A Map of the Open Country of a Woman's Heart (c. 1833–1842)
Exhibiting its internal communications, and the facilities and dangers to Travellers therein
An artifact from the era of “True Womanhood.”
Nineteenth-century America underwent continuous social and economic changes on a large scale: cities grew at a rapid pace, industrial development changed individuals' relationships with work and family, and new transportation and communication systems fueled commerce and territorial expansion. Ideas about women's place in the developing nation also changed, often in tandem with broader social shifts.
Writers and artists alike idealized what was known as "True Womanhood," an ideal that was especially promoted to middle-class women but inflected virtually all representations of women in popular culture during this era. As historian Barbara Welter wrote, "The attributes of True Womanhood, by which a woman judged herself and was judged by her husband, her neighbors, and her society, could be divided into four cardinal virtues—piety, purity, submissiveness, and domesticity. … Without them … all was ashes. With them she was promised happiness and power."
This idealized version of womanhood appeared everywhere: in advice manuals, fiction, newspapers, magazines and in American prints. Just as American prints employed a narrowly defined standard of beauty, images that showed exemplars of True Womanhood also imagined a limited sphere of activity for women.
~ American Antiquarian
Image source: Wikimedia