A Woman of the Century: Postcards from the Past

In 19th century antebellum America, there was a growing demand for women’s travel books.  Women were finally going places and writing about their travels.  At least three of those books were written by American women who were later immortalized in A Woman of the Century, including prominent author Catharine Maria Sedgwick.

This exhibition explores the role of American writers in the development of a new genre of literature in the 1820s and 1830s--the women’s travel book of first-person narratives--before shipbuilding advances made transatlantic travel even easier in the 1840s and 1850s.  The exhibition then examines the role that Catharine Maria Sedgwick’s literary network might have played in encouraging publication of her 1841 travelogue Letters from Abroad to Kindred at Home.  

Finally, this exhibition shares Catharine’s impressions of 19th century Europe from her travel book along with illustrative images to bring the 21st-century reader the equivalent of a postcard from the past.  Although early 19th-century travel books were intended to educate readers about a variety of topics, they now give 21st-century readers a special snapshot of life before the invention and dissemination of the daguerreotype in 1839. 

Credits

Ravitz, Amy