In Philadelphia in 1830 Louis Antoine Godey (1804-1878) commenced the publication of Godey`s Lady`s Book, designed specifically to attract the growing audience of American women.
The magazine was intended to entertain, inform and educate the women of America.
In addition to extensive fashion descriptions and plates, the early issues included biographical sketches, articles about mineralogy, handcrafts, female costume, the dance, equestrienne procedures, health and hygiene, recipes and remedies and the like. Each issue also contained two pages of sheet music, written essentially for the piano forte.
Gradually the periodical matured into an important literary magazine containing extensive book reviews and works by Harriet Beecher Stowe, Edgar Allen Poe, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and many other celebrated 19th century authors who regularly furnished the magazine with essays, poetry and short stories. The Lady`s Book was also a vast reservoir of handsome illustrations which included hand-colored fashion plates, mezzotints, engravings, woodcuts and, ultimately, chromolithographs.
Today it is considered to be among the most important resources of 19th century American life and culture.
Search tips:
- Godey’s Lady’s Book is in a collection with several other publications. To search only Godey’s select it from the drop down box in the middle of the search page. It is also possible to browse whole issues by clicking on Browse the Archives. Then click on the word issues, by the title Godey’s Lady’s Book and select the issue you wish to browse.
- Wildcards/Truncation/Stemming - Use the ? and * to search for single and multiple letters at the end or in the middle of a search term. Search terms must have at least 3 characters with the wildcards.
Single letter – use the ?
Wom?n finds woman or women
Te?t finds test or text
Multiple letters – use the * at the end or middle of a word
Geo* finds Geo., George, and other endings
Chamber* finds chamber, chamberer, chambered, chambering, chambers
Colo*r finds color, colour - Boosting a Search Term – use to elevate the relevance, or importance, of search words. Use with two or more search terms or phrases. To boost a term, use the ^ symbol with a boost factor. Any positive number may be used as the boost factor.
Examples
• “underground railroad” and death^5
• indian and apache^3
Where is it: Go to the UNLV Libraries' home page http://www.library.unlv.edu. Select the Articles and Databases tab, click on the A-Z List of Databases and then on the letter G and select Godey’s Lady’s Book.
Quick Link: http://ezproxy.library.unlv.edu/login?url=http://www.accessible.com/accessible/preLog