The Bloomer Schottisch. Dedicated to Mrs. Bloomer and the Ladies in Favor of the Bloomer Costume. Composed for the Piano Forte.
New York: William Hall & Son, (1851). 13 x 9-3/4 inches. [3],1pp + cover leaf. Cover has color lithograph illustration of a woman in a bloomer costume, light brown ornamentation, brown and black text. Disbound; significant foxing to cover and margins. Good.
Scarce sheet music with an early image of the "bloomer costume" adopted by Amelia Jenks Bloomer in 1851 and promoted enthusiastically in the newspaper she edited, The Lily, the first newspaper by and for women. Bloomer was a suffragist who argued that women's clothing should be useful and comfortable first and foremost, and only used as adornment after those conditions had been met. After withstanding endless ridicule for eight years for wearing the outfit in public, she abandoned it, claiming that crinoline accomplished the same goals.
OCLC locates eleven holdings, and we know of another at AAS.
