimes and will be punished. Second, two love triangles lead us to the thwarted love of the main characters, who need to overcome several adversities before reaching happiness. Cabello’s descriptions of them are also Romantic, full of paleness, sighs, and tears. The duality is present in the description of the two women as well: Estela is blonde, has 13  “Si hay en el alma un lado noble, bello, elevado, ¿por qué ir a buscar entre seres envilecidos los tipos que deben servir de modelo a nuestras creaciones? Llevar el sentimiento del bien hasta sus últimos extremos, hasta tocar con lo irrealizable, será siempre, más útil y provechoso que ir a buscar entre el fango de las pasiones todo lo más odioso y repugnante para exhibirlo a la vista, muchas veces incauta, del lector” (1886, III). 14  The action takes place in Lima but also in Chorrillos, a village near Lima, and, through numerous flashbacks, in Cuba and New York. Cabello broadens the scope with the settings of this novel though the rest of her narrative is confined to Lima. 15  Costumbrismo is a literary style that appeared in the nineteenth century in Spain and Latin America and focused on regional customs. It was based on observations of typical life, and it took the shape of articles, novels, or sketches.

220 

E. GONZÁLEZ-MUNTANER

blue eyes, and represents purity and innocence; Catalina, on the other hand, with dark eyes and hair, symbolizes passion. Cabello, drawing on Plato and Pythagoras, believed that the soul comprises two parts: one cold and rational, the other, a weaker one, driven by passions. That translates into the human being divided between following the brain or the heart, reason or passion. In the novel, Catalina is a victim of this conflict and struggles between what she wants to do and what she needs to do. In order to live closer to Álvaro, the man she loves, she marries Mr. Guzmán, moving from Cuba to Lima. The real sacrifice is providing an alibi for Álvaro, accused of killing Mr. Montiel, by saying that he was in her room at the time of the crime. This alibi ruins her reputation, and as a result she enters a convent. The message of the novel becomes clear when Cabello allows Catalina, moved by such adverse fate and strong passion, to be rewarded at the end of the novel, due to her faultless moral behavior, and marry Álvaro. An emphasis on fate itself is another Romantic characteristic, and characters in this novel find themselves driven by a fate they cannot escape. Cabello, however, does not consider that fate can be used as an excuse; rather, humans have an option to choose the correct path. As Catalina states: “Fate is only an excuse behind which weak characters and fickle hearts hide” (1886, p. 179).16 Sacrificio y recompensa is a novel that belongs to the first stage mentioned by Showalter, Feminine, in which women writers limit themselves to copying the patterns used by their male counterparts. That is the reason why the feminine characters in the novel fit better into the domestic model while symbolism is not as present as it will be later in Las consecuencias and Blanca Sol. Still, Cabello takes every opportunity to denounce moral double standards and how certain behaviors, excused in men, seem to be unacceptable in women. Las consecuencias (1889) From the title (Consequences), we can infer that this novel will convey a moralizing tone. Cabello seems to warn us before we even start to read, that she will address a particular behavior and that we need to avoid certain actions that may result in negative consequences. In this case, it is the way Eleodora is educated by her parents that is going to have terrible 16  “La fatalidad no es más que un pretexto, tras del que se ocultan los caracteres débiles y los corazones volubles” (Cabello, 1886, p. 179).

12  FROM PRIVATE LIVES TO PUBLIC SPACES: NINETEENTH-CENTURY… 

221

consequences for her in the future. Her father, don Cosme, is very strict and believes the best education he can provide for his daughter consists of isolation from the outside world. Her mother, doña Luisa, does not seem capable of making any decisions, especially regarding her daughter’s education. She is completely submissive in her relationship with her husband and very involved in religion through her donations to the poor. Cabello, however, takes the opportunity to criticize the Peruvian upper class through this character: to have a clear conscience, it was not enough to belong to the highest classes, being rich and offering money to the poor. Doña Luisa does all that but, in the end, was not helping those really in need. Unable to meet anyone due to her isolation, Eleodora falls in love with the wrong person, Enrique, the only suitor she was able to see on her way to church. Enrique has a gambling addiction that will little by little deplete everything they have to the point of even losing Eleodora at the end in a game. The role of gambling, fortune, and suicide add Romantic attributes to the novel, but the game as a vice and the sordid places that Enrique frequents add Naturalistic qualities, again with a moral purpose. The emphasis on the effects of the environment is present both in Enrique, with the bad influences he has been surrounded by, and in Eleodora, with the restrictive education her parents provided her. It is in Las consecuencias that Cabello represents in depth her concerns about women’s education and explores, as the title suggests, the consequences of a poor education. Eleodora’s father opposes the option of sending his daughter to school, worried about the mixture of good and bad characters and personalities she may find there. He considers that, as in a fruit basket, a rotten apple may spoil the rest, and so his daughters’ virtues may be affected by less virtuous contacts. Girls are compared to delicate crystal that may easily break. To preserve her purity is far more important for don Cosme than providing her with knowledge, so he decides to isolate her from the outside world. Nor does he provide Eleodora with a richer and more communicative life at home. On the contrary, she is compared to a beautiful object, just like another piece of furniture in his luxurious home. Home turns into a prison for Eleodora, who is only allowed to leave to go to church in the mornings. The house is characterized by its thick and tall walls and by the cold atmosphere inside, as if it were a castle. When Eleodora looks outside the window and into the mirror, what she sees in the mirror is her young figure with a gentleman beside her. Mirrors have

222 

E. GONZÁLEZ-MUNTANER

often been used in women’s writings as a symbol of the woman’s search for identity.17 In Cabello’s novels, images of men (in this case not even a real one) are always present when women look into mirrors. Apparently, Eleodora does not consider herself pretty enough without a man beside her to validate her. These novels suggest that when women look for their own identity, it is hard to find it without the presence of men, that is, without the influence of the patriarchal tradition. Cabello is denouncing the role women play in a society in which they are considered worthless without men who legitimize them. Cabello also seems to imply that even if Eleodora could flee her father’s prison, it would be to arrive at a husband’s prison, as marriage was considered the only option for women and all Eleodora could hope to pursue. Eleodora exits her home one night to try to save Enrique from death and marries him. This constitutes a significant moment for her with the potential to symbolize women’s emancipation, but in fact it just implies a transfer, as Eleodora moves from being controlled by her father to being controlled by her husband. She still lives in her Romantic world, and her main weakness is that she continues to sign all paperwork her husband needs in order to sell her properties. The character does not evolve or develop. She accepts with resignation that nothing can be done, and it is this resignation that Cabello wants to punish, considering it the origin of future misfortunes. In Las consecuencias, therefore, Cabello not only denounces the limited access women had to education but also blames women for adopting a submissive role before the patriarchal figures of father and husband as a result of their lack of education. Eleodora chooses poverty over a confrontation with her husband and is killed by him at the end. Cabello urges women not to continue being passive. The tragic consequences for Eleodora result not only from her lack of education but also, and primarily, from her refusal to exercise her will. Cabello is well aware that Eleodora represents thousands of women who had no option but to accept this situation, “resigning to this distressing estate of mute and impassive spectator of their husbands’ vices” (1889, p. 232).18 Joan Torres-Pou considers the character of Eleodora in light of the loneliness that the Peruvian writer must have felt. Like Cabello, Eleodora  Especially by Gilbert and Gubar in The Madwoman in the Attic (2000, pp. 3–44).  “resignándose a esta angustiosa condición de muda e impasible espectadora de los vicios de su esposo” (1889, p. 232). 17 18

12  FROM PRIVATE LIVES TO PUBLIC SPACES: NINETEENTH-CENTURY… 

223

sometimes feels the need to talk but is unable to: “She felt a need to scream, to ask for help, to cry howling but, as if a shackle were squeezing her throat, only a muted sobbing, almost imperceptible, came out” (1889, p. 138).19 Eleodora is not understood by her parents and husband. The lack of communication that she has suffered from childhood leads her progressively into complete silence. That silence, according to Torres-­ Pou, reaffirms her decision to remain quiet in a society in which women are not heard (1998, p. 249). Blanca Sol (1889) Blanca Sol narrates the fall of a woman obsessed with luxury and wealth who marries a wealthy man, Serafín Rubio. He is in love with her and pays all her debt until he loses his whole fortune. We can see the similarities with Las consecuencias, although in this case, the wife is the one who spends the husband’s fortune due to a different type of vice: the obsession with luxury. Blanca falls from the highest to the lowest point in the social scale as she ultimately turns to prostitution to be able to provide for herself. In Blanca Sol, the marriage between Serafín and Blanca is not a traditional one. Blanca adopts male attributes, thus inverting the traditional roles of domestic woman and economic man as defined by Nancy Armstrong (1987, p. 59). Although she does not have a job, due to her social position, she is the one who gets an important position for her husband, who simply follows his wife’s commands. Blanca is described as having bright, firm, colorful features that contrast with the ordinary and imprecise characteristics used for Serafín. His eyes have an “indefinable color”; his hair is “neither black nor brown”; his nose, is “neither big nor small” (Cabello, 1894, p. 13).20 He is shorter than Blanca, and his feminine attributes extend to his voice and hands. Moreover, Blanca has not adopted her husband’s last name by marriage. It was Serafín who adopted hers, and therefore he is often referred to as Blanca Sol’s husband (Cabello, 1894, p. 24). 19  “Sintió deseo de dar voces, de pedir socorro, de llorar dando alaridos pero, como si una argolla de hierro le oprimiera la garganta, solo salieron de sus labios sollozos ahogados y apenas perceptibles” (1889, p. 138). 20  Sus ojos son “de color indefinible”, su pelo “ni negro ni castaño” y su nariz “ni grande ni pequeña” (Cabello, 1894, p. 13).

224 

E. GONZÁLEZ-MUNTANER

Another strategy Cabello de Carbonera employs in this novel is the use of mirrors. Like Eleodora, Blanca Sol looks at herself in the mirror frequently. On the one hand, she is very concerned about her physical appearance and needs to constantly confirm that she still looks pretty. Losing her beauty would imply losing her youth and her wealth, which makes her believe that the image in the mirror looks younger than she really is. On the other hand, as in Las consecuencias, her husband’s image appears in the mirror. However, in this novel, it is the husband who sees the wife’s image in the mirror, not the other way around. On one more occasion the mirror is used in this novel, this time in reference to the similarities between the two main female characters: Blanca and Josefina, a seamstress who works for her. The resemblance is deceiving since Blanca and Josefina are like the two sides of one coin and represent the two types of women that patriarchy used to characterized women: angels and demons. According to Christine Hunefeldt, “physical beauty and moral virtue were, in fact, the ascribed qualities of womanhood throughout the nineteenth century” (2000, p. 62), and those are the traits that characterize Blanca and Josefina: the first is admired for her beauty; the second, for her virtue. This leads Alcides, one of Blanca’s admirers who even makes a bet with his friends that he will be able to conquer Blanca, to choose Josefina at the end and not Blanca, providing another opportunity for Cabello to denounce how at that time, men (and society) rewarded virtuous women even when men were not virtuous themselves. The fact that Blanca represents the materialistic Peruvian upper class during the nineteenth century, and that this was easily recognizable for some members of society, led to some of the most unpleasant comments Cabello received, not only from male writers but even from female ones like Gorriti, who thought Cabello was trespassing on male territory where she was not welcome. As Ana Peluffo (2002, p.  37) reminds us, when Gorriti read the novel, she commented on how unbecoming a portrayal of a woman it was. Gorriti also thought that the novel was going to create a scandal since she was able to recognize certain members of Peruvian society among the characters. On the other hand, Cabello’s exploration of Naturalism, only rehearsed in her first novels, was more of a concerted effort in this one, something not easy to forgive a female writer in the nineteenth century. Is it therefore surprising that Cabello de Carbonera did not attend the World’s Columbian Exhibition despite her prominence and original intentions? The answer is no. The way we can look at Latin American women

12  FROM PRIVATE LIVES TO PUBLIC SPACES: NINETEENTH-CENTURY… 

225

writers at the end of the century is twofold: on the one hand, women made marked progress in entering and actively participating in cultural life, attempting a range of literary styles, and publishing their work. On the other hand, we respectfully need to acknowledge that they were walking a tightrope and that all their attempts to express opinions that went against the norm were scrutinized and severely punished with ostracism, denial, and insults. What seemed a cordial literary relationship with Palma at the beginning,21 and what made her a successful and well-read writer in Peru (four editions of Blanca Sol were published during Cabello’s lifetime), eventually turned some heads away, as many traditional writers considered her to be trespassing over the line. We cannot forget that, as incredible as it was to have the Woman’s Building at the Fair, many of the exhibits in this building still highlighted a traditional role of women as mothers and wives instead of expanding women’s sphere. Without a doubt, Cabello de Carbonera contributed to the reassessment of women’s role in society by incorporating her concerns on women’s education, by a direct approach to Naturalism, a style that her male counterparts did not attempt to try, and sometimes by simply adopting silence.

References Works

in the

Woman’s Building Library

Cabello de Carbonera, M. (1886). Sacrificio y recompensa. Imprenta de Torres Aguirre. Cabello de Carbonera, M. (1889). Las consecuencias. Imprenta de Torres Aguirre. Cabello de Carbonera, M. (1892). El Conspirador. Imprenta de “La voce d’Italia”. Cabello de Carbonera, M. (1894). Blanca Sol (4th ed.). Carlos Prince. Cabello de Carbonera, M. (1948). La novela moderna. Hora del Hombre.

Other Works Cited Armstrong, N. (1987). Desire and Domestic Fiction: A Political History of the Novel. Oxford University Press. Castro Arenas, M. (1965). La novela peruana y la evolución social. Ediciones Cultura y Libertad. 21  Both Gorriti and Palma approved Cabello’s first novels. Eleodora was even based on a tradition written by Palma (“Amor de madre”), dedicated to him, and endorsed by Palma.

226 

E. GONZÁLEZ-MUNTANER

Gilbert, S.  M., & Gubar, S. (2000). The Madwoman in the Attic. The Woman Writer and the Nineteenth-Century Literary Imagination. Yale University Press. Gorriti, J.  M. (Ed.). (1892). Veladas literarias de Lima 1876–1877. Imprenta Europea. Hunefeldt, C. (2000). Liberalism in the Bedroom. Quarreling Spouses in Nineteenth-­ Century Lima. The Pennsylvania State University Press. Jackson, M.-G. (1982). The Roles and Portrayal of Women in Selected Prose Works by Six Female Writers of Peru. UMI. Peluffo, A. (2002). Las trampas del Naturalismo en Blanca Sol: Prostitutas y costureras en el paisaje urbano de Mercedes Cabello de Carbonera. Revista de Crítica Literaria Latinoamericana, 55, 37–52. Pinto Vargas, I. (2003). Sin perdón y sin olvido. Mercedes Cabello de Carbonera y su mundo. Universidad de San Martín de Porres. Sánchez, L. A. (1951). La literatura peruana: Derrotero para una historia espiritual del Perú (Vol. 6). Editorial Guaranía. Showalter, E. (1999). A Literature of Their Own:  British Women Novelists from Brontë to Lessing. Princeton University Press. Tamayo Vargas, Augusto. (1954). Literatura peruana. Vol. 2. : Talleres Gráficos de la librería e imprenta “Domingo Miranda.” Torres-Pou, J. (1998). Positivismo y feminismo en la producción narrativa de Mercedes Cabello de Carbonera. In Estudios en honor de Janet Pérez: el sujeto femenino en escritoras hispánicas. Scripta Humanistica. Villavicencio, M. (1992). Del silencio a la palabra. Mujeres peruanas en los siglos XIX y XX. Ediciones Flora Tristán.

CHAPTER 13

French Authors in the Women’s Library at the World’s Columbian Exposition: A Stage of Feminism, Still Traditional Works Martine Poulain

France is not a convent, the woman is not in this world to be a nun. She was born to be a wife, she was born to be a mother.—Camille Sée, member of the Parliament, 1879

The significant presence of works written by French authors in the Women’s Library of the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair may seem intriguing. Of some 8000 books on offer, those from the United States, the inviting power, obviously take first place: some 4700 volumes. But, strangely, the second place is not held by the former colonizer, the British Empire, nor by any of the other  countries writing in the English language but by France, who contributed 885 titles in 1031 volumes, well ahead of Great Britain, who offered only 500 titles. Beyond these quantitative questions,

M. Poulain (*) École nationale supérieure des sciences de l’information et des bibliothèques, Centre Gabriel Naudé, ENSSIB, Villeurbanne, France © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 M. Dalbello, S. Wadsworth (eds.), Global Voices from the Women’s Library at the World’s Columbian Exposition, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-42490-8_13

227

228 

M. POULAIN

this chapter will mainly examine the selection criteria for the corpus proposed by the Comité des dames (the Committee of French Ladies) in charge of this selection. Who were the ladies who selected these French books? And what were their criteria?

The Committee of French Ladies and the Organization of the French Library The Committee of French Ladies was created in July 1892. Its presidency was accepted by Marie Cécile Carnot (1841–1898), the wife of the President of the Republic, and whose general secretary was Marie Pégard (1850–1916), a moderate feminist for whom the archival record is sparse (Krantz & Pégard, 1894). Therefore, French participation in the Woman‘s Building, built specifically for the event, was formalized at the highest level of the State, via the wife of the President of the Republic. Paris had already hosted no less than four Universal Exhibitions, including the one before Chicago, in 1889, and would organize yet another in 1900, demonstrating the importance France placed on these manifestations of international dialogue. In addition to the French contribution to the Woman’s Building Library, Marie Pégard was asked to propose an exhibition to be mounted on 1087 square meters (including walls) which would have four sections depicting the place of women in various fields: education and instruction; welfare and social services work; manual, industrial, commercial, and administrative work; and, finally, fine arts, decorative and industrial arts, music, theatre, and literature. This exhibition was intended to show how women’s work was a considerable factor in the development of industrial production and that it was necessary “to help raise the wages of women, so notoriously lower than those of men” (Krantz & Pégard, 1894, p. 8). French representatives would also set up a Parisian salon, which will be recognized as one of the great successes of the Universal Exhibition. The end of the nineteenth century witnessed a rediscovery of America on the part of French emissaries. Between 1888 and 1914, interest in the United States grew among French intellectual elites, who made repeated comments about how astonished they were by the United States and how much they admired its rapid economic and intellectual development. In her report, Pégard also expresses profuse admiration for the place of women in the United States where,

13  FRENCH AUTHORS IN THE WOMEN’S LIBRARY AT THE WORLD’S… 

229

women have done more, especially in terms of independence, initiative and autonomy, than in any other country: most careers are open to them. […] That contributed to the rapid development of the United States, its prosperity, increased in such a prodigious way, being a subject of astonishment for our European countries. (Krantz & Pégard, 1894, pp. 3–4)

She recognizes women in particular: “The American woman, generally very intelligent […] having an astonishing faculty of assimilation, managed, thanks to her energy, to conquer little by little a situation almost equal to that of the man” (ibid., p.  4). Finally, she states, “nowhere in America is there any question of the intellectual inferiority of women” (ibid., p. 4)—an assertion that American feminists of the time very likely did not share. The quality of the French library earned the French Committee the congratulations of Bertha Palmer, President of the Exposition’s Board of Lady Managers. Pégard transferred the idea of a​​ woman’s palace to the Universal Exhibition in Paris in 1900. In the building entrusted to the architect Emmanuel Pontremolli (1865–1956), she set the goals for the 1900 Paris pavilion as telling, the story of women at all times and in all conditions, not only in their various jobs and trades, from Penelope to the trimming maker in the Temple district, but also in the fulfillment of her duties, in her role, her aspirations, her capacities; the domestic housewife, mother, educator, inspiration to her husband; finally, woman, sometimes knowing how to rise to the level of man and equal him in his works. (Pégard, 1902, p. 102)

The pavilion therefore presented the different trades in which female talents were exercised, and also illustrated a certain number of their works. A number of famous women were also represented, from Joan of Arc to Isabella of Castile. Pégard’s feminism was still very hesitant at this time. But the ‘feminine’ movement in 1893 (during this period some women did not dare to call it ‘feminist’) was already rich in the twenty years of experience, exchanges, and demonstrations since the establishment of the Republic in 1870. Initially, the various movements sought, above all, to defend the poorest women (prostitutes, prisoners) and to anchor their actions in the policies of this new Republic, something which the Universal Exhibitions would echo and propel forwards. The progress of feminist ideas on both sides of the Atlantic in the period after the 1870s in the

230 

M. POULAIN

places where these movements from all over the world would meet, exchange ideas, and mature included the Universal Exhibition in Paris in 1878, where the International Congress of Women’s Rights was held. The French Federation of Feminist Societies, founded in 1891, sought to unite the many women’s associations that had emerged in France (Offen, 2017, p. 222). Properly feminist demands were for the equality between women and men, calling into question the inequalities and the gendered distribution of tasks between the sexes as the women made their way at the beginning of the twentieth century. The French women’s press carefully reported on the feminist movements in the United States. One writer, Maria Martin (1839–1910), an English-born French feminist, socialist, pacifist and freemason, advocated equal rights for women. Le Journal des femmes (“The Women’s Journal”), which she founded in 1891, paid great attention to the preparation of the Chicago Woman’s Building, outlining the program of the women’s meetings to take place there. Unable to take part in the “Women’s Parliament” (i.e., the World’s Congress on Woman’s Progress), which was held in Chicago during the Fair, Martin lists the questions to be debated there: “the worker’s salary, educational facilities for young girls, the rights of married women and mothers, up to the poor scorned prisoner” (Martin, 1893, p. 1). Education in France was indeed very unequal at the end of the nineteenth century: young girls were not authorized to access secondary education until the end of 1881, and then only in single-sex establishments; in higher education in 1900 only 3.3 percent of the students were women.

Selecting the Contemporary Female Works: A Decrease in the Use of Pseudonyms, Choice of Surname Still Hesitant In her report on French participation in the women’s exhibits in Chicago, Pégard does not mention the criteria for choosing the 1031 French volumes. All the books were exclusively written by women; this marked the first time that this principle had been adopted for a public display. One can imagine the sarcasm aroused by the idea of ​​libraries of exclusively female authors at a time when the literary field was entirely in the hands of men. The fact that this rule was enacted by the American organizers must have been of considerable help to their French counterparts. The French

13  FRENCH AUTHORS IN THE WOMEN’S LIBRARY AT THE WORLD’S… 

231

selectors seem to have implicitly adopted other criteria in selecting the books. The second principle of selection was that of timeliness: the authors are all, with very few exceptions, women who were writing in the last thirty years of the nineteenth century. As a third principle, the selectors very largely favored novels, reflecting the fact that the new writers had distinguished themselves above all in the world of fiction. It seems also that for the selectors the conditions of visiting the fair demanded a reading that was at once seductive, gripping and ‘floating,’ made up of moments of concentration and moments of escape, supposedly suitable for reading novels. But there also a considerable number of volumes of essays, such as historical essays; there are also volumes on the education of young girls, which convey values ​​that are still extremely traditional. This initiative most certainly contributed to the recognition of women authors and likely (though not verified) it contributed to their works being translated into English. Edith Clarke’s listing of the foreign women authors included the French women authors and allowed for the identification of 885 titles in the French selection (1894). The searches and analysis starting from Clarke’s List established that 90 percent of the titles were published in the last three decades of the nineteenth century: 15 percent between 1870 and 1879; 48 percent between 1880 and 1889; and 27 percent between 1890 and 1893 (Taylor, 2010). The initial decade, with a small number of publications, coincided with the turbulent period of 1870–1871, the time of the war and defeat of France, the establishment of the Republic, and the insurrection of the Commune. During the first half of the nineteenth century, women in France were still reluctant to publish books under their real names. The use of male pseudonyms was still generally required of the ‘weaker’ sex. Even the liberal Aurore Dupin de Francueil, by marriage Baroness Dudevant, a free and feminist woman, republican and progressive, signs her works with a pseudonym and a male first name: George Sand (1804–1876). Yet only four of her titles are included in the French selection—two for adults and two for children: Les Beaux Messieurs de Bois-Doré (1858) and Le marquis de Villemer (1860) in the first category; and La mare au diable (1846) and La petite Fadette (1849) in the second category. These works continue to be highly appreciated to the present day, and the last two were and are still studied in primary school. The great fame of George Sand, her important place in school reading material, her very high productivity (more than seventy novels and fifty volumes of drama, political texts, etc.), her

232 

M. POULAIN

investment in the political and social life of her time, and her feminism could have led the selectors to choose a greater number of her titles. But they tended to favor more contemporary living authors as demonstrated in the analysis of titles (Taylor, 2010). One-fifth of the authors in the French selection (21 percent) used a male pseudonym. The most represented among them uses the pseudonym Henry Gréville, but sometimes adding Madame on the title page. The choice of a masculine name is obviously significant in attempting to assert authority. For example, Jacques Naurouze and Jean Rozane are both pseudonyms used by Rose-Élise Chalamet (1848–1925), the author of two courses in home economics, including ethics, household care, hygiene, gardening, manual work, and other domestic topics, for use in girls’ schools. This author seems to think that a man is better able than a woman to teach young girls all these domestic skills. Arvède Barine is the pseudonym of Mrs. Charles Ernest Vincens (1840–1908), whose Portraits of Women was included in the Library. Louise d’Alq is the shortened name of Louise d’Alquié de Rieupeyroux (1840–1910). The selection requires some knowledge of the auctorial world, which makes it possible to thwart pseudonyms and to reattribute the p(m)aternity of works to women. By the end of the century, however, the use of the pseudonym was in decline. Without always hiding under the appearance of the ‘stronger’ sex, some women writers did not dare to use their usual name that they did not use in their daily lives. Occasionally, some authors veiled themselves under their maiden name while using their married name in day-to-day life; or, conversely, they would sign their marital name while using their maiden name in everyday life. The radical use of the pseudonym is a way to play a game between truth and opacity, the boundaries of which only readers familiar with these authors and their works really know. But they are a sign of the slow and cautious coming ‘out of hiding’ for women authors. Their caution was not unwarranted: some women writers became the target of mockery from the most prominent male writers of the time. The productions of these women are exemplified by the publications of some of the most prolific authors whose works were selected and held in the Women’s Library. The selectors, concerned about presenting a broad scope, often chose a few titles from each author. On the list some ten authors were represented with 10 or more books. Within this group, the following five authors are represented by a much larger corpus: Henry Gréville (1842–1902), with 55 titles; Henriette de Witt (1828–1908), with 25 titles; Joséphine Colomb (1833–1892), with 22 titles; Thérèse

13  FRENCH AUTHORS IN THE WOMEN’S LIBRARY AT THE WORLD’S… 

233

Bentzon (1840–1907), with 21 titles; and Juliette Adam (1836–1936), with 18 titles. These will be discussed in the sections that follow. We will try to understand why these authors’ books were selected for the French Library in preference to those of other writers. Is it because they sold many more books than the others? Is it because they are a kind or mirror in which the French society tries to understand itself? Is it because the ideology that they illustrate is close to the mentality of the French population at that time? Is it because they have been especially promoted by the media powers such as the press and the journalists, educational publishers themselves, or the educators of the scholastic institutions? Or, is it because the content of these books met the selectors’ horizon of expectation, to use the term by Hans Robert Jauss (1990)?

The Writing of “Blue Stockings” Judged by Male Condescension: Jules Barbey d’Aurevilly Analyzes Henry Gréville “The mediocre blue stockings, vain and impudent, bloom and spread, as it had never flowered, as it had never spread until then,” wrote the writer Jules Barbey d’Aurevilly (1808–1889) in 1878 (p.  XII). He was using these contemptuous terms to comment on the increasing entry of women into literature. Barbey d’Aurevilly considered the phenomenon important enough to to devote an entire book to it and to comment, first and foremost, on the example of Henry Gréville, the author favored by the Ladies’ Committee to represent France in Chicago, with 55 of her titles present there. Henry Gréville was a woman, Alice Fleury  (1842–1902), and the pseudonym she adopted was not the name of her husband, Emile Durand, professor of law and art lover, but the name of the village where her parents lived. Her father was a writer and professor, and a reader at the Imperial University of Saint Petersburg, Russia, and they were both friends of Ivan Turgenev (1818–1883) and admirers of Russian civilization, which interested many Western readers at the time and which inspired her early works. Back in France, she tried her hand at many genres—theatre, short stories, novels, poetry, and essays—and also wrote for newspapers such as La Revue des deux mondes (one of the oldest French political and literary journals, founded in 1829, and which focused on the links between Europe and America), Le Figaro, and Le Temps. She enjoyed notable

234 

M. POULAIN

success: her manual for moral and civic instruction for young girls was reissued twenty-eight times between 1882 and 1891. Barbey d’Aurevilly, however, mocked “the literary woman […] who believes herself to be a man’s brain and asks for her share in publicity and glory” (1878, p. XVIII). About Henry Gréville specifically, he had this to say: It is still a woman, it seems, that gentleman! The masquerade of pseudonyms continues. [It was after the French Revolution] that women who were neither hunchbacked, nor ugly, nor brehaignes [sic] had the idea of ​​putting themselves in an equation with the man, and that the men, who had also become women that they had the baseness to suffer it. (ibid., p. XVIII)

In these pages the misogyny of this author explodes. Moreover, he accuses the United States of being the origin of these ‘abuses’: In America, who does not know? Blue-stockings have lately pushed a formidable jet […] We suffered there that the women there made the man as much as they wanted. […] Whether logic or indifference, these disdainful, rude, busy egalitarians, relentless in business, let women claim for their sex the benefit of equality with them, and even let them take it. (ibid., p. 293)

Nevertheless, he expresses an appreciation for Henry Gréville: She has the purity of the pen, this rarity now rarer than talent; the purity of the pen, at a time when all the pens are immersed and smeared in the inkwell of realism […]. She is a woman, who has remained a woman despite everything, despite the fury of writing, this illness, this nineteenth-century women’s cholera. (ibid., p. 299)

Barbey d’Aurevilly affirms that a woman who writes risks losing her femininity, a widespread fiction in the misogynistic narratives of the nineteenth century. Ten years later, Guy de Maupassant (1850–1893) could only unambiguously salute the success of the writer that he read with pleasure. The fifty-five books by Mme Gréville chosen by the Ladies’ Committee appeared between 1877 and 1891, meaning that they had been published at a very sustained publication rate of almost four titles per year. Almost all were reprinted, sometimes on numerous occasions. Yet when read in the twenty-first century, Mme Gréville’s novels arouse little interest. She was developing an extremely traditional morality, particularly with regard to the family, like all the five authors presented here, who all were

13  FRENCH AUTHORS IN THE WOMEN’S LIBRARY AT THE WORLD’S… 

235

conventionnal writers who responded to a pattern widely used by these new female writers in search of success. Most of her publications (113 new titles between 1873 and 1902) follow a familiar plotline: that of a young girl, often poor or orphaned but endowed with all the physical and moral qualities, encountering obstacles that could ruin her life, yet succeeding in overcoming them thanks to her righteousness and generosity. They are written in the style of her novel, Les mariages de Philomène (“Philomène’s marriages” 1879), which does not help one to appreciate them either.

Success Thanks to School Prescriptions: Henriette de Witt, Joséphine Colomb With Henriette de Witt (1829–1908), the historical texts written for children were given an important place in the publishing world. The eldest and favorite daughter of François Guizot, a historian and a governement minister on several occasions, Henriette Guizot married Conrad de Witt, a member of the Parliament. By preference as well as financial necessity, she began to write books for young people. These comprised collections of moral reflections with titles such as Small Christian Meditations for the Use of Domestic Worship (1862) and A Family in Paris (1864). Her married name was always followed by “née Guizot,” a guarantee of seriousness and competence, her father being known to all. Her first book, Tales from a Father to His Grandchildren (1861), was followed by many others, for example, The Family in the Countryside (1862), The Walks of a Mother (1863)—altogether a hundred novels and historical albums such as France Through the Centuries (1889) and Edouard III and the Bourgeois of Calais or The English in France (1890), which was also translated into English. These books conveyed a very traditional conception of history at the very moment when it was undergoing a reinvention in France. She was also a translator, notably of texts by William Shakespeare and Charles Dickens. Twenty-five of her works were selected for the French collection in the Women’s Library at the Fair, including a couple of her children’s books: Story of Two Little Brothers (1890), Stories of Beasts for Toddlers, 1893; one of her translations of Florence Montgomery (1843–1923), a renowned English children’s author; and history books, including Vieilles histoire de la patrie (1889) and Alsaciens et Alsaciennes (1893). The Little Girl with Grandmothers (1874) tells the story of a family whose father, a sailor, is absent for three years, leaving his wife, their six-year-old daughter, Marie,

236 

M. POULAIN

and a small boy born after the father’s departure to face the difficulties of life, including financial problems and illnesses in this extended family which has no male adult but two grandmothers. Everyone comes out of these ordeals stronger. Eventually, the father returns. In L’Héritière (“The Heiress,” 1878), Marceline, known as Lina, who has been brought up by her father after the death of her mother, is entrusted as a young girl to loving guardians. Being an heiress because her father left her a solid fortune, she is courted by suitors, some of whom are mainly interested in her money. By the end of the story she has managed to unmask these guilty intentions and find true love. These novels, often long, were no doubt intended to appeal to young girls or young women and offer them support and moral guidance in their daily lives. If the narrative scheme is always more or less the same and unsurprising, in the end everyone is happy. Henriette de Witt published almost all her books with Hachette, a publishing house which had been active since the beginning of the nineteenth century and was by this time very well established in the education sector, including, for example, its collection Library of Schools and Families. Schoolbook publishing was in full flow at this time following the laws of Jules Ferry (1832–1893), Minister of Public Instruction in various governments between 1879 and 1883. In 1881, Ferry established secular, free, and compulsory primary school and at the end of 1881 the parliament voted for a law authorizing young girls to pursue secondary education, although in unintegrated, single-sex establishments. Hachette then offered catalogs of recommended books, according to their academic level and excellence, to generations of children in secular school. These were bought in large numbers by the directors of the schools and given as prizes to deserving pupils. De Witt’s books were to prove particularly popular in this regard, being highly recommended by the publisher. Joséphine-Blanche Colomb (1833–1892), born Bouchet, was married to Louis Casimir Colomb, university professor, historian, translator, and illustrator. She began writing in her forties and used her husband’s name to sign her books. She specialized in children’s and teen literature and was another author published by Hachette. Twenty-one of her titles were chosen for the Woman’s Building Library. Colomb’s first novel, Le violoneux de la Sapinière (“The Fiddler of Fir” 1874), had been a great success. Indeed, she was one of the founding authors of French literature for young people. Hachette’s catalog from 1885 recommends 12 books by

13  FRENCH AUTHORS IN THE WOMEN’S LIBRARY AT THE WORLD’S… 

237

Colomb, generally illustrated ones, including Le violoneux de la Sapinière and La fille de Carilès et autres histoires (“Carilès’ Daughter and Other Stories”), both from 1874; Deux mères (“Two Mothers” 1876); Chloris et Jeanneton (1877); L’héritière de Vauclain (“The Heiress of Vauclain” 1879); Pour la muse (“For the Muse” 1884); Une nuée de pinsons (“A Brood of Finches” 1885), which went through ten editions; Pour la patrie (“For the Homeland” 1885); and others. Each year, new titles by Colomb would appear in the school publisher’s catalogs aimed at both teachers and parents. Colomb also published in the Bibliothèque rose, a collection for children created by Hachette in 1856, and authored books for slightly older age groups, such as Souffre-douleur (“Scapegoat” 1890). In addition, she also translated from both English and Italian. Over her career, she wrote at least one book per year, amounting to a total of nearly sixty books, whose titles, such as Histoire morale et instructive de Matou (“Matou’s Instructive and Moral Story” 1883) and Contes qui finissent bien (“Tales that End Well” 1894), clearly indicate her moralizing will. And some of her titles, for example, Franchise: Aimery au visage clair (“Franchise: Light-faced Aimery” 1894), were being reissued up to the 1950s. Nevertheless, her fictions follow the same narrative conventions as those of Mme Gréville and, like the former, do not shine with their own particular style. These women were guided or even imprisoned in the ideology of domesticity that limited them to the universe of the home; their attempts at subversion were limited by the image they had of the expectations of the readership that imagined them unable to think of women as free from these constraints. The young girls and women she depicts, despite some youthful differences, are subject to the representations of the time and restricted to the ultimate adult status of friendly mother. They had to be reserved and submissive, while knowing how to resort to a few discreet tricks. This submission to the dominant values ​​does not require an innovative style, and they remain only as wise as their plot. It would take a few more generations and a world war for women’s writing to gain freedom and audacity, both of narrative scheme and style. The success of Colette (1873–1954) some forty years later is undoubtedly to be credited to her intense, and dangerous, freedom, reflected both in her life and in her literary style.

238 

M. POULAIN

Thérèse Bentzon: Between France and the United States Thérèse Bentzon (pseudonym of Marie Thérèse de Solms, married Blanc) (1840–1907) was an obligatory choice for the French Library. A journalist, essayist, and novelist, she was also a contributor to the Revue des deux mondes (“Review of the Two Worlds”), which aimed to develop knowledge and bridges between the old (Europe) and new (America) worlds, and she was known on both sides of the Atlantic. At a time when journalism was closed to women, she was one of the French authors most familiar with the United States (after Alexis de Tocqueville, of course). In 1893, she had been sent by the Revue des deux mondes to the United States to interview women and learn about their individual situations. During her visit, she traveled to New  York, Chicago, Boston, Louisiana, and the Midwest. In Chicago, she had met Jane Addams (1860–1935) and Ellen Gates Starr (1869–1940), founders of Hull House, a settlement house; she also spoke with other progressive and reforming figures, such as Oliver Wendell Holmes (1809–1894), a doctor, writer, and poet, and Jacob Riis (1849–1914), a journalist and social photographer, as well as other political, feminist, and abolitionist activists. Her Travel Journal of 1897 was a bestseller, being republished eight times. Later, she published several books on American women. A connoisseur of American literature, she also did many translations and translated the best American novels of the time and later published, in addition to numerous articles, the following titles: Les Américaines chez elles (“The American Women at Home” 1896), Things and People of America (1898), New France and New England (1899), and Women of America (1900). About the Woman’s Building, which did not seem to her an architectural success, she wrote that Sophia Hayden, the winner of the building’s design competition, “failed to convince us that architecture is one of the arts in which women now shine” (Bentzon, 1896, p. 18). Similarly, the authors of the Building’s frescoes “were wrong to venture into the domain of Puvis de Chavannes” (ibid., p. 18). If she is represented in the French Library, it is not for her books of reflection on societies on each side of the Atlantic, however, but for her novels, twenty-one of which were selected (some of which had been prize-­ winning titles in Fance). Most of them have women as heroines, and they were primarily aimed at a female readership: their implicit readers are women confronted by the social and moral difficulties of life, which they have overcome because they are courageous, loving wives and mothers.

13  FRENCH AUTHORS IN THE WOMEN’S LIBRARY AT THE WORLD’S… 

239

The French selection included La Vocation de Louise Madelette (“The Calling of Madelette” 1873); La Petite Perle. Désirée Turpin (“The Little Pearl: Désirée Turpin” 1878); Georgette (1880): Yette, histoire d’une jeune créole (“Story of a Young Creole” 1880); Le veuvage d’Aline (“Aline’s Widowhood” 1881); Amour perdu. Galatée, Hyacinthe, Yvonne (“Lost Love. Galatea. Hyacinth. Yvonne” 1881); Mademoiselle Jane (1882); Emancipée (1887); and, Constance (1893)—all of which were published by Calmann-Levy.

Juliette Adam: Between Politics, Imagination and Feminism Of the women mentioned here, Juliette Adam, born Lambert (1836–1936), was the most involved in the political upheavals of her time. She was very much linked to the establishment of the Republic through her husband, who was a member of the Parliament. She received the elite of the Republican members of the Republican Union in her very political salon: many deputies (including Léon Gambetta, Louis Blanc, Victor Hugo, writers, for example, as well as George Sand, with whom she was bound by friendship, and Guy de Maupassant), and well-known actors in cultural life. She wrote and published books very early in her life, opposing, for example, the misogynistic ideas of Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, to which she responded in 1858 with Idées anti-proudhoniennes sur l’amour, la femme et le mariage, which was included in the French Library, published under the pseudonym Juliette La Messine. A feminist, she also founded La Nouvelle Revue, which she ran for twenty years. In the 1880s, she joined the French Union for Women’s Suffrage, a movement that demanded women’s eligibility and their right to vote. She wrote twenty books, including seven volumes of political memories (from the Commune to 1914), but also essays on various political events or figures. Her political books are valuable sources for an understanding of social networks and the ideas and political decisions in the young Republic. She also published several novels: L’éducation de Laure (“The Education of Laure” 1869); Seine et sauve (“Safe and Sound” 1870); Jalousie d’une jeune fille (“Jealousy of a Young Girl” 1889); and Le chant des nouvelles épouses (“The Song of the New Spouses” 1882), which were all included in the French display. It was mainly her novels that were selected for the French Library at the Chicago Fair, even if the selection did also include her refutation of Proudhon’s misogyny mentioned above.

240 

M. POULAIN

The reading horizon offered by these novels, essays, and other texts is largely repetitive. If they sometimes aim to increase readers’ knowledge— as, for example, when they seek to illustrate a historical period in the name of childhood, and are therefore told with a certain lightness—they are most often at the service of a double goal: explicit and implicit. If their explicit goal portrays more or less perilous situations with which young women are confronted, their implicit goal is entirely at the service of a perfectly traditional representation of women. It is a question of illustrating and valuing the female sex, which behaves within the strict limits of the roles attributed to it at the time: an intelligent, lively, and sometimes cheeky young girl with a good heart, who will become a wife and then a mother—loving and supporting both her husband and her children in the difficulties they inevitably encounter. Perfectly aware of their secondary role, these women strive to play it as well as possible, seeming to be satisfied with their situation. The authors of this first phase of feminism, like their heroines, are torn between a timid desire for emancipation, for they are beginning to feel their strength and their abilities, and a more tenacious desire to maintain a patriarchal and social order in which society brings them, despite everything, via their new status as authors, a certain recognition. If these pioneers of feminism absolutely did not want to upset the patriarchal order, the First World War, which will lead larger numbers of women, in the absence of men who were away under military orders, to take up unprecedented roles both at work and in the private sphere, would lead to an awareness of women’s new-found strength.

References Barbey d’Aurevilly, J. (1878). Les Bas-bleus. ed. Victor Palmé, p. XVII, 293, XVIII, 299. Bentzon, T. (1896). Les Américaines chez elles (3rd ed.). Lévy. Clarke, E. (1893). List of Books Sent by Home and Foreign Committees to the Library of the Woman’s Building. World’s Columbian Exposition. de Witt, H. (1862). The Family in the Countryside. Didier. https://www.worldcat. org/title/459097387. Gréville, H. (1879). Les mariages de Philomène. E.  Plon et cie. Translation in English is at: https://www.loc.gov/resource/gdcmassbookdig.philomenesma rria00grev/?st=gallery. Holmes, D. (2000). French Women’s Writing 1848–1994. Cambridge University Press. Jauss, H. R. (1990). Pour une esthétique de la réception. Gallimard.

13  FRENCH AUTHORS IN THE WOMEN’S LIBRARY AT THE WORLD’S… 

241

Klejman, L. (1989). Les Congrès féministes internationaux, 1900. Revue d’histoire intellectuelle, 7, 71–86. Klejman, L., & Rochefort, F. (1989). L’Égalité en marche: le féminisme sous la Troisième République. Presses de la Fondation nationale des sciences politiques, Des Femmes. Krantz, C., & Pégard, M. (1894). Comité des dames. L’exposition féminine française à Chicago. In Rapports sur l’Exposition internationale de Chicago en 1893. Imprimerie nationale. La Messine, J. (1858). Idées anti-proudhoniennes sur l’amour, la femme et le mariage. A. Taride. Lloyd, R. (2009). The Nineteenth Century: Shaping Women. In S.  Stephens (Ed.), A History of Women’s Writing in France (pp.  120–146). Cambridge University Press. Martin, M. (1893). “Chicago,” Le Journal des femmes: organe du mouvement féministe, mai 1, Chicago. Mollier, J.-Y. (1999). Louis Hachette, 1800–1864: le fondateur d’un empire. Fayard. Offen, K. (2017). Rendezvous at the Expo: Building a Franco-American Women’s Network, 1889–1893–1900. In M.  Boussabha-Bravard & R.  Rogers (Eds.), Women in International and Universal Exhibitions, 1876–1937 (pp. 215–233). Taylor & Francis. Palais de la Femme: Expo Paris 1900. Retrieved October 4, 2022, from https:// www.worldfairs.info/expopavillondetails.php?expo_id=8&pavillon_id=2410 Pégard, M. (1902). Congrès international des oeuvres et institutions féminines. In 2e congrès international des oeuvres et institutions féminines tenu au Palais des congrès de l’Exposition universelle de 1900 sous la présidence d’honneur de M. Léon bougeois et sous la présidence de mademoiselle Sarah Monod: compte rendu des travaux. Imprimerie typographique Charles Blot. Riis, J. A. (2015/1890). How the Other Half Lives: Studies Among the Tenements of New York. Hill & Wang. Riot-Sarcey, M. (2015). Histoire du féminisme. La Découverte. Taylor, E. (2010). French Authors at the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition. Poster Prepared Under The Supervision of Dr Marija Dalbello and Presented at the Aresty Research Center Symposium, Rutgers University. Wadsworth, S., & Wiegand, W. A. (2012). Right Here I see My Own Books: The Woman’s Building Library at the World’s Columbian Exposition. University of Massachusetts Press.

CHAPTER 14

The Library as Exhibition Christine Giviskos

The Woman’s Building Library as a Visual Experience By the time the World’s Columbian Exposition closed in October 1893, the Library of the Woman’s Building had welcomed thousands of visitors and earned its designer, Candace Wheeler, an award for design excellence (Peck et  al., 2001, p.  70). Contemporary written accounts universally lauded the Library’s decorative program, citing the room’s harmonious color scheme using blues and greens, the attractive dark wood bookcases, paneling, and furniture, and the ambitious allegorical ceiling painting and decorative friezes created by Wheeler’s daughter, the artist Dora Wheeler Keith. Noting that the arrangement of books in low cases was “not in accordance with advanced library ideals,” one account reminded readers that “this is not a working library, but an exhibit, and as such should be arranged as artistically as possible” (Garland, 1893, p. 284). Conceived as a vital part of the Woman’s Building exhibits, the Library presented a crystallized vision of women’s historical and contemporary creativity and

C. Giviskos (*) Curator of Prints, Drawings, and European Art, Zimmerli Art Museum, New Brunswick, NJ, USA e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 M. Dalbello, S. Wadsworth (eds.), Global Voices from the Women’s Library at the World’s Columbian Exposition, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-42490-8_14

243

244 

C. GIVISKOS

technical expertise that underscored the presentations of women’s accomplishments on view throughout the Woman’s Building and throughout the Exposition. Before ascending to the Library on the second floor, visitors to the Woman’s Building would have already toured through the displays in the rotunda (the “Hall of Honor”) and adjoining first-floor galleries. The Building’s west entrance offered direct access to the rotunda, where paintings, sculptures, and cases showing small objects like painted enamels and porcelains presided; the paintings were densely hung in accordance with the prevailing style in public art galleries and the homes of the Gilded Age elite. The east and south entrances led visitors into galleries devoted to international exhibits (with the largest spaces occupied by England, France, and Germany), where displays of needlework dominated. An American exhibit of “applied arts” that included embroidery, textiles, and stained glass greeted visitors arriving through the north entrance. As a product almost exclusively made by women, lace featured prominently in these exhibits: a large case displayed a significant collection of historic lace pieces (like that in Fig. 14.1b) lent by Queen Margherita of Italy was frequently noted in accounts of the Woman’s Building, and presentations of national costume featuring lace adornments, as in the Spanish garments shown on mannequins, underscored women’s widespread presence in the production and consumption of lace (Fig. 14.1c). Displays of woven and embroidered textiles, both historic and recently made, showcased women’s significant participation in their design and manufacture, particularly the extensive variety of floral motifs incorporated into those works, as seen in the pomegranate textile designed at American Artists, Candace Wheeler’s New York design firm (Fig. 14.1g). Live demonstrations in lacemaking and other craft skills amplified the presentation of those objects and assisted visitors in absorbing the volume, variety, and geographical scope of women’s art and craft on exhibit (Corn, 2011, pp. 76–78). The Library’s decorative program complemented and extended the exhibition and educational activities on the first floor, with Wheeler’s interior composed of both historicizing and contemporary elements that invited reflection on women’s achievement in arts and letters. Arriving at the Library, visitors found “a spacious room … [with a ceiling painting] of the style of the period of the great painters of Venice” (Meredith, 1893) (Fig.  14.1f), where they could rest on available seating, take in a more limited display of objects and decoration than the ones experienced in

Fig. 14.1  (a) World’s Columbian Exposition, Woman’s Building Library, Historic Architecture and Landscape Image Collection, Ryerson and Burnham Art and Architecture Archives, Art Institute of Chicago. (b) Length of Lace, Italy, seventeenth century. Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Gift of the Estate of Helen Crocker Russell. (c) World’s Columbian Exposition, Woman’s Building, Historic Architecture and Landscape Image Collection, Ryerson and Burnham Art and Architecture Archives, Art Institute of Chicago. (d) Sarah Prideaux, Brown goatskin tooled in gold, book cover for Charles Perrault’s Contes de ma Mère l’Oye (1900). Special Collections, Princeton University Library. (e) Alice Cordelia Morse, Cream cloth covered boards with gold, green, and blue decoration, book cover for Washington Irving’s The Alhambra (1892). Museum Accession, transferred from the Library. Image copyright ©Metropolitan Museum of Art. Image source: Art Resource, NY. (f) Ceiling painting for Woman’s Building Library (Howe, 1893, p. 136). (g) Associated Artists, Pomegranate Textile, c.1883. Woven Silk. Metropolitan Museum of Art, Gift of Mrs. Boudinot Keith

14  THE LIBRARY AS EXHIBITION 

245

246 

C. GIVISKOS

other parts of the Building, and speak with a staff librarian about the assembled books and their authors (Weimann, 1981, p. 359; Wadsworth & Wiegand, 2012, p. 103). In both form and function, the Library combined aspects of reception rooms in eighteenth-century Venetian palaces and Italian Renaissance studioli reserved for both solitary and social intellectual pursuits, as established models of semi-public spaces within grand homes. The seating included Italian Renaissance-style chairs with carved decoration as well as contemporary Arts and Crafts-style chairs designed by Wheeler. Textiles designed by Associated Artists adorned the entrance to the Library and a large oak mantelpiece, also in the Italian Renaissance style (Fig.  14.1a). While working within the historicizing trends of American interior design during the 1890s, Wheeler’s decoration of the Library could inspire women visitors to pursue a similar kind of aspirational grandeur and comfort informed by knowledge about art of the past and women’s achievements in the present (Peck et al., 2001, pp. 74–75, 235–238). As part of an overall decorative program meant to evoke beautiful domesticity, the Library’s collection of women’s writings contributed to the celebration of women’s creativity and accomplishment throughout the Woman’s Building. Accessible only by the library card catalog and a shelf-­ list compiled by resident librarian Edith Clarke, and not to be handled, the bound books and leather folios holding journals and pamphlets could be seen shelved in the cases that lined the perimeter of the room at floor level. Mirroring the ornamental frieze installed below the ceiling, the Library presented the book collection as an encompassing element of the overall design program. Though the books could not be directly examined by visitors, a presentation of fine book bindings in display cases created a close-looking experience within the Library that also foregrounded women’s contributions to the making and marketing of books as physical objects (Peck et al., 2001, p. 236). Included in the display were works by the English bookbinder and teacher Sarah Prideaux, who had established herself as a leading practitioner and historian of book arts during the 1880s (Fig. 14.1d), and American designer Alice Morse, who chaired the Woman’s Building subcommittee for book covers, wood engraving, and illustration (Dubansky, 2009) (Fig. 14.1e). The Library’s international collection of books and its decorative program combining Italian and American elements distinguished it as one of the only exhibits in the Woman’s Building bringing women’s work together across geographical boundaries. The Library’s ornamental motifs,

14  THE LIBRARY AS EXHIBITION 

247

textiles, and furnishings invited visitors to appreciate individual details and objects within the overall design, all as products of women’s creativity, effort, and organization. Acting as both summary and apogee of the international examples of art and craft presented throughout the Woman’s Building, the Library’s decoration invoked the prestige of its historical sources and reflected it onto the modern project of housing a collection of works by women authors.

Promoting and Preserving the Woman’s Building and Its Library World’s fairs and the availability of printed images both grew exponentially between the 1851 Crystal Palace Exposition, the event generally acknowledged as the first world’s fair, and the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition. Drawing millions of visitors to their host cities, world’s fairs offered countless novel sights including grand, often temporary, exhibition buildings and vast displays of technological and artistic achievement to throngs of fairgoers. In addition to being preserved in official photographs and illustrated publications, the Exposition was documented and promoted in an array of print media that by 1893 included color lithographic prints ranging in size from large posters to postcards, photomechanical prints, and stereographs—all printed matter that either did not exist or used processes that were not yet economically viable for mass production in 1851. The rapid industrial advancements over that forty-year period improved the processes, equipment, and materials of printing and especially photography, and created new formats for printed images to serve as Exposition advertisements or inexpensive souvenirs. This visual material, widely circulated images of the Exposition that promoted the event, created virtual visits for those who would not attend in person, and preserved official views of the buildings and exhibits that would be demolished and dispersed upon the Exposition’s closing. The guidebooks, maps, and souvenir images of the World’s Columbian Exposition most often featured exterior views of individual exhibition buildings or significant attractions like the Exposition’s signature Ferris wheel or landmark fountains. Accordingly, the Woman’s Building exterior was the obvious and most practical motif to adorn such products that were inexpensive to buy or distributed for free. As construction of the Woman’s Building’s was completed in the spring of 1892, promotional materials for

248 

C. GIVISKOS

the Exposition used its image in advance of the Exposition’s opening, such as the handbill for Union Pacific railroad that described its coming attractions (Fig. 14.2d). Pictorial postcards had been growing in popularity in both the United States and Europe during the 1880s, both as a means of correspondence and as collectibles. At the Exposition, vending machines sold official souvenir postcards with images of buildings printed in color on the message side of the card and printed with prepaid postage on the address side. The Woman’s Building postcard shows the structure seen from the lagoon with an inset profile portrait of Bertha Palmer, the president of the Board of Lady Managers and the driving force behind the Woman’s Building (Fig. 14.2a). Stereographs (also called stereo views; paired photographs that appear as a single three-dimensional image when viewed through a special binocular-­like device called a stereoscope) had been a popular and widely available photographic product since the 1860s. Among the more than one thousand stereographs made of the World’s Columbian Exposition are views of the Building exterior and at least one interior view showing an exhibit in the Hall of Honor. Sold in boxed sets, official stereographs of the Exposition published by the Kilburn Company were sold onsite. Other companies distributed their Exposition stereographs through mail orders and traveling sales representatives until around 1896 (Darrah, 1964, pp. 156–157). For a viewer in the 1890s, looking at a stereograph of two girls standing outside the Woman’s Building would provide an immersive virtual experience of being on the fairgrounds (Fig. 14.2e). Though the Woman’s Building Library is not the subject of a stereograph, limited views of its interior are part of the official photographic record of the World’s Columbian Exposition. The photographs of the Library, published in commemorative volumes and journalistic accounts both nationally and internationally, show generally the same view of the room’s mantelpiece, wood paneling, Renaissance-style chairs, and a partial view of the ceiling and ornamental frieze (Fig.  14.2b). Though it was extensively illustrated with photographs of objects and exhibits, none of the Library interior appeared in Art and Handicraft in the Woman’s Building, the official Exposition guidebook to the building published by the eminent French publisher Goupil and Company and in a later edition by Rand McNally. In this illustrated guide, a photograph of Dora Wheeler Keith’s ceiling painting accompanied a brief chapter on the Library written by the novelist Maud Howe Elliott, who also edited the entire volume. Howe’s narrative about the Library made no mention of the decorative

Fig. 14.2  (a) Postcard of the Woman’s Building (recto), World’s Columbian Exposition, 1893. Chicago Historical Society. (b) Photograph showing the Interior of the Main Room of the Woman’s Library, Woman’s Building, World’s Columbian Exposition from Campbell’s Illustrated History of the World’s Columbian Exposition (1894, pp. II, 367). Courtesy of Smithsonian Libraries and Archives. (c) Madeleine Lemaire, Cover illustration for Maud Howe Elliot, Art and Handicraft in the Woman’s Building (1893). Library of Congress, Washington, DC. (d) Union Pacific souvenir print of Woman’s Building, 1893. Larry Zim World’s Fair Collection, Archives Center, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution. (e) Woman’s Building stereograph, 1893. Stereoscopic Thornwood Series Gems. Private collection

14  THE LIBRARY AS EXHIBITION 

249

250 

C. GIVISKOS

program except to note that “the library is an exhibit rather than a working library,” focusing instead on a description of the collection of books (1893, p. 133). The cover illustration for Art and Handicraft featured a composition by French artist Madeleine Lemaire, whose work was exhibited both in the Woman’s Building and in the Exposition’s Fine Arts Building (Fig. 14.2c). Featuring an elegant woman dressed fashionably in shimmering satin—a type she frequently depicted—Lemaire composed an allegory of women’s creative work with the Woman’s Building in the background (Peck et al., 2001, p. 231). Though the laureled woman artist is not shown in her studio, Lemaire’s presentation of her evokes portraiture traditions established in European painting showing artists and scholars surrounded by objects related to their work. The inkwell with feather pen and books both allude to women’s authorship as represented in the Library and to the study and intellectual effort required for artistic achievement. Although the artist holding her palette is clearly not dressed for painting, her work is represented by the painted ceramic vase, while the spinning wheel set on a diagonal axis opposite a weaving in progress similarly acknowledges women’s work in all aspects of textile production. Lemaire’s presentation of the woman artist with the tools and products of her creativity on the public grounds of the World’s Columbian Exposition clearly advertises the types of exhibits being presented in the Woman’s Building while celebrating the wider recognition they will bring to women’s accomplishments in arts and letters. The cover art’s arrangement of deliberately chosen objects presents an allegorical summation of the Woman’s Building exhibits: the objects are shown outside, in relation to each other and the woman artist instead of in relation to the interior spaces they decorated or in which they were used. As such, Lemaire’s composition parallels the Library’s decorative program with its harmoniously organized elements of an interior that presented and promoted women’s work as authors, designers, and makers to audiences inside and outside the Exposition.

References Campbell, J. B. (1894). Campbell’s Illustrated History of the World’s Columbian Exposition: Compiled as the Exposition Progressed from the Official Reports and Most Profusely Illustrated with Copperplate Engravings. Vol 2. Juul and Co. Corn, W. (2011). Women Building History: Public Art at the 1893 Columbian Exposition. University of California Press.

14  THE LIBRARY AS EXHIBITION 

251

Darrah, W. C. (1964). Stereo Views: A History of Stereographs in America and Their Collection. Times and News Publishing Co. Dubansky, M. (2009). Alice Cordelia Morse (1863–1961). In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Retrieved October 4, 2022, from http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/mors/hd_mors.htm Garland, C. H. (1893). Some of the Libraries at the Exposition. Library Journal, 18(January–December), 284–288. Howe, M. E. (1893). Art and Handicraft at the Woman’s Building of the World’s Columbian Exposition. Goupil. Meredith, V. (1893). Woman’s Part at the World’s Fair I: The Work of the Board of Lady Managers. The Review of Reviews, May. Retrieved October 4, 2022, from https://worldsfairchicago1893.com/2019/03/01/womans-­part-­at-­ the-­worlds-­fair-­part-­1 Peck, A., Irish, C., & Phipps, E. (2001). Candace Wheeler: The Art and Enterprise of American Design 1875–1900. Metropolitan Museum of Art. Wadsworth, S., & Wiegand, W. A. (2012). Right Here I See My Own Books: The Woman’s Building Library at the World’s Columbian Exposition. University of Massachusetts Press. Weimann, J. M. (1981). The Fair Women. Academy.

Index1

A Abbesses, 131 Aberdeen, Lady Ishbel, 137, 140, 150 Adam, Juliette, 233, 239–240 Addams, Jane, 238 Adlersparre, Sophie, 60, 61, 64, 65, 68, 69 Advertisements, 247 Aesthetic appreciation, 85 Aliye, Fatma, 177–185 Alt wien (Midway attraction), see Old Vienna (Alt wien) (Midway attraction) American feminists, 229 Americanists International Congress (Huelva, Spain 1892), 212 American Ladies’ Club (Amerikanischer Klub der Damen or Americký klub dam) (Prague), 101 American literature (women’s), see United States, women’s literature

Americký klub dam (Prague), see American Ladies’ Club (Amerikanischer Klub der Damen or Americký klub dam) (Prague) Amerikanischer Klub der Damen, see American Ladies’ Club (Amerikanischer Klub der Damen or Americký klub dam) (Prague) Anderson, Benedict, 127 Angel figure in fiction (trope), “Angel in the House” trope, 200, 204 AntConc, 197 Anticanonical inclusiveness, 34 Anticanonical stance, 47 Arabia, 7 Arenal, Concepción, 83 Art, fine, 138 Artium examination, 156 Art nouveau, 110 Arts and Crafts movement, 246 Art (theme in fiction), 184

 Note: Page numbers followed by ‘n’ refer to notes.

1

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 M. Dalbello, S. Wadsworth (eds.), Global Voices from the Women’s Library at the World’s Columbian Exposition, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-42490-8

253

254 

INDEX

Art, women’s, 138 Association of German Housewives (Allgemeiner deutscher Hausfrauenverein), 124 Astronomy or astronomer, 141, 147 Audience or readership, 120 Austen, Jane, 141, 142 Austrian Day, 96 Authors, minor, 27 Authors, top-contributing, 27, 28 Autoethnography/autoethnographic expression, 203 Autographs, 141 B Baisch, Amalie, 128 Bazar (1892), 56 Beatrice Exposition, 40–42 Benevolent societies, literary societies, salons (Sweden), 60 Bentzon, Thérèse (Marie Thérèse de Solms), 233, 238–239 Bibliographical and biographical records (feminist histories), 30 Bibliography of Swedish women authors, 55 Bibliography, women’s, 2, 3 Biblioteca Nacional (National Library) (Spain), 77 Bildung, (self-formation), 118, 120, 123, 127, 128, 131 Bildungsroman, 115, 120, 201 Biographical approach in post-­ Unification school textbooks (in Italy), 41 Biographies, 60–62, 84, 102–105 Biography, women’s, 45, 123–124 Biology, 37, 38, 46 Blackburn, Helen, 142 Blanca Sol (novel by Cabello de Carbonera), 223–225

Blue-stockings, 234 Boarding school, missionary school, 202, 203, 207 Board of Lady Managers, 10, 15, 34, 93, 96, 116, 136, 137, 142, 143, 229, 248 Bohemian-Americans, 95, 96 Bohemian-Austrian rivalry, 96 Bohemian Day (Č eský den), 95, 96 Books and reading, women’s (theme in fiction), 185–187 Books for young people, children’s books, 231, 235–237 Bourgeois girls, 125 Brandes, Georg, 66 Brazil, 7, 8 Bremer, Fredrika, 14, 54, 56–61, 67 British Empire, see Colonialism; Imperial legacy (Britain), British imperial project, British imperialism, British Empire British femininity or British womanhood, bourgeois femininity, upper-class femininity), 199–201, 203, 208 British Royal Commission, 137 British Women’s Temperance Association, 137, 150 Brontë, Charlotte, 141, 142, 149, 199, 200 Brontës, the, 197 Burdett-Coutts, Angela Georgina, 137, 143–144 Burney, Fanny, 141, 142 Burnouses, 122 C Cabello de Carbonera, Mercedes, 211–225 Cady, Alice Howard, 34, 36, 47–48 Canada, 7, 8

 INDEX 

Canon (British), 136 Captatio benevolentiae, 217 Carnot, Marie Cécile, 228 Catholic church (regressive policies for women), 34, 40 Catholic views (conservative) in children’s literature, 46 Celebrities, 29 Centennial International Exhibition – Women’s Pavilion (Philadelphia 1876), 13 Center-periphery, 92 Cervantes, Esmeralda, 190, 191 Child bride or child marriage, see Juvenile literature or juvenile books/juvenile works Childhood, 85 Childrearing and housekeeping, 65 Children’s authors/authors of children’s literature, 37, 39, 160, 163, 166n7, 168 See also Juvenile literature or juvenile books/juvenile works Children’s books, see Juvenile literature or juvenile books/juvenile works China, 7, 8 Christianity, conversion to, 201 Clarke, Edith, 9, 22, 61, 178, 246 Class/classes, social, 69, 159, 216, 219, 221, 224 Clerke, Agnes, 139, 141, 147 Clifford, Lucy Lane (Mrs. W. K.), 139–142, 149 Closeness, category, 74, 76–77, 80 Closeness, textual, 76, 83, 85 College, 207 Collodi, Carlo (author of Pinocchio), 39 Colomb, Joséphine, 232, 235–237 Colonial history or colonialism (British), 198, 201 Colonialism, 144, 145, 201, 203

255

Colonial India, 196 Colonial or imperial violence, 201, 208 Colonial reform, 206 Colonial space, 197 Comité des dames(the Committee of French Ladies), 228, 229, 233, 234 Committee on Women’s Work (Great Britain), 137, 142, 147 Committee on Women’s Work, Literature Sub-Committee or sub-section (Great Britain), 139, 140, 142, 147, 149 Community, student-teacher, 85 Comparative and structural analysis, 22 Conflict between the sexes, 164 Congreso Pedagógico Hispano-­ Portugués-­Americano, 81 Congress of Women, 99, 144, 150 Conservative and progressive audiences, 178 Conservative figure, 188 Conservative gender policies, 34 Contact zone (Sara Ahmed), 91, 95, 98, 110 Contact zones (Mary Louise Pratt), 203 Cookbooks or cooking, 118, 164 Cordelia (Virginia Tedeschi Treves), 38, 39 Costumbrismo, 219, 219n15 Cranford (novel by Elizabeth Gaskell), 196 Crimean War, 122 Croatians (Illyrian idea), 92 Crystal Palace Exposition (1851), 247 Cuba, 7, 79 D Dagny (Swedish women’s periodical), 55, 60, 64, 68, 69

256 

INDEX

Dansketiden (“the Danish time”), 166 Dansk Kvindesamfund (Danish Women’s Society), 157 De Alcalá, Catalina, 82 De Witt, Henriette, 232, 235, 236 Deaf education, 160, 165 Decorative arts, 106 Determinism, 218 Dewey Decimal Classification (DDC), 37, 161 Digitization (of texts), 76 Distant reading, 9, 75–77, 196, 199, 208 Divorce, 39, 43, 44, 188, 190 Dolls, 125 Domestic arts, 164 Domestic duties, 129 Domesticity, 75, 83, 128, 159, 237, 246 and motherhood, 106, 116, 118, 119 and national identity, 124 Domestic spaces, 198, 200, 203, 204 Domestic topics and home economics, 232 Domestic workers, 164 Dream and Reality (novella by Fatma Aliye, one of her books at the Fair), 178, 180, 183, 188, 190 Dvořák, Antonín, 96 E Economics, home, 46, 164 Edgeworth, Maria, 141, 142 Education, 202–204, 206, 207 activist, 42 or educational subjects, 138, 139, 144, 147 female or education of/for girls and/or women, 82, 125, 128–130, 137, 147, 181, 191, 204, 206, 213, 214, 221, 225

gendering of, 38 of girls’ grandmothers, 129 for girls/women, secondary, 42, 236 instructor, or pedagogy and women as educators, 117, 118 as theme in fiction, 183–185 for women (France), 230 women’s access to, 216, 222 women’s right to, 179 Educational texts, 25–26, 38–39 Educators, women as, 41–42 Efendi, see Mithat, Ahmet Electricity, 129 Eliot, George, 141, 142, 149, 197 Elite cosmopolitan women’s writing, 106 Elite, wealthy middle-class women, nobility, 105 Elliott, Maud Howe, see Howe Elliott, Maud Emancipation, 213 Embroidered fabrics, 196 Embroidery, 78, 95, 96, 101, 106, 108–110 Embroidery and peasant arts and crafts, lace, 93, 95, 99, 110 Emigrés from the Habsburg Monarchy, 94 Empire, 127 See also Imperial legacy (Britain), British imperial project, British imperialism, British Empire Enfranchisement, Swedish women’s, 67 Engravings and photographs of women writers (portraits), 142 Equality between women and men, 230 Es‘ad, Mahmud, 180 Essays, volumes of (France), 231 Ethnic groups and regional differences in Ottoman Empire, 190

 INDEX 

European collections, 22, 23 Exchange of ideas, international or international feminist exchange, 157, 160 See also Networks, transnational or international women’s F Fairy tales, 101 Fashion, 122, 125–126 Fashion (theme in fiction), 186 Fawcett, Millicent Garrett, 137, 140, 142, 147, 151, 157 Female Education (essay by Satthianadhan), 204 Female emancipation, 34 Female hygienic-moral education, 83 Female modernism, 92 Femina bibliography (and collections), see Feminist (femina) bibliography Feminine, Feminist, and Female, 216 Feminine sphere, women’s sphere, domestic sphere, or separate spheres, 126, 128, 130 Feminism, see Gender equality; Suffrage (Great Britain); Women’s rights (Muslims); Women’s rights movement in Norway Feminism early British, 204 Feminism, first phase of (France), 240 Feminist (femina) bibliography, 11 Feminist identity, 155 Feminist ideologies - Europe, 15 Feminist nineteenth-century Norwegian women, 169 Feminists, transnational (or feminism at an international scale), 2, 14 Ferris wheel, 247 Feuilletons, 38 Fiction (German), 118–119 See also Novels; Short stories

257

Fiction, see Novels See also Short stories Fin-de-siècle women’s writing, 149 Fine book bindings, 246 Finland, 7 Folklore, folkloric revival, 39, 45–46, 106, 110 Föreningen för Gift Qvinnas Eganderätt (The Association of Married Women’s Right of Ownership), 62 Fosterland (“motherland”) word contest, 53–55 Fråmat (Forwards) (Swedish women’s periodical), 64, 66–67, 69 Frauenarbeit (“women’s work”), 93 Frauenbildung (“education for women”), 105 See also Bildung Frauencommissionen, 93 Frauen-Gebäude, 93 See also Frauenpalast Frauenpalast, 98 See also Frauen-Gebäude Fredrika Bremer Association, 54, 55, 59, 60, 66–69 French Federation of Feminist Societies, 230 French interest in the United States, 228 French selectors’ horizon of expectation, 231–233 French Union for Women’s Suffrage, 239 French women’s press, 230 G García del Real, Matilde, 83, 84 Garrett Fawcett, Millicent, see Fawcett, Millicent Garrett Gaskell, Elizabeth, 141, 142, 199, 200

258 

INDEX

Geistesbildung (education of the intellect), 129 Gender equality, 165 Gender hierarchy, 182, 183, 187 Gender roles, 186 Generations, 101, 102 Generations of authors, 121 German feminist discourse, 119 German nation or nationhood, conceptions of, 122, 124 See also National identity (Ottoman Empire) German unification and Second German Reich, 116, 131 Gjør, Bolette Margrethe, 161–163, 168 González Prada, Manuel, 213 González Vigil, Francisco de Paula, 213 Gordon, Alice Mary, 137, 139 Gorriti, Juana Manuela (Argentinian writer), 213 Greece, 7, 8 Green, Alice Stopford, 139–141 Greenaway, Kate, 141 Gréville, Henry (Alice Fleury), 232–235 H Hachette, 236, 237 Handicrafts, 139, 164, 196 Handicrafts and material culture, 77 Handicrafts, traditional or peasant, 93, 108, 137 Handicrafts, women’s (theme in fiction), 184–186 Hansteen, Aasta, 160, 163, 167, 169 Harems, 189, 190 Hayden, Sophia, 238 Herderian notion of nonpolitical nation, 92

Heterotopia, 117 Higher education, women’s (Bohemia), 105, 106 Higher education, women’s access to (Sweden), 67 Hindu Social Customs (essay by Satthianadhan), 204 Hindu Social Reform (essay by Satthianadhan), 206 Hirsch, Jenny, 117 Historicism, 110, 246 Historiography, 67 History (of France), 235 History, Italian, 45 History, literary, 148–149 History, women’s domestic and historical change, 123, 124 Holmes, Oliver Wendell, 238 Home gatherings (poetry reading, literary program, piano and voice recitals), 213, 214, 216 Home Review (Swedish women’s periodical), 58, 60, 64, 68 Housewifery, 124, 126 Housewives Newspaper (Hausfrauenzeitung), 124 Housework and traditional views of women, 164 Howe Elliott, Maud, 9, 248 Humpal Zeman, Josefa, 94, 99, 101 Hysteria (women’s disease), 185–186 I Ibsen, Henrik, 163, 165 Identity as Indian woman, 201 Identity, women’s, 222 Idun (Swedish women’s periodical), 55, 56, 61, 64 Illiteracy (Spanish women) in 1887, 82 Imagined community of women writers, 75

 INDEX 

Imagined national community, 127 Immigrant communities (transatlantic), 11 Imperial cosmopolitanism, 106 Imperial German women’s committee, 116, 117, 125 Imperial Ladies Commission (Austria), 93 Imperial legacy (Britain), British imperial project, British imperialism, British Empire, 144, 198, 203, 204, 208 India, 144, 195–197, 208 Indian Bazaar (Midway Plaisance), 195 Indian goods, 196 Indian literature, 202 Indian Pavilion (East Indies Building), 195, 198 India’s weavers, 198 Industrial women laborers, 94 Inequal gender roles (theme in fiction), 183 Infanta Doña Isabel, 78 Insults, attacks, and unpleasant comments directed at women writers, 214, 224 See also Mockery (of women writers) International Congress of Women’s Rights (Paris 1878), 230 International Council of Women, 150 International fairs – women’s building, 13 International women’s collections, 2 International women’s committees, 92 International women’s networks (transnational feminists), see Networks, transnational or international women’s International women’s organizations, 34 Invernizio, Carolina, 38 Invisibility of women’s writing, 34

259

Irish or Ireland, 137, 138, 141 Irish Village, 137 Irish woman (in fiction), 199 Isabella Association, 15 See also Suffrage or women’s vote Islamic, anti-Orientalist and feminist discourses, 178 Islam or Islamic religious doctrine or theology and Islamic history, 179, 188 Italy, education of women (cf. gendering of education), 38 Italy-political Unification, 34, 40, 41 J Jane Eyre (novel by Charlotte Brontë), 196 Japan, 7, 12–13 Jauss, Hans Robert, 233 Juan de Arona, 214 Junta de Señoras (Spanish Women’s Committee), 77, 78 Juvenile literature or juvenile books/ juvenile works, 26, 139, 146, 147, 201, 204–207 K Kashmir or Indian shawl, 198–201, 207, 208 Keith, Dora Wheeler, 243, 248 Kemalist revolution, 182 Kieler, Laura Anna Sophie Müller, 161, 163 Kindergarten movement, 118 Kingsley, Mary Henrietta, 139, 141, 151 Klapp, Anna, 126 Knitschke, Marie, 99, 105 Krásnohorská, Eliŝka, see Pechová, Alzbeta (Henriette Pech)

260 

INDEX

Krog, Jørgine Anna Sverdrup (Gina), 156–158, 160, 165, 169 Kvindestemmerettsforening (KSF) (Women’s Suffrage Association), 156, 157, 159 L Laborers, women or women’s labor, 99, 106–108 Lace or lacemaking or lace-makers, 35, 106, 109, 139, 197, 244 Lacroma, Paul Marie (Marie von Egger-Schmitzhausen), 99, 104, 105 Ladies Committee of the Women’s Building, 158 See also Board of Lady Managers Lady Audley’s Secret (novel by Mary Elizabeth Braddon), 199 Lancellotti, Vincenzina De Felice, 43, 44, 46 La Revista Ilustrada (New York City), 215 Las Consecuencias (novel by Cabello de Carbonera), 220–223 Lasocka, Maria, 92n1 Latin American women writers, 224 Lee, Vernon (Violet Paget), 140, 149 Lemaire, Madeleine, 250 Letters, autograph, 139 Library card catalog, 246 Library of Congress Classification, 148 Literacy, or reading and writing, 99 Literary club in Lima (or salon), 213 See also Home gatherings (poetry reading, literary program, piano and voice recitals) Literary genres, 25–26 Literary texts, 107–108 Spanish, 79 Swedish, 65–66

Literature genres or literary texts (Norwegian), 163, 167 Literature (Italian), 38–41 Lockwood, Mary, 10, 95, 137 Løken, Olaug, 161–164, 168 Lokrum (Croatia), 104 London School of Economics, 151 Loos, Adolf, 110 Losada, Enrique, 215 Lutheran denomination, 59 M Máchová, Karla, 94 Malacology, 36 Male pseudonyms of women writers, 231–234 Manuscripts (rare), 139, 141, 142 Marie Therese of Austria, Archduchess, 93 Marriage, 125, 127, 130, 169, 222 arranged (theme in fiction), 183, 186, 188 of convenience or convenience marriages, 159, 163 critique of, 162 plot, 202, 207 as theme in fiction, 183 Married/unmarried women’s civic rights, 67–69 Married women’s rights, 62, 67–69 Married women’s careers, 159 Martin, Maria, 230 Mary Barton (novel by Elizabeth Gaskell), 199 Material culture, 11 Matriarchive, 3 Matto de Turner, Clorinda, 211 Mecelle (Ottoman civil code), 189 Medical college (medicine, medical careers), 202, 208

 INDEX 

Medicine/medical careers/professions, 126, 129, 136 Mental health (theme in fiction), 185 Middle class, 118, 120 Middle-class girl’s lives, 129 Middle-class women, 99 Middle East or Middle Eastern context, 179, 182 Middlemarch (novel by George Eliot), 196 Midway Plaisance, 96 Milde, Caroline J. S., 127, 128 Mill, John Stuart, 128 Minerva society (Prague), 102 Mirrors, 221, 222, 224 Misogynistic narratives, 234, 239 Misogyny, 234, 239 Missionary movement (Norway), 168 Mithat, Ahmet, 180, 182, 183, 185, 186 Mockery (of women writers), 232, 234 Moderate emancipation, 40 Modern Breakthrough (Norway), 163 Modern Breakthrough (Sweden), 66 Modernism (female), 4, 5 Modernist design, 110 Modernity, 1, 181 Modernization, 75 and tradition, 178, 189 Moderno, Alice, 8 Moretti, Franco, 9, 75–76 Morgenstern, Lina, 123–125, 130 Morse, Alice, 246 Most read authors, 40 Moyano Law (Spain), 82 Multilingual cosmopolitan subjects, 35 Munch, Anna, 160, 161, 164, 165 Music, 125, 142, 146 theme in fiction, 185, 186 Musical scores and librettos, 24, 25 Muslim audiences, 178, 191

261

Muslim-Ottoman women, Western perceptions of, 188 Muslim-Turkish identity, 179 Muslim women’s literary work, 178 N Napoleonic Wars, 123 National awakening, 99 National identity (Ottoman Empire), 181 Nationalism, secessionist (Bohemian), 106 National libraries in Europe, 24 National Library of Madrid, see Biblioteca Nacional (National Library) (Spain), 250 National Library of Norway, 161 National Union of Women’s Suffrage (England), 157 Natural “feminine” roles, 116 Naturalism (Émile Zola), 218, 219, 221, 224, 225 Needle arts or needlework, 81, 95, 96, 99, 106–110, 125, 139, 244 See also Embroidery; Lace or lacemaking or lace-makers Nĕmcova, Božená (Barbara Pankel), 99, 101 Networks and networking, 136 Networks, feminist, 169 Networks of women, 54, 60, 61, 66 Networks or relationships, textual, 69, 85 Networks, social, 47, 239 Networks, transnational or international women’s, 2, 15, 29, 93, 94, 150 Neuzeit (Viennese periodical), 93 New Norwegian (Ny Norsk), 166–167 New Woman, British, 205, 207

262 

INDEX

New Woman fiction or New Woman novels, 149, 202 New Woman in India/Indian New Woman/native “new woman,” 144, 197, 205, 207 New Woman or New Womanhood (nineteenth-century movement, figure of the), 3, 8, 136, 149, 150, 197, 202, 204, 207, 208 New Zealand, 144, 145 Nigg, Marianne, 93, 98n11, 99n12, 102, 102n17, 103, 105, 105n18 Norges Husmorforbund (Norwegian Housewife Association), 164 Norsk Kvinnesaksforening (NKF) (Norwegian Women’s Rights Association), 156–159, 164, 167 Norwegian Americans, 156 Norwegian American women, 169 Norwegian book clubs, 170 Norwegian Church, 169 Norwegian committee (Columbian Exposition), 158 Norwegian Missionary Movement or Women’s Missionary Movement, 162, 168 Norwegian Missionary Society (NMS), 168 Norwegian womanhood or female identity, 155, 169 Norwegian women’s rights organizations, see Kvindestemmerettsforening (KSF) (Women’s Suffrage Association); Norsk Kvinnesaksforening (NKF) (Norwegian Women’s Rights Association); Skuld Discussion Club Nostalgia, 167 Novel of manners, 218

Novels, 38, 39, 46, 140, 145–147, 147n6, 149, 150, 163–164, 201, 202 France, 231 Ottoman—depictions of women, 181 Peruvian, 211 reading (read and write novels), 180 serialized, 38 Swedish, 67–69 Nursing or nurses, 138, 144 O Official catalogue of the British Royal Commission, 139, 146 Official catalogue of the fair, 80 Official guidebook, 248 Official photographs, 248 Old Vienna (Alt wien) (Midway attraction), 96, 98 Olivecrona, Rosalie, 54n2, 57–59, 65, 67, 68 Omissions (Spain), 81 Omissions (Swedish), 40–41 Orientalism and Orientalist vision or perspectives, 182, 188, 191 Orientalist vision of Muslim women, 191 Oriental “Other,” Orientalism, Western notions of the Orient, 198, 200 Otto, Louise, 120, 122–123, 125, 130–131 Ottoman state or Ottoman Empire, 177, 178, 181, 182, 189 P Paget, Violet, see Lee, Vernon (Violet Paget) Palace Library (Spain), 77, 78, 81

 INDEX 

Palma, Ricardo, 212, 213, 225 Palmer, Bertha, 10, 34, 47, 61, 79–80, 93, 96, 102, 108, 136–138, 142, 150, 229, 248 Palmer, María del Carmen Simón, see Simón Palmer, María del Carmen Pankel, Barbara, see Nĕmcova, Božená (Barbara Pankel) Pardo Bazán, Emilia, 77–79, 81–82, 212 Paşa, Ahmet Cevdet, 179, 180, 189 Pascual de Sanjuán, Pilar, 84–85 Patriarchal order, 240 Patriarchal tradition or patriarchy, 222, 224 Pechová, Alzbeta (Henriette Pech), 99, 101, 102 Pedagogy-oriented teacher-authored publications, 74–76 Pedagogy or instruction, 106 See also Education; Teaching Pégard, Marie, 228, 229 Periodicals, 35, 39, 40, 66 Turkish, 180 Peripherality, gender, and class, 94 Peru, 211, 212 Peruvian delegation (to Columbian Exposition), 215 Peruvian women writers, 213 Philanthropy, 106, 110, 111 or philanthropic work, 137–138 Pictorial postcards, 248 Pocock, Julia, 141 Poetry, 146 Spanish, 80 Poland, 91, 92n1 Political equality or equal rights for women, 123, 130 Polygyny, polygamy, 180, 188, 190, 191 Portugal, 7, 8 Positivism, 212

263

Post-Unification women’s periodicals (progressive, patriarchal) (Italy), 43–45 Potter, Beatrice (Webb), 135, 136, 140, 151 Potter Palmer, Mrs., see Palmer, Bertha Poverty of women, 188 Pratt, Mary Louise, 203 Preservation, 23, 24 Prideaux, Sarah T., 141, 246 Princess Christian (of Schleswig-­ Holstein), 136, 196 Princesses Metternich and Windisgratz, 93 Professions or careers for women, 126, 129, 130 Progress, idea of, 123, 131 Prostitution (in fiction), 223 Prostitution, law regulating (1860), 39 Pseudonyms, women’s use of, or pseudonymous identities-real names (women writers), 27–29, 160, 230–233, 238, 239 Public life or public sphere, women in or public sphere, women’s access to, 124, 130, 159, 160, 164, 187 Public (space), 204 Public sphere, 207 Q Queen Margherita of Savoy (Queen Margherita of Italy), 42, 44, 244 Queen Victoria, 136, 137, 197 Queipo de Llano y Gayoso, Isabel, see Superunda, Countess of Question of marriage, 68 R Racial bias, 204 Rationalism, 186

264 

INDEX

Readership, 237 Reading horizon, 240 Realism, 180, 218 Recent works (France), 231 Reformist movements (Ottoman Empire), 181 Rejection of Western feminism, 182 Religion (books about), 46, 80, 155, 162, 168 Religion or church or theology, 139, 140, 150, 200, 204, 221 Repressive marriage laws, 65–66 Rights of married women and mothers (France), 230 Right to vote, French women’s, 239 Riis, Jacob, 238 Ritchie, Anne Thackeray, 200, 201 Rogstad, Anna Georgine, 160, 167, 168 Rojo Herráiz, Carmen, 77 Roman epigraphy, 45 Romanticism, 180, 216, 218, 219, 221, 222 Rosing, Hedevig Sophie, 160, 165, 169 Rotunda (Hall of Honor) (of Woman’s Building), 244 Royal Commission (British), see British Royal Commission Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, 64 Rural Norwegian immigrants in the Midwest, 170 S Sacrificio y recompense (novel by Cabello de Carbonera), 218–220 Sáez de Melgar, Faustina, 77 Saguna (novel by Satthianadhan), 201–208 Said, Edward, 198n2 Salazar, Fanny Zampini, see Zampini Salazar, Fanny

Salon or salons, literary or literary hostess, 101, 140, 141, 239 Sand, George (Aurore Dupin de Francueil), 231, 239 Sati (suttee), practice of, 205–207 Satthianadhan, Krupabai, 145, 197, 201–208 Savi Lopez, Maria, 38, 45 Schepeler-Lette, Anna, 117 Schjøtt, Mathilde, 156 Schreiner, Olive, 145, 149 Science, 115, 126, 129–130 Science or scientific contributions by women, 139, 141, 147, 148 See also Astronomy or astronomer; Medicine/medical careers/ professions Scientific contributions (Swedish), 64 Scientists, female Italian (19th century) (botanist, astronomer, conchologist), 46 Scrittrici (“women writers” of literary works), 36 Scottish or Scotland, 138, 151 Secessionist nationalism, 92, 106 Seclusion of women, 191 Selection, 117 Selection bias, 27 See also Omissions (Spain) Semiye, Emine, 181 Seneca Falls Convention, see Women’s Rights Convention (1848) Sentimental education, 84–85 Sentimentalism, 186 Serials, 24, 25 Settler-colonialism, 145 Sewall, May Wright, 178 Sexual and moral women’s equality, 68, 69 Shirtwaists (front-buttoning), 122 Short stories, 39, 140 Short story collections (Swedish), 65

 INDEX 

Showalter, Elaine, 216 Silences/silencing of women, 223, 225 Simón Palmer, María del Carmen, 73 Singlehood and marriage, 127, 129, 130 Single or unmarried women, 159 Skram, Amalie, 160, 162, 163, 166 Skuld Discussion Club, 156, 157, 159 Slavery of women, 183, 187–189 Slavic collections, 91 Slocomb di Brazzà, Cora, 35 Social class and status, 199, 201, 204 Socialism or socialist, 136, 139 Social networks, see Networks, social Social status, 188 Society for the Culture of Women (Società per la coltura (sic) della donna), 45 Somerset, Lady, 137, 150 Souvenirs, 247, 248 Space (gendered), 186, 188 Starr, Ellen Gates, 238 Stereographs, 247, 248 Stereotypes regarding Muslim women, 190 Stereotypes regarding women, 183 Stories (fiction by Fatma Aliye, one of her books at the Fair), 178, 183, 187–188, 190 Stories, see Short stories Studioli, 246 Suffrage (Great Britain), 137, 138, 140 Suffrage or women’s vote, 3, 39 Superunda, Countess of, 77 Svĕtlá, Karolina, 99, 101 Sweden or Swedish effort (to support women’s rights and representation at Columbian Exposition), 158 Swedish authors, 18th and 19th century, 56, 61

265

Swedish Ladies’ Committee, 55, 56 Swedish Ladies’ Committee to the Board of Lady Managers of the Columbian Exposition, 56 Swedish woman’s periodicals, 64–65 Swedish women’s movement, 66, 67 Synoptic reading or synoptic view, 21–30, 118n10 T Tartilán, Sofia, 83 Teachers and pedagogues (women), 74, 80–81, 83 See also Educators, women as Teaching, 126 theme in fiction, 183 Tesla, Nikola, 98 Textiles, 197, 244, 246, 247, 250 See also Embroidery; Lace or lacemaking or lace-makers; Needle arts or needlework Textual gathering, 99 Thilo, Amalie, 99, 105 Thoresen, Cecilie, 156 Traditional gender paradigms, 183 Traditional morality, 234 Traditional representations of women, 240 Traditional role of women as mothers and wives, 213, 216, 225 Transatlantic feminists, 94n6 Transculturation, 197, 203 Transnational networks, see Networks, transnational or international women’s Travel, travelers, or travel writing or travel writers, 144, 146, 147 Travelers or travel writers, Western, 188, 196 Trips to Chicago, 98 Tristán, Flora, 213

266 

INDEX

Turkish Building, 177 Turkish feminists or Ottoman women’s movements, 181, 182 Turkish household and traditions, 190 Turkish Republic, 182 Turkish shawl, 122 Turkish Sublime Porte (invitation), 178 Turkish village (Midway Plaisance), 177 U United States, ties to, 143 United States, women’s literature, 143 Universal Exhibition in Paris (1878), 230 Universal Exhibition in Paris (1889 and 1900) Parisian salon (Paris pavilion), 228, 229 V Veiling, practice of, 188, 190 Vely, E. (Emma Simon), 117 Victorian double- and triple-­ deckers, 135 Victoria, Queen, see Queen Victoria Viéle, Teresa Griffin, 190 Viennese daily press, 96 Villette (novel by Charlotte Brontë), 199 Visitors, 61, 95, 96, 243, 244, 246, 247 Visuality, 7 Visualizations, analytic data, 22–29 Vittori, Giovanna, 42 Voice (women writers), 169 von Bismarck, Otto, 116–117 von Goethe, Johann Wolfgang, 120, 128 von Hillern, Wilhelmine, 115

Vortmann-Sienkiewicz, Thusnelde, 99, 105 Vote, right to, 130 Voting rights for women or suffrage (in Norway), 155, 156, 159, 163, 165, 167, 169, 170 W Wages/pay (women’s), 126 Ward, Mary Augusta [Mrs. Humphrey] (author of Robert Elsmere), 139, 140, 142, 150 Webb, Beatrice, see Potter, Beatrice (Webb) Wendt, F. M., 93 Western feminism and Muslim feminist perspective, 189, 191 Western missionaries, 202, 204 Wheeler, Candace, 243, 244, 246 Wiechovsky, Wilhelmine, 105 Wikipedia (national), 23, 29, 30 Wildermuth, Ottilie, 126–127 William II (of Germany), 116 Woman artist (iconography), 250 Woman Question as it emerged in India, 208 Woman Question in Great Britain, 137 Woman’s Building Library, 1–2, 6 Woman’s question (Sweden), 54, 66–67 Women authors, Austrian, 91–99, 102–111 Women authors, Bohemian, 91–102, 106–111 Women authors, British, 135–151 Women authors, French, 227–240 Women authors, German, 115–131 Women authors, Indian, 201–208 Women authors, Italian, 33–48 Women authors, Norwegian, 155–170 Women authors, Peruvian, 211–225

 INDEX 

Women authors, Spanish, 73–85 Women creators (authors, composers, librettists, Illustrators, translators, editors, compilers), 26 Women of Islam (text by Fatma Aliye, one of her books at the Fair), 178, 188 Women reformers, 101, 105 Women’s activism, 179 Women’s condition in the Ottoman Empire, 189 Women’s domestication, 116 Women’s education debate (Italy), 41, 42 Women’s history (historiography), 9 Women’s Influence at Home (essay by Satthianadhan), 203 Women’s Library (London School of Economics), 151 Women’s movement based in Islamic history, 189 Women’s movements, 98, 123 Women’s movements, conformist, 15 Women’s movement(s), global or international, 82 Women’s non-domestic talents, 47 Women’s rights activism, 14 Women’s rights and roles (Ottoman Empire), 181 Women’s Rights Association (Trondheim), 162 Women’s Rights Convention (1848), 157 Women’s rights movement in Norway, 156, 159, 166, 168 Women’s rights (Muslims), 179, 181 Women’s rights or equal rights, 60, 149, 155–157, 170 Women’s rights publications, 26

267

Women’s Suffrage Committee, 151 Women’s traditional work, 126 Women’s training and self-­ formation, 122 Women’s work, 82, 158, 228, 230, 246 Women teachers, 82–85 Women within Christian community, 168 Working-class women, 59 Works on education of girls, 231 WorldCat, 23, 24, 30, 161 World Congress of Representative Women (Chicago 1893), 35, 94, 150, 178 World’s Congress on Woman’s Progress, 230 World’s Congresses, 10 Wright, Mary Page, 190, 191 Wspomnenia rodzine (epistolary collection by Maria Lasocka), 92n1 Y Yonge, Charlotte, 139, 141 Young Turks, 181 Yrkeskvinner (“career women”), 156 Z Zacaroff, Cariclee, 190 Zampini Salazar, Fanny, 34, 36, 39, 40, 47–48 Zeman, Josefa Humpal, see Humpal Zeman, Josefa Zola, Émile, 39 Zwilgmeyer, Dikken (Hendrikke Barbara Wind Daae), 160, 166