Draper: "A most Wonderful Invention, indeed, Mum, and it really Executes the Work so Efficiently and Quickly, that, 'pon my Word, I think there's nothing left for Ladies to do but to Improve their Intellects!
This cartoon from Punch simultaneously manages to mock women, show the introduction of a new technology into the home, and, to the modern reader, suggest the way labor-saving technologies in fact played a factor in the changing roles and possibilities for women of all classes.
[Scanned image (from a volume in the Athenæum Club Library) and text by George P. Landow
This image may be used without prior permission for any scholarly or educational purpose.]
Last modified 3 September 2007