[ As Topeka was celebrating its centennial in 1954,... ]

Topeka Capital-Journal, The, Aug 15, 2004 by Capital-Journal

As Topeka was celebrating its centennial in 1954, The Topeka Daily Capital was marking its 75th anniversary. The following article appeared in that anniversary edition on June 6, 1954.

Kansas women looked to Louis Godey for fashions

A man in Philadelphia may have had a greater influence over the women of early Kansas than all the men in the territory combined.

The man's name was Louis Antoine Godey, and he published the first women's periodical in the United States. It was called Godey's Lady's Book.

By the time the territory was opened for settlement (in 1854), Godey's little magazine was in its 24th year. Every settler's wife who could manage the $3 a year subscription price was a subscriber. Those who could not afford it borrowed the magazine from their more fortunate neighbors. But every woman in Kansas who could lay hands on a copy read it.

It was her guide to the latest fashions and how to duplicate them. From it she snipped new recipes, learned how to draw and found a score of other articles that she found useful or interesting.

A typical issue in the late 1850s had a full page drawing, in color, of an "embroidered reticule." A reticule is a bag which milady carried over her arm and usually contained her needlework. The design was simply presented so that it was easy for her to make one exactly like it if she chose.

The late fashions were illustrated and fully described so that these, too, could be copied. A page-size sketch, in black and white or color, of a pretty dress often had an accompanying diagram showing the shape of the pattern pieces. Cutting the individual pieces in the proper size was her own problem.

Embroidery patterns were scattered through the whole magazine. Instructions for crochet included wearing apparel and ornaments for the house --- purses and caps, pincushions and doilies.

Culture was not overlooked. The drawing lesson was a regular feature. Two pages were devoted to the reproduction of a piece of sheet music. There were fiction, poetry and reviews of the new books.

To brighten the home during the winter months, the pioneer woman could make paper flowers. The Lady's Book told her how and furnished the patterns. Or she could make a picture of autumn leaves. Instructions for preserving and mounting the leaves were complete. For a bit of green she could have a "house garden," a miniature garden of mosses and plants under glass.

The children were not overlooked. A diagram showed mother exactly how to make over-gaiters for her child. Other drawings suggested ways to make infants' clothes.

Drawings and step-by-step instructions for hair ornaments of ribbon and beads were easy to follow.

The recipes included a half dozen ways of preparing venison, two or three ways to serve pheasants and partridges, and full instructions for cooking oysters.

To make lemonade powder "mix one part of citric acid with six parts of finely powdered loaf-sugar. A very fine dry lemonade, thus prepared, which may be preserved for any length of time."

There were recipes for cold pudding and gingerbread nuts, orange pudding and gingercakes.

Hints for the sick-room and nursery were followed by a dozen formulae for tooth powders and paste and mouth washes.

Opiate tooth paste contained: honey, half pound; chalk, half pound, orris, half pound; rose pink, two drachms; otto of cloves, nutmeg, and rose, of each, half drachm; simple syrup, enough to form a paste.

In a feature entitled "Miscellaneous" was a paragraph on how to prevent the pitting of smallpox, a recipe for Sir A. Cooper's chilblain liniment. Of cold feet the editor had this to say:

"Cold feet are the avenues to death of multitudes every year. Clergymen, other public speakers and singers, often render the throat the weakest part; to such cold feet give hoarseness, or a raw burning feeling, most felt at the bottom of the neck."

There were editorials and a health department which stressed the merits of frequent bathing and Godey's Arm-Chair, a few paragraphs of the story-behind-the-story.

The little magazine even offered a shopping service. For a small fee, an editor agreed to buy whatever the subscriber desired and send it by express to the remotest places.

All these things were in a single issue of the Lady's Book. Small wonder that this little periodical, so packed with information and attractive with its full page sketches, was looked forward to eagerly by every woman in the land.

Fashion notes

Fashions became boyish

Women cast aside their corsets in the early 1920s.

The whale-bone undergarments, which had kept body and soul together since pioneer days, were laid to rest on closet shelves.

Woman's fashions then became boyish and defiant. The girls bobbed their hair, wore cloche hats, rolled their stockings and wore clothing that accentuated their flat chests and hips.

The Topeka Daily Capital, June 6, 1954

Nylons began in '39

Nylon hose first went on sale in 1939. At first, women in Topeka and elsewhere were skeptical of claims made for the new stockings. It wasn't long, however, until nylons became best sellers.