In the 19th century America, women were expected to hold up to an ideal that was “True Womanhood.” There were four corner stones of true womanhood — piety, purity, submissiveness, and domesticity. It was these virtues by which women would be judged, and those who possessed all of them would be assured happiness in life. This idealized version of women was advertised in newspapers, magazines, and somewhere between the years of 1833 and 1842, D. W. Kellogg created a lithograph of a map of a woman’s heart.
Entitled A Map of the Open Country of a Woman’s Heart, the map had love at the centre of a woman’s heart, with a range of mountains that protected it from the dangers of selfishness, fickleness, vanity, and flirtatious behaviour. A sizeable part of the map wass taken up by the love of fashion, where it seems there was even a monument dedicated to it. It certainly painted women as shallow creatures and the subtitle seemed to be a warning to those thinking of travelling the lands. It read, “Exhibiting its internal communications, and the facilities and dangers to Travellers therein.”
Have a look at this vintage map after the jump.
