1 00:00:01,320 --> 00:00:04,280 Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class, a production 2 00:00:04,400 --> 00:00:15,320 Speaker 1: of iHeartRadio. Hello, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Tracy V. Wilson, 3 00:00:15,360 --> 00:00:18,599 Speaker 1: and I'm Holly Frye. Something I think I've mentioned on 4 00:00:18,640 --> 00:00:22,680 Speaker 1: the show before is that I think about etiquette a 5 00:00:22,720 --> 00:00:25,720 Speaker 1: lot because in my lifetime there's been just a huge 6 00:00:25,720 --> 00:00:29,840 Speaker 1: shift in how we interact with other people, Like social 7 00:00:29,920 --> 00:00:33,760 Speaker 1: media did not exist when I was born, and now 8 00:00:33,760 --> 00:00:35,520 Speaker 1: it is a major way that a lot of people 9 00:00:35,560 --> 00:00:39,040 Speaker 1: communicate with one another. And I don't know if anyone 10 00:00:39,120 --> 00:00:42,919 Speaker 1: has heard, feels like etiquette hasn't really kept up with 11 00:00:42,960 --> 00:00:44,839 Speaker 1: that shift. A lot of the time, there is a 12 00:00:44,840 --> 00:00:49,559 Speaker 1: lot of stuff on social media happening continually that I 13 00:00:49,600 --> 00:00:54,080 Speaker 1: would say is inconsiderate, like at best, a lot of 14 00:00:54,120 --> 00:00:59,000 Speaker 1: it actively incredibly rude. A lot of people use the 15 00:00:59,000 --> 00:01:04,200 Speaker 1: word manners and etiquette interchangeably, but they have slightly different 16 00:01:04,319 --> 00:01:09,920 Speaker 1: but interrelated meanings. Different sources, of course, give slightly different definitions, 17 00:01:09,920 --> 00:01:14,720 Speaker 1: but essentially manners that's a person's conduct or behavior, and 18 00:01:14,760 --> 00:01:17,559 Speaker 1: then etiquette is the code of manners or the rules 19 00:01:17,600 --> 00:01:22,959 Speaker 1: that delineate what good manners are. Books on etiquette, which 20 00:01:23,040 --> 00:01:25,839 Speaker 1: is what we are talking about today in this installment 21 00:01:25,920 --> 00:01:31,319 Speaker 1: of six Impossible Episodes. They don't necessarily reflect the rules 22 00:01:31,360 --> 00:01:34,959 Speaker 1: that everyone is actually following. So if you're reading a 23 00:01:35,120 --> 00:01:40,600 Speaker 1: historical etiquette manual, it's not necessarily depicting what day to 24 00:01:40,680 --> 00:01:43,199 Speaker 1: day life is like for people. It's more like what 25 00:01:43,240 --> 00:01:47,320 Speaker 1: the author thinks the ideal standard of behavior should be. 26 00:01:48,600 --> 00:01:51,360 Speaker 1: So today we're going to do a little six Impossible 27 00:01:51,400 --> 00:01:56,280 Speaker 1: episodes on a selection of etiquette manuals from history. And 28 00:01:56,360 --> 00:01:59,360 Speaker 1: to be very clear upfront, this is focused on manuals 29 00:01:59,400 --> 00:02:02,800 Speaker 1: that we're either written in or translated into English, because 30 00:02:02,840 --> 00:02:05,880 Speaker 1: that's the language I am fluent in. And it also 31 00:02:06,720 --> 00:02:10,880 Speaker 1: felt way outside of my lane to be commenting on 32 00:02:10,960 --> 00:02:13,360 Speaker 1: etiquette books from parts of the world that I have 33 00:02:13,520 --> 00:02:18,080 Speaker 1: no cultural connections to or experience with, where you know, 34 00:02:19,360 --> 00:02:23,880 Speaker 1: the rules of etiquette might seem strange to me. You 35 00:02:23,960 --> 00:02:27,480 Speaker 1: must give your neighbor a duck. The first work that 36 00:02:27,520 --> 00:02:30,040 Speaker 1: we are going to discuss came out in fifteen fifty 37 00:02:30,040 --> 00:02:33,320 Speaker 1: eight and its author was Giovanni de la Casa of Florence, 38 00:02:33,639 --> 00:02:36,280 Speaker 1: who was born on June twenty eighth, fifteen oh three 39 00:02:36,360 --> 00:02:40,440 Speaker 1: to a well off and aristocratic family. He seems to 40 00:02:40,440 --> 00:02:42,640 Speaker 1: have been a little bit of a troublemaker in his youth, 41 00:02:42,720 --> 00:02:47,240 Speaker 1: including writing some satiric and suggestive verse, but eventually he 42 00:02:47,280 --> 00:02:51,320 Speaker 1: moved into writing lyric poetry and translating other works, and 43 00:02:51,400 --> 00:02:54,639 Speaker 1: in fifteen forty four he was named Archbishop of Benevento. 44 00:02:55,520 --> 00:02:58,919 Speaker 1: Unlike most of the existing manuals of behavior and conduct 45 00:02:58,919 --> 00:03:02,280 Speaker 1: that were written before this point, this one wasn't focused 46 00:03:02,320 --> 00:03:06,359 Speaker 1: on courtly behavior and diplomatic protocols. It was about how 47 00:03:06,400 --> 00:03:09,920 Speaker 1: to behave yourself out in the world. Giovanni finished it 48 00:03:09,960 --> 00:03:13,080 Speaker 1: in fifteen fifty five, and he died on November fourteenth, 49 00:03:13,080 --> 00:03:17,320 Speaker 1: fifteen fifty six. Although he had instructed his family to 50 00:03:17,360 --> 00:03:20,399 Speaker 1: burn all of his documents, they published this book as 51 00:03:20,760 --> 00:03:25,359 Speaker 1: il Galateo o vera dicostumi or Etiquette or rather Customs 52 00:03:25,600 --> 00:03:30,880 Speaker 1: two years later. This treatise was quickly translated into multiple 53 00:03:30,919 --> 00:03:35,280 Speaker 1: other languages. It became really influential in a lot of Europe. 54 00:03:35,320 --> 00:03:37,800 Speaker 1: It made its way into English for the first time 55 00:03:37,880 --> 00:03:41,920 Speaker 1: in fifteen seventy six after being translated by Robert Peterson, 56 00:03:42,560 --> 00:03:46,200 Speaker 1: and then it was retranslated and republished in English at 57 00:03:46,200 --> 00:03:50,400 Speaker 1: different points after that, including in London in seventeen seventy 58 00:03:50,440 --> 00:03:54,920 Speaker 1: four as Galateo or a treatise on politeness and delicacy 59 00:03:54,920 --> 00:03:58,880 Speaker 1: of manners addressed to a young nobleman. That is the 60 00:03:58,880 --> 00:04:02,760 Speaker 1: one that we are focused on today. Books on etiquette 61 00:04:02,800 --> 00:04:06,520 Speaker 1: have often been written in response to changing social norms 62 00:04:06,640 --> 00:04:10,480 Speaker 1: or a perceived need to address some kind of big 63 00:04:10,640 --> 00:04:15,480 Speaker 1: shift in people's behavior, whether such a shift was actually happening, 64 00:04:15,640 --> 00:04:18,880 Speaker 1: or the kinds of people who write etiquette books just 65 00:04:19,040 --> 00:04:22,960 Speaker 1: thought that was what was happening. This retranslation came out 66 00:04:23,120 --> 00:04:27,200 Speaker 1: as the Industrial Revolution and other social and economic changes 67 00:04:27,200 --> 00:04:29,839 Speaker 1: were making it more possible for people to climb the 68 00:04:29,920 --> 00:04:34,719 Speaker 1: social and economic ladders. There's this idea that newly affluent 69 00:04:34,760 --> 00:04:38,479 Speaker 1: people might not know how to act. The preface to 70 00:04:38,520 --> 00:04:41,440 Speaker 1: this seventeen seventy four English edition made it clear that 71 00:04:41,560 --> 00:04:45,080 Speaker 1: Italy was seen as the birthplace of good manners. It 72 00:04:45,200 --> 00:04:48,280 Speaker 1: quote shows to what a degree of refinement, both in 73 00:04:48,320 --> 00:04:51,880 Speaker 1: manners and in literature the Italians were arrived at a 74 00:04:51,880 --> 00:04:55,279 Speaker 1: period when we were just emerging from Gothicism and barbarity. 75 00:04:56,200 --> 00:04:59,240 Speaker 1: It also makes clear that, in the translator's opinion, English 76 00:04:59,240 --> 00:05:02,359 Speaker 1: society has progressed since the work was first written, to 77 00:05:02,400 --> 00:05:05,279 Speaker 1: the point that some of the examples might seem absurd. 78 00:05:06,040 --> 00:05:08,680 Speaker 1: But at the same time he mentions some very gross 79 00:05:08,720 --> 00:05:11,640 Speaker 1: behavior that he's seen from other people, including a man 80 00:05:11,760 --> 00:05:16,159 Speaker 1: spitting so vociferously it startled other people, and a woman 81 00:05:16,640 --> 00:05:20,000 Speaker 1: using her napkin to clean her teeth after dinner, and 82 00:05:20,040 --> 00:05:23,080 Speaker 1: those were points of evidence that a book like Galateo 83 00:05:23,400 --> 00:05:26,440 Speaker 1: was still needed. So we can really sum up this 84 00:05:26,520 --> 00:05:30,280 Speaker 1: book's whole approach to etiquette with this quote quote. It 85 00:05:30,360 --> 00:05:33,600 Speaker 1: is to be observed, then, that whatever is offensive or 86 00:05:33,640 --> 00:05:37,520 Speaker 1: disagreeable to any one of our senses, or contrary to 87 00:05:37,600 --> 00:05:42,120 Speaker 1: our natural instincts and desires, and further, whatever raises in 88 00:05:42,200 --> 00:05:46,600 Speaker 1: our minds an idea of anything filthy or indecent, or 89 00:05:46,640 --> 00:05:51,000 Speaker 1: what shocks our understanding, I say that everything and every 90 00:05:51,040 --> 00:05:54,880 Speaker 1: action of this kind, being as greatly displeasing to others, 91 00:05:55,080 --> 00:05:59,720 Speaker 1: is carefully to be avoided. Nothing therefore, either filthy or 92 00:05:59,760 --> 00:06:04,400 Speaker 1: a modest nauseous or disgusting, ought not only to be done, 93 00:06:04,440 --> 00:06:08,680 Speaker 1: but even mentioned in the presence of others. Some examples 94 00:06:08,720 --> 00:06:12,719 Speaker 1: of things to be avoided finding something stinky and saying 95 00:06:12,720 --> 00:06:15,640 Speaker 1: to the person next to you, smell this, it smells terrible. 96 00:06:16,640 --> 00:06:20,400 Speaker 1: Similarly grinding your teeth, just breathing too loud. I feel 97 00:06:20,440 --> 00:06:23,359 Speaker 1: like I do that one making horrible noises when coughing 98 00:06:23,440 --> 00:06:26,800 Speaker 1: or sneezing, howling like a wolf while yawning, which I 99 00:06:26,800 --> 00:06:31,440 Speaker 1: think we should all adopt, actually expactorating in company, smelling 100 00:06:31,560 --> 00:06:35,239 Speaker 1: glasses of wine or plates of food belonging to other people, 101 00:06:36,080 --> 00:06:40,560 Speaker 1: speaking about vulgar subjects, being profane about God, whether you 102 00:06:40,600 --> 00:06:44,200 Speaker 1: are serious or joking, going on at length about what 103 00:06:44,240 --> 00:06:49,080 Speaker 1: you dreamed about last night, lying arrogance, buffoonery, and giving 104 00:06:49,200 --> 00:06:52,960 Speaker 1: unsolicited advice, especially to people who are not your true 105 00:06:53,000 --> 00:06:57,320 Speaker 1: and intimate friends. Uh. I like how many of these 106 00:06:57,320 --> 00:07:02,800 Speaker 1: are still things that people point out. Uh. Also, Giovanni 107 00:07:02,880 --> 00:07:07,400 Speaker 1: de la Casa sure did not like jingling puns, as 108 00:07:07,560 --> 00:07:12,040 Speaker 1: well as what we might describe today as dad jokes. Quote. 109 00:07:12,080 --> 00:07:15,240 Speaker 1: You will meet also with some people who, for every 110 00:07:15,320 --> 00:07:18,240 Speaker 1: word that is spoken, have some other word without any 111 00:07:18,280 --> 00:07:22,240 Speaker 1: meaning ready at hand by way of jingle. Others who 112 00:07:22,240 --> 00:07:25,000 Speaker 1: will change the syllables in a word in a trifling, 113 00:07:25,200 --> 00:07:28,920 Speaker 1: foolish manner. Others will speak and answer in a different 114 00:07:28,960 --> 00:07:32,240 Speaker 1: manner from what we expected, and that without any wit 115 00:07:32,480 --> 00:07:36,040 Speaker 1: or beauty of thought. As where is thy Lord in 116 00:07:36,120 --> 00:07:39,800 Speaker 1: his clothes unless he is bathing or in bed? How 117 00:07:39,840 --> 00:07:43,960 Speaker 1: does this wine taste a little moist, I think, how 118 00:07:44,040 --> 00:07:47,800 Speaker 1: is this dish to be eaten with your mouth? And 119 00:07:47,880 --> 00:07:51,040 Speaker 1: the like? All which kinds of wit, as you will 120 00:07:51,040 --> 00:07:56,360 Speaker 1: easily apprehend, are low and vulgar. Givanni, I'm with you. 121 00:07:58,080 --> 00:08:00,440 Speaker 1: We talk about that on behind the scenes. An fan 122 00:08:01,120 --> 00:08:03,960 Speaker 1: next up Letters to his son on the Art of 123 00:08:04,000 --> 00:08:06,440 Speaker 1: Becoming a Man of the World and a Gentleman, by 124 00:08:06,480 --> 00:08:10,840 Speaker 1: Philip Stanhope, fourth Earl of Chesterfield, purported namesake of the 125 00:08:10,920 --> 00:08:14,840 Speaker 1: Chesterfield Sofa. Philip had no children with his wife, but 126 00:08:14,920 --> 00:08:17,320 Speaker 1: he did have two sons, and he wrote a series 127 00:08:17,360 --> 00:08:20,560 Speaker 1: of letters to one of them, also named Philip, starting 128 00:08:20,640 --> 00:08:24,600 Speaker 1: in seventeen thirty seven. The younger Philip died in seventeen 129 00:08:24,680 --> 00:08:27,520 Speaker 1: sixty eight, and a few years later his widow started 130 00:08:27,560 --> 00:08:30,400 Speaker 1: publishing the letters because she really didn't have any other 131 00:08:30,440 --> 00:08:33,560 Speaker 1: source of income. There was also a book that collected 132 00:08:33,559 --> 00:08:36,360 Speaker 1: the parts that were focused on etiquette and combined it 133 00:08:36,400 --> 00:08:40,040 Speaker 1: with other works, which was published as Principles of Politeness 134 00:08:40,080 --> 00:08:42,240 Speaker 1: and of Knowing the World, and that came out in 135 00:08:42,280 --> 00:08:45,880 Speaker 1: seventeen eighty six. I chose this as one of the 136 00:08:45,920 --> 00:08:48,840 Speaker 1: things to talk about in today's episode because it is 137 00:08:49,120 --> 00:08:53,359 Speaker 1: frequently cited as the first use of the word etiquette 138 00:08:53,400 --> 00:08:57,160 Speaker 1: to mean something like rules for polite behavior in English. 139 00:08:57,840 --> 00:09:00,800 Speaker 1: Turns out that doesn't really hold up. Though the word 140 00:09:00,880 --> 00:09:05,080 Speaker 1: etiquette comes from a French word meaning label or ticket, 141 00:09:05,400 --> 00:09:08,679 Speaker 1: and then later this word etiquette was used to describe 142 00:09:08,720 --> 00:09:13,640 Speaker 1: cards or signs that outlined rules for proper conduct at court, 143 00:09:13,920 --> 00:09:16,440 Speaker 1: so that label was sort of a label on the 144 00:09:16,440 --> 00:09:19,200 Speaker 1: wall telling you how to act, and then the word 145 00:09:19,240 --> 00:09:23,120 Speaker 1: etiquette came to describe those rules themselves. The Earl of 146 00:09:23,240 --> 00:09:27,360 Speaker 1: Chesterfield did use the word etiquette in these letters, starting 147 00:09:27,360 --> 00:09:30,400 Speaker 1: with one that he wrote in seventeen fifty, but he 148 00:09:30,640 --> 00:09:34,880 Speaker 1: was talking about those formal protocols, not a more general 149 00:09:34,960 --> 00:09:38,960 Speaker 1: standard of good behavior. Specifically, in that letter he was 150 00:09:39,000 --> 00:09:42,400 Speaker 1: telling the younger Philip to follow the current protocols when 151 00:09:42,400 --> 00:09:46,680 Speaker 1: he met the Pope Nowadays. The Oxford English Dictionary also 152 00:09:46,760 --> 00:09:49,800 Speaker 1: cites an even earlier use of this sense of the 153 00:09:49,840 --> 00:09:54,600 Speaker 1: word etiquette from London Magazine in seventeen thirty seven. Although 154 00:09:54,600 --> 00:09:57,120 Speaker 1: the Earl did not write these letters with the intent 155 00:09:57,200 --> 00:09:59,720 Speaker 1: of their ever being published, it makes a lot of 156 00:09:59,760 --> 00:10:02,120 Speaker 1: sense that they came to be used as an etiquette 157 00:10:02,160 --> 00:10:06,319 Speaker 1: manual once they were. Here's an example from October sixteenth, 158 00:10:06,320 --> 00:10:10,640 Speaker 1: seventeen forty seven quote, Dear boy, the art of pleasing 159 00:10:10,760 --> 00:10:13,520 Speaker 1: is a very necessary one to possess, but a very 160 00:10:13,559 --> 00:10:17,480 Speaker 1: difficult one to acquire. It can hardly be reduced to rules, 161 00:10:17,640 --> 00:10:20,280 Speaker 1: and your own good sense and observation will teach you 162 00:10:20,360 --> 00:10:23,120 Speaker 1: more of it than I can do. As you would 163 00:10:23,160 --> 00:10:25,400 Speaker 1: be done by. Is the surest method that I know 164 00:10:25,480 --> 00:10:29,360 Speaker 1: of pleasing. Observe carefully what pleases you in others, and 165 00:10:29,480 --> 00:10:32,960 Speaker 1: probably the same thing in you will please others. If 166 00:10:33,000 --> 00:10:35,800 Speaker 1: you are pleased with the complaisance and attention of others 167 00:10:35,800 --> 00:10:39,560 Speaker 1: to your humors, your tastes, or your weaknesses depend upon it, 168 00:10:39,640 --> 00:10:42,640 Speaker 1: the same complaisance and attention on your part to theirs 169 00:10:42,920 --> 00:10:46,520 Speaker 1: will equally please them. Take the tone of the company 170 00:10:46,559 --> 00:10:48,760 Speaker 1: that you are in, and do not pretend to give it. 171 00:10:49,280 --> 00:10:52,280 Speaker 1: Be serious, gay, or even trifling as you find the 172 00:10:52,320 --> 00:10:55,840 Speaker 1: present humor of the company. This is an attention due 173 00:10:55,880 --> 00:11:01,080 Speaker 1: from every individual to the majority. There are and hundreds 174 00:11:01,080 --> 00:11:03,200 Speaker 1: of pages of these letters. I mean, this is this 175 00:11:03,320 --> 00:11:06,480 Speaker 1: man's correspondence to his son, going on for many years, 176 00:11:07,120 --> 00:11:09,920 Speaker 1: and as was the case with the Galateo, this was 177 00:11:09,960 --> 00:11:12,720 Speaker 1: written to a man. It's focused on how a man 178 00:11:12,800 --> 00:11:15,640 Speaker 1: should act We are going to get through some other 179 00:11:15,679 --> 00:11:18,520 Speaker 1: works and some works by women that were on etiquette 180 00:11:18,559 --> 00:11:31,600 Speaker 1: after we have a quick sponsor break. A ton of 181 00:11:31,760 --> 00:11:35,280 Speaker 1: etiquette manuals came out in the United States and Europe 182 00:11:35,320 --> 00:11:38,600 Speaker 1: in the nineteenth century, thanks in part to developments in 183 00:11:38,720 --> 00:11:42,280 Speaker 1: printing for a mass market, and of course there were 184 00:11:42,440 --> 00:11:46,760 Speaker 1: huge ongoing social changes related to things like race, gender, 185 00:11:46,800 --> 00:11:49,960 Speaker 1: and class. All this happened before, during, and after the 186 00:11:50,080 --> 00:11:53,880 Speaker 1: US Civil War. Our next book was written in eighteen 187 00:11:54,000 --> 00:11:57,400 Speaker 1: sixty eight and it was published under the pseudonym Daisy Ibright. 188 00:11:57,880 --> 00:12:02,000 Speaker 1: That was really Sophia orn Edwards Johnson. She was born 189 00:12:02,040 --> 00:12:05,680 Speaker 1: in Springfield, Massachusetts, and then later moved to Bath, New Hampshire. 190 00:12:06,280 --> 00:12:08,480 Speaker 1: We don't have a ton of detail about her life, 191 00:12:08,480 --> 00:12:11,200 Speaker 1: but she was married to James H. Johnson, who was 192 00:12:11,240 --> 00:12:14,160 Speaker 1: a colonel in the New Hampshire Militia and also served 193 00:12:14,200 --> 00:12:17,440 Speaker 1: two terms in the House of Representatives. He was more 194 00:12:17,480 --> 00:12:19,720 Speaker 1: than twenty years older than she was and she was 195 00:12:19,720 --> 00:12:23,760 Speaker 1: his second wife and they had three children together. Like 196 00:12:23,800 --> 00:12:27,600 Speaker 1: the younger Philip Stanhope's widow, Johnson turned to etiquette to 197 00:12:27,640 --> 00:12:31,080 Speaker 1: try to earn some money, especially after her husband's lumber 198 00:12:31,120 --> 00:12:33,880 Speaker 1: mill was destroyed in a flood in eighteen sixty nine. 199 00:12:34,880 --> 00:12:37,680 Speaker 1: In addition to her book A Manual of Etiquette with 200 00:12:37,760 --> 00:12:41,400 Speaker 1: Hints on Politeness and Good Breeding, she also wrote books 201 00:12:41,400 --> 00:12:45,600 Speaker 1: on homemaking and gardening, including every Woman Her Own Flower 202 00:12:45,640 --> 00:12:49,800 Speaker 1: Gardener in eighteen seventy one and Household Hints and Recipes 203 00:12:49,800 --> 00:12:53,520 Speaker 1: in eighteen seventy seven, and she published columns on etiquette 204 00:12:53,520 --> 00:12:57,439 Speaker 1: and household tips in newspapers. Here is how she kicked off. 205 00:12:57,480 --> 00:13:01,120 Speaker 1: The preface to this book, quote often speak of good 206 00:13:01,160 --> 00:13:05,880 Speaker 1: manners as an accomplishment. I speak of them as a duty. What, then, 207 00:13:06,080 --> 00:13:09,720 Speaker 1: are good manners? Such manners as the usages of society 208 00:13:09,800 --> 00:13:14,600 Speaker 1: have recognized as being agreeable to men, Such manners as 209 00:13:14,679 --> 00:13:18,199 Speaker 1: may take away rudeness and remit to the brute creation 210 00:13:18,360 --> 00:13:21,720 Speaker 1: of all coarseness. There are a great many who feel 211 00:13:21,720 --> 00:13:25,440 Speaker 1: that good manners are effeminate. They have a feeling that rude, 212 00:13:25,480 --> 00:13:28,760 Speaker 1: bluntness is a great deal more manly than good manners. 213 00:13:29,080 --> 00:13:32,200 Speaker 1: It is a great deal more beastly. But when men 214 00:13:32,240 --> 00:13:35,320 Speaker 1: are crowded in communities, the art of living together is 215 00:13:35,440 --> 00:13:39,679 Speaker 1: no small art. How to diminish friction, how to promote 216 00:13:39,760 --> 00:13:42,360 Speaker 1: ease of intercourse, How to make every part of a 217 00:13:42,400 --> 00:13:45,640 Speaker 1: man's life contribute to the welfare and satisfaction of those 218 00:13:45,679 --> 00:13:49,800 Speaker 1: around him. How to keep down offensive pride, how to 219 00:13:49,880 --> 00:13:53,480 Speaker 1: banish the rasping of selfishness from the intercourse of men, 220 00:13:54,040 --> 00:13:58,920 Speaker 1: How to move among men inspired by various and conflictive motives, 221 00:13:58,960 --> 00:14:03,000 Speaker 1: and yet not how collisions. This is the function of 222 00:14:03,080 --> 00:14:08,400 Speaker 1: good manners. Ebright's opinions on etiquette and manners continued quote 223 00:14:08,720 --> 00:14:11,480 Speaker 1: Etiquette has been defined as a code of laws which 224 00:14:11,520 --> 00:14:16,160 Speaker 1: bind society together, viewless as the wind, and yet exercising 225 00:14:16,160 --> 00:14:20,160 Speaker 1: a vast influence upon the well being of mankind. But 226 00:14:20,240 --> 00:14:22,680 Speaker 1: she writes at the same time, quote good manners are 227 00:14:22,720 --> 00:14:26,240 Speaker 1: not merely conventional rules, but are founded upon reason and 228 00:14:26,320 --> 00:14:30,240 Speaker 1: good sense, and are therefore most worthy of the consideration 229 00:14:30,320 --> 00:14:33,080 Speaker 1: of all. And there are many points of good breeding 230 00:14:33,160 --> 00:14:36,120 Speaker 1: which neither time nor place will ever change, because they 231 00:14:36,160 --> 00:14:39,320 Speaker 1: are founded upon a just regard of man for man. 232 00:14:40,320 --> 00:14:42,920 Speaker 1: Like a lot of nineteenth century writers in the US, 233 00:14:43,200 --> 00:14:49,680 Speaker 1: Daisy Ibright framed etiquette and religion, specifically Christianity, as intrinsically connected, 234 00:14:50,360 --> 00:14:53,440 Speaker 1: and her view bad manners were not just rude, they 235 00:14:53,440 --> 00:14:57,320 Speaker 1: were sinful. She describes the first code of good manners 236 00:14:57,360 --> 00:15:00,240 Speaker 1: as the Epistle of Saint James, and she all so 237 00:15:00,320 --> 00:15:04,200 Speaker 1: describes Philip Stanhope, Earl of Chesterfield, as the pattern of 238 00:15:04,280 --> 00:15:07,240 Speaker 1: good breeding, and she includes a couple of quotes from 239 00:15:07,280 --> 00:15:10,320 Speaker 1: his letters in her book. Some of her rules for 240 00:15:10,360 --> 00:15:14,200 Speaker 1: etiquette are more like marriage advice quote nothing can be 241 00:15:14,280 --> 00:15:18,000 Speaker 1: more injurious or inconsistent with true politeness and good breeding 242 00:15:18,360 --> 00:15:22,479 Speaker 1: than the constant habit of fault finding concerning little petty trifles, 243 00:15:22,800 --> 00:15:25,880 Speaker 1: when indulged in by either husband or wife in the 244 00:15:25,920 --> 00:15:30,080 Speaker 1: presence of others, or by themselves. This book also has 245 00:15:30,120 --> 00:15:35,080 Speaker 1: a special section of advice to children, including quote, be polite, respectful, 246 00:15:35,120 --> 00:15:39,160 Speaker 1: and modest to all, and especially to your elders and superiors. 247 00:15:39,600 --> 00:15:43,120 Speaker 1: There is nothing more disgusting than a youth who assumes 248 00:15:43,160 --> 00:15:47,640 Speaker 1: an air of disrespect and self importance toward his superiors, equals, 249 00:15:47,680 --> 00:15:52,360 Speaker 1: or inferiors. This section aimed at children also included quote 250 00:15:52,360 --> 00:15:55,280 Speaker 1: never go up and downstairs or about the house with 251 00:15:55,400 --> 00:15:58,000 Speaker 1: the speed of a trotting horse and the tread of 252 00:15:58,040 --> 00:16:03,440 Speaker 1: an elephant. Step lightly quickly and orderly. There is a 253 00:16:03,480 --> 00:16:07,200 Speaker 1: whole chapter in this book on visits of ceremony, visits 254 00:16:07,240 --> 00:16:11,120 Speaker 1: of condolence, congratulation, and friendship each of which has its 255 00:16:11,200 --> 00:16:14,960 Speaker 1: own code of etiquette. A visit of friendship wouldn't be 256 00:16:15,040 --> 00:16:17,560 Speaker 1: going over to a friends for a dinner party. It's 257 00:16:17,600 --> 00:16:20,600 Speaker 1: the formal visit, to be made afterward as a gesture 258 00:16:20,600 --> 00:16:24,160 Speaker 1: of thanks for having been invited. She talks about rules 259 00:16:24,200 --> 00:16:26,320 Speaker 1: for what should be on your calling card, and that 260 00:16:26,480 --> 00:16:29,080 Speaker 1: if you can't go for a formal visit, you should 261 00:16:29,120 --> 00:16:31,760 Speaker 1: leave a card yourself or send it with a servant 262 00:16:31,840 --> 00:16:34,680 Speaker 1: because quote, it is not well bred to send it 263 00:16:34,760 --> 00:16:38,560 Speaker 1: through the post. She describes these calling cards not just 264 00:16:38,600 --> 00:16:41,760 Speaker 1: as a way of presenting yourself to the person being visited, 265 00:16:42,240 --> 00:16:44,640 Speaker 1: but also as part of letting people know that you're 266 00:16:44,680 --> 00:16:48,160 Speaker 1: going to be out of town. Quote. If previous to 267 00:16:48,200 --> 00:16:50,880 Speaker 1: a long voyage or absence, or on the occasion of 268 00:16:50,920 --> 00:16:54,120 Speaker 1: your marriage, you omit to call or send a card 269 00:16:54,160 --> 00:16:58,160 Speaker 1: to your friends. It is understood that the acquaintance ceases 270 00:16:58,760 --> 00:17:01,280 Speaker 1: when you return home. Those to whom you have sent 271 00:17:01,360 --> 00:17:04,600 Speaker 1: cards or paid visits will pay the visit first to you. 272 00:17:05,720 --> 00:17:09,480 Speaker 1: This book has chapters on etiquette at home, receiving visitors, 273 00:17:09,880 --> 00:17:15,280 Speaker 1: visiting others, table etiquette, dinner parties, evening entertainments, forms of address, 274 00:17:15,480 --> 00:17:19,639 Speaker 1: social intercourse, dress, and marriage Toward the end, there's a 275 00:17:19,720 --> 00:17:23,520 Speaker 1: chapter with advice specific to husbands, wives, old bachelors, and 276 00:17:23,640 --> 00:17:26,959 Speaker 1: old maids, and a final brief poem called good Advice 277 00:17:27,040 --> 00:17:30,840 Speaker 1: to Everybody, which reads quote, if Wisdom's ways you wisely 278 00:17:30,920 --> 00:17:34,480 Speaker 1: seek five things observed, with care of whom you speak, 279 00:17:34,600 --> 00:17:37,600 Speaker 1: to whom you speak, and how and when and where 280 00:17:38,480 --> 00:17:43,840 Speaker 1: quaint this very Although it was written after the end 281 00:17:43,920 --> 00:17:47,159 Speaker 1: of the US Civil War during the period of reconstruction, 282 00:17:47,440 --> 00:17:50,639 Speaker 1: Daisy Eyebright's a manual of etiquette with hints on politeness 283 00:17:50,680 --> 00:17:54,280 Speaker 1: and good breeding, makes almost no mention of race. Although 284 00:17:54,280 --> 00:17:58,440 Speaker 1: it's presented as though it's rules of etiquette apply to everyone, 285 00:17:58,640 --> 00:18:01,919 Speaker 1: there's kind of an implicit assumption that the person reading 286 00:18:01,960 --> 00:18:05,920 Speaker 1: it is white. The only specific mentions of anybody else 287 00:18:06,040 --> 00:18:09,439 Speaker 1: are references to people doing things differently from what she 288 00:18:09,560 --> 00:18:14,120 Speaker 1: considers typical of Americans, with Americans here meaning white, middle 289 00:18:14,160 --> 00:18:18,720 Speaker 1: and upper class Christian Americans. It's clear that she just 290 00:18:18,760 --> 00:18:21,400 Speaker 1: sort of sees this as the default. This is one 291 00:18:21,400 --> 00:18:23,960 Speaker 1: of the ways that etiquette can be really fraught. There 292 00:18:24,040 --> 00:18:27,400 Speaker 1: is often this underlying assumption that there's one right way 293 00:18:27,440 --> 00:18:31,720 Speaker 1: of doing things that applies to everybody, without really acknowledging 294 00:18:31,760 --> 00:18:34,920 Speaker 1: all the nuances that exist among people of different cultures 295 00:18:34,960 --> 00:18:38,760 Speaker 1: and races and genders and classes and et cetera. This 296 00:18:38,880 --> 00:18:42,359 Speaker 1: means that rules for etiquette can really easily be used 297 00:18:42,359 --> 00:18:46,840 Speaker 1: to marginalize people outside of a society's dominant cultural group, 298 00:18:46,920 --> 00:18:50,560 Speaker 1: and have been used and are still used actively to 299 00:18:50,640 --> 00:18:54,400 Speaker 1: marginalize people. The next book that we're talking about is 300 00:18:54,440 --> 00:18:57,240 Speaker 1: The National Capital Code of Etiquette, which was published in 301 00:18:57,320 --> 00:19:00,560 Speaker 1: nineteen twenty, and it's almost the opposite. It's aware of 302 00:19:00,640 --> 00:19:04,440 Speaker 1: race from the beginning. Its author, Edward S. Green, was 303 00:19:04,440 --> 00:19:08,720 Speaker 1: a government employee living in Washington, D C. In nineteen twenty, 304 00:19:08,840 --> 00:19:12,359 Speaker 1: about twenty five percent of the capital city's residence were black. 305 00:19:13,080 --> 00:19:17,680 Speaker 1: Green's publisher, Austin Jenkins Company, produced quote Bibles and special 306 00:19:17,720 --> 00:19:21,680 Speaker 1: books for the Colored race by Negro authors. The publisher's 307 00:19:21,720 --> 00:19:24,879 Speaker 1: note at the beginning ends with quote, we consider it 308 00:19:24,920 --> 00:19:29,160 Speaker 1: a great pleasure and are especial privilege to respectfully dedicate 309 00:19:29,240 --> 00:19:34,000 Speaker 1: this volume to the Colored race. The author's preface also 310 00:19:34,080 --> 00:19:39,120 Speaker 1: starts with an anecdote about George Washington. In this anecdote, 311 00:19:39,280 --> 00:19:42,879 Speaker 1: he bows and raises his hat to two black laborers 312 00:19:42,920 --> 00:19:45,600 Speaker 1: after they had done the same to him, and then 313 00:19:45,640 --> 00:19:47,320 Speaker 1: when a friend that he was with, said that it 314 00:19:47,400 --> 00:19:51,600 Speaker 1: was undignified for him to have returned these laborers salute. 315 00:19:51,640 --> 00:19:54,560 Speaker 1: George Washington answered, quote, do you suppose I ever want 316 00:19:54,600 --> 00:19:57,080 Speaker 1: to think that he had better manners than I did? 317 00:19:58,400 --> 00:20:01,480 Speaker 1: Various elements of the story are very cringey to me. 318 00:20:02,760 --> 00:20:05,320 Speaker 1: And then the preface went on to say, quote, thus 319 00:20:05,320 --> 00:20:10,080 Speaker 1: spoke the perfect gentleman, kindly consideration of our inferiors, as 320 00:20:10,119 --> 00:20:12,800 Speaker 1: well as deference to our superiors as one of the 321 00:20:12,840 --> 00:20:17,520 Speaker 1: first rudiments of good manners. But this book is not 322 00:20:17,760 --> 00:20:21,800 Speaker 1: about how black people should interact with white society. Its 323 00:20:21,880 --> 00:20:25,680 Speaker 1: audience is Washington, DC's black middle class and the rules 324 00:20:25,680 --> 00:20:29,000 Speaker 1: for behavior within that society. And a lot of the 325 00:20:29,040 --> 00:20:31,600 Speaker 1: actual rules parallel the ones in the books that we've 326 00:20:31,640 --> 00:20:35,560 Speaker 1: already discussed, like quote, first, you know what displeases or 327 00:20:35,600 --> 00:20:39,080 Speaker 1: angers you personally avoid all such words or actions in 328 00:20:39,119 --> 00:20:42,680 Speaker 1: your contact with others. After a little bit about not 329 00:20:42,800 --> 00:20:46,919 Speaker 1: monopolizing conversations, this part of the book continues quote, Third, 330 00:20:47,080 --> 00:20:50,800 Speaker 1: strive to please study your friends and acquaintances. If they 331 00:20:50,800 --> 00:20:54,199 Speaker 1: have hobbies, encourage them to talk about their specialty. This 332 00:20:54,240 --> 00:20:57,280 Speaker 1: all sounds very familiar. Yeah, a lot like the things 333 00:20:57,320 --> 00:20:59,960 Speaker 1: that we've just talked about, even though the rules them 334 00:21:00,000 --> 00:21:03,520 Speaker 1: them selves are often similar, though the racial context of 335 00:21:03,520 --> 00:21:08,080 Speaker 1: this book adds some additional nuances. Public schools and recreation 336 00:21:08,200 --> 00:21:11,440 Speaker 1: facilities in Washington, d C. Were segregated, and after being 337 00:21:11,480 --> 00:21:15,960 Speaker 1: inaugurated as president in nineteen thirteen, Woodrow Wilson had empowered 338 00:21:16,000 --> 00:21:21,000 Speaker 1: his administration to segregate the federal workforce. Black workers in Washington, 339 00:21:21,080 --> 00:21:25,040 Speaker 1: d C. Were increasingly forced into lower wage jobs and 340 00:21:25,119 --> 00:21:28,360 Speaker 1: barred from opportunities that were open to their white coworkers. 341 00:21:29,040 --> 00:21:33,720 Speaker 1: So while this book doesn't explicitly mention race after the preface, 342 00:21:33,800 --> 00:21:38,359 Speaker 1: it's really threaded through with layers of things like respectability, politics, 343 00:21:38,359 --> 00:21:41,800 Speaker 1: and a sense of racial uplift. Here's what Edward S. 344 00:21:41,840 --> 00:21:44,879 Speaker 1: Green says about dressing for the types of formal visits 345 00:21:44,920 --> 00:21:48,359 Speaker 1: that Daisy Ebright also covered in her book. Quote. In 346 00:21:48,440 --> 00:21:52,080 Speaker 1: making formal calls, the lady does not remove her gloves, hat, 347 00:21:52,200 --> 00:21:56,080 Speaker 1: or veil. A gentleman may carry his hat into the room. 348 00:21:56,680 --> 00:21:59,640 Speaker 1: If wearing gloves, the right should be removed and held 349 00:21:59,680 --> 00:22:02,880 Speaker 1: in the lane left gloved hand during the call. And 350 00:22:03,000 --> 00:22:05,920 Speaker 1: here are his thoughts on dancing. Quote. The author has 351 00:22:05,920 --> 00:22:10,040 Speaker 1: seen these spasmodic revolutions of the dancing public come and 352 00:22:10,080 --> 00:22:13,399 Speaker 1: go for many years, but the custom invariably returns to 353 00:22:13,440 --> 00:22:17,120 Speaker 1: the dreamy waltz, the more conservative dances, and the sane 354 00:22:17,240 --> 00:22:22,119 Speaker 1: orchestra sooner or later. Unless at least seven musicians are employed, 355 00:22:22,280 --> 00:22:25,880 Speaker 1: a drum is not only superfluous, it is an abomination. 356 00:22:27,040 --> 00:22:29,879 Speaker 1: Since this book was published in nineteen twenty, it was 357 00:22:29,920 --> 00:22:33,080 Speaker 1: able to include photographs. Unlike the earlier books that we've 358 00:22:33,119 --> 00:22:36,159 Speaker 1: talked about. There are pictures of the social settings that 359 00:22:36,200 --> 00:22:39,560 Speaker 1: were being described, examples of well dressed people in the like. 360 00:22:40,280 --> 00:22:42,320 Speaker 1: One thing that stands out is that most of the 361 00:22:42,320 --> 00:22:47,399 Speaker 1: people in these pictures have relatively light skin. While the 362 00:22:47,480 --> 00:22:51,199 Speaker 1: idea of racial uplift was theoretically focused on lifting up 363 00:22:51,240 --> 00:22:54,520 Speaker 1: black people as a whole, in reality there was a 364 00:22:54,520 --> 00:22:57,879 Speaker 1: lot of colorism, with people with lighter skin being seen 365 00:22:58,000 --> 00:23:01,440 Speaker 1: as the best examples of the race. Yes. This book 366 00:23:01,520 --> 00:23:05,080 Speaker 1: also includes a lengthy section on writing letters, and it 367 00:23:05,119 --> 00:23:08,920 Speaker 1: includes examples of letters for all kinds of different purposes, 368 00:23:09,040 --> 00:23:12,320 Speaker 1: like there is a sample letter for a man who 369 00:23:12,359 --> 00:23:15,520 Speaker 1: wants to propose to a woman in writing because he's 370 00:23:15,560 --> 00:23:18,560 Speaker 1: either too timid to do it in spoken words, or 371 00:23:18,680 --> 00:23:22,600 Speaker 1: just feels better able to express himself in writing, than 372 00:23:22,680 --> 00:23:25,960 Speaker 1: there are examples of how she could write back to him, 373 00:23:26,080 --> 00:23:30,160 Speaker 1: either accepting his proposal or turning it down. Then there's 374 00:23:30,200 --> 00:23:34,159 Speaker 1: another example of his letter to her father asking for 375 00:23:34,200 --> 00:23:38,360 Speaker 1: his permission to get married, followed by examples of letters 376 00:23:38,400 --> 00:23:42,240 Speaker 1: from the father answering yes or no. There are some 377 00:23:42,359 --> 00:23:44,560 Speaker 1: sample letters in some of the other books that we 378 00:23:44,600 --> 00:23:47,080 Speaker 1: were talking about today, but there are quite a lot 379 00:23:47,080 --> 00:23:49,240 Speaker 1: of them in this one, and that makes a lot 380 00:23:49,280 --> 00:23:51,760 Speaker 1: of sense considering that this book was written a couple 381 00:23:51,760 --> 00:23:55,480 Speaker 1: of generations after the abolition of slavery in the United States, 382 00:23:56,280 --> 00:24:00,000 Speaker 1: Literacy rates in black communities were still recovering from laws 383 00:24:00,119 --> 00:24:04,240 Speaker 1: had prohibited enslaved people and sometimes free black people from 384 00:24:04,320 --> 00:24:08,760 Speaker 1: learning to read and write. Yeah, literacy rates had improved 385 00:24:08,800 --> 00:24:12,040 Speaker 1: a lot within black communities, but there were still big 386 00:24:12,040 --> 00:24:15,920 Speaker 1: disparities between black communities and white communities, and then within 387 00:24:16,160 --> 00:24:18,879 Speaker 1: the black community there were disparities by age groups, with 388 00:24:19,119 --> 00:24:22,240 Speaker 1: much younger people generally more often able to read, and 389 00:24:22,320 --> 00:24:26,320 Speaker 1: older people. Maybe not. After we take a quick sponsor break, 390 00:24:26,359 --> 00:24:28,160 Speaker 1: we are going to talk about one of the more 391 00:24:28,359 --> 00:24:42,280 Speaker 1: famous American etiquette books. When I started thinking about this episode, 392 00:24:42,400 --> 00:24:45,280 Speaker 1: which I usually say at the beginning, we usually pick 393 00:24:45,400 --> 00:24:47,919 Speaker 1: six things, or I usually pick six things that for 394 00:24:48,000 --> 00:24:51,080 Speaker 1: whatever reason can't stand on their own. This one really 395 00:24:51,119 --> 00:24:53,320 Speaker 1: probably could the thing that we're going to talk about next, 396 00:24:53,320 --> 00:24:57,440 Speaker 1: but I'm including it for reasons that I'm about to say. 397 00:24:57,720 --> 00:25:00,399 Speaker 1: My original intent was that we would talk about some 398 00:25:00,440 --> 00:25:05,440 Speaker 1: etiquette books that were fairly evenly distributed from the sixteenth century, 399 00:25:05,560 --> 00:25:08,960 Speaker 1: when the focus of these books started to shift from 400 00:25:09,000 --> 00:25:12,680 Speaker 1: like courtly protocols to more general rules of good behavior, 401 00:25:13,680 --> 00:25:16,760 Speaker 1: up to sometime in the early twentieth century, when we 402 00:25:16,800 --> 00:25:19,240 Speaker 1: get to the end of things being in the public 403 00:25:19,280 --> 00:25:21,960 Speaker 1: domain so we can quote from them however much we want. 404 00:25:22,680 --> 00:25:25,240 Speaker 1: I wound up, though, with more stuff from the early 405 00:25:25,320 --> 00:25:29,520 Speaker 1: twentieth century than I really had originally intended to, and 406 00:25:29,600 --> 00:25:31,520 Speaker 1: one reason was that it seemed like it would just 407 00:25:31,600 --> 00:25:35,160 Speaker 1: be weird to not touch on any of the more 408 00:25:35,240 --> 00:25:40,520 Speaker 1: famous names in etiquette, like Emily Post. Emily Post was 409 00:25:40,560 --> 00:25:44,040 Speaker 1: a real person born Emily Price in Baltimore, Maryland, in 410 00:25:44,080 --> 00:25:47,480 Speaker 1: October of eighteen seventy two. She was from a very 411 00:25:47,480 --> 00:25:50,360 Speaker 1: well off family. She went to private school. She had 412 00:25:50,359 --> 00:25:54,159 Speaker 1: a formal society debut, and she started writing after she 413 00:25:54,240 --> 00:25:57,120 Speaker 1: and her husband divorced. Once her children were in school. 414 00:25:58,000 --> 00:26:00,560 Speaker 1: In addition to her works on etiquette, she wrote about 415 00:26:00,560 --> 00:26:04,560 Speaker 1: things like architecture and interior design. Her father was a 416 00:26:04,600 --> 00:26:08,440 Speaker 1: well known architect. She also wrote novels and stories, many 417 00:26:08,440 --> 00:26:12,639 Speaker 1: of which were published serially in magazines. Her nineteen twenty 418 00:26:12,640 --> 00:26:16,439 Speaker 1: two book Etiquette in Society, in Business, in Politics, and 419 00:26:16,560 --> 00:26:20,359 Speaker 1: at Home is what she became most famous for. There 420 00:26:20,400 --> 00:26:24,720 Speaker 1: have been lots and lots of subsequent editions of this book, 421 00:26:24,960 --> 00:26:29,960 Speaker 1: revised and updated according to the changing social norms, including 422 00:26:29,960 --> 00:26:33,720 Speaker 1: a centennial edition that came out in twenty twenty two. 423 00:26:33,760 --> 00:26:37,200 Speaker 1: She eventually founded the Emily Post Institute, which is still 424 00:26:37,200 --> 00:26:40,359 Speaker 1: a family business that is still run by her descendants 425 00:26:40,400 --> 00:26:42,879 Speaker 1: and their spouses, to kind of carry on her work 426 00:26:42,920 --> 00:26:46,600 Speaker 1: in the field of etiquette. That original nineteen twenty two 427 00:26:46,640 --> 00:26:49,199 Speaker 1: work is in the public domain now, and a lot 428 00:26:49,240 --> 00:26:52,240 Speaker 1: of the basic standards of etiquette it contains are again 429 00:26:52,400 --> 00:26:55,080 Speaker 1: right in line with the earlier works we've been talking about. 430 00:26:55,680 --> 00:27:03,720 Speaker 1: There are chapters on greetings, public gatherings, conversation, cards and visits, dinners, dances, weddings, 431 00:27:03,760 --> 00:27:07,800 Speaker 1: and manners at home and abroad. There are also examples 432 00:27:07,880 --> 00:27:11,280 Speaker 1: of letters and which styles of envelope are in good 433 00:27:11,359 --> 00:27:15,680 Speaker 1: and bad taste. The diagrams of envelope shapes that are 434 00:27:15,680 --> 00:27:19,240 Speaker 1: in poor taste kind of cracked me up. This book 435 00:27:19,320 --> 00:27:23,719 Speaker 1: became an enormous bestseller. It went through almost ninety printings 436 00:27:23,760 --> 00:27:28,040 Speaker 1: and ten revisions before she died in nineteen sixty. It's 437 00:27:28,080 --> 00:27:32,320 Speaker 1: also seemingly exhaustive, clocking in at thirty eight chapters and 438 00:27:32,480 --> 00:27:36,879 Speaker 1: six hundred and twenty seven pages, including an index that 439 00:27:37,040 --> 00:27:40,320 Speaker 1: is about three times long or even longer than all 440 00:27:40,320 --> 00:27:42,480 Speaker 1: the other books that we've talked about so far, with 441 00:27:42,680 --> 00:27:46,800 Speaker 1: the exception of the Earl of Chesterfield's letters, which like 442 00:27:46,880 --> 00:27:49,760 Speaker 1: that was years and years of personal correspondence that he 443 00:27:49,840 --> 00:27:52,920 Speaker 1: had never intended to have published as a book. As 444 00:27:52,920 --> 00:27:56,640 Speaker 1: a side note, Lord Chesterfield is again name dropped several 445 00:27:56,680 --> 00:28:00,000 Speaker 1: times in this book. This book is also very specific, 446 00:28:00,480 --> 00:28:04,359 Speaker 1: like here's what to say when introduced quote best Society 447 00:28:04,480 --> 00:28:08,400 Speaker 1: has only one phrase and acknowledgment of an introduction, how 448 00:28:08,400 --> 00:28:12,000 Speaker 1: do you do it? Literally accepts no other. When mister 449 00:28:12,040 --> 00:28:16,199 Speaker 1: Bachelor says missus Worldley, may I present mister Struthers, Missus 450 00:28:16,200 --> 00:28:19,920 Speaker 1: Worldley says, how do you do? Struthers bows and says 451 00:28:19,960 --> 00:28:24,720 Speaker 1: nothing to sweetly echo mister Struthers with a rising inflection 452 00:28:24,960 --> 00:28:29,679 Speaker 1: on theirs is not good form. Saccerin chirpings should be 453 00:28:29,680 --> 00:28:34,320 Speaker 1: classed with crooked little fingers, high handshaking, and other affectations. 454 00:28:34,880 --> 00:28:39,600 Speaker 1: All affectations are bad form. Persons of position do not 455 00:28:39,760 --> 00:28:42,800 Speaker 1: say charmed or please to meet you, et cetera. But 456 00:28:42,960 --> 00:28:45,960 Speaker 1: often the first remark is the beginning of a conversation. 457 00:28:46,720 --> 00:28:50,760 Speaker 1: For instance, young Struthers is presented to Missus Worldley. She 458 00:28:50,920 --> 00:28:53,720 Speaker 1: smiles and perhaps says, I hear that you are going 459 00:28:53,760 --> 00:28:56,920 Speaker 1: to be in New York all winter. Struthers answers, yes, 460 00:28:57,120 --> 00:28:59,720 Speaker 1: I am at the Columbia Law School, et cetera. Or 461 00:29:00,080 --> 00:29:03,240 Speaker 1: since he is much younger than she, he might answer yes, 462 00:29:03,360 --> 00:29:07,000 Speaker 1: Missus Worldly, especially if his answer would otherwise be a 463 00:29:07,080 --> 00:29:11,600 Speaker 1: kurt yes or no. Otherwise he does not continue repeating 464 00:29:11,640 --> 00:29:16,200 Speaker 1: her name. The idea of best society which Polly said 465 00:29:16,200 --> 00:29:18,120 Speaker 1: at the very beginning of that quote that was at 466 00:29:18,160 --> 00:29:21,680 Speaker 1: the heart of this whole book quote, society is an 467 00:29:21,680 --> 00:29:26,320 Speaker 1: ambiguous term. It may mean much or nothing. Every human being, 468 00:29:26,400 --> 00:29:29,160 Speaker 1: unless dwelling alone in a cave, is a member of 469 00:29:29,280 --> 00:29:32,800 Speaker 1: society of one sort or another. And therefore it is 470 00:29:32,800 --> 00:29:35,920 Speaker 1: well to define what it is to be understood by 471 00:29:35,960 --> 00:29:40,040 Speaker 1: the term best society and why its authority is recognized. 472 00:29:40,640 --> 00:29:45,920 Speaker 1: Best society abroad is always the oldest aristocracy, composed not 473 00:29:46,040 --> 00:29:48,720 Speaker 1: so much of persons of title, which may be new, 474 00:29:49,200 --> 00:29:52,320 Speaker 1: as of those families and communities which have, for the 475 00:29:52,400 --> 00:29:57,080 Speaker 1: longest period of time known the highest cultivation. Our own 476 00:29:57,320 --> 00:30:01,360 Speaker 1: best society is represented by social groups which have had, 477 00:30:01,800 --> 00:30:06,040 Speaker 1: since this is America widest rather than the longest, association 478 00:30:06,280 --> 00:30:11,400 Speaker 1: with old world cultivation. Cultivation is always the basic attribute 479 00:30:11,440 --> 00:30:14,840 Speaker 1: of best society, much as we hear in this country 480 00:30:14,880 --> 00:30:18,920 Speaker 1: of an aristocracy of wealth. In addition to spelling out 481 00:30:18,920 --> 00:30:21,800 Speaker 1: that in her mind, the best society in the US 482 00:30:22,000 --> 00:30:25,200 Speaker 1: is the people who have the widest association with old 483 00:30:25,240 --> 00:30:29,120 Speaker 1: world cultivation. This book is underpinned by the idea that 484 00:30:29,160 --> 00:30:32,280 Speaker 1: its readers have money. On the one hand, it frames 485 00:30:32,280 --> 00:30:35,880 Speaker 1: good manners is something that everyone can aspire to. On 486 00:30:35,960 --> 00:30:38,880 Speaker 1: the other, there are so many references to maids and 487 00:30:38,920 --> 00:30:43,440 Speaker 1: servants and secretaries and housekeepers and butlers. One theory on 488 00:30:43,480 --> 00:30:46,120 Speaker 1: why this book became so popular is that it gave 489 00:30:46,240 --> 00:30:49,320 Speaker 1: everyone else a glimpse into the inner workings and manners 490 00:30:49,320 --> 00:30:53,080 Speaker 1: of high society, full of fictionalized depictions of good breeding 491 00:30:53,480 --> 00:30:57,480 Speaker 1: with names like missus kindheart and mister worldly. Yeah. I 492 00:30:57,560 --> 00:30:59,200 Speaker 1: kind of cracked up at how often it was like, 493 00:30:59,440 --> 00:31:02,000 Speaker 1: and you can just send your secretary to do this. 494 00:31:02,600 --> 00:31:07,960 Speaker 1: It's like, my, what so easy? Uh? Personally, I found 495 00:31:08,040 --> 00:31:11,480 Speaker 1: Emily Posts nineteen twenty two Etiquette to be way more 496 00:31:11,560 --> 00:31:14,960 Speaker 1: overwhelming than any of the earlier books we have talked about. 497 00:31:15,640 --> 00:31:20,000 Speaker 1: The basic idea of etiquette is pretty similar across all 498 00:31:20,080 --> 00:31:22,240 Speaker 1: the books, like it's a way to try to make 499 00:31:22,320 --> 00:31:25,960 Speaker 1: society better, try to make other people comfortable, and don't 500 00:31:26,000 --> 00:31:28,960 Speaker 1: act like a jerk. It was not until I got 501 00:31:29,000 --> 00:31:31,400 Speaker 1: to Emily Post's work that I started to feel worried 502 00:31:31,520 --> 00:31:34,400 Speaker 1: about messing up all kinds of very particular little rules. 503 00:31:34,440 --> 00:31:37,160 Speaker 1: Like that whole passage that Holly read about greeting people 504 00:31:37,240 --> 00:31:41,320 Speaker 1: really stressed me out. This book also felt judgier to 505 00:31:41,440 --> 00:31:43,240 Speaker 1: me than a lot of the other works we have 506 00:31:43,320 --> 00:31:46,360 Speaker 1: talked about today. As one example, there is a section 507 00:31:46,520 --> 00:31:51,240 Speaker 1: on pronunciation, inherently a stressful subject to me, and it 508 00:31:51,320 --> 00:31:54,040 Speaker 1: starts quote, a gentleman of Irish blood may have a 509 00:31:54,080 --> 00:31:58,600 Speaker 1: brogue as rich as plumcake, or another's accent be soft 510 00:31:58,680 --> 00:32:02,480 Speaker 1: Southern or flat newingand or rolling Western, And to each 511 00:32:02,520 --> 00:32:05,600 Speaker 1: of these the utterance of the others may sound too flat, 512 00:32:05,760 --> 00:32:09,800 Speaker 1: too soft, too harsh, to refined or drawled or clipped, short, 513 00:32:10,240 --> 00:32:15,600 Speaker 1: but not uncultivated. The sounds almost like it's acknowledging that 514 00:32:15,680 --> 00:32:18,240 Speaker 1: all these different accents can have a place in her 515 00:32:18,320 --> 00:32:22,920 Speaker 1: best society. But then the next paragraph names the quote 516 00:32:22,960 --> 00:32:28,800 Speaker 1: cultivated Englishmen as nearest to perfection in English, before describing 517 00:32:29,120 --> 00:32:32,280 Speaker 1: the accents of New York, Boston, the South, and Pennsylvania 518 00:32:32,320 --> 00:32:34,880 Speaker 1: in a way that came off to me as very insulting. 519 00:32:37,760 --> 00:32:39,840 Speaker 1: I can't wait to talk about Emily Post on Friday. 520 00:32:40,040 --> 00:32:44,640 Speaker 1: Oh our last Etiquette book for today is Emily Post's 521 00:32:44,680 --> 00:32:49,680 Speaker 1: biggest competitor in the nineteen twenties, Lillian Eichler later Lillian 522 00:32:49,720 --> 00:32:53,480 Speaker 1: Eichler Watson. We've been going chronologically up to now, but 523 00:32:53,640 --> 00:32:57,040 Speaker 1: the copyright on her two volume Etiquette is from nineteen 524 00:32:57,080 --> 00:32:59,880 Speaker 1: twenty one, so that's a year before Emily Posts book. 525 00:33:00,560 --> 00:33:03,800 Speaker 1: I really wanted to do a full episode on Lillian 526 00:33:03,840 --> 00:33:06,400 Speaker 1: Eichler a while back, but I just could not find 527 00:33:06,560 --> 00:33:09,280 Speaker 1: enough information to make it work, which is one of 528 00:33:09,280 --> 00:33:13,280 Speaker 1: the reasons why sometimes I do six impossible episodes. Lillian 529 00:33:13,320 --> 00:33:16,560 Speaker 1: Eichler was the daughter of Jewish immigrants from Hungary and 530 00:33:16,600 --> 00:33:19,320 Speaker 1: she liked to write. At the age of eighteen, she 531 00:33:19,400 --> 00:33:22,680 Speaker 1: got a job at an advertising agency on the strength 532 00:33:22,720 --> 00:33:25,600 Speaker 1: of that writing. She really did not have much formal 533 00:33:25,720 --> 00:33:29,800 Speaker 1: education or any experience beyond that. She basically showed them 534 00:33:29,800 --> 00:33:34,160 Speaker 1: a sample and then they hired her. The advertising agency 535 00:33:34,320 --> 00:33:36,960 Speaker 1: was Ruth, Ralph and Ryan and one of its clients 536 00:33:37,040 --> 00:33:41,080 Speaker 1: was Doubleday Publishing. Lillian was tasked with writing an ad 537 00:33:41,120 --> 00:33:43,400 Speaker 1: to help double Day sell through a backlog of an 538 00:33:43,400 --> 00:33:47,200 Speaker 1: etiquette manual by Emily Holt. She wrote an ad about 539 00:33:47,240 --> 00:33:50,240 Speaker 1: spilling coffee on a tablecloth and not knowing what to do, 540 00:33:50,440 --> 00:33:53,479 Speaker 1: sort of like, has this ever happened to you? You 541 00:33:53,480 --> 00:33:56,640 Speaker 1: could protect yourself from this kind of mortification with this 542 00:33:56,720 --> 00:34:00,320 Speaker 1: book on etiquette. And this ad worked really, really well, 543 00:34:00,360 --> 00:34:02,880 Speaker 1: and people bought the book, but a lot of them 544 00:34:02,960 --> 00:34:05,240 Speaker 1: returned it because it was a reprint of an older 545 00:34:05,240 --> 00:34:07,800 Speaker 1: book and at this point its advice was really out 546 00:34:07,800 --> 00:34:11,760 Speaker 1: of date. So then Eichler wrote a new two volume 547 00:34:11,800 --> 00:34:15,719 Speaker 1: book of etiquette. Volume one of this book included Etiquette 548 00:34:15,760 --> 00:34:21,360 Speaker 1: for engagements, weddings, funerals and Christenings, Letters, correspondents and calling cards, 549 00:34:21,680 --> 00:34:24,719 Speaker 1: and Etiquette for parents and Children. And then volume two 550 00:34:24,920 --> 00:34:30,279 Speaker 1: included servants, dinners, luncheons, teas, dancing, games, and etiquette for 551 00:34:30,360 --> 00:34:36,120 Speaker 1: things like business, theater, hotels, and travel and also like 552 00:34:36,200 --> 00:34:39,799 Speaker 1: pretty much everyone in this episode, it references the work 553 00:34:39,840 --> 00:34:44,080 Speaker 1: of Lord Chesterfield. Eichler wrote the advertising campaign for these 554 00:34:44,120 --> 00:34:47,480 Speaker 1: books as well. The most famous ad in this campaign 555 00:34:47,560 --> 00:34:51,480 Speaker 1: ran under the headline again she Orders a Chicken Salad Please, 556 00:34:51,840 --> 00:34:54,040 Speaker 1: which told a story of a young woman who wanted 557 00:34:54,040 --> 00:34:56,400 Speaker 1: to impress a man on a date, but didn't know 558 00:34:56,440 --> 00:34:59,080 Speaker 1: how to pronounce the French words on the restaurant menu 559 00:34:59,360 --> 00:35:01,480 Speaker 1: or how to con verse with them, so she just 560 00:35:01,560 --> 00:35:04,520 Speaker 1: kept ordering chicken salad and all that folded in on 561 00:35:04,560 --> 00:35:08,560 Speaker 1: itself to make her feel graceless and awkward. Another full 562 00:35:08,600 --> 00:35:10,799 Speaker 1: page ad that Eichler wrote for this book had the 563 00:35:10,840 --> 00:35:14,840 Speaker 1: headline are you haunted by the ghosts of your social mistakes? 564 00:35:15,480 --> 00:35:18,560 Speaker 1: Both ads noted that etiquette is the armor to protect 565 00:35:18,640 --> 00:35:23,480 Speaker 1: yourself from such embarrassments. I'd find are you Haunted by 566 00:35:23,480 --> 00:35:28,680 Speaker 1: the ghosts of your social mistakes? Just profoundly effective, Because yes, Lillian, 567 00:35:28,800 --> 00:35:32,399 Speaker 1: I am. I am haunted by them all the time. Uh. 568 00:35:32,440 --> 00:35:36,160 Speaker 1: As we said earlier, Lillian Eichler was Emily Post's biggest 569 00:35:36,200 --> 00:35:39,640 Speaker 1: competitor in the nineteen twenties. Eichler's Book of Etiquette sold 570 00:35:39,680 --> 00:35:43,799 Speaker 1: two million copies, and it was revised and reprinted. Her 571 00:35:43,920 --> 00:35:48,040 Speaker 1: tone was generally a lot more casual and conversational than 572 00:35:48,239 --> 00:35:52,600 Speaker 1: than Emily Posts. Eichler started it off quote, success without 573 00:35:52,680 --> 00:35:56,560 Speaker 1: culture is like old fashioned strawberry shortcake without the whipped cream. 574 00:35:56,800 --> 00:36:00,800 Speaker 1: It has no flavor. There are certain little courteous of deservances, 575 00:36:00,960 --> 00:36:05,040 Speaker 1: certain social formalities that bespeak the true lady, the true gentleman. 576 00:36:05,600 --> 00:36:07,839 Speaker 1: Some of us call it good form some of us 577 00:36:07,880 --> 00:36:10,400 Speaker 1: call it culture, some of us call it etiquette. But 578 00:36:10,480 --> 00:36:12,760 Speaker 1: we all admit that it makes the world a better 579 00:36:12,800 --> 00:36:15,960 Speaker 1: place to live in. A bit later in the introduction, 580 00:36:16,120 --> 00:36:19,200 Speaker 1: she wrote, quote, too rigid an observance of the laws 581 00:36:19,200 --> 00:36:22,160 Speaker 1: of good society makes them nothing short of an absurdity. 582 00:36:22,680 --> 00:36:25,640 Speaker 1: The purpose of correct manners is not to enable us 583 00:36:25,640 --> 00:36:29,200 Speaker 1: to strut about in society and command the admiring glances 584 00:36:29,239 --> 00:36:32,239 Speaker 1: of the people around us, as the peacock in its 585 00:36:32,280 --> 00:36:36,160 Speaker 1: vanity parades before onlookers in a proud dignity that is 586 00:36:36,280 --> 00:36:40,400 Speaker 1: quite obviously assumed. The true service of etiquette is so 587 00:36:40,520 --> 00:36:43,520 Speaker 1: to strengthen and simplify this social life that we are 588 00:36:43,560 --> 00:36:46,880 Speaker 1: able to do what is absolutely correct and write without 589 00:36:46,920 --> 00:36:50,239 Speaker 1: even stopping to think about it. I like any book 590 00:36:50,280 --> 00:36:52,840 Speaker 1: from one hundred years ago and all the other books 591 00:36:52,840 --> 00:36:55,400 Speaker 1: we've been talking about today, parts of this are pretty 592 00:36:55,440 --> 00:36:59,680 Speaker 1: backward by today's standards. Like she acknowledges that a lot 593 00:36:59,719 --> 00:37:02,719 Speaker 1: more women were making their way into the world of business, 594 00:37:02,800 --> 00:37:05,560 Speaker 1: and that was something that she praised. But here is 595 00:37:05,960 --> 00:37:08,200 Speaker 1: some of what she had to say about women in 596 00:37:08,239 --> 00:37:12,080 Speaker 1: the workplace quote, it took many centuries of hammering before 597 00:37:12,120 --> 00:37:15,040 Speaker 1: the portals of business and industry and art were thrown 598 00:37:15,120 --> 00:37:18,360 Speaker 1: wide open to women. Now that it has happened, it 599 00:37:18,480 --> 00:37:21,799 Speaker 1: is her duty and pride to conduct herself in such 600 00:37:21,840 --> 00:37:24,400 Speaker 1: a way that there can be no regrets and vain 601 00:37:24,480 --> 00:37:27,839 Speaker 1: longings for the return of the woman of yesterday. By 602 00:37:27,920 --> 00:37:30,760 Speaker 1: her manner and her dress, a woman determines her place, 603 00:37:31,239 --> 00:37:33,960 Speaker 1: and the women who are careless of their appearance and 604 00:37:34,080 --> 00:37:37,040 Speaker 1: careless of their standard are the ones who are hindering 605 00:37:37,080 --> 00:37:40,319 Speaker 1: the progress of women toward the goal of perfect womanhood. 606 00:37:41,000 --> 00:37:43,840 Speaker 1: When she enters business, she must realize that she is 607 00:37:43,960 --> 00:37:46,120 Speaker 1: on an equal footing with men, and she should not 608 00:37:46,280 --> 00:37:49,360 Speaker 1: demand or expect privileges simply because she is a woman. 609 00:37:50,000 --> 00:37:53,000 Speaker 1: What she does and says and whares during the hours 610 00:37:53,040 --> 00:37:56,200 Speaker 1: of her social life is entirely distinct from her business life, 611 00:37:56,200 --> 00:37:59,759 Speaker 1: though of course she is always courteous, however hard it 612 00:37:59,800 --> 00:38:04,040 Speaker 1: may be sometimes to control herself under the grinding of 613 00:38:04,080 --> 00:38:08,280 Speaker 1: the routine work at the office. Her advice on tipping 614 00:38:08,320 --> 00:38:11,360 Speaker 1: could have been written today, although her assertion is that 615 00:38:11,400 --> 00:38:14,400 Speaker 1: it was a European custom and not an American one, 616 00:38:15,160 --> 00:38:18,320 Speaker 1: and that's missing some big nuance. While tipping was introduced 617 00:38:18,320 --> 00:38:21,120 Speaker 1: to the US from Europe, it became widespread in the 618 00:38:21,200 --> 00:38:24,759 Speaker 1: United States after the Civil War when employers hired free 619 00:38:24,760 --> 00:38:28,360 Speaker 1: black people for low wages and then encouraged patrons to 620 00:38:28,440 --> 00:38:32,399 Speaker 1: tip them for good service. In her advice, Eichler wrote, quote, 621 00:38:32,440 --> 00:38:35,120 Speaker 1: while the custom is observed as widely in this country 622 00:38:35,120 --> 00:38:38,200 Speaker 1: as it is today, it is both inconsiderate and bad 623 00:38:38,280 --> 00:38:42,719 Speaker 1: form to ignore it. The wages of waiters and waitresses, porters, 624 00:38:42,719 --> 00:38:46,319 Speaker 1: and hotel servants are outrageously small for the reason that 625 00:38:46,360 --> 00:38:49,600 Speaker 1: they receive tips for each service they performed for individual 626 00:38:49,680 --> 00:38:53,400 Speaker 1: guests and travelers. If the tipping custom were abolished, the 627 00:38:53,440 --> 00:38:57,160 Speaker 1: wages of these people would be correspondingly increased, but as 628 00:38:57,200 --> 00:39:00,200 Speaker 1: things are now, it is inconsiderate to deprive them of 629 00:39:00,239 --> 00:39:03,440 Speaker 1: the tips that both they and their employers expect that 630 00:39:03,520 --> 00:39:07,160 Speaker 1: they will receive. On the other hand, though she describes 631 00:39:07,239 --> 00:39:10,399 Speaker 1: lavish tipping as vulgar, I don't agree with her there. 632 00:39:10,560 --> 00:39:18,320 Speaker 1: I don't either. Mind your own business, Lilian, Yeah. Lillian 633 00:39:18,360 --> 00:39:22,120 Speaker 1: Eichler Watson continued to write about etiquette and other topics 634 00:39:22,200 --> 00:39:24,960 Speaker 1: almost up until her death on June twenty fifth, nineteen 635 00:39:25,040 --> 00:39:29,000 Speaker 1: seventy nine. She hit married Tobias F. Watson in nineteen 636 00:39:29,040 --> 00:39:32,520 Speaker 1: twenty eight. They'd had two children together, but she had 637 00:39:32,560 --> 00:39:35,920 Speaker 1: not turned her work into something of an etiquette empire 638 00:39:36,239 --> 00:39:39,080 Speaker 1: that kept her name going and her recognition going after 639 00:39:39,120 --> 00:39:43,359 Speaker 1: her death the way Emily post did. I have lots 640 00:39:43,360 --> 00:39:46,279 Speaker 1: of feelings about him etiquette, and I think Holly has 641 00:39:46,320 --> 00:39:48,919 Speaker 1: responded to a number of things in this episode too, 642 00:39:48,960 --> 00:39:51,960 Speaker 1: so we'll be talking about all that more on Friday. 643 00:39:52,719 --> 00:39:55,279 Speaker 1: Do you have listener mail for us? I also have 644 00:39:55,400 --> 00:39:58,719 Speaker 1: some listener mail for us. This is from Lisa. This 645 00:39:58,760 --> 00:40:03,319 Speaker 1: is another another message following our episode on Rebecca Lee 646 00:40:03,360 --> 00:40:06,759 Speaker 1: Crumpler and Lisa wrote, Hi, Tracy and Holly from a 647 00:40:06,920 --> 00:40:10,560 Speaker 1: very wet and windy Dublin, Ireland. I was thrilled to 648 00:40:10,560 --> 00:40:13,960 Speaker 1: hear your recent episode on doctress Rebecca Lee Crumpler, as 649 00:40:13,960 --> 00:40:16,960 Speaker 1: I used to work as an archivist at the Drexel 650 00:40:17,040 --> 00:40:21,040 Speaker 1: University Med School Archives in Philadelphia, and immediately knew exactly 651 00:40:21,040 --> 00:40:23,000 Speaker 1: what you're going to say about the medal with the 652 00:40:23,040 --> 00:40:26,239 Speaker 1: mystery date, since that was my first introduction to her 653 00:40:26,280 --> 00:40:28,760 Speaker 1: when a researcher asked for a copy of the photo 654 00:40:28,840 --> 00:40:32,720 Speaker 1: of the medal many years ago. I even more thoroughly 655 00:40:32,840 --> 00:40:35,840 Speaker 1: enjoyed the behind the scenes mini episode and was practically 656 00:40:35,880 --> 00:40:38,640 Speaker 1: shouting my answers to your questions about the Black Women 657 00:40:38,760 --> 00:40:43,160 Speaker 1: Physicians project begun by Margaret Jaredo back in the nineteen eighties. 658 00:40:43,560 --> 00:40:46,120 Speaker 1: I managed to keep the dialogue internal, though, as I 659 00:40:46,160 --> 00:40:48,600 Speaker 1: didn't think the good people of Sheffield, where I was 660 00:40:48,680 --> 00:40:52,160 Speaker 1: for the weekend, would appreciate a mud covered American. I 661 00:40:52,239 --> 00:40:57,200 Speaker 1: had just finished an especially mucky parkrun, enthusing loudly about 662 00:40:57,200 --> 00:40:59,839 Speaker 1: the collection on their buses. So finally I can share 663 00:40:59,880 --> 00:41:02,640 Speaker 1: my thoughts here. First, a bit of background on the 664 00:41:02,719 --> 00:41:05,000 Speaker 1: archives as a whole. They held the papers of the 665 00:41:05,000 --> 00:41:09,640 Speaker 1: former Women's Medical College of Pennsylvania and Hannaman University. It's 666 00:41:09,680 --> 00:41:12,640 Speaker 1: a bit ironic that the two came together as Drexel 667 00:41:12,719 --> 00:41:16,040 Speaker 1: University College of Medicine, as the former was one of 668 00:41:16,080 --> 00:41:18,839 Speaker 1: the first in the United States to admit women, and 669 00:41:19,000 --> 00:41:21,359 Speaker 1: Hannaman was one of the very last to do so, 670 00:41:21,600 --> 00:41:24,759 Speaker 1: although Women's med started admitting men and became simply the 671 00:41:24,800 --> 00:41:29,120 Speaker 1: Medical College of Pennsylvania in nineteen seventy. Without getting too 672 00:41:29,160 --> 00:41:31,840 Speaker 1: far off topic, the Hanneman side of the collection is 673 00:41:31,880 --> 00:41:35,560 Speaker 1: also a fascinating look at the history of homeopathy, although 674 00:41:35,560 --> 00:41:38,239 Speaker 1: that focus had been largely dropped by the school by 675 00:41:38,280 --> 00:41:42,040 Speaker 1: the nineteen twenties, partially because of the earlier Flexner report 676 00:41:42,040 --> 00:41:45,440 Speaker 1: which you mentioned, but because of its earlier grounding. In 677 00:41:45,520 --> 00:41:48,720 Speaker 1: that approach, there is a Paracelsus collection of rare books 678 00:41:48,719 --> 00:41:51,160 Speaker 1: more people should know about, but that's a story for 679 00:41:51,239 --> 00:41:55,200 Speaker 1: another time. Back to the Black Women's Physician Project. Margaret 680 00:41:55,280 --> 00:41:58,560 Speaker 1: Jaredo began the work relatively early in her career. She 681 00:41:58,680 --> 00:42:01,040 Speaker 1: later went on to work at to University as an 682 00:42:01,120 --> 00:42:04,560 Speaker 1: archivist and still consults with the Mother Bethel Ame Church Archives. 683 00:42:05,040 --> 00:42:09,360 Speaker 1: Jaredo created what archivists call an artificial collection, pulling together 684 00:42:09,480 --> 00:42:12,919 Speaker 1: items from across the Drexel med Archives and I've spent 685 00:42:12,960 --> 00:42:15,799 Speaker 1: a goodly amount of time with those boxes. It's often 686 00:42:15,840 --> 00:42:18,520 Speaker 1: the first place to look when a researcher needs anything 687 00:42:18,560 --> 00:42:22,120 Speaker 1: relating to Black women in medicine, whether they attended Women's 688 00:42:22,120 --> 00:42:25,640 Speaker 1: Med or any of its descendant institutions or not. It's 689 00:42:25,719 --> 00:42:28,759 Speaker 1: essentially an analog starting to point to other parts of 690 00:42:28,800 --> 00:42:32,200 Speaker 1: the collection, or indeed to others elsewhere. It was an 691 00:42:32,239 --> 00:42:35,120 Speaker 1: initiative very much ahead of its time and is hugely valuable. 692 00:42:35,840 --> 00:42:38,080 Speaker 1: Of course, the rest of the collection is also amazing. 693 00:42:38,200 --> 00:42:41,640 Speaker 1: Other early black women doctors who did graduate from Women's 694 00:42:41,640 --> 00:42:46,160 Speaker 1: Med include Rebecca Cole and Eliza Grier. Lisa points to 695 00:42:46,200 --> 00:42:49,000 Speaker 1: some blog posts and says that they're a little too 696 00:42:49,000 --> 00:42:52,560 Speaker 1: old now to count as self promotion. Eliza Greer had 697 00:42:52,560 --> 00:42:56,000 Speaker 1: a heartbreakingly difficult journey to becoming a doctor and a 698 00:42:56,000 --> 00:42:59,280 Speaker 1: tragically early death, all to commonist story for many early 699 00:42:59,360 --> 00:43:03,240 Speaker 1: women doc There's a letter in her file from Susan B. Anthony, 700 00:43:03,360 --> 00:43:06,360 Speaker 1: essentially asking for someone else to offer her some assistance. 701 00:43:06,840 --> 00:43:09,600 Speaker 1: There's also a great online collection on the question of 702 00:43:09,640 --> 00:43:13,000 Speaker 1: whether doctor or doctress was the most appropriate title. There 703 00:43:13,040 --> 00:43:17,120 Speaker 1: were certainly opinions among these early physicians supporting both views. 704 00:43:17,640 --> 00:43:19,880 Speaker 1: But in short, it's an amazing collection to visit, and 705 00:43:19,920 --> 00:43:22,880 Speaker 1: still the friendliest place I've ever worked. Everyone goes above 706 00:43:22,880 --> 00:43:25,120 Speaker 1: and beyond to support researchers of all sorts and to 707 00:43:25,160 --> 00:43:27,799 Speaker 1: make sure that these women's stories are told. If you 708 00:43:27,880 --> 00:43:31,440 Speaker 1: ever do visit, you can see Harriet the preserved nervous 709 00:43:31,440 --> 00:43:35,520 Speaker 1: system of probably Harriet Cole, although with all the caveats 710 00:43:35,560 --> 00:43:38,600 Speaker 1: we would now have today about informed consent or its 711 00:43:38,719 --> 00:43:42,120 Speaker 1: historical absence. Apologies for this being so long, but it's 712 00:43:42,160 --> 00:43:44,319 Speaker 1: a place and team I remember with such fondness, and 713 00:43:44,360 --> 00:43:47,040 Speaker 1: the care for the collections and drive for accessibility is 714 00:43:47,080 --> 00:43:50,040 Speaker 1: second to none. I am, of course also attaching a 715 00:43:50,080 --> 00:43:52,399 Speaker 1: picture of our two cats, Ruby the Devin Rex who 716 00:43:52,440 --> 00:43:55,000 Speaker 1: has made a previous listener mail appearance on a letter 717 00:43:55,280 --> 00:43:59,280 Speaker 1: from my husband about of all things turnips, and Ginger 718 00:43:59,440 --> 00:44:01,680 Speaker 1: the Tory. Both are tearing around the house right now. 719 00:44:01,719 --> 00:44:04,080 Speaker 1: They are the best colleagues anyone could have for working 720 00:44:04,160 --> 00:44:08,360 Speaker 1: at home. As always a great listen Lisa, ps. I 721 00:44:08,440 --> 00:44:11,799 Speaker 1: must always make more people aware of Doctor Euthanasia Med 722 00:44:12,120 --> 00:44:16,040 Speaker 1: WMCP class of eighteen sixty nine, later the personal physician 723 00:44:16,080 --> 00:44:19,719 Speaker 1: of Sarah Winchester of so called Mystery House fame, and 724 00:44:19,800 --> 00:44:24,399 Speaker 1: her graduate thesis. It is a triumph of nominative determinism. 725 00:44:24,440 --> 00:44:26,960 Speaker 1: Please enjoy, Lisa. So thank you so much, Lisa for 726 00:44:27,080 --> 00:44:32,400 Speaker 1: all of this. I received this, I think mere minutes 727 00:44:32,520 --> 00:44:35,280 Speaker 1: before we read or before we went into the studio 728 00:44:35,320 --> 00:44:40,920 Speaker 1: to record last Tuesday. I wanted to note a couple 729 00:44:40,960 --> 00:44:43,080 Speaker 1: of things besides just saying thank you so much for this. 730 00:44:43,360 --> 00:44:47,400 Speaker 1: One is that there was also there's also a lot 731 00:44:47,440 --> 00:44:51,239 Speaker 1: in the Boston University School of Medicine history that is 732 00:44:51,239 --> 00:44:54,759 Speaker 1: about homeopathy. I did not get into any of that 733 00:44:54,920 --> 00:44:57,120 Speaker 1: in that episode at all because it felt sort of 734 00:44:57,160 --> 00:44:59,520 Speaker 1: tangential to what we were talking about. But there are 735 00:44:59,560 --> 00:45:03,000 Speaker 1: a lot of medical schools in the US that, like 736 00:45:03,280 --> 00:45:08,200 Speaker 1: late nineteenth early twentieth century, we're very focused on homeopathy. 737 00:45:09,000 --> 00:45:11,520 Speaker 1: And I also loved hearing sort of another perspective on 738 00:45:11,600 --> 00:45:14,120 Speaker 1: this collection, sort of the perspective of someone who has 739 00:45:14,160 --> 00:45:19,280 Speaker 1: worked there versus the perspective of some students accessing the collection. 740 00:45:19,400 --> 00:45:24,240 Speaker 1: And of course to incredibly cute cats sitting on some stairs, 741 00:45:25,040 --> 00:45:31,680 Speaker 1: magical deaf and Rex Baby looking a little startled cutie pies. 742 00:45:32,239 --> 00:45:36,279 Speaker 1: So thank you so much for this, Lisa. If you 743 00:45:36,320 --> 00:45:38,480 Speaker 1: would like to send us a note about this, or 744 00:45:38,520 --> 00:45:42,680 Speaker 1: any other podcast. We're at history Podcasts at iHeartRadio dot com, 745 00:45:43,280 --> 00:45:45,920 Speaker 1: and we're all over social media at Misson History. I 746 00:45:45,920 --> 00:45:50,400 Speaker 1: say all over. It's kind of all. It's like there's 747 00:45:49,920 --> 00:45:52,920 Speaker 1: the ex that used to be Twitter. There's Facebook, there 748 00:45:53,000 --> 00:45:57,319 Speaker 1: is Instagram. We put up our new show announcements there. 749 00:45:58,120 --> 00:46:01,120 Speaker 1: And you can subscribe to our show on the iHeartRadio 750 00:46:01,200 --> 00:46:05,960 Speaker 1: app or wherever else you'd like to get your podcasts. 751 00:46:09,880 --> 00:46:13,000 Speaker 1: Stuff you missed in History Class is a production of iHeartRadio. 752 00:46:13,360 --> 00:46:17,959 Speaker 1: For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, 753 00:46:18,080 --> 00:46:20,120 Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.