Blue Stockings Society
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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The Blue Stockings Society was an informal women's social and educational movement in England in the mid-18th century, emphasising education and mutual cooperation. It was founded in the early 1750s by Elizabeth Montagu, Elizabeth Vesey and others as a literary discussion group, a step away from traditional, non-intellectual women's activities. Both men and women were invited to attend, including the botanist, translator and publisher Benjamin Stillingfleet, who was not rich enough to dress properly for the occasion and appeared in everyday blue worsted stockings. The term came to refer to the informal quality of the gatherings and the emphasis on conversation over fashion.
Hannah More, Frances Burney, Anna Laetitia Barbauld, Sarah Fielding, Hester Chapone, Ada Lovelace, Margaret Cavendish-Harley, Mary Delaney, Elizabeth Carter, Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, Samuel Johnson, Sir Joshua Reynolds, Edmund Burke, David Garrick, Horace Walpole, William Pulteney, James Beattie, Anna Williams, Hester Thrale, and Elizabeth Vesey were all part of the Bluestocking circle at one time or another.