Amelia Bloomer

Amelia Jenks Bloomer ( born May 27, 1818 in Homer, New York, † December 30, 1894 in Council Bluffs, Iowa) was an American women's rights activist.

Amelia Bloomer was at first a private tutor. She lived with her husband, Dexter Bloomer, editor and co-owner of the liberal Seneca County Courier, in Seneca Falls in upstate New York. There she was a member of the temperance movement. 1848 there the club Ladies Temperance Society was founded, whose board Bloomer belonged. As of 1849, the association issued its own magazine called The Lily Amelia Bloomer as an editor and sole editor. The magazine was published first as a small booklet in an edition of 300 copies maximum. 1850 Bloomer changed title and content of the paper and called it now The Lily. Devoted to the Interests of Women; it was now to purchase a subscription. In the aftermath Bloomers magazine as the mouthpiece of the American feminist movement and especially the reform of women's clothing has been known.

Amelia Bloomers name is associated with the efforts to reform the apparel since 1851, the women should give more freedom of movement and thus more opportunities for active participation in social, political and working life. These included the abolition of the corset, one at knee length skirt and a shortened under the skirt worn, ankle-length harem pants. , 1851, presented for the first time publicly a corresponding suit in front, which was named after her bloomer costume, even though she repeatedly emphasized that the actual inventor Elizabeth Smith Miller ( 1822-1909 ) was. These first woman pants met with women's keen interest, but were not accepted by the general public, but called forth scorn and derision. Almost ten years later resigned Bloomer and explained her attempt at reform failed.