Making a home in gold-rush Victoria: Plain sewing and the Genteel Woman

Journal article


Cramer, Lorinda. (2017). Making a home in gold-rush Victoria: Plain sewing and the Genteel Woman. Australian Historical Studies. 48(2), pp. 213 - 226. https://doi.org/10.1080/1031461X.2017.1293705
AuthorsCramer, Lorinda
Abstract

In the rush to be rich, contemporary commentators warned that not everyone was suited to life on Victoria’s goldfields. Women unfamiliar with household labour or exertion were cautioned to remain at ‘home’. This article explores the genteel women who migrated to Victoria during the first two decades of the gold rush, and how they negotiated the British ideal of genteel leisure against the demands for domestic labour in the colony. In particular, it interrogates the often-mundane plain sewing practices necessary to make a new home alongside the push for a colonial genteel industriousness, demonstrating how women manipulated standards of living through everyday material practices.

Year2017
JournalAustralian Historical Studies
Journal citation48 (2), pp. 213 - 226
PublisherRoutledge
ISSN1031-461X
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)https://doi.org/10.1080/1031461X.2017.1293705
Scopus EID2-s2.0-85019397810
Page range213 - 226
Research GroupSchool of Arts
Publisher's version
File Access Level
Controlled
Place of publicationAustralia
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