Well-behaved women seldom make history

This month I read "Well-Behaved Women Seldom Make History" by Laurel Thatcher Ulrich. Laurel may be best known for her book "A Midwife's Tale: The Life of Martha Ballard, Based on Her Diary, 1785-1812" which won the Pulitzer Prize in History and which I read some years ago. The title of "Well-Behaved Women" was originally a phrase she used in other writings. It took on a life of its own as a slogan found on t-shirts, bumper stickers, etc. In this book she goes beyond the slogan she inadvertently created and explores what it means to make history.

As she explains, most history is backed by records kept mostly by men. Women were either illiterate or too busy to write things down. She explains her excitement in finding the dusty diary of Martha Ballard in the archives of a small Maine library. She explores the writings of women through time as she tells of their history.

Side note: This is a picture of Laurel Thatch Ulrich holding her book. She not only shares my name BUT she was born in Sugar City, Idaho! Daughter, Janae, met her at church when she visited her friend, Autumn, in New Hampshire. I had just read "Martha Ballard" and was pretty impressed. I am also impressed that she is/was a professor at Harvard. She is well-behaved and making history.

I've been pondering on the fact that perhaps "well-behaved" women don't seem to have a history because there is no record. I also remembered that several books that I have read recently are based on the writings of women who wrote letters to others telling of their somewhat common but very interesting lives.

"Vanished Arizona" by Martha Summerhayes was written by the author later in her life after she was given back letters that she had written during her time as the wife of an Army officer in the western United States during the years after the Civil War.

Her Arizona was a land of no trains, stagecoaches, or air conditioning. In the early 1900's, she looks back on that time with nostalgia and the reader learns that in some ways things were changing just as quickly back then as they seem to be now. My neighbor lent me this book but it can also be found online as an ebook.

"Letters of a Woman Homesteader" by Elinor Pruitt Stewart, can also be found as an ebook. Elinor writes these letters to her former employer in Denver after leaving to work on a Wyoming cattle ranch in the 1909. She also plans to homestead some land for herself and her daughter. Her letters were published in the "Atlantic Monthly" in 1913 and became a book in 1914. It is a fascinating look at life in the west.

"Nothing Daunted" by Dorothy Wickenden is based on letters the author found of her grandmother's written during the year of 1916 when she left her life in Auburn, New York to teach school in the small community of Elkhead, Colorado with her best friend.

They were society girls and alumni of Smith College who had most recently lived abroad in Paris. Go here to read more in a current Smith College alumni newsletter.

They had exchanged a life of privilege for horse rides through the snow to meet the students they had agreed to teach. Go here to read more about how the author used those letters to flesh out the story of her grandmother and the history and happenings of that time period and of the place that is Colorado.

As I research family history I am relying on those who have taken the time to write down their stories. Are you writing down your history? Are there letters (or emails) being saved? I think I like to blog because it is an easy way to share what I am seeing, doing, and learning. Even now as I approach 4 years and almost 500 posts as a blogger, I look back in amazement at the weddings, new babies, growing grandchildren, health crisis, travels, and celebrations. It is my history.