Mary Edwards Walker

[DWilly]

I'm reading a biography on Mary Edwards Walker 1832-1919. Great book that gives some wonderful insight into the Victorian age in the United States. Walker was one of the very few women doctors during this time. She is also the only woman to receive the Medal Of Honor for military valor during the Civil War.

Walker was quite a character. First off she refused to wear long dresses and corsets. She didn't like the long dresses because they dragged in the dirt and mud and were filthy. Of course she disliked the corsets for all the obvious reasons. They were bad for a woman's health and etc. So, Walker went around corsetless and she would wear this sort of long coat/dress down to about her knees and under that she'd wear something along the lines of slacks or bloomers as I guess they were called. Needless to say she attracted many stares where ever she went.

A few interesting tidbits about this time:

When she arrived in Washington D. C. in about 1860-1861, it was one of the dirtiest cities around. One problem they had was so many people would dump their "slop" buckets into the gutters. When I read that I immediately pictured Andrew dumping his slop bucket in the backyard. Near the pear tree.

Walker got married and after a few years she divorced her husband when she found out he was a womanizer. Now, this really soured her on marriage and she campaigned for marriage reform and of course women's rights. Her feeling on marriage/fidelity/divorce came into play when in 1859, there was a major scandal involving New York Congressman Daniel Sickles. Sickles had caught his wife having an affair with Philip Barton key, the grandson of the man who wrote the Star-Spangled Banner, so Sickles tracked Keys down and shot him dead in Lafayette Square just a short distance from the White House. Well, the press sided with Sickles and vilified his wife. This outraged Walker because she knew that Sickles was in fact a womanizer himself and he had had numerous affairs too. A fact ignored by the male press. She wrote several articles pointing out the unfairness toward women. Didn't do any good when the case went to trial the jury acquitted Sickles.

After I read this part I thought about Lizzie. So many people have talked about her being acquitted because "she was a woman" well, here you have a guy who committed a murder in full view of the public and he was acquitted by an all male jury who clearly felt sorry for this womanizing guy who caught his wife being unfaithful to him. Walker was quick to point out this glaring double standard.

Final point. Just like Lizzie, Walker was involved in the Women's Christian Temperance movement. I wish we knew a bit more about Lizzie's views on women's rights. The Temperance movement attracted a lot of women who were also active in wanting the vote for women. I have never heard a word about how Lizzie felt about women voting.

[Kat]

From Porter, Judge Blaisdell's remarks upon finding Lizzie "Probably Guilty," at the end of the preliminary hearing. I always think of this when we talk about women's rights at the time. I think he made a good point, actually:

“The long examination is now concluded, and there remains but for the magistrate to perform what he believes to be his duty. It would be a pleasure for him, and he would doubtless receive much sympathy if he could say 'Lizzie, I judge you probably not guilty. You may go home.' But upon the character of the evidence presented through the witnesses who have been so closely and thoroughly examined, there is but one thing to be done. Suppose for a single moment a man was standing there. He was found close by that guest chamber which, to Mrs. Borden, was a chamber of death. Suppose a man had been found in the vicinity of Mr. Borden; was the first to find the body, and the only account he could give of himself was the unreasonable one that he was out in the barn looking for sinkers; then he was out in the yard; then he was out for something else; would there be any question in the minds of men what should be done with such a man?

“So there is only one thing to do, painful as it may be-the judgment of the Court is that you are probably guilty, and you are ordered committed to await the action of the Superior Court.”

[nbcatlover]

There's a cartoon from this era labeled "Fashion Vanity" with the banner 'A la mode, A la mort" under the picture of a corset.

http://www.costumes.org/history/uafcoll ... c-013f.gif

Many people have tried to make a case for Lizzie's sexual predilection based on her mannish dress. In some ways, they were criticizing her politics since the mannish dress was related to the independent, working woman. Obviously, Lizzie as a wealthy woman, was not working but many of the women she socialized with were working (teachers. librarians, nurses) so her wearing of that apparel was a form of support for the liberation and independence of women.

See The Movement towards Rational Dress by Margie Knauff
http://www.mpmbooks.com/amelia/RATIONAL.HTM
Part of this reform movement also included changes in undergarments. On another thread, the story was related about Lizzie removing the undergarments of a corpse.

The modern assumption is that if she did this, it was sexual. In that era, if she did it, it was probably political. The woman who died may have been corseted, etc., in the traditional way which may not have represented the dead woman's belief. It may have been an act of loyalty--let the woman leave the world according to her own beliefs (independence of women), as opposed to her family's traditional, conservative beliefs (woman as chattel).

If anyone doubts Lizzie's defiant spirit, all they have to do is remember she stayed in Fall River, where she was a pariah.

She could have pulled an O.J. and gone to Florida to visit Kat.

[Kat]

Oh Gawd! Don't have OJ visiting ME! I have SNakes for gosh sakes!

That's an interesting interpretation of the Lizzie-removed-the-underwear-of-a-corpse story!

DID women get buried in corsets?

[nbcatlover]

Probably. If they didn't have the corset on, would the waistline of the dress fit?

[Kat]

Let's ask Eugene!
I bet they didn't bury them with corsets. The back of the dress could be cut to fit.

[Haulover]

i don't know the victorian custom, but i would strictly go by what the family wanted.

[nbcatlover]

Haulover--call me perverse. I would honor the dead person's wishes (if I knew them) over the families.

I've seen too many wacky family situations at the time of death to regard their level of sanity very highly. I went to one wake where different sisters were fighting about what dress she should wear in death. They couldn't agree, and the corpse kept having her dress changed at each viewing. And years ago, this would be about 3 days with an afternoon and an evening viewing each day.

This poor woman wore dresses in death that she had forgotten about in life...and she was buried in her slip because they were still fighting over which fool dress.

I'd love to see her as an archaeologic find. Did the people of that time always bury their dead in just the underwear?

Actually, when my mom died, the undertaker to me to bring bra, panties, slip, shoes, etc. if I wanted them on her body; otherwise he would just use the dress. Personally, I knew my mother would be pissed to be in the ground without her panties. She wasn't that kind of girl!

P.S. She was also buried with her favorite earrings on her ears and her glasses on her nose.

[DWilly]

I finished the Walker biography. It's clear to me that Mary Walker was a woman ahead of her time in terms of dress. She was also very brave. As the years went by her outfits became more masculine and at one point she was arrested for what she was wearing.

As for Lizzie, in the few photos I've seen of her she looks nice but very conservative.

[Susan]

I found a Harper's Bazaar article from 1886, heres their recommendation for burial clothing:

"In dressing the remains for the grave, those of a man are usually "clad in his habit as he lived." For a woman, tastes differ; a white robe and cap, not necessarily shroud-like, are decidedly unexceptionable. For young persons and children, white cashmere robes and flowers are always most appropriate."

From this site:

http://www.victoriana.com/library/harpers/funeral.html

[Kat]

Thanks Susan!
DWilly, what attracted you to that book in the first place?
I don't think I had heard of her.

[DWilly]

Thanks Susan!
DWilly, what attracted you to that book in the first place?
I don't think I had heard of her.

I was just looking through some of the new books in our public library and came across the book. Like you I had never heard of her. Two things interested me. First that she had been awarded the Medal Of Honor. I was in the military myself so that part caught my attention. The second thing was that she had been one of this countries earliest female doctors. The book was only a little over 200pages so, I thought why not read it. I'm reading a biography on Jesse James now

[Susan]

Thanks Susan!

You're welcome, Kat. There may be more info out there, but, at least at that point in time it didn't sound like women were buried in their corsets. I'm sure there were exceptions, women that wanted to be buried in their wedding gowns or such. A corset may have been needed then.

[Kat]

I'm almost 1/2 way thru reading "The Peabody Sisters, Three Women Who Ignited American Romanticism."
With "Notes" it's 580 pages.
I also found this on the new arrivals rack at the library.

I didn't really know much about these sisters but they lived in Salem and Boston so that got my attention.

One thing I found out early:
That in post-Revolution 18th century 1 out of 3 children were conceived out of wedlock compared to 1 out of 10 in the "Puritanical" 19th century. (p37).
"The years during which Eliza Palmer came of age saw a loosening of sexual mores in young Americans that would not be equaled again for more than 150 years...The first generation of independent Americans lived by its own rules in a time of experiment and upheaval."

[Kat]

I was reading a news item in which your Mary Walker, MD appears peripherally.
The town she vistied thought she was an oddity and officials scrambled to be elsewhere rather than be seen talking to her.

[DWilly]

I was reading a news item in which your Mary Walker, MD appears peripherally.
The town she vistied thought she was an oddity and officials scrambled to be elsewhere rather than be seen talking to her.

There were a lot of people who didn't want to be seen with Walker. Including Susan B. Anthony. Mainly, it had to do with the way she dressed. She started out against the whole idea of wearing really long dresses and corsets. She thought they were bad for women's health. She pointed out how the dresses were so long they just dragged in the streets picking up dirt. Which reminds me of Emma's description of some of Lizzie's dresses. She said something about some of them being long enough to go over her shoes and dragged a bit on the ground kind of like a short train. Anyway, in time Walker's dress became more and more masculine and led to her even being arrested for looking like a man.

[DWilly]

I just came across something a little surprising. While flipping through the Knowlton Papers I found a letter written to Knowlton by Mary E. Walker M.D. It's on page 241, HK224. The letter reads:

Concord, N.H.
June 14, 1893


Attorney Knowlton

Dear Sir-

I send you the enclosed to use as you see fit-to publish with or without my name as the writer. The "tobaco spot" had no doubt been made after washing off the blood.
The everybodies her and in N.Y. believe Lizzie Borden guilty

I am very truly yours
Mary E. Walker, M.D.


I'm not a hundred percent sure it's the same Walker but almost positive. There weren't that many women doctors back then. I have no idea what she means by "tobaco spot." I assume it's the little blood spot on Lizzie's under garment. Walker wrote another short note to Knowlton. Something about an article.

[Kat]

In the back of the book there are 2 Glossaries. A is for case-related names- little bios.
B. is for bios on letter-writers.
It sounds like the same "Miss Mary Edwards Walker."

BTW: Thanks for bringing this subject up again.
You always bring up such interesting past topics!

[Harry]

Regarding the tobacco spot. Prof. Wood is asked at the Preliminary hearing, p382:

"Q. Do you recall this spot now presented to you on the dining room frame, as similar to the one you saw?
A. Yes Sir. It looked to me like blood at that time. There is no light here. What I want to get is sky light. (Mr. Wood goes to the window in the next room, and looks at the spot.) It does not look like a blood stain to me now.
Q. What does it look like?
A. I do not know.
Q. Tobacco?
A. I do not know; it is a yellowish stain."

When he's asked about the stain at the trial, p1010:

"Q. Was it removed at your suggestion?
A. I made the suggestion to Dr. Dolan. But upon examination of that it is seen to be a distinctly yellow stain, which, on being tested, is not a blood stain. It looks more like a stain containing some colored material, like tobacco juice or something of that sort; not necessarily that, it might be soup.
Q. Not blood?
A. Not blood; no, sir."

Robinson, in his closing argument, Page 1718:

"... Dr. Dolan said it was blood. Well, Prof. Wood examined it, and he said it was tobacco juice. ..."

That's not exactly what Prof. Wood said.

They did find that opened tobacco pouch on Andrew however.

[RayS]

Congressman Daniel Sickles became a Civil War General and War Hero, losing a leg in one battle.

I don't remember this crime (the Unwritten Law?), but was Philip Key an unmarried bachelor? Would that affect the jury?

Read about the Harry Shaw murder of Stanford White? The first case where Temporary Insanity was used as a defense.

[doug65oh]

I'm a little bit behind, but - well, I looked at the topic and thought Where do I know that name from? Some years ago I had a recording of a Civil War era tune in which Dr. Mary Walker was mentioned. It wasn't an in-your-face sort of reference, but I remember it well. (Now if I could only find the cd it's on!)

I was hunting a minute or two ago and found a link that has some really fascinating information regarding Dr. Walker - and might just include a couple photos. The latter of the two has to be Dr. Walker, because as the article notes: "Walker prided herself by being arrested numerous times for wearing full male dress, including wing collar, bow tie, and top hat."

http://www.northnet.org/stlawrenceaauw/walker.htm