TheBlue Stockings Society was an informal women's social and educational movement inEngland in the mid-18th century that emphasised education and mutual cooperation. It was founded in the early 1750s byElizabeth Montagu,Elizabeth Vesey and others as a literarydiscussion group, a step away from traditional, non-intellectual women's activities. Both men and women were invited to attend, including the botanist, translator and publisherBenjamin Stillingfleet, who, due to his financial standing, did not dress for the occasion as formally as was customary and deemed “proper”, in consequence appearing in everyday, blueworsted stockings.
The society gave rise to the term “bluestocking”, referred to the informal quality of the gatherings and the emphasis on conversation rather than fashion,[1] and, by the 1770s, came to describe learned women in general.[2]
The Blue Stockings Society of England emerged in about 1750, and waned in popularity at the end of the 18th century. It was a loose organization of privileged women with an interest in education to gather together to discuss literature while inviting educated men to participate. Led and hosted byElizabeth Montagu andElizabeth Vesey, the women involved in this group generally had more education and fewer children than most Englishwomen of the time. During this period, only men attended universities, whereas women were expected to master skills such asneedlework andknitting: it was considered “unbecoming” for them to know Greek or Latin, almost immodest for them to be authors, and certainly indiscreet to admit the fact.Anna Laetitia Barbauld, a member of the club, was merely the echo of popular sentiment, contrary to the general opinion of the Blue Stockings, when she protested that women did not want colleges. She wrote, “The best way for a woman to acquire knowledge is from conversation with a father, or brother, or friend.” However, by the early 1800s, this sentiment had changed, and it was more common to question “why a woman of forty should be more ignorant than a boy of twelve”,[3] which coincided with the waning of the Blue Stockings’ popularity.
The group has been described by many historians and authors (such as Jeanine Dobbs)[4] as “having preserved and advancedfeminism” via the advocacy forwomen's education and the social complaints regarding women's status and lifestyle in their society, as seen and exemplified in the writings of the Blue Stockings women themselves:
In a woman's education little but outward accomplishments is regarded ... sure the men are very imprudent to endeavor to make fools of those to whom they so much trust their honour and fortune, but it is in the nature of mankind to hazard their peace to secure power, and they know fools make the best slaves.
— Elizabeth Montagu[1] 1743
The name “Blue Stockings Society” and its origins are highly disputed among historians.[5] There are scattered early references tobluestockings including in the 15th-centuryDella Calza society inVenice,John Amos Comenius in 1638, and the 17th-centuryCovenanters in Scotland. The society's name perhaps derived from the European fashion in the mid–18th century in which black stockings were worn in formal dress, while blue stockings were daytime or more casual wear, emphasizing the informal nature of the club’s gatherings. Blue stockings were furthermore very fashionable for women inParis at the time. Alternatively, many historians claim the term for the society was coined whenElizabeth Vesey first advisedBenjamin Stillingfleet, the aforementioned learned gentleman who had distanced himself from higher society and did not have clothes suitable for an evening party, to “come in [his] blue stockings”. Stillingfleet became a frequent and popular guest at the Blue Stockings Society gatherings.[6]
There are several sources linking Stillingfleet to the blue stocking appellation. Samuel Torriano uses the sobriquetblew stocking for Stillingfleet in 1756[7] and Elizabeth Montagu refers to hisblue stockings in 1757.[8]This letter also suggests that by that time he may have stopped attending her soirees. He died in 1771 and in 1881Samuel Johnson has to remind his friends of the origin of the Blue-Stocking Club name and the role of Stillingfleet.[9]LaterAdmiral Boscawen[10] and Mrs Vesey.[11] would separately be credited with the first mention of the name.
The Blue Stockings Society had no membership formalities nor fees, and conducted small to large gatherings in which talk of politics was prohibited but literature and the arts were of main discussion. Learned women with interest in these educational discussions attended as well as invited male guests. Tea, biscuits and other light refreshments would be served to guests by the hostesses.
The New York Times published an article on 17 April 1881, a century after the events in question, which describes the Blue Stockings Society as a women's movement combatting the “vice” and “passion” of gambling, the main form of entertainment at higher society parties. “Instead however, of following the fashion, Mrs. Montagu and a few friends Mrs. Boscawen and Mrs. Vesey, who like herself, were untainted by this wolfish passion, resolved to make a stand against the universal tyranny of a custom which absorbed the life and leisure of the rich to the exclusion of all intellectual enjoyment... and to found a society in which conversation should supersede cards.”[5]
Many of the Blue Stockings women supported each other in intellectual endeavours such as reading, artwork, and writing. Many also published literature. For example, authorElizabeth Carter (1717–1806) was a Blue Stockings Society advocate and member who published essays and poetry, and translated the works ofEpictetus. Literature professor Anna Miegon compiled biographical sketches of these women in herBiographical Sketches of Principal Bluestocking Women.[12]
Ladies, a play byKit Steinkellner, is a fictional account of four members of the Blue Stockings Society, and their impact on modern-day feminism. It had its world première atBoston Court Pasadena inPasadena,California in June 2019, with direction byJessica Kubzansky.[19]
While the term 'bluestocking' was first associated with the intimate social groupings that met at the salons of Montagu, Vesey and Boscawen, by the 1770s the name came to apply to learned women more generally. This larger eighteenth-century resonance, which is investigated in the next section of the exhibition, stands testament to the high profile that bluestockings achieved in an age when women had few rights and little chance of independence.
Monsey swears he will make out some story of you andhim before you are much older; you shall not keep blew stockings at Sandleford for nothing.
I assure you our philosopher is so much a man of pleasure, he has left off his old friends, and his blue stockings and is at operas and gay assemblies every night;
These societies were denominated Blue-stocking Clubs, the origin of which title being little known, it may be worth while to relate it. One of the most eminent members of those societies, when they first commenced, was Mr. Stillingfleet, whose dress was remarkably grave, and in particular it was observed, that he wore blue-stockings. Such was the excellence of his conversation, that his absence was felt as so great a loss, that it used to be said, "We can do nothing without the blue-stockings ; and thus by degrees the title was established.
Mr Stillingfleet being somewhat of an humourist in his habits and manners, and a little negligent in his dress, literally wore grey stockings, from which circumstance, Admiral Boscawen used, by way of pleasantry, to call them the " Blue-Stocking Society ;" as if to indicate, that when these brilliant friends met, it was not for the purpose of forming a dressed assembly. A foreigner of distinction hearing the expression, translated it literally, " Bas bleu," by which these meetings came to be afterwards distinguished
Mrs Vesey was the lady at whose house the celebratedbas bleu meetings of the time were first held ; and indeed with her the phrase itself is said to have originated. It is related that, on inviting Mr. Stillingfleet to one of her literary parties, he wished to decline attending it, on the plea of his want of an appropriate dress for an evening assembly. "Oh — never mind dress," said she; "come in your blue stockings !" — which he was wearing at the time. He took her at her word, and on entering the room, directed her attention to the fact of his having come in hisblue stockings ; and her literary meetings retained the name ofbas bleu ever after.
....Amelia Opie and Mary Wollstonecraft herself...
This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Wood, James, ed. (1907). "Blue-stocking".The Nuttall Encyclopædia. London and New York: Frederick Warne.
