Caroline Dexter

Caroline Dexter (née Harper; 6 January 1819 – 19 August 1884) was an English-Australian dress reformer, writer, and feminist.

Caroline Dexter

Biography

Dexter was born in Nottingham, England;[1] she was educated privately in England and Paris. In 1843, she married the painter, William Dexter, he migrated to Australia aboard the Bank of England arriving in Sydney in 1852, and she arrived in the Marie Gabrielle in 1855. In Sydney, they opened and ran a Gallery of Arts and School of Design.

They moved on to Gippsland in 1856. While in Gippsland Caroline wrote her Ladies Almanack: The Southern Cross or Australian Album and New Years Gift. When it was published in 1858 it was 'The First Ladies' Almanack Published in the Colonies'. Soon after the book was complete the Dexters separated and Caroline moved to Melbourne.

After lecturing about the bloomers in London and beyond, Caroline continued to pursue her interest in dress reform in Australia.[2] Her continued support for dress reform caused controversy in the Sydney Morning Herald.[3] Nonetheless, she ran an Institute of Hygiene and promoted divided skirts for women and the abolition of corsets in Melbourne.[4] She also met Harriet Clisby and together they produced the first all-women publication in 1861. The Interpreter ran for two issues. In 1861, Caroline married William Lynch, together they held a salon and acquired an important collection of Australian art.

Legacy

Dexter Street in the Canberra suburb Cook is named in her honour.[5] A book about William and Caroline, Folie A Deux: William and Caroline Dexter in Colonial Australia, was written by Patrick Morgan in 1999.[6]

References
  1. Ryan, J. S. Dexter, Caroline (1819–1884). Retrieved 20 July 2019. {{cite book}}: |website= ignored (help)
  2. Urwin, Tiffany (2000). "Dexter, Dextra, Dextrum: The Bloomer Costume on the British Stage in 1851". Nineteenth Century Theatre. 28 (2): 91–113. doi:10.1177/174837270002800201. S2CID 193319585.
  3. Stevenson, Ana (2017). "'Bloomers' and the British World: Dress Reform in Transatlantic and Antipodean Print Culture, 1851–1950". Cultural & Social History. 14 (5): 621–646. doi:10.1080/14780038.2017.1375706. S2CID 165544065.
  4. Lance, Stieve De. "Caroline Dexter: Bloomerism in England and its introduction to Australia". www.academia.edu. Retrieved 28 May 2016.
  5. "Australian Capital Territory National Memorials Ordinance 1928-1972". Australian Government Gazette. Periodic (National: 1974–1977). 13 April 1976. p. 1. Retrieved 9 February 2020.
  6. Morgan, Patrick, 1941- (1999). Folie à deux : William and Caroline Dexter in colonial Australia. Quakers Hill, NSW: Quakers Hill Press. ISBN 1-876192-05-4. OCLC 46879917.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
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