The life and age of woman

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The life and age of woman

1850

An N. Currier colored lithograph illustrating the "stages of woman's life from the cradle to the grave." Ten figures show various periods of a woman's life, from infant to age one hundred, including childhood, marriage, motherhood, and various stages of old age. The captions beneath each figure read: [Infant.] In swaddling clothes behold the bud, of sweet and gentle womanhood. 5. Next she foreshews with mimic plays, the business of her future days. 15. Now glorious as a full-blown flower; the heart of manhood feels her power. 20. A husband now her arms entwine, she clings around him like the vine. 30. Now bearing fruit she rears her boys, and tastes a mother's pains and joys. 50. Like sparkling fountain gushing forth, she proves a blessing to the earth. 60. A busy housewife full of cares, the daily food her hand prepares. 70. As age creeps on she seeks for grace, always to church and in her place. 80. Now second childhood loosens all her tongue, she talks of love and prattles with the young. 90. A useless cumberer on the Earth, from house to house they send her forth. 100. Chained to her chair by weight of years, she listless knits till death appears. A gravestone at the bottom of the image reads "Sacred to the memory of" with room for a woman's name to be added by the owner of the work.

Women

Aging

Recollection Wisconsin

image

http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/SSRecIDSearch?repl1=GenderStudies&repl2=GenderStudies.dh0126.bib