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McIntire Bedroom
Among the furnishings in the McIntire Bedroom are a desk and work table that emphasize the changing role of women in the early years of the American republic. In the eighteenth century, formal education was reserved for boys from wealthy families. Their sisters were taught little more than sewing and other skills that would prepare them for marriage and motherhood.
McIntire Bedroom
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Most women had to weave cloth, sew clothing, prepare meals, make candles and soap, tend the garden, and maintain the family house. During the course of her life, a woman could expect to bear between four and twelve children. Until 1800, half of the women in America were illiterate.

 

The Revolution fostered a new interest in education, directed toward creating model citizens for the new republic. At the same time, industrialization was making manufactured goods increasingly affordable, and women could now purchase many of the items they had previously made at home. With leisure time finally available to them, women were free to pursue more genteel accomplishments. Boarding schools began to teach them reading, writing, deportment, and needlework.

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