Many are the questions that plague a girl on the brink of womanhood or a new mother on the effective managing of a house of her very own. And with wonderful advice like this, it's a wonder we're here at all. If you are a woman, or simply know one, there's helpful advice on What You Can Do About It. Because, obviously, something must be done about it.

	Social Purity by J. H. Kellogg, M.D. A Purity Pledge. A Talk To Girls. by Mrs E. E. Kellogg, A.M. International Tract Society. Melbourne. Echo Publishing Co. no date. Not content with inventing the cornflake, Dr Kellogg and his wife decide to take a moral stand for young ladies. Fantastic euphamisms like "the beautiful snow" allude to virginity. Wild oats. Ignorance of parents. Increases of vice. There's nothing a girl can do right. Except Taker A Pledge. An evil boy is worse than leprosy. Fantastic engravings.
	Vitalogy. An Encylopedia of Health and Home. Adapted for the Home, the Layman, the Family by Frank M Colwell. Vitalogy Association, Chicago. 1927 Leather bound. Gold embossed cover. Curious transparent flypage with spiderweb and spider imprint. Before the Rolling Stones, Vitalogy was actually a book or more prcisely, 20 books bound in one cover, having already sold 500 000 copies before 1926. Illustrated with Manikins (natural colours). Sold by subscription only. Includes Nervous Diseases, Development of Womanhood, Internal Remedies, Contageous Diseases chart, Water Cure and New Discoveries (includes self-pollution and Your Child Born Either Bright or Stupid).
	A Handbook for Women on the Nuclear Mentality Ain't no where we can run by Susan Koen, Nina Swaim and Friends Haymark Foundation, USA.1980 Women's Lib is strong with this publication of angry women. Chaptersd include Eco-Feminsm, Patriachy and the nuclear mentality, and the effects of nuclear development on women.Lots of great information about the effects of radiation on women's body parts. A pretty great read urging women to get angry and stand up and be heard.
	On Becoming A Woman A Book For Teen-Age Girls by Harold Shryock, M.A., M.D. Review and Publishing Association, USA. 1951 Hard cover. Harold, being the Dean of the School of Mediecine and College of Medical Evangelists in California has some super advice for teenage girls including "Secrets About Boys," "How to be Friendly," "Secondhand Daydreams" and "Lest We Regret."
	The Dangerous Sex. The Myth of Feminine Evil. H.R. Hayes G.P. Putnam's Sons, New York. 1964 Being a woman is wrong. This is a lot of words to explain this. Chapters include Male and Female Men, God's Eunichs, Broad-hipped and Short-legged Race, The Bell Shaped Woman, The Menace of Fulfilment and more.
	The Joy Of Being A Woman- And What A Man Can Do by Ingrid Trobisch Editions Trobisch. Baden-Baden. Germany. 1977 First edition. Colour cover. Paperback. Religous and sexually explicit book about the joy of being a wife and enjoying your sexuality in relation to God- if you are a woman. Photo of the author on the back cover looking very pleased about something. Should possibly be in the "SEX" section.
	A Guide To Me and You A reliable Sex Education Booklet for the Early to Mid-teen Years Family Life Guide Book. 1975. Contents include What makes girls girls? What makes girls women? Being free. Discovering Sex, Learning to Love, Having a Purpose, Same Sex Crushes. Explained in simple terms for young adults using proper terms. A nice look at STDs. Some out of date ideas, but the basics are well explained.
	Oh, No Dear! Advice to Girls A Century Ago. Selected and complied by Roy Hindle. David and Charles Inc. USA. 1982. Answers from "The Girl's Own Paper" which was printed first in 1880. The absolutely best part of this book is that the questions sent in to the Paper are not included, just the answers; which leads to a bit of speculation about what exactly was the problem in some cases. Fabulous practical advice for many occasions, like if a girl wants to have a hysterical fit, take her to an empty room and leave her there to get on with it.
	Marriage and Birth Control A Book for the Married and Those About to Marry by Brenda Barwon Anglo-Eastern Publishing Co., London 1929 In the Sexual Science Series, it's No 4. Hard cover. 10th edition. Ten chapters on marriage and birth-control, abortion and God, including, "Moderation", "Dangers of Wrong Teaching" and "What is Being Done". Other books advertised at the back with stern moral titles like "Wedded Love or Married Misery" and "the Grip of the Venerial Microbe."
	The Female Woman by Arianna Stassinopoulos Fontanna/Collins. 1973 One woman's crusade to distroy Women's Lib. Germain Greer assertains the book asbsolutely does not. The emancipated woman brings liberation which would compel women into male roles by devaluing females one. Has a great chapter on being a male man and how hard it is to become one.
	The Practical Household Guide Fully Illustrated Odhams Press, London. n.d. "Money and labour-saving in Housekeeping: 1000 Household Hints arranged for quick reference and suggested Menus for every day in the year." Starting with advice on buying, renting, moving in etc and on to home decorations and D.I.Y. "How To Make a Fireless Cooker" and "How to Make a Hay Box," "Home v Motor Car," pets, having "people in" to keeping down your shopping bills.
	Household and Beauty Hints Hundreds of Tips on Cooking, Laundering, Cleaning, Glamor and Home First Aid An Invincible Press Publication Australia n.d. Paperback with colour cover of a mother and a culinary triumph. Black & white ads for household products front and back. "For the woman who takes pride in her home, sewing, personal glamor, likes a shining house and still keeps her beauty fresh and charming." No date, looks about 1950's at a guess.
	Ask Margaret Harwood by "Margaret Harwood" (not her real name) The Epworth Press, London. 1950 Hardcover first edition of readers asking Margaret Harwood questions of moral concern and her frank replies. Photgraph of author shows she could stand in for Margaret Thatcher easily. Topics include "Those Beauty Competitions,", "Sensible Shoes," "Mixed Marriages," "Sunday Cinemas and Liberty," "Spiritual Cannibalism," "The Cruelty of Parents" all of which she is down on and much more.
	Australian Etiquette The Rules of Good Society by Lillian M. Pykec Wilke & Co. Ltd. Melbourne. 1950 Includes courtship rituals, garden parties, funerals, letter writing and house parties and how a girl should behave is she is Presented in the Old Country. A suitable gift for a bride to her husband on their wedding day is a fountain pen, in case you were wondering.
	Simple Cookery Issued by Direction of the Hon. J. C. A. Pizzey, Minister for Education Department of Education, Queensland. SG Reid. Government Printer, Brisbane. n.d. Not so much looking like something done on an old Gestetner Machine than professionally printed. Paperback. b&w. Includes recipes, Notes on general kitchen hygiene and the composition of foodstuffs and vitamins.
	The Ladies Handbook of Home Treatment by Eulalia S. Richards, L.R.C.P. and S., Edin Signs Publishing Company, Victoria, Aust 1946. Revised and enlarged from 1939 edition with fold out anatomy pictures of a pregnant woman and lots of colour plates of colour drawings of childhood illnesses- like scabies. Chapters on Infectious Diseases, Dress & it's Relation to Health, On The Threshhold of Womanhood and Diseases of the External Genitals, Health of the Middle Age Woman and much, much more.
	A Medieval Home Companion Housekeeping in the Fourteenth Century translated and edited by Tania Bayard HarperTrade, New York. 1991 Hardcover. 14th century. "A fascinating window into the daily life of a medieval household," originally written as instruction manual for a 15 year old bride from her much older husband on the running of a household. Includes a great recipe for wolf poison and advice on how to choose "good eels."
	Witchcraft
	Warne's New Model Cookery Practical & Economical - Full information - Modern Methods Edited by Mrs Mabel Wijey Frederick Warne & Co, Ltd. London. 1926 Hardcover. First edition. Nearly 300 illustrations, of which ninety are in full colour, "reproduced specially from actual dishes prepared from Recipes described in the work." Sections on household work, marketing, care of food, labour saving devices, equipment & utensils, gas electric & other, methods of cookery, invalid cookery, preserves and pickles, beverages, carving, table arrangements, preparing menus and culinary terms. Recipes included. Some great ads at front and back cover including "Let Electricity Cook Your Food."
	A Dictionary of English Costume 900-1900 by C.W. & P.E. Cunnington and Charles Beard. Adam & Charles Black, London. 1960. An actual dictionary of terms used for garments, fabrics and their construction, including colour names and descriptions of fabrics, and what they may be called nowdays. Each reference is dated from when that fabric first became used. Out of print- try the library. Also by the same author, "Why Women Wear Clothes."
	Good Housekeeping's Mothercraft Complied by the Good Housekeeping Family Centre The Waverly Book Company Ltd London. 1959 First edition. Hardcover. Dust jacket missing. Contents sections include The First Baby, A Family of Youngsters, The Family Grows Up, Safe and Healthy and Entertaining at Home (which covers buffet parties for Young People to A Wedding in the Family. Everything from patterns for stylish clothing for the mother-to-be and the children, nursery decorating and sensible shoes. Section of baby names and meanings. Also "The child with a handicap." Mixed marriages are frowned upon.
	Instructions For Using Singer Sewing Machines Class No 201K (except 201K2) Rotating Hook, Reverse Feed. For Family Use. Form K4736 The Singer Manufacturing Co. Great Britain. n.d. Small instruction manual for the Singer sewing machine 201K. Includes dire warnings about using products only marked with the red Singer "S. B&W pictures of parts and sewing techniques. Chart of needles and sizes and what they are most suited for.
	Instructions For Using Singer Sewing Machines No 66 Oscillating Hook For Family Use Form K1783 (Revised) The Singer Manufacturing Co. Great Britain. 1929 Small instruction manual for the Singer sewing machine No 66, which is a treadle machine. Includes all the features of the sewing machine and ads front and back for The Singer Way Co "Sew by Electricity!" Includes xray views of machine and how to use the various attachments.
	The Ladies' Letter Writer A Guide to Correspondence On All Subjects Together With Commerical Forms Etc. Frederick Warne & Co. Ltd. London. n.d. Hardcover. No dust jacket. Includes an article on the Art of Letter Writing.This is the updated version from thirty years after the last book which does not include "stilted or verbose" language. It does include proper sample letters on every subject and even "Suggesting Marriage To A Gentleman Too Diffident To Propose."
	Notes on Laundry Work for use of girls in Day and Evening Classes by Mrs Lawrie, (Formerly Superintendent of Domestic Subjects Glasgow Education Authority) McDougall's Educational Co. Ltd. London. n.d. Much used paperback in the "Notes on" series. Many chemical compounds seem to be readily available in the household which includes oxalic acid, alum, parrafin, turpentine, methylated spirit, alkalies, potash etc.

 

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