Everyday Life and Women in America, c1800-1920
From the Sallie Bingham Center for Women's History and Culture, Duke University and the New York Public Library
Editorial Board:
Amy Blair, Assistant Professor of English, Marquette University.
Judith Mattson Bean, Associate Professor of English and Associate Vice President for Undergraduate Studies, Texas Woman's University.
Alison Piepmeier, Director of the Women's and Gender Studies Program and Assistant Professor of English, the College of Charleston.
Nancy M. Theriot, Professor and Chairperson of Women's and Gender Studies, the University of Louisville.
Laura Micham, Director of the Sallie Bingham Center for Women’s History and Culture, Duke University.
Many thanks to the late Elizabeth Fox Genovese (Eleonore Raoul Professor of the Humanities, Emory University) for her valuable contribution to this project.
Source Libraries:
The Sallie Bingham Center for Women’s History and Culture, Rare Book, Manuscript and Special Collections Library, Duke University
New York Public Library
Nature of the Material:
The project comprises rare books, periodicals, pamphlets, tracts, and broadsides all of which have been screened against Gerritsen, Shaw-Shoemaker, and other relevant projects to avoid needless duplication. All of the texts have been double-keyed enabling full text-search and scholars can choose to look at high quality greyscale JPEGs, downloadable JPEGs or at highlighted transcriptions in the same format as the original documents.
Scope of the Collection:
Everyday Life
is a dynamic resource that provides a strong basis for teaching and research in areas such as American home life, 1800-1920, the history of women, and the history of childhood. There is material relating to:
- Political and Social Issues
- Race
- Religion
- Family
- Popular Fiction & Sensational Literature
- Children's Prescriptive Literature
- Periodicals
- Women
- Fashion & Beauty
- Cookery
- Medicine
- Education
- Work
- Farming
The Everyday Life collection is a tremendously valuable resource for scholars, researchers, undergraduates, and high-school students. It enables easy incorporation of primary sources into classes and lesson plans, giving students immediate access to compelling historical documents. The primary sources are supported by an extensive bibliography, an interactive chronology, and five essays written by leading academics in the field.
Contents:
Please click on the file names below to open a PDF document detailed listing for each publication type (please note some adjustment to the viewing scale may be required).
Rare Books (9 pages)
Pamphlets (12 pages)
Periodicals (2 pages)
Broadsides (1 page)
Town Topics:
Town Topics is a useful source for providing insight into the New York social world of both men and women during the height of the Gilded Age and beyond. It became a must read-for the wealthy members of the great families like Vanderbilts, Astors, Whitneys; as a guide book for the nouveaux riche on where to go and who to be seen with; and for normal people for whom the often scandalous gossip about the superrich provided good entertainment.
It was published by William d’Alton Mann, often hailed as the godfather of American gossip and scandal and certainly a pioneer of society journalism. His paper created an atmosphere of celebrity and spectacle, especially with the introduction of the ‘blind item’. Mann would print sensational details of an embarrassing event, but would only hint at the identity of the subject. Mann masterminded a huge blackmail scheme-he wouldn’t publish the revelatory article if the guilty paid cash, bought advertising space in Town Topics or invested in its stock at a hugely inflated price.
Regular features include:
Sauntering - An update on society and the season, with details of the fashionable events taking place in New York and wealthy resorts like Newport. Interspersed with witty one line jokes, often reflecting attitudes to the inhabitants of other cities in America or to political issues of the day.
Fiction- Most issues featured short stories, often with a moral or romantic theme and overwhelmingly aimed at women. Book recommendations, reviews, poetry and excerpts from plays were also regular features.
Sports- Summary of horse racing, tennis, baseball etc.
Hints for Bulls and Bears/Other People’s Money- News from the world of politics and stock market. Firmly aimed at male readers, this section provided tips for investment, e.g. railroad shares and ‘Wall Street Whispers’
It is interesting to chart the increase in advertising (original and fully searchable transcriptions are available) and consumer culture throughout the run of Town Topics in this collection. There seems to be a definite increase after the turn of the century, with more pages given purely to advertising and a rise in photos and illustrations being used. The main advertisers are hotels and resorts both in America and Europe, as well as a whole host of fashion, cosmetic, and medicinal items aimed at both men and women.
Political and Social Issues:
The documents dealing with political and social issues often highlight regional or sectional perspectives. An unabashedly nostalgic periodical such as Carolina and the Southern Cross; History Not Hatred, nor Sectional Strife, was first published in 1912 with the aim of providing ‘A simple, truthful account of all battles that have taken place in North Carolina, the personal experiences of reliable people, who came in contact with those battles, home life in the State during the Confederacy, what people did to make a living, and how they helped the soldiers in the field. We have descriptions of large plantations. We have accounts of heroic deeds of men and women. We have slave stories that are beautiful and records of sacrifice that must make people better and stronger for knowing such things.’ (Vol. 1, Number 1, p. 1).
See also:
- The Kansas issue. Remarks of Hon. James F. Dowdell, of Alabama, in the House of Representatives, March 10, 1858, advocating the necessity of additional guarantees for the protection of Southern rights.
- Speech of Mr. Potter, of Ohio, on the Reduction of Postage delivered in the House of Representatives, January 13, 1851.
Contemporary issues included the question of suffrage and race, as discussed in the broadside from the Alabama Equal Suffrage Association in 1919 (Cannot Raise Race Issue under Equal Suffrage Amendment) arguing that the franchise for women ‘does not create new conditions in the negro question. […] It would be impossible to raise the color issue on the equal suffrage amendment, because there is no mention of color, and color cannot be dragged in by the utmost strain of construction.’
Aims to educate and harness support among women with American citizenship and those of foreign birth are detailed in Suggestions to the women voters of Rhode Island (1917) [Foreword] ‘After a heroic struggle of more than fifty years the women of Rhode Island have become voters through the passage of the Presidential Suffrage Bill by the General Assembly of 1917 which gives them the right to vote for Electors of President and Vice-President of the United States in 1920. Judging from the rapidity with which suffrage has spread throughout the world the past year we are confident that all women in the United States will have full power of franchise by that time; therefore it is the part of wisdom to anticipate it by preparation.’
See also: Woman's slavery, her road to freedom (1911).
Words about the war; or, Plain facts for plain people (1861), ‘In such a land as ours the argument against rebellion is still further magnified. Other lands have rebelled against tyranny, but he who rebels against the American Government, rebels against the world’s national standard-bearer of the banner of Liberty. Other rebellions have been in behalf of freedom: this is in behalf of slavery.’ (p.6). “Our Women in the War”-The lives they lives, the deaths they died (1885) includes chapters on ‘The Confederate Officer’s Wife’ and ‘A Brave Colored Woman’, and ‘serves to portray the Confederate War as it was never portrayed before – as it was seen and felt by the women at home.’
Race:
The Everyday Life collection includes documents that refer to African Americans, Native Americans, Jews, and white supremacists. The comparison of shifting views during the time period is a particularly worthy one. The documents include moral fables, such as the tale of Christian conversion published by the Philadelphia Sunday and Adult School Union: The negro servant (1822). Rare books such as the Historical sketch of the formation and achievements of the Women's National Indian Association in the United States (1900) aimed to educate: ‘The North American Indian is of a fine savage stock, full of material for excellent character. He is patient, courageous, honest, reverent, faithful to a trust, and with strong family affections. This is the testimony of all, missionaries and soldiers alike, who have lived among Indians and treated them well. It is true also that they are indolent, vindictive, shockingly cruel in warfare, desperate gamblers in time of peace, and, since the whites have taught them the use of strong liquors, intemperate. But there is no room for discouragement in all this. […] The growing sense of human brotherhood is quickening the slow heart of the world, despite wars and mistakes. It has stirred America to open space and freedom to the over-crowded thousands of Europe, and it now demands that she shall give her own aborigines a fair chance for life and happiness.’ (pp. 41-42).
The Black Woman of the South: Her Neglects and Her Needs (1883) aims to shed light on a neglected group: ‘The Negro all this time has been an intellectual starveling. This has been more especially the condition of the black woman of the South. Now and then a black man has risen above the debased condition of his people. Various causes would contribute to the advantage of the men: the relation of servants to superior masters; attendance at courts with them; their presence at political meetings; listening to table-talk behind their chairs; travelling as valets; the privilege of books and reading in great houses, and with indulgent masters – all these served to lift up a black man here and there to something like superiority. But no such fortune fell to the lot of the plantation women. The black woman of the South was left perpetually in a state of hereditary darkness and rudeness. […] The lot of the black man on the plantation has been sad and desolate enough; but the fate of the black woman has been awful! Her entire existence from the day when she first landed, a naked victim of the slave trade, has been degradation in its extremest forms.’ (pp. 2-3).
See also:
- Observations on the physical, intellectual, and moral qualities of our colored population: with remarks on the subject of emancipation and colonization (1834).
- The South and the Negro. An address delivered at the seventh Annual conference for education in the South, Birmingham, Ala., April 26, 1904.
- Why colored people in Philadelphia are excluded from the street cars (1866).
Proceedings of the first convention of the National Council of Jewish Women, held at New York, Nov. 15, 16, 17, 18 and 19, 1896 included Jewish women representing 22 states and 50 cities. ‘Here in this new country, in America, such meetings as this are going on all over it, because it has founded the Government and the people on reciprocity. We are reading it into our spiritual life. Jew and Gentile no longer exist. We stand hand to hand, heart to heart.’ (p28).
Installation ceremonies; Women of the Ku Klux Klan is a guide to the complicated ritual of inducting a new member and highlights the network of administrative roles and artefacts involved in the Ku Klux Klan organisation.
Religion:
Much of the advice literature contained in the Everyday Life collection has religious guidelines at its core, whether in the rearing of children, or the behaviour of a young wife. Instructional guides intertwine advice on spiritual and moral conduct such as The Young lady's book of piety: a practical manual of Christian duties for the formation of the female character (1835). Fascinating insights are given into the lives and expectations of Irish immigrants, as seen through the Catholic precepts and warnings in Advice to Irish Girls in America, by the Nun of Kenmare (1872), which has sections on ‘Going to Places of Amusement’, ‘The Honor of Being Servants’ and ‘Do Not Marry a Man Given to Drink’.
See also:
-Hints for a General Union of Christians for Prayer for the Out-Pouring of the Holy Spirit (1823).
-Pamphlets for the people in illustration of the claims of the Church and Methodism (1854).
-Haynes' Baptist cyclopaedia: or dictionary of Baptist biography, bibliography, antiquities, history, chronology, theology, polity and literature.
-The rule of life: a lecture, delivered at the request of the Young Men's Christian Association, in the lecture room of the Smithsonian Institution, January, 1853.
The periodical The Heathen Woman's Friend (1869-1895) shows the growth of women’s missionary work, as thoughts broadened to take on responsibilities outside of the home. It also demonstrates the attitude towards and portrayal of women overseas. For a more in-depth exploration of this periodical please see the essays by Amy Blair and Alison Piepmeier.
Family:
Practical manuals on family relations and domestic management were aimed at both men and women: Dr. Bate's True Marriage Guide: a treatise for the married and marriageable, both male and female, containing information and salutary hints for everyone (1889). The manual, Home and Health and Home Economics: A Cyclopedia of Facts and Hints for All Departments of Home Life, Health, and Domestic Economy (1879) included chapters on ‘How to be a good husband’ with the advice that, ‘She must be kept alive by the same process that called her into being. Recall and repeat the little attentions and delicate compliments that once made you so agreeable, and that fanned her love into a consuming flame. […] It is good work for a husband to cherish his wife’ (p. 17). The manual also contained tips on servant-employer relations, and how to conduct family prayers, ‘(…)let the father (patriarch) who is the head and minister of the family church, lead in prayer, closing with the Lord’s Prayer, in which all join.’ (p. 35).
Popular Fiction and Sensational Literature:
The Everyday Life collection contains many examples of popular fiction series. The trend began in the first decades of the 20th century for multi-part series featuring one hero/heroine or a gang of friends. Readers could follow the same character though their high school or college life, or on a number of adventures. Aunt Jane’s nieces out West was part of an eighteen-book series written by Frank Baum from 1906-1919. Under the pen name ‘Edith Van Dyne’ he wrote about the group of girls flying aeroplanes, driving cars, and solving mysteries. Described on the jacket as ‘Distinctly girls’ books and yet stories that will appeal to BROTHER as well – and to older folk. Real and vital – rousing stories of the experiences and exploits of three real girls who do things’. The Motor Maids series by Katherine Stokes contained stories with moralistic undertones but which were remarkably progressive for the time. The affluent heroines embarked on many adventures, driving and fixing their own car. See: The motor maids at Sunrise Camp and The motor maids by rose, shamrock and thistle.
See also:
-Grace Harlowe's first year at Overton College (c1914).
-Grace Harlowe's second year at Overton College (c1914).
-Ruth Fielding of the red mill, or, Jasper Parloe's secret (c1913).
-Ruth Fielding at the war front, or The hunt for the lost soldier (1918).
-The Motor girls in the mountains (1917).
Sensational literature is represented by Thrilling Stories of White Slavery, presented as a morality tale, but capitalising on the scandal and sensation inside: “Read…about the medical student who found his own sister on the dissecting table. About the judge who did not know his own daughter. About the husband who learned the truth at last” (p1). How She Was Lost has good moral aims to ‘awaken a deeper interest in the condition of those who sit in darkness’. But the religious message is often sidelined by such sensational stories as ‘the poor hear broken school-girl’ of sixteen in an ‘engagement with a man of the world…far in advance of her in sin’ (p85) or ‘Martha G...on the streets of Kansas City, lost, soul and body; tempted to die’(p197).
Children’s Prescriptive Literature:
Prescriptive literature was not just limited to the woman of the house, or to the family. This era saw the emergence of prescriptive literature for children, stories containing instructive views, guidelines, and prejudices. The pamphlet Little Nancy, or, The Punishment of Greediness: a moral tale embellished with engravings (1824) is a short illustrated poem to instruct children on the sin of greed: ‘My young readers beware, And avoid with great care, Such excesses as this you’ve just read’ (p8). The Mary Frances Housekeeper, or Adventures among the Doll People (1916) is ostensibly a play book with detailed paper dolls for a child to cut out and a story about these dolls. But the book enforces racist stereotyping in both the narrative and the physical depiction of Lucinda, the slave doll, her paper doll body being ‘comical and distorted’.
See also:
-The Little Cook: and other stories (1903).
-Almost a Man (1915).
Periodicals:
The Everyday Life collection includes an extensive number of periodicals, many with complete or near-complete runs. There are general household, magazines like The Lady’s Friend or Household News, literary titles like The Lady’s Pearl, and society periodicals like Town Topics. There are periodicals aligned with religious and social causes such as Church Work, The Puritan and the controversial Lucifer, The Light Bearer. Biennial report of the Southern Women’s Education Alliance and other catalogues are taken from educational institutions and there are similar documents from clubs and organisations like the Virginia Federation of Women's Clubs.
Women:
Documents in the Everyday Life collection cover marriage, motherhood, sexuality, etiquette, conduct of life, and changing gender roles throughout the period. Advice literature sought to cover every aspect of a woman’s duties, as in The Young Wife's Book; a manual of moral, religious and domestic duties (1838), ‘Jealousy is, on several accounts, more inexcusable in a woman than in a man. […] Should the companion of your life be guilty of some secret indiscretions, run not the hazard of being told, by these malicious meddlers, what it is better for you never to know. Be assured, whatever accidental sallies the gaiety of inconsiderate youth may lead him into, you can never be indifferent to him whilst he is careful to preserve your peace of mind by concealing what he believes may be an infringement of it.’ (pp. 275-76).
The pressure of how to behave in society spawned many guides and rule books such as Etiquette for ladies: a manual of the most approved rules of conduct in polished society, for married and unmarried ladies. Compiled from the latest authorities by a lady of New-York (1843). The Preface states: ‘A complete knowledge of the laws of etiquette is indispensable to every lady who desires to preserve her own dignity in mingling with the world, and who hopes to command the respect due to her sex (…) A woman may have excellent qualities – her heart may be full of kindness, and her mind richly stored with knowledge – yet, unless she is acquainted with the despotic little laws imposed by society, these will not preserve her from ridicule, or teach her how to avoid wounding her best friends, by an act which they may consider slighting. The laws of etiquette have been classed and explained in the following pages, and every lady who does not wholly disregard the ordinary courtesies of life, will find this little volume a valuable drawing room companion.’
See also: Woman in modern society (1912).
American Ladies' Memorial; an indispensable home-book for the wife, mother, sister; In fact, useful to every lady throughout the United States (1850) covers topics such as embroidery, dress-making, millinery, the florist, the ladies’ toilette, the ladies’ book of etiquette, drawing and painting, acrostics for albums, as well as dispensing behavioural advice:
'A few Rules for the Wise
Control the temper.
Bear with the weaknesses and infirmities of others.
Deal justly, frankly and courteously with all.
Keep a good conscience, by being sincere and open-hearted.
Use but little ceremony, else your guests will not feel at ease.
It is rude to make a display of conventional rules among those who will neither understand nor appreciate them.
Talk but little, at home or abroad, about what is genteel or fashionable – it shows ill-breeding. The truly polite alone know how to make others polite.’ (p.79)
See also:
- The woman's book: dealing practically with the modern conditions of home-life, self-support, education, opportunities, and everyday problems (1894).
- The glory of woman, or, love, marriage, and maternity: containing full information on all the marvellous and complex matters pertaining to women (1896).
Medical advice was offered in guides that also combined moral and religious aspects. The Young married lady's private medical guide (1853) advises: ‘During pregnancy, many a wife lives in almost perpetual bodily suffering and misery, which may and should be prevented. By perusing this work, such will find important truths and valuable discoveries revealed, by which many an affectionate wife, and valuable mother, may be saved from a premature grave, and spared to bless her household and society, or the church of God. How many young ladies marry, who, on becoming pregnant, sacrifice their health, or jeopardize their lives. By perusing these pages, such would learn that a discovery has been made, and is extensively used, by which pregnancy or conception can be prevented or suspended at will, by means at once safe, simple, effectual, and without impairing the healthy condition of the sexual system, or in the least abridging marital rights and privileges.’ (pp. ix-x).
See also: Maternity: a book for every wife and mother (1891).
Fashion & Beauty:
Aside from general guides for women, the Everyday Life collection also includes specific texts that dealt with the changing trends in women’s fashion. The periodical, The Queen of Fashion carries a double page highly illustrated spread on the latest fashion patterns, including ‘Ladies Tea Gown: A house gown that the Easter bride or the young woman fond of entertaining informally will hail with delight (…) shell pink, canary yellow, or cream white crepon, with wide ruffling of cream lace will make a dainty gown for careful wear’ [p101, March 1895].
The pressures of an ‘ideal’ female form and figure were just as prevalent during this period as the book Beauty; illustrated chiefly by an analysis and classification of Beauty in a Woman (1848) demonstrates with chapter headings ‘The Greek Ideal of Beauty’, ‘The Ideal of Female Beauty’ and ‘Defects of Beauty’. Creating this ideal form was something the advertisers could promise, as seen in the advertising pamphlet, Your Daughter's Corset which informs mothers to ‘chose with care the corset your daughter wears, for unless her body is permitted to continue to develop along natural lines she may lose that to which every girl is entitled, a sound body.’
See also:
-My lady beautiful, or The perfection of womanhood (1908).
-The arts of beauty, or Studies in grace, health and good looks (1896).
Cookery:
There are a number of rare books that advise on cooking methods and recipes. As an important part of the overall housekeeping, recipes carefully detail cost as well as providing an overall meal timetable for the week, plus suitable suggestions for cooking on special occasions. Three Meals a Day: a choice collection of valuable and reliable recipes in all classes of cookery and a comprehensive cyclopedia of information for the home including toilet, health and housekeeping departments, cooking recipes, menus, table etiquette, and a thousand facts worth knowing (1902) comments that, ‘The science of cookery may very properly be classed among the fine arts, and certainly it is by no means the least among them; for, in the nature of events, a practical knowledge of scientific touches more intimately our homes and home comforts, and influences the masses of the people as no other art, however lofty in its conception, or elevating in its results, may hope to do.’ (p.iii).
See also: Practical Sanitary and Economic Cooking Adapted to Persons of Moderate and Small Means (1890).
Medicine:
Reference works on family health and household remedies, such as American Family Physician; Detailing Important Means of Preserving Health, from Infancy to Old Age (1824), have chapters ranging from ‘Of the sun and guarding against its rays’, to recommendations for doses of prophylactic ‘Anti-lithics – to destroy stones in the kidneys’, to cupping as a cure for ‘Yellow fever’, and advice on ‘Mania or madness after pregnancy’. The encyclopaedic Gunn's Domestic Medicine, or, Poor Man's Friend. Shewing the diseases of men, women and children, and expressly intended for the benefit of families. Containing a description of the medicinal roots and herbs, and how they are to be used in the cure of diseases (1833) covers all manner of ailments from ‘Anger’ to ‘Yellow Gum’ [Index, iii-viii].There are also official publications from regional medical bodies and institutions-Transactions of the Mississippi State Medical Association at the fourth annual meeting, held at Meridian, April 3 and 4, 1871; First annual report of the North Carolina sanatorium for the treatment of tuberculosis (1914).
Education:
The pamphlet Hints on Female Education (1851) poses the question ‘Does female education benefit society..?’ (p7) and the many documents in the Everyday Life collection address all stages of women’s education from the nursery to college, as well as differing viewpoints, theoretical studies of educational methods, and reports on new ways of continuing women’s education -The kinder-garten: principles of Fröbel's system and their bearing on the education of women; also remarks on the higher education of women (1889); Thorough female education: an address ; Woman neglected in education; and the causes and effects (1886) and Working girls in evening schools; a statistical study (1914).
Official literature like the Annual Report of the State Superintendent of Public Education to the Legislature of Mississippi, for the year 1876 or the Annual catalogue of the State Normal & Industrial School contain good examples of regional curriculum and educational direction throughout the period, ‘ENGLISH. Sophomore.- Three periods a week. The work of the Sophomore year consists of Theme-writing, accompanied by study of the principles of structure, both in the form of theory and as exemplified in specimens of literary excellence. Franklin’s Autobiography, Silas Marner, and a few essays are read’ (p22, 1903-1904).
A variety of pamphlets address the education of both sexes, as well as the influence of the state in providing education: The influence of educated men upon society; The education of the masses of the people: an address delivered at the request of the Athenaean society before the literacy societies of Catawba College, on the 16th day of November, 1854 and How far should a state undertake to educate? Or, a plea for the voluntary system in the higher education (1894).
Work:
The Everyday Life collection includes a plethora of texts on the types of employment women could increasingly find outside the home. Religious guidelines are implicit in the Guide for Catholic young women: especially for those who earn their own living (1893) by Rev. George Deshon, while Arnold Bennett’s Journalism for women; a practical guide (1898) examines a traditionally male-dominated occupation: ‘That women-journalists as a body have faults, none knows better than myself. But I deny that these faults are natural, or necessary, or incurable, or meet to be condoned. They are due, not to sex, but to the subtle, far-reaching effects of early training; and the general remedies, therefore, as I shall endeavour to indicate in subsequent chapters, lie to hand. They seem to me to be traceable either to an imperfect development of the sense of order, or to a certain lack of control.’ (p. 11). A woman's career; the exactions and the obstacles (1914) by Myrtle Reed addresses some of the inequalities a woman could expect to face.
Fears about women working are addressed in a study published by the Bureau of Women in Industry: The Industrial replacement of men by women in the state of New York (1919). Women ‘fill the ranks of the unskilled and semi-skilled in large plants with standardized products and in small low grade workshops in large cities. In common with all workers in unskilled and repetitive production of goods they have been unhonored and unsung. Unhonored, that is, until the war came; unsung, until their performance in the making of war material caused employers, government and brother workers alike to recognise a new phase in industrial development. The women who took men’s places and did men’s work have served all women in industry by opening for discussion old and new problems of women’s working life. […] Women have replaced men not to compete but to cooperate. If, by chance, their performance is better or not so good in any branch or work, it is as workers that they should be judged.’ (pp. 1-2)
The collection also contains socio-economic histories published by the Rand School of Social Science such as From fireside to factory (1916), and reports produced by the National Consumers’ League lobbying for a minimum wage, such as Wage earning women and girls in Baltimore; a study of the cost of living in 1918. There are also regional publications, Report of the Social Survey Committee of the Consumers' League of Oregon on the wages, hours and conditions of work and cost and standard of living of women wage earners in Oregon with special reference to Portland (1913).
Farming:
Pamphlets on farming and agricultural matters tend towards a regional perspective. See for example: Address before the Central Agricultural Society of Georgia, at the fair grounds in Macon, October, 1851; - The Truth about the Boll Weevil; Being some Observations on Cotton Growing under Boll Weevil Conditions in Certain Areas of Louisiana, Texas and Mississippi (1910) and Premium list South-West Virginia agricultural society, for the eighth annual exhibition to be held on their fair grounds near Wytheville, Virginia, 4th, 5th and 6th October, 1876.
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