Women in the 19C United States of America: A Little History & a Few Victorian Ladies with Fans

Friday, September 16, 2022

A Little History & a Few Victorian Ladies with Fans

The origin of hand fans can be traced at least back to ancient Egypt, where the fan was seen as a sacred instrument used in religious ceremonies, & as a symbol of royalty power. Two elaborate fans were found in King Tutankhaumuns's tomb, one with a golden handle covered in ostrich feathers & the other was ebony, covered with gold & precious stones. Drawings from 3000 years ago show elegant Chinese ladies using fans. The ancient Greeks wrote poems of fans being the "scepters of feminine beauty" & Romans brought Greek fans back to Rome as objects of great value.

In the 1600s, China was importing huge quantities of exotic fans into Europe, which could provide self-cooling; prevent an unwanted tan; & shield eyes from the sun. By the 18th century, fans had become more than utilitarian, they were objects d'art for the fashionable lady. Fans became even more popular, as the fad of masquerade balls spread across Europe in that century, hiding the faces of their owners. They came to be part of an elaborate ritual of flirtation that carried on into the 19th-century.

Alfred Stevens (1828-1906) The Lady with the Fan

Jacques-Joseph Tissot (1836-1902) Young Lady with a Fan

Edgar Degas (1834-1917). Woman Seated on a Balcony

Winslow Homer (1836-1910) Detail Spanish Girl with Fan

Gustav Klimt (1862-1918). Lady With Fan

Jacques-Joseph Tissot (1836-1902) The Fan

Pierre Auguste Renoir (1841-1919). Girl with Fan

For more fans click here.
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About this blog

In colonial America, men were considered superior to woman in all ways. In a strict patriarchal hierarchy, men controlled not only wealth & political power but also how their children were raised, religious questions, & all matters of right & wrong.

In the early part of the 19Cy, however, many Americans experienced a revolution in gender. The doctrine of “separate spheres” maintained that woman’s sphere was the world of privacy, family, & morality while man’s sphere was the public world -– economic striving, political maneuvering, & social competition. But women were interested in equality.

In 1848, New York passed the Married Woman’s Property Act. Now a woman wasn’t automatically liable for her husband’s debts; she could enter contracts on her own; she could collect rents or receive an inheritance in her own right; she could file a lawsuit on her own behalf. She became for economic purposes, an individual. By 1900, every state has passed legislation modeled after this, granting married women some control over their property and earnings.

In 1870 after the Civi War, the 15th Amendment was ratified, saying, “The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.” African-Americans could vote, but women could not.

But it was not until 1920, that the 19th Amendment was ratified granting women the right to vote. “The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.”