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Activities & Work

Bluestocking salons were auxiliary to the real lives of the female members. They were active in a variety of philanthropic activities designed to assist the general public – and, in specific, other struggling and fallen women. Some members founded and supported institutions design to help women, often poor widowed women with children, to become economically self-sufficient. Another way they assisted the general public was by establishing houses of industry for the poor and disabled members of British society. Furthermore, many Bluestockings supported the writing attempts of others by organizing and supplying subscriptions for the publishing of their written works.

This engraving is based on the "Nine Living Muses of Great Britain" (1778), a print by Richard Samuel, which depicted several women interacting in a social salon setting. The nine women pictured were Elizabeth Carter, Anna Barbauld, Angelica Kaufmann, Elizabeth Sheridan, Catherine Macaulay, Elizabeth Montagu, Hannah More, Charlotte Lennox, and Elizabeth Griffith.

These Bluestocking women were a tight-knit group, held together by friendship, mutual interests and common beliefs about themselves and society. One of the important qualities of these relationships is the fact that they existed despite differences in personality, belief, age, and social status. The women worked together by supporting, housing, financing, and encouraging each other in every aspect of their lives. The importance of these relationships is marked by the fact that many of the Bluestocking writers did not begin or attempt publication of their works until after the circle was formed and had been regularly meeting. Only with the support of other women could these members actualize their own meaning; it is this belief that lays the foundation for the Bluestocking philosophy – in the dominant social hierarchy, women needed and leaned on each other for the support necessary to succeed in a patriarchal society.