Women's Work 1863 - US Women as Root, Bark, & Seed Gatherers.

Women Gathering Roots? Engraved by R D Havell after George Walker Published by Robinson and Son Leeds

When the grass is bowed by the sparkling dew, & the hills shrouded in mist, plants exhale most freely their sweet odors. They are then gathered & sold to manufacturers, who prepare from them oils, essences, & perfumeries. 

An old Quaker lady on Tenth street, Philadelphia, keeping an herb store, told me that she purchases her herbs mostly of men, but some women do bring them to sell. 

It requires a knowledge of botany to gather them, & the stage of the moon must be observed. Digging roots, & gathering plants, at all seasons, is a hard business. 

At another herb store, Í learned that the prices paid gatherers depend much on the kind of herb, the difficulty of obtaining it, & the season when it is gathered. A woman may earn $1 a week, or she may earn as much as $10. 

The roots & herbs are bought by weight. Many are purchased fresh in market, but some of the gatherers dry them. They are sent from different parts of the Union to the cities & towns. One told me that she would rather purchase herbs & seed put up by women, for they are neater & more careful with their work. She sells most in spring & fall. An Indian doctress told me barks must be gathered in the spring & fall, when they are full of sap; & roots, when the leaves are faded or dead. She sometimes makes $20 worth of syrup in a day. She says the business requires some knowledge of plants, experience in the times of gathering, amount of drying, &c. 

The Employments of Women: A Cyclopaedia of Woman's Work by Virginia Panny Published Boston, MA. by Walker, Wise & Company. 1863

To read about women's changing roles in the 2nd half of the 19th century. see:
Boorstin, Daniel. The Americans: The Democratic Experience. New York:Random House, 1973.
Clinton, Catherine. The Other Civil War: American Women in the Nineteenth Century. New York: Hill and Wang, 1984.
Cott, Nancy. A Heritage of Her Own: Toward a New Social History of Women. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1979.
Cott Nancy. History of Women in the United States, Part 6, Working the Land. New York: K. G. Saur, 1992.
Degler, Carl. At Odds: Women and the Family from Revolution to the Present. New York: Oxford University Press, 1980.
Green, Harvey. The Light of the Home: An Intimate View of the Lives of Women in Victorian America. New York: Pantheon Books, 1983.
Juster, Norton. So Sweet to Labor: Rural Women in America 1865-1895. New York: The Viking Press, 1979.
Kessler-Harris, Alice. Out to Work: A History of Wage Earning Women in the United States. New York: Oxford University Press, 1982
Mintz, Stephen and Susan Kellogg. Domestic Revolutions: A Social History of American Family Life. New York: Free Press; London: Collier Macmillan, 1988.
Ryan, Mary P. Womanhood in America front he Colonial Times to the Present. New York: F. Watts, 1983.
Smith-Rosenberg, Caroll. Disorderly Conduct: Visions of Gender in Victorian America. New York: Oxford University Press, 1985.
Strasser, Susan. Never Done: A History of American Housework. New York Pantheon Books, 1982.
Welter, Barbara. Dimity Convictions : the American Woman in the Nineteenth Century. Athens : Ohio University Press, 1976.

Metal, willow, & clay cloches

Terracotta rhubarb forcer with lid
A bell-shaped terracotta rhubarb forcer with lid, about 13" high

Although it is clear that I favor the glass cloche, in the interest of fairness, we will look at a few alternative types of cloches from the 17th, 18th, & 19th centuries, some still in use today. They deserve equal time, and this is my attempt at trying to be "fair & balanced."

Handmade terra-cotta cloches have existed nearly as long as the blown-glass examples. They often have ventilation holes to prevent spoilage from excessive heat & humidity.

Gardeners usually used terra-cotta cloches slow the growth of lettuce.

Terre cotta rhubarb pots at Knightshayes Garden, Tiverton, Devon, England

Other terra-cotta cloches, often about 30" high & similar in shape to chimney pots, were used for forcing rhubarb. Some of these had lids.
Barnsdale Gardens, Exton, Oakham, Rutland, England.

Gardeners also used metal-framed glass cloches during the period.

In metal-framed cloches, one of the glass panes could be removed by the gardener for fresh air ventilation. Sometimes gardeners temporarily would paint the glass white to shade tender plants from direct sunlight.
Audley End Kitchen Garden, English Heritage, Essex, England

Today, these architectural tents or pavilions are more often employed for decorative purposes.

I found only one depiction of a completely metal cloche made in France about 1900.

 Willow garden cloches. Protect plants from animals, or provide support to plants that need a little protection from the wind, or a place to climb.

1764 Plants in 18C Colonial American Gardens - Virginian John Randolph (727-1784) - Ground Ivy

A Treatise on Gardening Written by a native of this State (Virginia)
Author was John Randolph (1727-1784)
Written in Williamsburg, Virginia about 1765
Published by T. Nicolson, Richmond, Virginia. 1793
The only known copy of this booklet is found in the Special Collections of the Wyndham Robertson Library at Hollins University in Roanoke, Virginia.

Ground Ivy

Ground Ivy, Hedera terrestris, or Glechoma, will grow in any shady place, where the roots are transplanted, and will overspread the ground, if not restrained..

From Gardens & Fields to Natural Medicine - Female Yarb & Mother of Meriwether Lewis (1774-1809)

Artist John Toole (American artist, 1815-1860) Lucy Meriwether Marks (1752-1837).

Meriwether Lewis had grown up with an expert on local plants. His mother, Lucy Meriwether Lewis Marks, was a respected herb doctor in Albemarle County, Virginia, who treated patients with herbal remedies & “simples.” From his mother, Lewis learned to identify plants of medicinal value & how to use them for therapeutic purposes. "Lucy was born into Albemarle County gentry on February 4, 1752. She was the daughter of Col. Thomas & Elizabeth Thornton Meriwether...She was locally famous as a “yarb” or herb doctor, presumably her books included herbals & medical handbooks...Lucy’s type of doctoring was called “Empiric” & based on practical experience. She was folk practitioner – a job often filled by women. She traveled throughout Albemarle County by horseback caring for the sick well into her early eighties. Perhaps she learned medicine from her father, also known as a healer, & her brother Francis, who was a “Regular” or formally-trained doctor. No doubt Lucy grew medicinal plants in her garden at “Locust Hill” & collected them in the wild as well. Her son, Meriwether Lewis, relied on the skills he had learned from his mother when he treated himself & others on the Lewis & Clark expedition. Her son John attended medical school. Some accounts also refer to her son Reuben as a doctor, though it is likely that he was “yarb” doctor like Lucy rather than a “regular” doctor like his brother John."  (Patricia L. Zontine, April 2009) 

In early America, folk medicine, especially knowledge of healing herbs, was often a feminine art. Typical remedies used staple household ingredients, & their descriptions read like recipes for food preparation. Recipes for remedies were handed down from generation to generation. Women learned to doctor the same way they learned to cook. The preparation might begin with hog lard or honey. Plants were then added, gathered from hillsides or grown in the garden. Most mothers had some knowledge of natural pharmaceuticals, but some were more accomplished herbalists than others.  Many years of growing herbs & dispensing remedies made these women indispensable assets to their communities, which they served not only as pharmacists, but as often as obstetricians & nurses as well.

 She was the possessor of a store of information about local pharmacology.  If she were literate, she may have consulted home medicine guides & herbal handbooks. She usually learned about native plants from her own mother & other relatives. Her female line may have been first taught by neighboring Native Americans. She knew how much of each ingredient to use (often measured by the pinch or the handful), how long to boil (till soft, or till all water save a pint had boiled away), & how much to administer. She knew whether the herb should be decocted (boiled), infused (steeped but not boiled), or demulcified (used in an ointment). She knew to use the leaves of some  plants for one ailment, its roots for another, & its berries for still another. She also knew that the seeds of some plants could be medicinal though their flowers were poisonous. She knew how to treat each herb so as not to destroy its healing power, & precisely when to harvest the plant. Most roots had to be gathered in February or March, before the sap began to rise. Roots lost their value after the sap rose. Some plants--sassafras & poke, for example--became poisonous at certain points in their growth cycle. Seldom did the woman's remedies cure the patient; instead, they alleviated the symptoms. But since it seemed to be the symptoms which were fatal, this was a highly effective type of medicine.

The pharmaceuticals administered by these women consisted of a variety of organic & inorganic compounds. Among the most commonly used medicinal plants were those with astringent qualities, such as sweet gum, myrtle, & yellow dock.  Taken in a tea, such plants could shrink the swelling of a sore throat. Used for tonsillitis or diphtheria, they would leave the patient considerably more comfortable & also lessen the danger of asphyxiation. Packed into a poultice & applied to the skin, the astringent properties of these plants helped to close open wounds & stem bleeding. The selection of herbs for use in medicines was hardly random; many food plants were never used to treat the sick, because they had no medicinal value. Only remedies which brought relief were retained.  See  Ozarks Watch  Vol. VIII, No. 1, 1995  In Defense of Granny Women  by Janet Allured.

1863 - US Women as Gardeners.

Image of Duchess of Chaulnes as a Gardener in an Allee, by Louis Carrogis de Carmontelle

The strength and energy of people, in northern climates, have led them to excel in the rearing of fruit --not in imparting a more delicious flavor, but in the quantity, the fullness, and the size of the fruit. 

In the balmy air and under the sunny sky of the South, vegetation develops more rapidly and more luxuriantly. He who adds to the list of beautiful and fragrant flowers, or improves some variety of fruit, enlarging, or rendering it more luscious, will be remembered as a benefactor. 

Gardening is a pleasant and healthy occupation to those that love outdoor life. A woman can no more be healthful and beautiful without exercise in the open air, than a plant can when deprived of air and light. 

We learn, from Mr. Howitt's “ Rural Life in England,” that“ there are on the outskirts of Nottingham, upward of five thousand gardens, each less than the tenth of an acre. The bulk of these are occupied by the working classes. These gardens are let at from half a penny to three halfpence per yard.” 

German women are often employed, near cities, to weed gardens, gather vegetables, & other such work. “In Hereford, England, there are no fewer than six annual harvests, in each of which children are largely employed : 1, bark peeling ; 2, hay; 3, corn, 4, hops; 5, potatoes; 6, apples; 7, acorns. Add to these, bird keeping in autumn & spring, potato setting & hop tying, & the incidental duties of baby nursing & errand going.”

The Employments of Women: A Cyclopaedia of Woman's Work by Virginia Panny Published Boston, MA. by Walker, Wise & Company. 1863

To read about women's changing roles in the 2nd half of the 19th century. see:
Boorstin, Daniel. The Americans: The Democratic Experience. New York:Random House, 1973.
Clinton, Catherine. The Other Civil War: American Women in the Nineteenth Century. New York: Hill and Wang, 1984.
Cott, Nancy. A Heritage of Her Own: Toward a New Social History of Women. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1979.
Cott Nancy. History of Women in the United States, Part 6, Working the Land. New York: K. G. Saur, 1992.
Degler, Carl. At Odds: Women and the Family from Revolution to the Present. New York: Oxford University Press, 1980.
Green, Harvey. The Light of the Home: An Intimate View of the Lives of Women in Victorian America. New York: Pantheon Books, 1983.
Juster, Norton. So Sweet to Labor: Rural Women in America 1865-1895. New York: The Viking Press, 1979.
Kessler-Harris, Alice. Out to Work: A History of Wage Earning Women in the United States. New York: Oxford University Press, 1982
Mintz, Stephen and Susan Kellogg. Domestic Revolutions: A Social History of American Family Life. New York: Free Press; London: Collier Macmillan, 1988.
Ryan, Mary P. Womanhood in America front he Colonial Times to the Present. New York: F. Watts, 1983.
Smith-Rosenberg, Caroll. Disorderly Conduct: Visions of Gender in Victorian America. New York: Oxford University Press, 1985.
Strasser, Susan. Never Done: A History of American Housework. New York Pantheon Books, 1982.
Welter, Barbara. Dimity Convictions : the American Woman in the Nineteenth Century. Athens : Ohio University Press, 1976.

Women as Fruit Venders in 1863 USA

Flowers are formed to please the eye & indulge the fancy; but fruits are a healthy & important article of food. Some women sell fruit in market; some, at stalls in the street; some, in fruit shops or groceries, & some, from baskets, going from house to house. 

Most dispose of small fruit, such as berries —some wild & some cultivated. The ferries in large cities are very good stands for sellers of fruits & sweetmeats. Places of amusement & the entrance to cemeteries, are also. 

I talked to one apple woman, who says her business is a slavish one. Her stand was at the Atlantic ferry, New York. When she goes to her dinner, she gets the gate keeper to mind her stand. She earns, on an average, $1 a day. She rises, gets her breakfast, & starts to market by five o'clock. She remains at her stand until nine o'clock at night. She sells the greatest quantity of fruit in the spring & fall, when people are most apt to be making money, & so permit a little self indulgence. She sells least in winter. 

I saw a woman on the street selling fruit & flowers. When she is out all day, she can generally earn from fifty cents to $1. Another fruit seller told me that she makes a good living. She has been at her stand eight years. She sells most fresh fruit in summer; & in winter, about the holidays, most dry fruit & nuts. In the coldest weather she remains in her basement, heated by a stove, where she stores her fruit at night. Her grapes are brought in on the cars, put up in pasteboard boxes. Her location is excellent, for the working class of people pass in the evening, returning from work, or in their promenades. 

I talked with an old woman at an apple stand, who told me she often sells $1 worth of articles in a day, but seldom makes a profit of more than half. She seils most fruit in summer, but most cigars, candy, & nuts in winter. She says there is a stand on every block, in that part of New York. Hers is a good location, because so many men pass. In wet weather, she does not sell much. She is shielded in winter, by sitting in a hall near, where she can keep an eye on her stand. She lives near, & while she goes home to dinner, her husband sells for her. 

An apple woman, in New York, told us, she has kept her stand in Washington park for seven years. She remains at it all the year. If any other fruit vender should trespass on her bounds, a policeman would soon send him or her off. Another old woman, keeping a fruit stand, told me she makes a comfortable living at it in summer; but in winter she stays in a confectionery store, & gets $10 a month & her board. 

At another fruit stand, on asking the old lady how she got on, she burst into tears, & replied, very poorly, scarcely made enough to keep her alive. A professional honor exists among fruit women, & a desire to sustain each other in their rights. A wholesale fruit dealer writes me that it takes from two to four years to learn the business, when carried on extensively. 

The Employments of Women: A Cyclopaedia of Woman's Work by Virginia Panny Published Boston, MA. by Walker, Wise & Company. 1863

To read about women's changing roles in the 2nd half of the 19th century. see:
Boorstin, Daniel. The Americans: The Democratic Experience. New York:Random House, 1973.
Clinton, Catherine. The Other Civil War: American Women in the Nineteenth Century. New York: Hill and Wang, 1984.
Cott, Nancy. A Heritage of Her Own: Toward a New Social History of Women. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1979.
Cott Nancy. History of Women in the United States, Part 6, Working the Land. New York: K. G. Saur, 1992.
Degler, Carl. At Odds: Women and the Family from Revolution to the Present. New York: Oxford University Press, 1980.
Green, Harvey. The Light of the Home: An Intimate View of the Lives of Women in Victorian America. New York: Pantheon Books, 1983.
Juster, Norton. So Sweet to Labor: Rural Women in America 1865-1895. New York: The Viking Press, 1979.
Kessler-Harris, Alice. Out to Work: A History of Wage Earning Women in the United States. New York: Oxford University Press, 1982
Mintz, Stephen and Susan Kellogg. Domestic Revolutions: A Social History of American Family Life. New York: Free Press; London: Collier Macmillan, 1988.
Ryan, Mary P. Womanhood in America front he Colonial Times to the Present. New York: F. Watts, 1983.
Smith-Rosenberg, Caroll. Disorderly Conduct: Visions of Gender in Victorian America. New York: Oxford University Press, 1985.
Strasser, Susan. Never Done: A History of American Housework. New York Pantheon Books, 1982.
Welter, Barbara. Dimity Convictions : the American Woman in the Nineteenth Century. Athens : Ohio University Press, 1976.

1863 - US Women as Fruit Growers.

The Cranberry Woman

If American women would only turn their attention to the cultivation of fruits & flowers for market, instead of giving it up to ignorant foreigners, how much better it would be! A few hundred dollars would make a very handsome beginning; & those who do not have so much at their disposal, could their friends to advance it. 

At Shrewsbury & Lebanon, much fruit is put up by the Shakers, & sent to New York for sale. Women might have orchards, raise fruit, & send it to market. 

Mrs. D. owns a farm, & does not disdain to graft fruit trees, superintend their planting, gather fruit, send it to market, &c.; & she realizes a handsome profit. The grafting & budding of fruit trees might be done very well by women, & also the budding of ornamental shrubs. 

“Miss S. B. Anthony,” says the Binghampton Republican , “resides at Roches ter, & supports herself by raising raspberries from land given to her by her father.” I have been told that on one acre of land near New York city a thousand dollars' worth of strawberries can be grown. 

In New Jersey & Delaware, women are employed to gather berries for market. If a lady is within a few miles of town, & has facilities for raising & sending fruit to market, she will not be likely to fail in meeting with ready sale. Berries bring a good price in the markets of a city. In Cincinnati, from May 21st to June 1st, 1847, 5,463 bushels of strawberries were sold, & near St. Louis is a gentleman that has some hundreds of acres of strawberries in cultivation to assist in supplying the St. Louis market. 

The drying of fruit affords employment, & generally well remunerates time so given, if carried on extensively. 

The Employments of Women: A Cyclopaedia of Woman's Work by Virginia Panny Published Boston, MA. by Walker, Wise & Company. 1863

To read about women's changing roles in the 2nd half of the 19th century. see:
Boorstin, Daniel. The Americans: The Democratic Experience. New York:Random House, 1973.
Clinton, Catherine. The Other Civil War: American Women in the Nineteenth Century. New York: Hill and Wang, 1984.
Cott, Nancy. A Heritage of Her Own: Toward a New Social History of Women. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1979.
Cott Nancy. History of Women in the United States, Part 6, Working the Land. New York: K. G. Saur, 1992.
Degler, Carl. At Odds: Women and the Family from Revolution to the Present. New York: Oxford University Press, 1980.
Green, Harvey. The Light of the Home: An Intimate View of the Lives of Women in Victorian America. New York: Pantheon Books, 1983.
Juster, Norton. So Sweet to Labor: Rural Women in America 1865-1895. New York: The Viking Press, 1979.
Kessler-Harris, Alice. Out to Work: A History of Wage Earning Women in the United States. New York: Oxford University Press, 1982
Mintz, Stephen and Susan Kellogg. Domestic Revolutions: A Social History of American Family Life. New York: Free Press; London: Collier Macmillan, 1988.
Ryan, Mary P. Womanhood in America front he Colonial Times to the Present. New York: F. Watts, 1983.
Smith-Rosenberg, Caroll. Disorderly Conduct: Visions of Gender in Victorian America. New York: Oxford University Press, 1985.
Strasser, Susan. Never Done: A History of American Housework. New York Pantheon Books, 1982.
Welter, Barbara. Dimity Convictions : the American Woman in the Nineteenth Century. Athens : Ohio University Press, 1976.