The American Frugal Housewife

Title: The American Frugal Housewife

Published: 1833

Author: Lydia Maria Child

Publisher: Carter, Hendee, and Co.

Published hundred years earlier (or more) than most of the books in this collection, The American Frugal Housewife provides a view into the norms of a previous generation that would go on to produce 20th-century homemaking literature. This item has a particular focus on frugality and economy, and as such many of the social dynamics it displays have to do with the role of the wife as moderator of marital spending and instructor of children in non-wasteful behavior. Many sections are also purely instructional, although the home/public sphere dichotomy is clearly demarcated as a gendered separation where a husband manages public spending and interactions and a wife manages frugality around the home.