Keys to History

This photograph commemorated an important milestone in a Victorian woman's life--marriage. Marriage marked the point when a young woman left the protection of her father's home to become the responsibility of her husband. She took with her a trousseau (a dowry of embroidered linens), her hopes and her domestic guides. She was finally to run her own household, to create a domestic haven for her family. The reality must have been sobering. Due to the limited number of domestic servants in Canada, it was likely that she would do much of the housework herself. Perhaps that is why Canadian women were much more enthusiastic about new technologies and labour-saving devices than their British sisters.