A Latter-day Bluestocking

Image by extranoise via Flickr

Bluestocking, n.:  a term in use during the 18th and 19th centuries to describe a woman who exhibited a taste for learning, a woman who pursued intellectual and literary interests and was often derogatory.

According to the Oxford English Dictionary the term was in use in England as early as the 17th century and had a more mundane attribution.  Wearers of blue worsted stockings rather than the more fashionable black silk were held in contempt as not properly dressed and homely.  It was used often when referring to the plain puritanical dressed members of Parliament during the time of Cromwell’s Commonwealth.

In the 18th century and continuing into the 19th century, the expression was used to describe males and females who attended assemblies held at the homes of Mrs. Montague, Mrs. Vesey, and Mrs. Ord beginning around 1750.  These three ladies desired their gatherings to be less of card-playing and more about diversions of an intellectual slant.  Their parties were often frequented by the great literary men of the day.  Conversation was of literary subjects and formal dress was eschewed, many guests wearing home-spun blue worsted stockings, comfort rather than fashion being the objective.  The term gradually became the description of the learned ladies, having or affecting literary tastes, who frequented these gatherings.

It sounds to me, that these women were the nerds and geeks of their day and it is this notion that inspired this blog.  My intention is to create a cyber equivalent to these 18th and 19th century literary assemblies.