The Lady of the House

Definition

The Irish retail trade and manufacturing sector underwent a mini-boom in the 1880s and 1890s, so the Dublin advertising company Wilson Hartnell knew exactly what it was doing when it founded The Lady of the Housein 1890. Intended initially as a monthly or bimonthly advertising vehicle with some editorial content, the magazine gained readers and expanded its features over its first decade. Although it showcased philanthropic, titled ladies in its early years, the readership, as is clear from reader engagement and advertising, were middle- to lower-middle-class women throughout the country who held some purchasing power but who did most or all of their own housework. The magazine leaned more toward reflecting the interests of this class in its editorial copy as it went forward into the twentieth century, but it remained carefully neutral in this decade of sharpening nationalist-unionist political tensions. Toward the end of the century, women from a variety of middle-class...