Bloomer Day commemorates the birth of Amelia Jenks Bloomer, American women's rights and temperance advocate, who popularised the “bloomers'' garment that bears her name, on this date in 1818. 10 things you might not know:
She was born in Homer, New York. Her first job was as a school teacher at the age of 17. She left home to live with her married sister, Elvira in Waterloo, and then to Seneca Falls, where she was a live in governess to the Oren Chamberlain family.
She was 22 when she married Dexter Bloomer. He noticed that she had a way with the written word and encouraged her to write articles for the local paper about politics and topical issues. These were published anonymously.
She attended the Seneca Falls Convention, the first women’s rights convention, in 1848. She didn’t sign the Declaration of Sentiments, which outlined the demands for women to gain equality, however. It's possible she didn't sign because she felt it would detract from the temperance movement. Nevertheless the ideas and discussions at the convention affected her opinions and behaviour.
She put a lot of her energy into the temperance movement, strongly disapproving of alcohol. “[A] lady must be a wretched cook indeed who cannot make apple dumplings, Mince Pies, or cake palatable without the addition of poisonous substances,” she wrote.
She founded a temperance newspaper for women, called The Lily. It started life as a mouthpiece for the Seneca Falls Ladies Temperance Society, but after a time they lost interest in it. Bloomer decided to keep it going as an actual newspaper, and the focus shifted from purely anti-alcohol to writing about women’s rights issues of the day.
She didn’t actually invent bloomers. The style was first suggested by the Water-Cure Journal, a popular health periodical. This magazine promoted a style of dress for women that allowed more freedom of movement so women could participate more in physical exercise and be healthier. Bloomer took up the idea in The Lily, which is how she became associated with the “Turkish pants” as the outfits were initially known.
She wore them herself, for practicality and comfort, although she eventually went back to wearing skirts when the crinoline was invented and made skirts more comfortable to wear. She was beginning to feel that bloomers were distracting from issues of “far greater importance—the question of woman’s right to better education, to a wider field of employment, to better remuneration for her labour, and to the ballot for the protection of her rights.”
Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony were together two of the greatest influences in the women’s rights movement in America, but if not for Amelia Bloomer, they might never have met. Bloomer, however, knew them both and one day in 1851 they all just happened to meet in the street, and Bloomer introduced Stanton and Antony to each other.
In 1894, Annie "Londonderry" Cohen Kopchovsky donned the bloomer during her famous Bicycle trip around the world, and an updated version of the bloomer became the standard "bicycle dress" for women.
Needless to say, the innovation in women’s clothing wasn’t welcomed by everybody. The church and men who opposed the women’s movement were vocal in their opposition and even called public meetings campaigning to get rid of bloomers. Even some women hated them, like Dorothea Dix, superintendent of army nurses, who issued a statement banning the bloomer from army hospitals and requiring women to abandon it before entering nursing service. However, she was powerless to stop volunteer nurses from wearing bloomers in the field.
Character birthday
May Flowers, a member of the Calendar Mob. Her power is that she can cause plants to grow very quickly and seemingly out of nowhere. The origin of her power is unknown.
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