Advice Books - Guides for and by Women

Advice books, like cookbooks, were ways that women (usually) taught other women the right ways to be proper middle- or upper-class women. Sometimes writing advice books was considered a more proper outlet for women authors than fiction would be.

Historical Cookbooks

How to Manage a Teen - 1831 Style
Management during the Teenage Years, 19th Century Style: a how-to adapted from Lydia Maria Child's 1831 book, The Mother's Book.

Catharine Beecher
Noted 19th century housekeeping advice maven Catharine Beecher is highlighted in this biography, which also includes a list of her publications.

Domestic Manuals
Find online copies of Catherine Beecher's two advice manuals, "A Treatise on Domestic Economy" (1841) and "The American Woman's Home" (1869, written with her more famous sister, Harriet Beecher Stowe), plus commentary on the importance of such domestic manuals to women's history.

Women and Victorian Values, 1837-1910: Advice Books, Manuals, Journals
Documentation on a microfilm collection on women's lives from 1837-1910, including many advice books, cook books, self-help manuals, and periodicals and journals focused on women's lives.

Emily Post
A profile of Emily Post, etiquette writer of the 20th century.

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Women's History