Amelia Jenks Bloomer
(1818-1894)
Known for her leading role in promoting (much-needed) dress reform for women, Bloomer was also a committed feminist and temperance worker. The magazine that she founded and edited, the Lily, has been called the first women's suffrage journal in the U.S.
She became a schoolteacher, which led to
her meeting her husband, Dexter C. Bloomer. Although only 21, Bloomer had
clearly already developed her own feminist philosophy, as their marriage vows
excluded any mention of "obeying". Shortly after her marriage,
Bloomer began writing editorials for upstate New York papers. This
experience must have been essential when, in 1849, she began the Lily, in
protest over the exclusion of women from the governing organizations of the NY
temperance movement. Over time, the magazine developed both
professionalism and an increasingly feminist slant, accepting articles from
figures such a Elizabeth Cady Stanton. This was the organ through which
Bloomer promoted the "bifurcated skirt" designed by Elizabeth Smith
Miller but ever after denominated "bloomers". At its zenith, the
Lily had a subscription of 6,000, and it remained successful until
Bloomer sold it.
Although Bloomer was never wholly successful in the dress reform which has kept her famous, the ideal of the "sensible women" promoted by the Lily inspired numerous feminists, including Louisa May Alcott, who explicitly addressed dress reform in Eight Cousins, and invariably created down-to-earth heroines struggling to become "sensible women."
Bloomer wrote about Iowa's suffrage movement for the History of Woman Suffrage (1881-1886), an early attempt by Stanton and others to record and honor the efforts of men and women on behalf of women's emancipation.
Drawn from: Linda Steiner, "Amelia Bloomer," in Dictionary of Literary Biography, Volume 79: American Magazine Journalists, 1850-1900 . A Bruccoli Clark Layman Book. Edited by Sam G. Riley, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. The Gale Group, 1989, pp. 64-68.
Bibliography
Dexter C. Bloomer, Life and Writings of Amelia Bloomer (Boston: Arena, 1895).
The following are from the excellent online course packet Nineteenth-Century Dres Reform Movement :
Amelia Bloomer, "Mrs. Kemble and her New Costume," The Lily, 1 (December 1849), p. 94. http://womhist.binghamton.edu/dress/doc10.htm
Amelia Bloomer, "Female Attire," The Lily, 3 (February 1851), p. 13. http://womhist.binghamton.edu/dress/doc11.htm
Amelia Bloomer, "Female Attire," The Lily, 3 (March 1851), p. 21. http://womhist.binghamton.edu/dress/doc12.htm
Amelia Bloomer, The Lily, 6 (June 1851), p. 47. http://womhist.binghamton.edu/dress/doc16.htm
Amelia Bloomer, "Who Are the Leaders?" The Lily, http://womhist.binghamton.edu/dress/doc17.htm
Amelia Bloomer, "Dress Reform," The Lily, 5 (March 1853), pp. 2-3. http://womhist.binghamton.edu/dress/doc20.htm
Picture of bloomers from: "Summer Fashions: Turkish Costume," Harper's New Monthly Magazine, 3 (July 1851), p. 288. http://womhist.binghamton.edu/dress/image4.htm
