Lunch & Learn: Amelia Bloomer

Sep 18, 2025

12:00 PM

Cortland County Historical Society Grace Street Campus
9 Grace St.
Cortland, NY 13045

Author Sara Catterall provides a fascinating look at an underappreciated woman in American history whose newspaper fostered a national conversation on women’s issues.

Those who recognize the name Amelia Bloomer usually do so because of bloomers, the clothing item named after her. While she was a rational dress advocate for a time—calling on women to abandon rigid corsets and heavy petticoats and opt for long trousers, shorter skirts, and sensible boots—it was “but an incident” in the larger story of her life and impact.

Bloomer edited and published The Lily, the first newspaper for and by women. Founded to promote temperance, it soon broadened to include some of the most important issues to women in that day, including the right to vote, and included contributions from thinkers like Elizabeth Cady Stanton. The groundbreaking paper brought the conversation from Seneca Falls right to the doorsteps of women across the expanding nation.

Bio: Sara Catterall is a writer with a Drama degree from NYU and an MLIS from Syracuse University. She was born in Ankara and grew up in South Minneapolis. She has worked as a librarian at Cornell University, as a reviewer and interviewer for Shelf Awareness, and as a professional book indexer. Her work has been published in the NEH’s Humanities magazine and The Sun magazine, and she co-authored Ottoman Dress and Design in the West: A Visual History of Cultural Exchange. She lives with her family near Ithaca, NY.

Bring your own lunch if you wish, and we will provide a beverage and dessert. Admission is free for members of the Cortland County Historical Society (CCHS) and $5 for CCHS members-to-be.
This event will take place at the former Free Methodist Church at 9 Grace Street, Cortland.
Please call 607-756-6071 with any questions.

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History