Basic Information
Amelia Jenks Bloomer was born on May 27th, 1818, in the small town of Homer, New York, and lived until 1894. Bloomer was the editor and publisher of The Lily, the first newspaper dedicated to educating women on the current political movements. The Lily was one of the only resources that women had at the time for education, setting an example for women who wanted to fight against the inequality they faced. Bloomer also brought national attention to the reform dress, “bloomers,” which defied the heavy expectations for a feminine appearance.
Background Information
Bloomer’s upraising provided a moral foundation for her future as an influential woman. She was the youngest of the six children born to Ananias Jenks and Lucy Webb. Jenks and Webb were married in 1806 and moved from Rhode Island to New York soon after. Her mother was a devout Christian who taught her the values that she held strong until her very last day. As a white, middle-class female in America, Bloomer’s education was limited because females were not allowed to explore their skills in arithmetic, which was reserved for young males. This limitation allowed her to focus solely on developing her literacy skills, which later became quite useful in her line of work. As a teenager, Bloomer was offered a career in education where she worked as a teacher for a short period of time before moving to Waterloo, New York, in 1837. In Waterloo, she continued to support the education of children and began developing more friendships, leading her to her future husband, Dexter C. Bloomer. The pair became married on April 15th, 1840, after their friendship blossomed into partnership (Bloomer, 1895).
With the support and encouragement from her husband, Bloomer became interested in the current political movements, specifically the temperance movement. Dexter C. Bloomer, also known as D.C. Bloomer, was a newspaper editor who was very involved in politics. His work inspired Bloomer to get involved and start expressing her own opinions on paper. Bloomer’s writings were signed as anonymous, in the beginning, when they were published in several newspapers. The public became interested in her writing but had no clue who the author of these articles was (Bloomer, 1895).
Contributions to the First Wave
In 1848, Bloomer attended the Seneca Falls convention as an audience member, as she was not an advocate for women’s rights at the time. Her work was focused on temperance laws, and she soon became an active member of the Ladies’ Temperance Society, which was started within the same year of the convention. Bloomer decided to write articles in support of the temperance movement because women were told to keep quiet on the matter, so this was an effective strategy to express her strong beliefs about the issue without speaking publicly. The articles that Bloomer wrote caught the interest of many, which led her to create her own journal for women, named The Lily (Bloomer, 1895).
The Lily’s first issue was released in January of 1849 and became a key symbol for First-wave feminism, representing the gentle and pure nature of women (Bloomer, 1895). The journal allowed for women’s voices to be heard amongst men’s overpowering opinions (Butcher, 2018). Women had the opportunity to unite and become a strong community, regardless of their class or race (National Women’s Hall of Fame, 2019). The Lily was published once a month and had a total of around three hundred prints for its first issue. It started as a newspaper solely dedicated to the temperance movement and eventually evolved to include women’s rights issues, such as suffrage and the freedom of married women. Of the followers that The Lily had gained, Susan B. Anthony was one of the women who became interested in the thoughts that Bloomer had to share. Another significant figure that contributed to the success of the journal was Elizabeth Cady Stanton, who offered to write for the journal. Stanton started writing about temperance, The Lily’s focus, but also included columns about women’s rights over time. Stanton’s writing convinced Bloomer to finally support the cause within the first year of The Lily’s release. Bloomer soon realized that the ideas the temperance movement promoted would only be successful if women were also granted the right to vote, giving them a voice in the laws that can make it become reality. The Lily was a prime example of the power women held if they could freely express their thoughts towards great change for the society (Bloomer, 1895).
In addition to the awareness for healthy change that Bloomer raised by publishing The Lily, she also publicly showed her support for the reform dress, known as “bloomers.” The attire was commonly represented by a shorter skirt layered on top of pantaloons. This costume was first worn in public by Elizabeth Smith Miller, who was Stanton’s cousin. Stanton soon adopted the attire into her own wardrobe, often wearing it out in public. Bloomer released a controversial article about the new costume and expressed her full support for the idea of trousers on women. She felt that it suited her day-to-day needs and was unlike the normal uncomfortable attire. Bloomer’s article was then featured in many other newspapers and caused a spark in hope for dress reform. Women from all over the nation sent letters to Bloomer asking about the new dress because they had been wanting to be relieved from the burden of the inconvenient skirts that they wore at the time. Newspapers began making headlines that addressed this costume as “bloomers” once the article from The Lily caught the nation’s attention. Bloomer stated that the credit belonged to Miller since she started the trend, but the name “bloomers” became commonly associated with the costume. Bloomer wore the reform dress for a few years but decided to wear the traditional long skirt for the remaining years of her life because she felt that the bloomers gained more attention than the issues that mattered more, such as temperance and women’s rights (Bloomer, 1895).
“Our only hope for the future of our country lies in the elevation of woman physically, mentally, socially and politically, and in the triumph of the principles which lie at the foundation of the so-called ‘Woman’s Rights’ reform.”
~ Amelia Jenks Bloomer (Bloomer, 1895, p. 158)
Analysis and Conclusion
Amelia Bloomer was a significant female figure in the first wave due to her contributions that included The Lily and her advocacy for dress reform. Bloomer was also credited for the start of the iconic friendship of Stanton and Anthony. She first introduced Stanton and Anthony to each other during a meeting for the abolition movement. This introduction was important to the timeline of the first wave because without the connection of Stanton and Anthony, much of the efforts towards the feminist movement and the nineteenth amendment would not have nearly been possible (Bloomer, 1895). A sculpture of the special moment was built in Seneca Falls, educating the public on what seemed to be the start of the historical fight for the vote (Freethought Trail, 2019). Bloomer continued to encourage and educate others, giving them hope through the articles written in The Lily. Her work during the first wave was essential to the movement, as it inspired many other women to publish their own writings and give life to the voices that have been suppressed (Bloomer, 1895).
Bloomer’s weaknesses showed a loss of opportunity to further strengthen the women’s movement, but her strengths allowed her to realize her own powerful abilities. Bloomer did not support the women’s movement at first because she was hesitant to start a new path in her life that might have conflicted with her religious activities. This hesitation prevented her from signing the resolutions for women’s rights, presented by Stanton and Lucretia Mott, at the Seneca Falls convention. Bloomer also abandoned the reform dress because she did not see its connection to women’s rights to be important enough. She expressed that women were not at a point, yet, where they should strive for full dress reform. Her choice to revert to the traditional dress weakened the cause for women’s dress reform. These weaknesses were overshadowed by Bloomer’s strength in expression through writing. She was able to captivate her audience with her daring ideas and quickly built a steady list of subscribers. She was an independent woman who did not need her husband’s approval before starting The Lily. This was a major moment in her life because married women were to be completely dependent on their husbands at the time. Bloomer used her strengths to speak up against the unjust laws for women through her passionate words, not only in The Lily, but also in letters and statements directly sent to government officials. She was bold in her opinions and was not afraid to correct a man on his ignorance, proving her to be an empowering woman of the first wave (Bloomer, 1895).
The barriers that Bloomer faced did not stop her from continuing the path to gender equality. Bloomer and her husband were active members of the Episcopal Church, in which she noted that the teachings of the Bible seemed to portray women inaccurately. This recognition of a woman’s role inaccurately portrayed in the Bible did not make her question her faith, as religion was still a significant part of her weakness in supporting the women’s movement. This hesitance was also in part because of her husband. Although he supported her writing and involvement in political movements, he advised her to abandon the idea of The Lily at first because the cost was too much, and it was not sustainable. He also reasoned that she could get backlash by publicly supporting the temperance movement (Bloomer, 1895). Bloomer did, indeed, receive criticism for publishing The Lily and supporting the reform dress, because it was considered a threat to the clear lines of masculinity and femininity (Butcher, 2018). Once The Lily merged ideas supporting women’s rights and the temperance movement, Bloomer’s place as a woman in the society was further questioned by the public. These obstacles serve as a reminder that the path towards change is not defined by the moments that hinder its progress, but by the moments of courage and perseverance.
References
Bloomer, D. C. (1895). Life and Writings of Amelia Bloomer. Boston, MA: Arena Publishing Company.
Butcher, E. (2018, May 29). Lily of Liberty: Amelia Bloomer at 200. History Today. Retrieved from https://www.historytoday.com/miscellanies/lily-liberty-amelia-bloomer-200
Buttre, J. C. (n.d.). Amelia Jenks Bloomer. Massachusetts Historical Society, Massachusetts. Retrieved May 16, 2019 from the Digital Public Library of America, http://www.masshist.org/database/881.
Freethought Trail. (2019). Anthony-Stanton-Bloomer Statue. Retrieved from https://freethought-trail.org/trail-map/location:anthony-stanton-bloomer-statue/
National Women’s Hall of Fame. (2019). Amelia Bloomer. Retrieved from https://www.womenofthehall.org/inductee/amelia-bloomer/
Orr, N. (1851). Amelia Bloomer in her “Bloomer costume”. Seneca Falls Historical Society, New York. Retrieved May 17, 2019 from the Digital Public Library of America, http://cdm16694.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/ref/collection/p16694coll96/id/16