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Amelia Jenks Bloomer

1911 Encyclopedia Britannica

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AMELIA JENKS BLOOMER (1818-1894), American dressreformer and women's rights advocate, was born at Homer, New York, on the 27th of May 1818. After her marriage in 1840 she established a periodical called The Lily, which had some success. In 1849 she took up the idea-previously originated by Mrs Elizabeth Smith Miller-of a reform in woman's dress, and the wearing of a short skirt, with loose trousers, gathered round the ankles. The name of "bloomers" gradually became popularly attached to any divided-skirt or knickerbocker dress for women. Until her death on the 30th of December 1894 Mrs Bloomer took a prominent part in the temperance campaign and in that for woman's suffrage.