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Matrimonial Advice
“A little book of advice to be given to all those contemplating matrimony, married or engaged.” Embossed gold lettering adorns the linen cover of this charming and humorous book of advice for wedded bliss. The book is divided into two sections: “Advice to the Man” and “Advice to the Woman,” in which pages alternate between 17 polychromatic drawings on watercolor paper, colored by the author, and black and white pages with sketches and quatrains elaborating on the simple advice.
The American Woman's Home
This manual on homemaking, an important handbook for a 19th century homemaker, was co-written by the Beecher sisters (as in Harriet Beecher Stowe of Uncle Tom's Cabin fame). By creating this manual, the authors were hoping to provide professional level instruction to women running a servant free household. The book educates on a wide array of areas that women encountered every day at home, including how to prepare and serve healthful foods, how to properly ventilate the kitchen, how to tastefully decorate the home, and how to properly play hostess to a variety of guests.
The New Cyclopædia of Domestic Economy
This 1872 book offers guidance to “the inexperienced housewife.” It is organized into three parts – housekeeping, cooking, and pharmaceutical concerns – and includes 5,000 practical receipts and maxims “from the best English, French, German, and American sources.” The editor of the volume was E. F. (Elizabeth Fries) Ellet, an American writer, historian, and poet who published her first book of poetry at age 17. She also wrote a three-volume history titled The Women of the American Revolution.
Matrimonial ladder: or Such things are
A wonderfully illustrated and "wise" little volume about the ups and downs of marriage. Both the text, which was written in verse, and the illustrations were etched on metal plates, printed, and then hand-colored. The content is summarized on the title page and it may well speak to those being tried by love: "So they ripe, and ripe! / And rot, and rot! / And hereby hangs a tail!! / 'Tis true, 'tis pity / And pity 'tis, 'tis true!!!".
Marriage : Its History and Ceremonies
A mid-nineteenth century illustrated book about the functions and qualifications for happy marriages. A very popular pseudo-science at the time this book was written, phrenology constitutes the foundation of the discussion. Phrenology drew connections between the shape of the human skull and personality traits. These methods are in varied ways used in this work which also focuses on psychological approaches to describing happy or unhappy marriages.
