historical smart birds

...were called the Bluestockings. The name came "indirectly, from Venice. Back in 1400 there was a society of ladies and gentlemen organized in Venice that was called Della Calza. This society was distinguished by the blue stockings its members wore. In 1590 the custom was introduced into Paris where women of learning adopted it. Then in 1750 a group of English women picked up the idea and formed what they called the Basbleu Club. They too, as well as the men of their circle, wore blue stockings. This created quite a scandal-since blue was originally the color of servants and others of low circumstances. The women who belonged to this group all made a point of making their conversations serious-and so today a female pedant is called a "blue stocking" (Castle Books, 1985).

The Blue Stockings were named after "Benjamin Stillingfleet's blue worsted stockings: he was too poor to afford the customary black silk stocking suitable for evening wear. Run by educated, intellectual ... women who tried to raise the moral, intellectual, and cultural standards of their time, this group of friends took turns hosting evening's entertainment where the literary figures of London took the spotlight. Women were often the majority of the guests, and the subject of the evening was often a learned women from the past or the present. Eventually similar ladies' groups who patterned themselves after the Bluestockings sprung up all over London then all over England. These upper-middle class women scorned female "accomplishments," card playing, and frivolous behavior, preferring instead a life of moral and intellectual rigor and philanthropic activities. These women did not pen great tracts railing about the failings of men. They did claim the right to act in the semi-public sphere and they urged women to become involved in philanthropic activities which benefited other women. Preferring the single life to an unhappily marriage life, these women, young and old, professional, educated, intellectual, and upper-middle-class women, married and as well as single, provided a mixture of role models for succeeding generations. Their numbers included several pairs of "close female friends" who either did or may have had "romantic friendships." Frances Burney, the first English woman to write a best-seller, was a member of the group and part of her success can be attributed the favorable publicity she received from the group. They took care of one another... Some of the leading female intellects and writers of the age were numbered among the Bluestockings. Their members included:

Elizabeth Robinson Montagu (1720-1800), "Queen of the Blues", cousin to Lady Mary Wortley Montagu (1689-1762) who brought the small-pox vaccine to England from Turkey

Elizabeth Vesey (1715?-1791)

Frances Glanville Boscawen (1719-1805)

Mary Granville Delaney (1700-1788)

Hester Mulso Chapone (1727-1801)

Fanny Burney (1752-1840)

Lady Eleanor Butler (1373-1829) and Sarah Ponsonby (1755-1831),

Elizabeth Carter (1716-1806) and Catherine Talbot (1721-1770),

Sarah Robinson Scott, sister of Elizabeth Montagu, (1723-1795) and Lady Barbara Montagu,

Sarah Fielding (1710-1768) and Jane Collier (1710-1754/5),

Anna Seward (1747-1809) and Honora Sneyd,

Hanna More (1745-1833) and Eva Maria Violettti Garrick,

Mary Wollstonecraft (1759-1797) and Fanny Blood" (Buck, 1992; Feguson, 1985).

i am just saying, we are awesome. historically so. smart birds unite...and find yourselves some fantastic blue stockings.

Note: The beautiful picture above, called Sarah Blue Stockings, was photographed by the very talented Aaron at the Fountainhead Gallery in 2007 and might now be the new fashionable piece for which i am pinching pennies. For more photos please see his lovely photo album, Aaron's Public Gallery, on Picasa.com.