Thank you for allowing me a brief detour from my introductory blog of Pioneering Women of Civil War America to write a blog titled In Memory of My Cuddly Keeshond Fuji and Civil War Mascots!

For this second installment of “Pioneering Women of Civil War America,” I would like to get started with a question:

Who Invented Baggy Trousers Cinched Around the Ankles and Worn Underneath a Knee-Length Skirt, Best Known as Bloomers?

Yes! It seems we all unanimously agree it was Amelia Jenks Bloomer (1818 – 1894).

NEWSFLASH!

Amelia was not the first to sport them. British Actress Fanny Kemble was. It wasn’t until Elizabeth “Libby” Smith Miller, in 1851, flaunted this more comfortable and practical style of women’s garb to cousin Elizabeth Cady Stanton (our suffragist heroine from Johnstown, New York) who, in turn, flaunted it to Amelia that the fashion soared.

Amelia Bloomer’s name is forever linked to “bloomers” because she sustained her advocacy of them in public long after other feminists forsook them in 1859, which they did because they felt:

The endless reprisal and mocking by the press and public at large were damaging their cause for:

Woman’s Equal Rights.

NOTE: I choose to use the singular form of woman/woman’s throughout this post as was done in Victorian times.

Okay. So, you remember Amelia Bloomer’s fashion statement, but did you know about her other great accomplishment?

In 1849, Amelia became the first woman to own, operate, and edit a newspaper for women called the Lily.

It was a monthly ladies’ journal dedicated to woman’s rights, temperance, higher education, and fashion—the latter as regarded dress reform. Within the first four years, her newspaper enjoyed a circulation of 6,000 subscribers around the United States, who splurged in paying fifty-cents per year.

From all of my research, I believe the greatest influence behind Amelia’s reform work was her hubby, Dexter Bloomer. He was an attorney and, most significantly, a Quaker whose faith welcomes diversity with open arms and believes all human beings, regardless of race or gender, are created equal and should be respected accordingly. Thus, he encouraged Amelia to write publicly in his newspaper (Seneca Falls Courier) and her own about woman’s equal rights and other social reform. Amelia was honored in the Women’s Hall of Fame (Seneca Falls, New York) in 1995.

Did you also know? In 1851, at Seneca Falls, New York, Amelia introduced two women who would become the bosom-est of buddies in the annals of suffragists. The proof is in the pudding in the bronze statuette below, erected on the spot where the meeting took place and sealing the lifelong friendship and partnership between Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony through a single handshake. Thus, this also marked the addition of woman’s rights to Susan B. Anthony’s already impressive work in social reform. Sporting her bloomers, Amelia stands between Susan B. Anthony (left) and Elizabeth Cady Stanton (right), who is also sporting bloomers.

For more about Amelia Bloomer’s life, read this informative article of her at: https://www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/amelia-bloomer and watch this video of her at: https://civilwarwomen.co/2021/03/25/pioneering-women-of-the-civil-war-amelia-bloomer/.

Stay Tuned for the Third Installment of “Pioneering Women of Civil War America!”