Florence Hartley

Florence Hartley was a Victorian-era writer whose work was meant for women of the era, covering topics of etiquette and needlework. She was also an advocate for women's health.

Biography

Florence Hartley never married. Little else is known about her life, and the place and date of her birth and death are unknown.[1]: 65–68 

Etiquette

Rhetoric theorist Jane Donawerth identifies Hartley's The Ladies’ Book of Etiquette[2] as part of a distinctive self-consciously feminine discursive tradition of conduct book rhetoric, developed in the 18th and 19th centuries.[1]: 41–42 [3]: 84  Donawerth sees Hartley's work as marking the conservative end of the spectrum of works within this tradition, merging the conduct book tradition with the narrower tradition of the etiquette manual.[1]: 65–66 [3]: 83  Hartley sees good elocution as natural, not as an art, and avoids the use of the word elocution; she discourages women from speaking in such a way as to draw attention to themselves,[3]: 84  or asking professional men (such as physicians, attorneys, artists, merchants, or mechanics) about the subject matter of their work.[4]: 66  She advises her audience to “never, when advancing an opinion, assert positively that a thing ’is so,’ but give your opinion as an opinion . . . remember that your companion may be better informed upon the subject under discussion, or, where it is a mere matter of taste or feeling, do not expect that all the world will feel exactly as you do.” [2]

Hartley argues for women's education principally on the ground that it enables women to be better companions.[1]: 66  However, she also believed that women should educate themselves on various subjects for their own enjoyment. [2] Donawerth characterizes Hartley's etiquette as grounded in a profoundly conservative worldview based on wealth and social class.[1]: 66  Hartley herself sees her etiquette as a logical extension of Christian ethics, especially the Golden Rule.[5]: 57 

Hartley's approach to etiquette strongly emphasized its role in hospitality. Of the 26 chapters in The Ladies’ Book of Etiquette,[2] ten are devoted to the etiquette of the roles of guest or hostess.[5]: 57  Hartley also placed great emphasis on the etiquette of letter writing.[4]: 91–93 

Nineteenth century

During Hartley's time, her work received favorable reviews, such as this one referring to The Ladies’ Book of Etiquette, and Manual of Politeness:[2]

We should despair of any young lady who, having read this volume attentively, was not sufficiently polished to enter the very best society.

— The Crayon (November 1860)[6]

Twentieth and twenty-first centuries

Present-day reception of Hartley's work has been mixed. Journalist Tanya Sweeney describes The Ladies’ Book of Etiquette as the "definitive tome" of 19th-century etiquette.[7] According to journalist Jessica Leigh Hester, Hartley's 19th-century etiquette advice can still be instructive in the 21st century, particularly in regard to RSVPs, tasteful dress, avoidance of gossip in places where it can easily be overheard, and loud amateur music at parties.[8] On the other hand, food and travel writer Anna Brones ridicules Hartley's dictum that a good hostess should not discuss, or even notice, what her guests are eating.[9] Historian C. Dallett Hemphill sees Hartley's conservative approach to etiquette as having "nativist or racist roots".[10]: 141 

Donawerth notes that Hartley never acknowledges the etiquette writers before her. When Hartley tells readers that

politeness is as necessary to a happy intercourse with the inhabitants of the kitchen, as with those of the parlour; it lessens the pains of service, promotes kind feelings on both sides, and checks unbecoming familiarity[2]

she is directly quoting Eliza Ware Farrar's The Young Lady's Friend[11] without credit.[1]: 66 

Needlework

Hartley's Ladies’ Hand Book of Fancy and Ornamental Work offered instruction in a wide variety of types of needlework, including sewing, knitting, and quilting.[12][13]: 136  Just as with etiquette, Hartley saw skill in needlework as essential to a lady's education, with implications for her overall happiness and for her usefulness to, and acceptance within, society.[14]: 10 

Women's health

Hartley was an advocate of more healthful practices for women, and a critic of social customs that she saw as jeopardizing women's health.[15]: 176  Despite the conservatism of her general approach to etiquette, Hartley denounced the corset, which some other early women writers on etiquette defended.[3]: 82–83  She saw young women of her day as less healthy than their mothers and grandmothers. Hartley warned young women against the practice of staying late at dance balls, so that they would not be utterly exhausted when they left, and would not miss breakfast the next morning. She advocated walking 4–5 miles per day for vigorous young women, as an alternative to dancing in overheated ballrooms.[15]: 176 

Works
  • The Ladies’ Hand Book of Fancy and Ornamental Work (1859)[12]
  • The Ladies’ Book of Etiquette, and Manual of Politeness (1860)[1]: 65–68 [2][8]

References
  1. Donawerth, Jane (2012). Conversational rhetoric: the rise and fall of a women's tradition, 1600–1900. Carbondale, Illinois, USA: Southern Illinois University Press. ISBN 978-0809386307.
  2. Hartley, Florence (1860). The ladies' book of etiquette, and manual of politeness: a complete hand book for the use of the lady in polite society. Boston: G. W. Cottrell – via Internet Archive.
  3. Donawerth, Jane (2013). "Negotiating conflicting views of women and elocution: Almira Hart Lincoln Phelps, Florence Hartley, and Marietta Holley". In Gold, David; Hobbs, Catherine L. (eds.). Rhetoric, history, and women's oratorical education: American women learn to speak. New York: Routledge. pp. 78–95. ISBN 978-0-415-66105-8.
  4. Johnson, Nan (2002). Gender and rhetorical space in American life, 1866–1910. Carbondale, Illinois, USA: Southern Illinois University Press. ISBN 0-8093-2426-1.
  5. Szczesiul, Anthony (2017). The Southern hospitality myth: ethics, politics, race, and American memory. Athens, Georgia, USA: University of Georgia Press. ISBN 978-0820332765.
  6. "Review of The Gentleman's Book of Etiquette: and Manual of Politeness, by Cecil B. Hartley (Philadelphia: G. G. Evans)". Literary Record. The Crayon. 7 (11): 330. November 1860. doi:10.2307/25528144. JSTOR 25528144.
  7. Sweeney, Tanya (9 December 2014). "Why good manners really can make the world a better place". Lifestyle. Herald (Ireland). Retrieved 25 November 2017.
  8. Hester, Jessica Leigh (2 December 2015). "19th century party etiquette updated for 2015 festivities". CityLab. Archived from the original on 25 November 2017. Retrieved 25 November 2017.
  9. Brones, Anna (18 December 2014). "Five dead etiquette rules that will give you a good laugh". Culture. EcoSalon. Archived from the original on 17 June 2016. Retrieved 25 November 2017.
  10. Hemphill, C. Dallett (1999). Bowing to necessities: a history of manners in America, 1620–1860. Oxford University Press. p. 266. ISBN 0-19-512557-6. Florence Hartley.
  11. Farrar, Eliza Ware (1838). The young lady's friend. Boston: American Stationers’ Company – via Internet Archive.
  12. Hartley, Florence (1859). The ladies' hand book of fancy and ornamental work, comprising directions and patterns for working in appliqué, bead work, braiding, canvas work, knitting, netting, tatting, worsted work, quilting, patchwork, &c., &c. Philadelphia: J. W. Bradley – via HathiTrust.
  13. Shrock, Joel (2004). The Gilded Age. American Popular Culture Through History. Westport, Connecticut, USA: Greenwood Press. ISBN 0-313-32204-X.
  14. Woodard, Thos. K.; Blanche, Greenstein (1993) [First published 1981 as Crib quilts and other small wonders by E. F. Dutton]. Classic crib quilts and how to make them (Abridged Dover republication ed.). Mineola, New York, USA: Dover Publications. ISBN 0-486-27861-1.
  15. Wagner, Ann Louise (1997). Adversaries of dance: from the Puritans to the present. Urbana, Illinois, USA: University of Illinois Press. p. 176. ISBN 0-252-02274-2. Florence Hartley.
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