ABOUT THIS BOOK

From the greatest collection of American Victoriana comes a wonderful evocation of the lives of women 100 years ago. Harvey Green culls from letters and diaries, quotes from magazines, and looks at the clothes, samplers, books, appliances, toys, and dolls of the era to provide a rare portrait of daily life in turn-of-the-century America.

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY

Harvey Green is a professor of history and thedirector of the Public History Program at Northeastern University. He is the author of The Uncertainty of Everyday Life, 1915-1945 (Arkansas, 2000) and Fit for America: Health, Fitness, Sport, and American Society 1830-1940 (Johns Hopkins, 1988). Mary-Ellen Perry was the principal curator of the exhibit "The Light of the Home: Middle-Class American Women: 1870-1910" at the Margaret Woodbury Strong Museum in Rochester, New York.

REVIEWS

"Green's lively text . . . is delightfully illustrated with pictures and artifacts." —Time

"A fascinating, lavishly illustrated, and very disturbing inventory of the means by which 'women's place' has been defined." --Washington Post Book World

"Harvey Green's Light of the Home is a rich portrait of Victorian domesticity and everyday life. Lively, accessible writing and evocative illustrations combine in this volume to convey a sense of nineteenth-century family relationships, women's experiences, and the material culture of the home." --Kathy Peiss, author of Hope in a Jar: The Making of America's Beauty Culture (Owl Books, 1999) and Cheap Amusements: Working Women and Leisure in Turn-of-the-Century New York (Temple, 1987)

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Contents

List of Illustrations

Acknowledgments

Introduction

One. "A Woman's Calling": Courtship and Marriage

Two. Madonna in the Nursery: The Cult of Motherhood

Three. Cleanliness and Godliness: The Tyranny of Housework

Four. Piano in the Parlor: Decorating the Home

Five. The Temple of Virtue: Health in Body and Mind

Six. Cycling and the Social Graces: The New Leisure

Seven. A Home in Heaven: Religion, Death, and Mourning

Eight. Epilogue

Notes

Index

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