WOMEN AND VICTORIAN VALUES, 1837-1910
Advice Books, Manuals and Journals for Women

Part 1: Sources from the Bodleian Library, Oxford

This first part offers 89 advice books, manuals and journals across a broad spectrum of areas. There is an interesting range of cookery books dating from 1827 to 1896, which provide information on recipes and entertaining, not only for the upper classes of society, but also practical, cheap recipes for the housewife working to a budget. There is a delightful series of children’s plays set to music to teach girls how to go about the household chores which they were expected to undertake. Those working on domestic life will be interested in a series Family Budgets, 1891-94, showing the income and expenditure of 28 Victorian households.

Leisure activities open to women range from gardening as described by Every lady’s guide to her own greenhouse, hothouse and conservatory (1851) to team driving, rifle shooting and kangaroo hunting described in Ladies in the field (1894).

Women’s work is described in reports of the Society for Promoting the Employment of Women (1872 and 1910), A letter from a lady to women & girls who work in factories (1870), Female Servants Union News (1892), and Women’s workers directory (1909).

There are also works on courtship; marriage; the duties of motherhood; entertainments; fashion, society and beauty; etiquette and letter-writing; women’s rights; and health. This project is an important source for women's studies, gender studies, literature and history.