Greetings! Welcome to the first official meeting of the Bluestocking Society. Thank you for Anita Marie for the concept and to Ninjacat for this week’s topic.
So, here it is:
“Who the Blue Stocking Society was in the past and who we are today. Share your writing, art and your voice about this amazing society.”
You can add your comments below OR you can add a whole new post and categorize it as Blue Stocking Society/BS 26.01.07
If you would like to be added to the Taverna, please let me know.
Lori
6 comments
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January 26, 2007 at 3:43 pm
lorigloyd
First of all, does anyone know definitively if it is “Bluestocking” or “Blue Stocking”?
January 27, 2007 at 1:11 am
quinncreative
Wikipedia says “Bluestocking” when it’s an adjective to “society.” I’ve found a mention of The Blue Stockings when it’s a group noun, but overall it looks like the favorite English spelling is with one word. Bas Bleu, on the other hand, is always two words.
January 27, 2007 at 10:25 am
Heather Blakey
Thanks so much for establishing this Bluestocking group Lori. I just know it is going to be a huge success.
January 27, 2007 at 3:10 pm
pollygraph
There seems to be a multitude of origins…of similar ilk I am no fan of history it is so hard to prove accuracy… prefer instead to evolve our own unique definition. However, here is what I have uncovered…
bluestocking – a pedantic, earnest woman
In Venice in 1400, a society was founded by erudite men and women. It was named Della Calza, ‘of the stocking’, and had blue stockings as its emblem. The idea was copied in Paris in 1590 when a club called Bas-bleu, ‘Blue-stocking’, was begun and proved very successful among ladies of learning. It was not until 1750 that London had a similar society. Its members met at Montagu House and they held conversations about literature. One of the principal members, Benjamin Stillingfleet, habitually wore his everyday blue worsted stockings because he could not afford the black silk ones normally worn as evening dress. According to Boswell his conversation was so good that when he was absent the members felt lost ‘without the blue stockings’. Admiral Boscawan, husband of one of the most successful hostesses of such gatherings, derisively dubbed them ‘The Blue Stocking Society’. Although both men and women, some of them eminent literary and learned figures of the day, attended these meetings, ‘bluestocking’ became attached exclusively to women. This was partly because women were instrumental in organising the evenings, and partly because they were sometimes ridiculed for encroaching on matters not thought to be their concern.
http://users.tinyonline.co.uk/gswithenbank/curiousa.htm
January 27, 2007 at 3:34 pm
pollygraph
Even as I was writing the above comment a verse from Thoreau popped into my head and caused a bit of reconsideration regarding the value of Blue Stocking history, such as it may be…
“Our fabled shores none ever reach,
No mariner has found our beach,
Scarcely our mirage is seen,
And Neighbouring waves of floating green,
Yet still the oldest charts contain
Some dotted outline of our main.”
February 17, 2008 at 4:51 am
Seraphim
I have been researching the Bluestockings- I am a seller of historic goods (mainly Civil War era.) I sell stockings- MANY stockings. A lot of women have asked me to order stockings that would have been indactive of a Bluestocking Society women. It turns out that it is incredible hard to find out what color that really is. I found this article tonight.
Word History
‘ At the literary gatherings held at the houses of fashionable mid-18th century hostesses, it became the custom to wear casual rather than formal dress. In the case of gentlemen’s stockings, this meant gray worsted (called “blue” at that time) rather than black silk. This lack of decorum was disapproved of in some quarters, and one Admiral Boscowan dubbed the participants the “Blue Stocking Society.” Women who attended the gatherings thus became known as “Blue Stocking Ladies” (even though it was men who had worn the stockings). ‘
I have always known the history of the society, but until I was asked so often, I never thought about the specific color of the stockings they may have worn to declare who they were.
Does anyone have any thoughts? I dearly hope so. Thanks!!