Cover of The American Lady

Cover of The American Lady

A pocket-sized manual on how to instruct women in the code of behavior deemed suitable to a proper lady. The front cover displays green embossed cloth with gilt lettering and an engraved frontispiece. Being a wife, mother, and Christian encapsulated Butler’s image of the perfect woman. The detailed chapters investigate and reveal the several duties of the female sex, including female education, health, beauty, conversation, amusements, operas, dancing, reading, and the duties of matrimony. In 1836 Butler published a companion volume, entitled “The American Gentleman.”

Hogan and Thompson

1848

Still Image