Women In Paris Research Articles

Fashion, the passage, the body

… as for her figure, and she was admirably built, it was impossible to make out its continuity (on account of the fashion then prevailing, and in spite of her being one of the best-dressed women in Paris), for the corset, jutting forwards in an arch, as though over an imaginary stomach, and ending in a sharp point, beneath which bulged out the balloon of her double skirts, gave a woman, that year, the appearance of being composed of different sections badly fitted together.

The Old Women of Paris

The Old Women of Paris

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN ON BREAST-FEEDING AND WHY WOMEN OF PARIS CANNOT NURSE THEIR BABIES

Benjamin Franklin lived at a time when men of education and genius in varying paths of life did not consider it strange or unusual to write about medical matters. Many of Franklin's letters dealt with medical matters. The letter below written to a nonmedical friend is a good example of Franklin's interest in infant feeding. Passy, May 23, 1785 . . . I return your Note of Children receiv'd in the Foundling Hospital at Paris, from 1741 to 1755, inclusive; and I have added the years preceding as far back as 1710, together with the general Christnings of the City, and the Years succeeding down to 1770. Those since that Period I have not been able to obtain. I have noted in the Margin the gradual Increase, viz. from every tenth Child so thrown upon the Public, till it comes to every third! Fifteen Years have passed since the last Account, and probably it may now amount to one-half. Is it right to encourage this monstrous Deficiency of natural Affection? A Surgeon I met with here excused the Women of Paris, by saying, seriously, that they could not give suck; "Car", dit il, "elles n'ont point de tetons." He assurr'd me it was a Fact, and bade me look at them, and observe how flat they were on the Breast; " they have nothing more there," said he, " than I have upon the Back of my hand." I have since thought that there might be some Truth in his Observation, and that, possibly, Nature, finding they made no use of Bubbies, has left off giving them any.

An American Art Institute for Women in Paris: A Letter from Louis J. Rhead

An American Art Institute for Women in Paris: A Letter from Louis J. Rhead