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The Glory of Woman: Prescriptive Literature, 1910 - 1919
- Benton, Caroline French. Woman's Club Work and Programs; or, first aid to club women. Boston: D. Estes, 1913.
"[Women's clubs] have instructed those of limited education; they have given a wider horizon to those hemmed in by circumstances; ...and, of late years, they have prepared the way for women of leisure and influence to take up what is called 'the larger housekeeping,' the better of social and civil conditions."
- Fryer, Jane Eayre. The Mary Frances Housekeeper, or, Adventures Among the Doll People. Philadelphia: J.C. Winstone, 1916.
Mary Frances is a little girl who learns about housekeeping while creating a home for her paper dolls: "The practical explanations of household duties and management are woven in so skillfully that as the story tells how Mary Frances learned to dust, or sweep, or make beds, the little reader takes it all in eagerly as part of the story."
- Klickmann, Flora. The Little Girl’s Sweet Book. London: Office of “The Girl’s Own Paper and Woman’s Magazine”, [191-].
This little book combines narrative, recipes, and charming illustrations to show girls how to make candy: “Grown-up people usually like [peppermint creams], so I expect Father and Mother would enjoy them. And you want everybody to enjoy some of your sweets, don’t you?”
- Klickmann, Flora. The Mistress of the Little House: what she should know and what she should do when she has an untrained servant. London: The Girl’s Own Paper & Woman’s Magazine, [1912].
This volume is “a collection of practical talks on domestic topics for those educated women who cannot afford to keep a properly trained servant, and have to do most of the housework themselves.”
- Murphy, Claudia Quigley. Wash Day. Chicago: Associated Corn Products Manufacturers, [1910].
Advertising ephemera in the form of a tiny booklet on laundering clothes; topics include "First Aid to Stained Clothes," "Sorting," and "Starching."
- Quale, Carle C. Thrilling Stories of White Slavery. [s.l: s.n., 1912].
Quale asserts that causes of white slavery are almost always a result of some weakness in the women's fortitude, for which he condemns society's failure to protect motherhood as "the root of civilization."
- Rupp, Frederick Augustine. Purity and Truth; letters of a physician to his daughters on the great black plague. Philadelphia: Vir Pub. Co., 1910.
The author asserts that ignorance is “the most important factor in the dissemination of [venereal] diseases,” and warns young women against marrying a man who may have contracted them.
- Wood-Allen, Mary. Almost a Man. Cooperstown, N.Y.: Arthur H. Crist Co., 1915.
In this narrative, four teenage boys learn about sexual ethics from a female doctor: "Sex comes as a wondrous gift from God - a gift endowed with a marvelous power, and therefore to be held most sacred."
- Wood-Allen, Mary. What a Young Woman Ought to Know. Philadelphia: Vir Pub. Co., 1913.
"I was reading the other day that the first good lesson for a young man to learn...is that he is of some importance...and that the world cannot get along without him. Now if this is true of young men, I do not see why it is not equally true of young women."
- Your Daughter’s Corset. Niagra Falls, N.Y.: Spirella Company, [191-].
“No greater mistake could be made than to assume that because [your daughter] is young and slight of figure ‘Any corset will do for her.’”
