Few books have played such a large role in history as Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species, except perhaps the Bible and the Koran. Published on November 24, 1859, Darwin’s book discussed such new ideas as natural selection, the survival of the fittest and of course, the natural evolutionary progression of homo sapiens. This non religious version of reality sparked a controversy that the world had never known.
There was talk of a knighthood for Darwin before the church interposed. Darwin’s peers reacted in one of two ways: in favor or against the concept that man was descended from apes. Less than a year after the book was published, the term “Darwinism” was coined.
Temperance may be defined as: moderation in all things healthful; total abstinence from all things harmful. On November 10, 1891, the first meeting of the Women’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) was held in Boston, Massachusetts. The meeting signaled a new era of social responsibility and the beginning of public charities. The move signaled the real dawn and consequence of an industrialized nation.
As the number of factories increased so did the single worker going out of the family security net into the world. Cities replaced villages and the social landscape altered forever. Away from home or not making enough money to go home, many people turned to drink. Extra money also meant extra money for entertainment and leisure time. Leisure time in the extreme provoked a social response.
A number of people equated (and rightly so in most cases) a correlation between drinking and domestic violence, homelessness, poverty and crime. It was thought that if alcoholic drink was eliminated or extremely curtailed, the morals of the village may return to the uprooted families of the inner cities. And with enough people on the same page, a movement was born.
The movement of the 1890s was far from the first of its kind. Several temperance groups had made headway in Europe and America. In the United States temperance found a strong ally in the women’s rights movement and was consequently dominant by women with strong opinions and a desire for social change. Not always welcome in the America of the late Victorian era.
The organization was established in the 1870s with a primary goal being the abolition of alcohol in all the states of the union. It was not the first American group but one that received the most notoriety for its strict moral character and ardent desire to clean up America so that God would find favor with the nation’s inhabitants.
The main activities of the WCTU were “crusades.” These crusades involve mass prayer in local churches to petition God for assistance with making alcohol illegal and marching to local bars and saloons to demand the owner shut his or her doors. The women exacted a moral authority and used Christian beliefs as well as good old fashioned guilt and shame to pull people away from drink and into the movement.
All the members of the WCTU were tee totallers and hoped that many would learn from their example.Some did, others found them amusing and an object of scorn. Their beliefs for many were out of sync with the fast paced change of America’s industrialization.
Regardless of personal or public opinion, President Woodrow Wilson passed the 18th amendment to prohibit the sale and consumption of alcohol in 1919. In this the WCTU saw their success and reward. The WCTU still exists today and continues the historic work of their foremothers.
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When Queen Victoria ascended to the throne of England in 1837 she cut a particular image. She was a diminutive woman, about 4′ 11″ in height, but had all the power of an empire behind her and she carried herself as such in the fashions she chose. She came to the public spotlight at a time when the fashion for women’s clothing was becoming more restrictive and confining in some ways yet these she promoted as being exemplars of a woman’s strive for virtue and uprightness. Her reign would be characterized by a high sense of decorum and moral code and developed a confirmed identity that we have since classified as the Victorian era.
With Victoria, as England entered the Industrial Age, censure of wayward social attitudes and actions paralleled an increase in opportunities (through urban life) to stretch the boundaries of social etiquette. Queen Victoria was paramount in popularizing a fashion of constraint and reform. Bodices were close-fitting, ending in a V-shape, and shaped by fine whalebone frames that contained the female figure formidably. Tailoring was precise in the cut of the seams so that a woman’s arms were somewhat constrained by the cut of the wide collared and low-shouldered chemises and by the narrowness of the sleeves. By the mid 1840’s the woman’s fashion in skirts had become more exaggerated and compiled of excessive cloth and bustling. The bell-shaped skirt was favored and, as the addition of fabric increased the weight on the garment, the shaping of the skirt was aided by metal or whalebone frames.
