Feather Curlers & Cleaners

Sydney Gazette, 11 August 1825 Not an occupation I can find out much about. Feather curlers were used by milliners to produce suitable feathers for their hats. However, if you read down through these advertisements you’ll see they’re offering a different, if related, service. Bearing in mind here, hats were necessary fashion accessory, and if…

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Victorian Classified Advertisements

Some potential employers have low requirements 🙂 A trawl through the advertisements in the Argus, 14 November 1860 TUTORS, GOVERNESSES, CLERKS etc SERVANTS DOMESTIC SERVANTS. (To the Editor of the Star.) SIR,-Your leader on the above subject demands the serious attention of heads of families. There can be no doubt that all the evils and inconveniences…

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Midwives, 1820-1840

Hobart Town Gazette, 21 September 1822 These are first advertisements that I found for female midwives. They first appear in Hobart and in NSW in the late 1830s. (There is an earlier ad for a “surgeon & man midwife in 1819). They are interesting in the amount of information given about the advertisers: credentials, background, testimonials. Compare to advertisements…

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Mrs Gould

Bendigo Advertiser, 1 September 1855 I can’t find anything that tells me who Mrs Gould. She might be Angelina, wife of Thomas Gould, who died 1865 at her residence in Bull Street, which was near the shop (see next advertisement), but she could just as likely have been a daughter-im-law of the couple. (Hopes someone might come…

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Jane

The Perth Gazette & Western Australian Journal is the earliest WA newspaper listed on Trove. In January 1833, it didn’t have a lot of advertisements. The second issue seems to have just three that aren’t government announcement. Mrs Barron’s ad above appeared the first page of that second issue, and the previous one as well….

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Women of Sydney

I trawled the first three years of the Sydney Gazette (1803-1806) to see what I could find in the way of advertisements from women. The population of the town, less than 20 years after the start of British settlement, was just a few thousand, so there probably wasn’t much need or incentive to pay for…

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Women of Hobart

I’ve been a bit slow with my “Random Women” posts lately and I noticed some ads for various women’s businesses while I was looking for something else, so I thought I’d share some. All from Colonial Times, 14 December 1849; via Trove. (The last/fifth one is interesting.)      

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100 Years Of Teachers

Sydney Gazette 8 January 1814 Sydney Gazette, 4 January 1817 Hobart Town Gazette, 21 January 1821 Hobart Town Courier, 4 July 1829 Sydney Gazette, 8 July 1830 South Australian Gazette, 20 January 1838 Perth Gazette, 9 December 1843 Bathurst Advocate, 23 June 1848 Moreton Bay Courier, 3 August 1850 Bendigo Advertiser, 13 December 1855 The…

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