Masturbation can also be seen as a form of women’s sexuality that has evolved since the Victorian era. Masturbation was seen as a moral disgrace and was shunned by the majority of society. It was blamed to be the causes of diseases such as heart disorders, cancer and hysteria. The editor of the New Orleans Medical and Surgical Journal, went so far as to say that even if masturbation wasn’t the cause of the diseases that the engaging in it would further the disease. According to the website, Proceedings of the First International Symposium on Circumcision, and Dr. Joseph Jones, a former president of the Louisiana State Board of Health, masturbation resulted in 'hopeless insanity.' This insanity could also be inherited from the offspring of a person that masturbated. As a result, many females thought to be masturbating were subject to a clitoridectomy, or removal of the clitoris. Although this was often a drastic measure and by no means the norm, it still shows the strict code of virtue imposed on sexuality in the Victorian age.

Source: http://www.cwrl.utexas.edu/~ulrich/femhist/sexuality.shtml

Hygiene in the early nineteenth century was a nightmare, to put it mildly. The main issue was a lack of good clean water and a lack of good drainage systems.

From: http://www.victorianweb.org/science/health/health10.html

During the first decades of Victoria's reign, baths were virtually unknown in the poorer districts and uncommon anywhere. Most households of all economic classes still used "privy-pails"; water closets were rare. Sewers had flat bottoms, and because drains were made out of stone, seepage was considerable. If, as was often the case in towns, streets were unpaved, they might remain ankle-deep in mud for weeks. For new middle-class homes in the growing manufacturing towns, elevated sites were usually chosen, with the result that sewage filtered or flowed down into the lower areas where the laboring populations dwelt. Some towns had special drainage problems. In Leeds the Aire River, fouled by the town's refuse, flooded periodically, sending noxious waters into the ground floors and basements of the low-lying houses.

As Chadwick later recalled, the new dwellings of the middle-class families were scarcely healthier, for the bricks tended to preserve moisture. Even picturesque old country houses often had a dungeonlike dampness, as an visitor could observe: "If he enters the house he finds the basement steaming with water-vapour; walls constantly bedewed with moisture, cellars coated with fungus and mould; drawing rooms and dining rooms always, except in the very heat of summer, oppressive from moisture; bedrooms, the windows of which are, in winter, so frosted on their inner surface, from condensation of water in the air of the room, that all day they are coated with ice."

Women in the nineteenth century were not really considered adults until they gave birth to a child. A woman who could not have children for one reason or another was never truly considered an adult no matter her age.

Motherhood was not really the choice that it is today. It was assumed upon marriage that a woman would begin giving her husband heirs. Male children were desired more than female in order to carry on the family name and because property legally passed from father to son rather than from mother to daughter. Upon her marriage, all of a woman's possessions, property, money, and even children, legally belonged to her husband. He was the breadwinner, the provider, the head of household and the wife owed him all the children she could give him. The levels of femininity were dictated by her life's accomplishments - a good marriage brought her up a level and then having children brought her to the most respected level of motherhood.

A woman who could not have children led a life more in solitude than her motherly counterparts. She lacked the female bonding achieved through women assisting each other through pregnancy and childbirth. Women who did not yet give birth to a child were shielded from pregnancy and childbirth to protect their virtues and to not frighten them from the bloody reality of it. Motherhood created a bond among the most respected women and the more children they had, the more respect they earned.

The "delicate" lady’s place in fashion probably lead in many ways to the Victorian woman’s high death rate. As a healthy appetite, labor, exercise, and spending a lot of time outdoors was considered manly, women didn’t eat a lot, hardly ever got good exercise, and spent a lot of time indoors, where the air was stagnant and germs ran amok. The working men got the best food and meat, and the women in the family looked after the sick, who coughed in their faces all day. Many of the middle and upper class women suffered from "Green Sickness", which describes the skin of an anemic person. This was due to the lack of iron in people's foods.

Source: http://robertwhite.wordpress.com/2009/12/13/random-facts-about-the-victorian-era/

In the nineteenth century, it was considered entirely too familiar and improper for a single man to address a single woman by her first name. If he addressed her by her first name, it implied that they were engaged.

Let's use the Emma Thompson version of the film Sense and Sensibility as an example since more people are likely to have seen that than read the Jane Austen novel. At the end of the film, Hugh Grant playing Mr. Farras addresses Miss Dashwood (Emma Thompson) by her first name of Elinor. She begins to weep. The subtle nuance often lost on the audience is that Elinor suddenly knows by the use of her first name that he intends to propose. He doesn't get to finish because it's already there and implied by the simple use of her first name.

Additionally, the use of a person's first name was considered so personal that many in the nineteenth century continued to address each other by their last names around other people even after they were married. An example of this (to use another film that most people have likely seen) was evident in Gone with the Wind in the scene where Scarlett's mother comes home and tells "Mr. O'Hara" that he must dismiss the overseer and he responds by calling her Mrs. O'Hara. That was common in upper-class families. Only when they were alone or in private letters would they have addressed each other by their first names or private nicknames. Lower classes were less formal about the use of first names after people were married.

Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain was a Freemason. Not only that but the very man who tried to block his commission as lieutenant colonel in the 20th Maine ended up being the one to "sponsor" his entrance into the order!

In July of 1862, when Chamberlain wrote to Maine's Governor Washburn asking for a position in the army, he said: "But, I fear, this war, so costly of blood and treasure, will not cease until the men of the North are willing to leave good positions, and sacrifice the dearest personal interests, to rescue our country from desolation, and defend the national existence against treachery at home and jealousy abroad."

Governor Washburn was a family friend of the Chamberlains, having known both Lawrence's father and grandfather, and he began asking questions about the young professor. Josiah Drummond was the Attorney General at the time and was decidedly against Lawrence being appointed to any position in the army. He wrote to Governor Washburn and said, in part: "Have you appointed Chamberlain Col. Of the 20th? His old classmates etc. here say you have been deceived: that C. is nothing at all: that is the universal expression of those who knew him."

Nevertheless, the governor offered Chamberlain the commission of colonel of the 20th Maine, which Chamberlain declined, saying that he thought he needed to be in a lesser position in order to learn the ways of the army. And so, he was commissioned as lieutenant colonel of the 20th Maine, second-in-command, serving under Colonel Adelbert Ames. As Chamberlain prepared to leave for war, he joined the wave of Maine men applying to become Masons.

During the Civil War years, many Maine men who found themselves on the verge of entering military service were applying in haste for the degrees of Masonry. It is quite probable that they felt it would be helpful to be members of this great Order during their participation in the conflict. The historical records of United Lodge No. 8 in Brunswick reveal that Chamberlain was numbered among this group. We do not know for certain what his primary motivation was to join this great fraternity, but it would seem likely that he had received favorable reports about this ancient institution from colleagues on the Bowdoin faculty who were Masons. The principles of Freemasonry were certainly consistent with the moral principles that guided his life.

Because of the pressure being pla ced on lodges to waive the usual waiting period of a month, and the Grand Lodge of Maine's concern that hurry-up work might result in a weakening of the Order at its foundation level, it was decreed that dispensations must be secured and a fee of five dollars charged for a waiver. At a special communication of United Lodge No. 8, held on the evening of August 27, 1862, the secretary presented a dispensation from Grand Master Josiah H. Drumond, to allow Chamberlain to take his Masonic degrees in less than the prescribed time. This, in itself, was somewhat unusual, for dispensations were usually handled by the District Deputy Grand Master. A ballot was taken and Chamberlain was accepted for the Entered Apprentice Degree. While he was being notified of his acceptance and in the process of being brought to the lodge to take the degree, another ballot was taken and it was voted to confer upon him the Fellowcraft Degree. Thus, on that very same night, he was initiated as an Entered Apprentice and passed to the degree of Fellowcraft. At 8:00 a.m. the very next morning, the lodge reconvened and he was raised to the sublime degree of Master Mason. On September 12, 1862, he was proposed as a member, and on October 7, 1862, a ballot was taken and he was officially elected a member of United Lodge.

Within a matter of days, he and the 20th Maine Regiment were off to Washington, arriving there on Sunday, September 7, 1862. *

As a granddaughter and great-granddaughter many times over of many Freemasons, I feel that Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain was a great example of what it meant to be part of the great fraternity.

* "General and Brother Joshua L. Chamberlain: A Mason Who Had the Soul of a Lion and the Heart of a Woman," by Charles W. Plummer, in The Maine Mason, volume 19, number 1, Spring 1991, pages 8-11.

** Thanks to Tom Desjardin for helping me collect the information for this blog.

Did you know that Fanny Chamberlain's step-uncle was George F. Root, a popular composer and songwriter in the nineteenth century?

In the 1850s, Fanny's adoptive father (biologically her cousin) surprised everyone in their family by taking a second wife. His new bride was Helen Root, a young woman only a few months older than Fanny, yet she had to get along with her as her new stepdaughter. Miss Root's older brother was George Root.

From Wikipedia:

He became particularly successful during the American Civil War, as the composer of martial songs such as Tramp! Tramp! Tramp! (The Prisoner's Hope), Just before the Battle, Mother, and The Battle Cry of Freedom. He wrote the first song concerning the war, The First Gun is Fired, only two days after the conflict began with the bombardment of Fort Sumter. He ultimately had at least 35 war-time "hits", ranging in tone from the bellicose to the ethereal. His songs were played and sung at both the home front and the real front. Tramp, Tramp, Tramp became popular on troop marches, and Battle Cry of Freedom became well-known even in England.