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Tangible Present, Thoughts of Strange Things, A Silent Appeal
 

Kate Gannett Wells (1838-1911), complicated feminist, writer, activist, moralist, anti-suffragist

see Mary M. Huth. “Kate Gannett Wells, Anti-Suffragist,” in University of Rochester Library Bulletin vol 34 (1981)
rbscp.lib.rochester.edu/3562
aside —
This fascinating essay, based largely on Kate’s epistolarly exchange with her brother William Channing Gannett (1840-1923), situates her within her time, family (obligations, disappointments, frustrations), and the opportunities available to her. It misses Wells’s later (and frequent) writing for The Boston Cooking-School Magazine, but no matter.

The Boston Cooking School from which the magazine takes its name, was founded in 1879. wikipedia
The magazine was established in 1896 by Janet McKenzie Hill (1852–1933).
wikipedia

 

Listed below are the contributions by Kate Gannett Wells in The Boston Cooking-School Magazine of Culinary Science and Domestic Economics, volumes 14-16 (1909-1912). These essays come across to this reader as sermons; some too seem to have a personal motivation (and even animus) behind them.

1. The Twofold Calling
   14:1 (June-July 1909) : 13-15
2. Taking One’s Self Seriously
   14:2 (August-September 1909) : 72-74
3. Inferences
   14:3 (October 1909) : 121-123
   “Countless injustices and sneaking selfishness and jealousy are constantly committed by philanthropy as well as by business or politics in the name of these words [‘the good of the cause’], which too frequently are taken at their face value and leave a slur upon the reputation of the person dismissed, which rankles in the memory of those who hear it and prevents the worker from getting a good position elsewhere.”
   aside —
   some of these essays may have a personal dimension: as part of a reorganization, Kate Gannett Wells was forced to resign her position on the Massachusetts State Board of Education in this year. (Huth)
4. The Simple Life
   14:4 (November 1909) : 173-174
5. The Guest-Room
   14:5 (December 1909) : 220-221
6. Fads
   14:6 (January 1910) : 270-271
7. Taking Temperature
   14:7 (February 1910) : 317-319
8. Pies
   14:8 (March 1910) : 368-370
9. Pompadours
   14:9 (April 1910) : 413-415
10. Type of Vision
    14:10 (May 1910) : 463-464
11. Experts
    15:1 (June-July 1910) : 11-13
12. Old Age
    15:2 (August-September 1910) : 73-75
13. Petty Economies
    15:3 (October 1910) : 125-127
14. A “Chair of Manners”
    15:4 (November 1910) : 173-175
15. Housework
    15:5 (December 1910) : 223-224
16. On the Whole
    15:6 (January 1911) : 268-270
    (seems to be her philosophy of life)
17. Facts
    15:7 (February 1911) : 315-317
    relates to previous (On the Whole)
18. A Municipal Conscience
    15:8 (March 1911) : 366-367
    local political work seen as a proper sphere for women, and logical extension of housekeeping. —
    “But unfortunately such a conscience is often addicted to talk and to the use of current phrases. ‘Industrial efficiency’ is now one of the favorite utterances — as if housekeepers had not always known the difference between slackness and enterprise...”
19. A Friend’s Friends
    15:9 (April 1911) : 423-414
20. Bargain Hunters
    15:10 (May 1911) : 463-465
21. Little Happinesses
    16:1 (June-July 1911) : 8-9
22. Dress, Diet and Debt
    16:2 (August-September 1911) : 69-71
23. A Brief for Husbands
    16:3 (October 1911) : 129-130
24. On the Use of Napkins
    16:4 (November 1911) : 176-177
25. Christmas Charm
    16:5 (December 1911) : 221-222
26. Things
    16:6 (January 1912) : 272-273
27. Pictures
    16:7 (February 1912) : 313-314

in that February 1912 number is a notice of the death of Kate Gannett Wells, at page 326
 

2 May 2022