Bibliography

The respective image sources are indicated directly in the individual projects.

The primary source mostly quoted here is the magazine Town Topics. The Journal of Society, published in New York City, NY, from 1885 to 1937. The scans of the magazine were taken solely from the Everyday Life & Women in America archive, accessible via

https://www.everydaylife.amdigital.co.uk/research-tools/periodical-case-study-town-topics-1887-1923 

Creating the Public Figure

Early Forms Of Celebrity Culture And Parasocial Relationships

Secondary Sources

Boorstin, Daniel J. The Image: A Guide to Pseudo-Events in America. Vintage Books, 1961.

Derrick, Jaye L., Shira Gabriel, and Kent D. Hugenberg. “Social Surrogacy: How Favored Television Programs Provide the Experience of Belonging.” Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, Vol. 45, no. 2, 2009, pp. 352–362.

Epstein, Joseph. “The Culture of Celebrity.” The Hedgehog Review, Vol. 7, no. 1, Spring 2005, pp. 7–18.

Gabriel, Shira, et al. “Expressing Social Concerns Through Non-Human Media: The Impact of Social Surrogacy on Trust.” Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, Vol. 43, no. 4, 2017, pp. 463–476.

Gabriel, Shira, Nicole Valenti, and Ariana F. Young. “Social Surrogacy: How Being Reminded of a Favorite Celebrity Can Enhance Belongingness Needs.” Social and Personality Psychology Compass, Vol. 10, no. 9, 2016, pp. 525–535.

Giles, David. “Parasocial Interaction: A Review of the Literature and a Model for Future Research”. Media Psychology, Vol. 4, no. 3, 2002, pp. 279–305.

Gleich, Uli. Parasoziale Interaktionen und parasoziale Beziehungen mit Medienfiguren. 1997.

Hartmann, Tilo. „Parasoziale Interaktionen und Beziehungen.“ Andreas Fahr and Rainer Winterhoff-Spurk (eds.). Medienpsychologie. Springer, 2016, pp. 339–361.

—, et al. “Parasoziale Interaktionen und Beziehungen mit Medienfiguren: Stand der Forschung und Perspektiven.” Mangold, Ralf, et al. (eds.), Medien- und Kommunikationspsychologie. Kohlhammer, 2004, pp. 27–50.

Henderson, Amy. “Media and the Rise of Celebrity Culture.” OAH Magazine of History, Vol. 6, no. 4, 1992, pp. 49–54. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/25154085.

 “Nature and Scope.” Everyday Life and Women in America, www.everydaylife.amdigital.co.uk/introduction/nature-and-scope

Schweiger, Wolfgang. Theorien der Mediennutzung: Eine Einführung. UVK, 2007.

White, William Allen. The Autobiography of William Allen White. The Macmillan Company, 1946.

Primary Sources

Town Topics. The Journal of Society. 1905-1922

Vol. 54, No. 15 (October 12, 1905),
https://www.everydaylife.amdigital.co.uk/Documents/Detail/town-topics-v.-54-july-dec-1905/236485?item=236665

Vol. 60, No. 10 (September 3, 1908), https://www.everydaylife.amdigital.co.uk/Documents/Detail/town-topics-v.-60-july-dec-1908/238351?item=238440

Vol. 61, No. 22 (June 3, 1909),
https://www.everydaylife.amdigital.co.uk/Documents/Detail/town-topics-v.-61-jan-june-1909/238658?item=238885

Vol. 71, No. 3 ( January 15, 1914), https://www.everydaylife.amdigital.co.uk/Documents/Detail/town-topics-v.-71-jan-june-1914/241708?item=241741

Vol. 72, No. 13 (September 24, 1914),
https://www.everydaylife.amdigital.co.uk/Documents/Detail/town-topics-v.-72-july-dec-1914/242019?item=242136

Vol. 73, No. 5 (February 4, 1915),
https://www.everydaylife.amdigital.co.uk/Documents/Detail/town-topics-v.-73-jan-june-1915/242369?item=242420

Vol. 79, No. 12 (March 21, 1918),
https://www.everydaylife.amdigital.co.uk/Documents/Detail/town-topics-v.-79-1918/244193?item=244317

Vol. 83, No. 14 (April 1, 1920),
https://www.everydaylife.amdigital.co.uk/Documents/Detail/town-topics-v.-83-jan-june-1920/245282?item=245486

Vol. 85, No. 16 (April 21, 1921),
https://www.everydaylife.amdigital.co.uk/Documents/Detail/town-topics-v.-85-jan-june-1921/245902?item=246121

Vol. 87, No. 12 (March 23, 1922), https://www.everydaylife.amdigital.co.uk/Documents/Detail/town-topics-v.-87-jan-june-1922/246525?item=246680

Vol. 87, No. 16 (April 20, 1922),
https://www.everydaylife.amdigital.co.uk/Documents/Detail/town-topics-v.-87-jan-june-1922/246525?item=246734

Framing Evelyn Nesbit

Rich and Murderous

Primary Sources

Town Topics, The Journal of Society. 1903-1917. 

Vol. 49 No. 6 (February 5, 1903), https://www.everydaylife.amdigital.co.uk/Documents/Detail/town-topics-v.-49-jan-june-1903/234757?item=234822

Vol. 51 No. 1 (January 7, 1904), https://www.everydaylife.amdigital.co.uk/Documents/Detail/town-topics-v.-51-1904/235467?item=235468 

Vol. 53 No. 6 (February 9, 1905), https://www.everydaylife.amdigital.co.uk/Documents/Detail/town-topics-v.-53-jan-june-1905/236153?item=236217 

Vol. 54 No. 15 (October 12, 1905), https://www.everydaylife.amdigital.co.uk/Documents/Detail/town-topics-v.-54-july-dec-1905/236485?item=236665  

Vol. 55 No. 3 (January 18, 1906),  https://www.everydaylife.amdigital.co.uk/Documents/Detail/town-topics-v.-55-jan-june-1906/236840?item=236861

Vol. 56 No. 1 (July 5, 1906),    https://www.everydaylife.amdigital.co.uk/Documents/Detail/town-topics-v.-56-july-dec-1906/237132?item=237139   

Vol. 57 No. 8 (February 21, 1907), https://www.everydaylife.amdigital.co.uk/Documents/Detail/town-topics-v.-57-jan-june-1907/237451?item=237534   

Vol. 58 No. 1 (July 4, 1907),    https://www.everydaylife.amdigital.co.uk/Documents/Detail/town-topics-v.-58-july-dec-1907/237738     

 Vol. 59 No. 1 (January 2, 1908), https://www.everydaylife.amdigital.co.uk/Documents/Detail/town-topics-v.-59-jan-june-1908/238069?item=238074    

Vol. 60 No. 22 (November 26, 1908), http://everydaylife.amdigital.co.uk/Documents/Detail/town-topics-v.-60-july-dec-1908/238351?item=238558     

Vol. 62 No. 8 (August 19, 1909), http://everydaylife.amdigital.co.uk/Documents/Detail/town-topics-v.-62-july-dec-1909/238920?item=238990

Vol. 64 No. 16 (October 20, 1910),  https://www.everydaylife.amdigital.co.uk/Documents/Detail/town-topics-v.-64-july-dec-1910/239515?item=239659

Vol. 67 No. 20 (May 16, 1912), https://www.everydaylife.amdigital.co.uk/Documents/Detail/town-topics-v.-67-jan-june-1912/240386?item=240623

Vol. 70 No. 9 (August 28, 1913), https://www.everydaylife.amdigital.co.uk/Documents/Detail/town-topics-v.-70-july-dec-1913/241418?item=241498  

Vol. 71 No. 3 (January 15, 1914), https://www.everydaylife.amdigital.co.uk/Documents/Detail/town-topics-v.-71-jan-june-1914/241708?item=241741  

Vol. 72 No. 27 (December 31, 1914), https://www.everydaylife.amdigital.co.uk/Documents/Detail/town-topics-v.-72-july-dec-1914/242019?item=242361  

Vol. 74 No. 20 (November 11, 1915), https://www.everydaylife.amdigital.co.uk/Documents/Detail/town-topics-v.-74-1915/242636?item=242828  

Vol. 76 No. 25 (December 21,1916), https://www.everydaylife.amdigital.co.uk/Documents/Detail/town-topics-v.-76-1916/243224?item=243569 

Vol. 77 No. 4 (January 25, 1917), https://www.everydaylife.amdigital.co.uk/Documents/Detail/town-topics-v.-77-jan-june-1917/243588?item=243624    

The New York Times. 1902-1908

“What is doing in Society.” The New York Times. Jan. 29, 1902, https://www.nytimes.com/1902/01/29/archives/what-is-doing-in-society.html?searchResultPosition=1

“Earl of Yarmouth wins Miss Thaw; Titled English Actor and American Heiress Will Wed. Acquaintance Began Three Months Ago — Bride-Elect Worth $1,000,000, and Will Inherit More Millions.” The New York Times. Feb. 18, 1903, https://www.nytimes.com/1903/02/18/archives/earl-of-yarmouth-wins-miss-thaw-titled-english-actor-and-american.html?searchResultPosition=2

“Society in Washington.” The New York Times. March 1, 1903, https://www.nytimes.com/1903/03/01/archives/society-in-washington.html?searchResultPosition=3

“Passing fancies in the World of Women.” The New York Times. Aug. 21, 1904, https://www.nytimes.com/1904/08/21/archives/passing-fancies-in-the-world-of-women.html?searchResultPosition=4

“Harry Thaw called Home.; May Lose $77,500 a Year If Chorus Girl Is His Bride.” The New York Times. Oct. 31, 1904, https://www.nytimes.com/1904/10/31/archives/harry-thaw-called-home-may-lose-77500-a-year-if-chorus-girl-is-his.html?searchResultPosition=5

“Ultimatum to Harry.; Must Comply at Once with Family’s Demands or Lose $77,500 a Year.” The New York Times. Nov. 6, 1904, https://www.nytimes.com/1904/11/06/archives/ultimatum-to-harry-thaw-must-comply-at-once-with-familys-demands-or.html?searchResultPosition=7

“Harry Thaw quits Pittsburg.; Had Talk with Mother and Says He’s Never Going Back.” The New York Times. Nov. 17, 1904, https://www.nytimes.com/1904/11/17/archives/harry-thaw-quits-pittsburg-had-talk-with-mother-and-says-hes-never.html?searchResultPosition=8

“Harry Thaw dodged Parsons.; Mother Entertained Clergymen, but They Didn’t See the Son.” The New York Times. Nov. 25, 1904, https://www.nytimes.com/1904/11/25/archives/harry-thaw-dodged-parsons-mother-entertained-clergymen-but-they.html?searchResultPosition=9

“All watching Thaw to See how He Acts; Police Unable to Find Anything Greatly Irrational in Him. Crazy, McIntosh declares He Also Says Thaw Threatened a Real Estate Man on the Street on Monday Afternoon.” The New York Times. June 27, 1906, https://www.nytimes.com/1906/06/27/archives/all-watching-thaw-to-see-how-he-acts-police-unable-to-find-anything.html?searchResultPosition=11

“Sane, Pittsburg Believes.; But Young Thaw Was a Heavy Smoker and Drank a Good Deal.” The New York Times. June 27, 1906, https://www.nytimes.com/1906/06/27/archives/all-watching-thaw-to-see-how-he-acts-police-unable-to-find-anything.html?searchResultPosition=11

“Murderer’s Row gets Harry Thaw; Formally Charged with Killing Stanford White. Defense to be Insanity. Stories of Insults Offered to the Wife. White wrote Mrs. Thaw Lawyers, at Least, Are Said to Have a Recent Letter — Handcuffs on the Prisoner.” The New York Times. June 27, 1906, https://www.nytimes.com/1906/06/27/archives/murderers-row-gets-harry-thaw-formally-charged-with-killing.html?searchResultPosition=13

“Many Misfortunes of the Thaw Family; Son’s Escapades Have Long Made Mrs. Thaw Unhappy. Her Husband was Convivial And Had Two Homes — Mrs. Thaw Sued for $25,000 — Sister-in-Law a Maniac — House Robbed.” The New York Times. June 27, 1906, https://www.nytimes.com/1906/06/27/archives/many-misfortunes-of-the-thaw-family-sons-escapades-have-long-made.html?searchResultPosition=14

“Thaw getting $70,000 a year.; His Mother Gave Him This — Father’s Will Withheld Son’s Share.” The New York Times. June 28, 1906, https://www.nytimes.com/1906/06/28/archives/thaw-getting-70000-a-year-his-mother-gave-him-this-fathers-will.html?searchResultPosition=15

“Dr. Eaton on the Murder; Rockefeller Pastor Says It Shows a Rotten Social Condition Here.” The New York Times. June 29, 1906, https://www.nytimes.com/1906/06/29/archives/dr-eaton-on-the-murder-rockefeller-pastor-says-it-shows-a-rotten.html?searchResultPosition=17

“Mrs. Thaw Active in Aiding Defense; Prepares a Long Statement Bearing on the Crime.  Finds girls to testify Her Husband Pleads Not Guilty — White Said to Have Been Heavily in Debt.” The New York Times. June 30, 1906, https://www.nytimes.com/1906/06/30/archives/mrs-thaw-active-in-aiding-defense-prepares-a-long-statement-bearing.html?searchResultPosition=18

“White’s Detectives had Trailed Thaw’s; The Architect Greatly Alarmed by Other’s Surveillance. Watch even on murder night Thaw’s Counsel Now Says a Note Was Passed by His Wife in the Cafe Martin. White’s Detectives had Trailed Thaw’s.” The New York Times. July 1, 1906, https://www.nytimes.com/1906/07/01/archives/whites-detectives-had-trailed-thaws-the-architect-greatly-alarmed.html?searchResultPosition=19

“Ceremony not Mentioned.; Not Married Before, the Record of the Thaw License Says.”   The New York Times. July 4, 1906, https://www.nytimes.com/1906/07/04/archives/ceremony-not-mentioned-not-married-before-the-record-of-the-thaw.html?searchResultPosition=20

“Insanity in Thaw’s Family.; Pittsburg Supplies a Few Stories to Prove Harry Irresponsible.” The New York Times. Feb. 6, 1907, https://www.nytimes.com/1907/02/06/archives/insanity-in-thaws-family-pittsburg-supplies-a-few-stories-to-prove.html?searchResultPosition=57

“Thaw Mistrail; Jury was 7 to 5; Majority for Conviction After Forty-seven Hours of Deliberation. The Prisoner is Brave. Bitterly Disappointed but Shows No Breakdown in Court. New Trial in October. Jerome Says It Can’t Be Before That — Will Oppose Release on Bail. Crowds Awaited Verdict. Cheered Thaw’s Wife and Family When They Left After Hearing of Disagreement.” The New York Times, April 13, 1907, https://www.nytimes.com/1907/04/13/archives/thaw-mistrial-jury-was-7-to-5-majority-for-conviction-after.html?searchResultPosition=67 

“Littleton Pleads Insanity for Thaw; Defense Asks His Acquittal for the Murder of Stanford White Because He Was Not Responsible. Bitter attack on Jerome Defendant’s Counsel Criticises the District Attorney and Defends Evelyn Nesbit — Big Crowd in Court.” The New York Times, Jan.30, 1908, https://www.nytimes.com/1908/01/30/archives/littleton-pleads-insanity-for-thaw-defense-asks-his-acquittal-for.html?searchResultPosition=64

Secondary Sources            

Hafemeister, Thomas L. Criminal Trials and Mental Disorders. New York, 2019, pp. 210-236. https://doi.org/10.18574/nyu/9781479804856.001.0001 

Meretoja, Hanna. “The Ethical Potential and Risks of Narratives: Six Evaluative Continuums (and Sofi Oksanen’s Open Letter to Melania Trump)”. Narrative Values, the Value of Narratives, Vol. 91, 2024, pp. 23-40.

Merry, Sally Engle. “Rethinking Gossip and Scandal.” Toward a General Theory of Social Control, vol. 1, 1984, pp. 271–296.

Pinta, E.R. “Examining Harry Thaw’s “Brain-Storm” Defense: APA and ANA Presidents as Expert Witnesses in a 1907 TrialPsychiatr Q Vol. 79, 2008, pp. 83-89. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11126-007-9054-y 

Secondary Sources

Lilti, Antoine. The Invention of Celebrity. 1750-1850. Translated by Lynn Jeffress, Polity, 2017.

Montgomery, Maureen E. Displaying Women. Spectacles of Leisure in Edith Wharton’s New York. Routledge, 1998.

Ohmann, Richard.  Selling Culture: Magazines, Markets, and Class at the Turn of the Century. Verso, 1996.

Roosevelt Longworth, Alice. Crowded Hours: Reminiscences. C. Scribner’s Sons, 1933.

Rozek, Stacy A. “’ The First Daughter of the Land:’ Alice Roosevelt as Presidential Celebrity, 1902-1906.” Presidential Studies Quarterly, vol. 19, no. 1, 1989, pp. 51-70. JSTOR, https://www.jstor.org/stable/40574564.

The Princess of the White House – Alice Roosevelt’s Rise to Celebrity

On Town Topics

How the "Saunterer" Gossips

Primary Sources

Town Topics. The Journal of Society. 1888-1937

Vol. 20 No. 25 (December 20, 1888), https://www.everydaylife.amdigital.co.uk/Documents/Detail/town-topics– v.-20-july-dec-1888/223728

Vol. 42 No. 7 (August 17, 1899), https://www.everydaylife.amdigital.co.uk/Documents/Detail/town-topics-v.-42-1899/232596

Vol. 62 No. 1 (July 1, 1909), https://www.everydaylife.amdigital.co.uk/Documents/Detail/town-topics-v.-62-july-dec-1909/238920

Vol. 76 No. 1 (July 6, 1916), https://www.everydaylife.amdigital.co.uk/Documents/Detail/town-topics-v.-76-1916/243224

Vol. 84 No. 19 (November 4, 1920), https://www.everydaylife.amdigital.co.uk/Documents/Detail/town-topics-v.-84-july-dec-1920/245623

Vol. 105 No. 26 (February 6, 1936), https://www.everydaylife.amdigital.co.uk/Documents/Detail/town-topics-v.-105-feb-1936-nov-1937/222172

Secondary Sources

Abrahams, Roger D. “A Performance-Centred Approach to Gossip.” Man, vol. 5, no. 2, 1970, pp. 290–301. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/2799654

Baker, C. Edwin. “Autonomy and informational privacy, or Gossip: The central meaning of the First Amendment.” Social Philosophy and Policy 21.2, 2004, pp. 215–268. Web.

Batchelor, K., Rushek, K. & Beaumont, J. “Spilling tea: A critical feminist reclamation of gossip in literature and media”. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, vol. 68, 2024, pp. 68–76.

Dunbar, R. I. M. “Gossip in Evolutionary Perspective”. Review of General Psychology, vol. 8, no. 2, 2004, pp. 100-110. https://doi.org/10.1037/1089-2680.8.2.100

Fine, G. A., & Rosnow, R. L. (). “Gossip, Gossipers, Gossiping”. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, vol. 4, no. 1, 1978, pp. 161-168. https://doi.org/10.1177/014616727800400135 

Gluckman, Max. “Papers in Honor of Melville J. Herskovits: Gossip and Scandal.” Current Anthropology, vol. 4, no. 3, 1963, pp. 307–16. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/2739613.

Godkin, Edwin Lawrence. “The rights of the citizen.” Scribners, 1890, pp. 58-67.

Holland, Margaret G. “What’s Wrong with Telling the Truth? An Analysis of Gossip.” American Philosophical Quarterly, vol. 33, no. 2, 1996, pp. 197–209. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/20009858.

Merry, Sally Engle. “Rethinking Gossip and Scandal”. Toward a General Theory of Social Control. Academic Press, Inc., vol. 1, 1984, pp. 271-302.

Paine, Robert. “What Is Gossip About? An Alternative Hypothesis.” Man, vol. 2, no. 2, 1967, pp. 278–85. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/2799493.

Veblen, Thorstein. The Theory of the Leisure Class: An Economic Study of Institutions. Macmillan, 1912.

Warren, Samuel D., and Louis D. Brandeis. “The Right to Privacy.” Harvard Law Review, vol. 4, no. 5, 1890, pp. 193–220. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/1321160

Williamson, Milly. “Celebrity, gossip, privacy, and scandal”. The Routledge companion to media and gender. Routledge, 2014, pp. 311-320.

Primary Sources

Vol. 17, No. 1 (January 6, 1998), https://www.everydaylife.amdigital.co.uk/Documents/Detail/town-topics-v.-17-1887/222558

Vol. 19, No. 1 (January 5, 1888),  https://www.everydaylife.amdigital.co.uk/Documents/Detail/town-topics-v.-19-jan-june-1888/223488

Vol. 21, No. 1 (January 3, 1889),

Vol. 23, No. 1 (January 2, 1890),   https://www.everydaylife.amdigital.co.uk/Documents/Detail/town-topics-v.-23-jan-june-1890/225103

Vol. 25, No. 1 (January 1, 1891), https://www.everydaylife.amdigital.co.uk/Documents/Detail/town-topics-v.-25-jan-june-1891/226007

Vol. 27, No. 1 (January 7, 1892),

Vol. 29, No. 1 (January 5, 1893), https://www.everydaylife.amdigital.co.uk/Documents/Detail/town-topics-v.-29-jan-june-1893/227305

Vol. 31, No. 1 (January 4, 1894), https://www.everydaylife.amdigital.co.uk/Documents/Detail/town-topics-v.-31-jan-june-1894/227909

Vol. 33, No. 1 (January 5, 1895), https://www.everydaylife.amdigital.co.uk/Documents/Detail/town-topics-v.-33-jan-june-1895/228552

Vol. 35, No. 1 (January 2, 1896), https://www.everydaylife.amdigital.co.uk/Documents/Detail/town-topics-v.-35-jan-june-1896/229575

Vol. 37, No. 1 (January 7, 1897), https://www.everydaylife.amdigital.co.uk/Documents/Detail/town-topics-v.-37-jan-july-1897/230730

Vol. 39, No. 1 (January 6, 1898), https://www.everydaylife.amdigital.co.uk/Documents/Detail/town-topics-v.-39-jan-june-1898/231661

Vol. 41, No. 1 (January 5, 1899), https://www.everydaylife.amdigital.co.uk/Documents/Detail/town-topics-v.-41-1899/232297

Vol. 43, No. 1 (January 4, 1900), https://www.everydaylife.amdigital.co.uk/Documents/Detail/town-topics-v.-43-1900/232890

Vol. 45, No. 1 (January 3, 1901),

Vol. 47, (1902), https://www.everydaylife.amdigital.co.uk/Documents/Detail/town-topics-v.-47-1902/234066.

Vol. 49, No. 1 (January 1, 1903), https://www.everydaylife.amdigital.co.uk/Documents/Detail/town-topics-v.-49-jan-june-1903/234757

Vol. 51, No. 1 (January 7, 1904),  https://www.everydaylife.amdigital.co.uk/Documents/Detail/town-topics-v.-51-1904/235467?item=235468

Vol. 53, No. 1 (January 5, 1905), https://www.everydaylife.amdigital.co.uk/Documents/Detail/town-topics-v.-53-jan-june-1905/236153

Vol. 55, No. 1 (January 4, 1906), https://www.everydaylife.amdigital.co.uk/Documents/Detail/town-topics-v.-55-jan-june-1906/236840?item=236861

Secondary Sources

Navon, Daniel. “Truth in Advertising: Rationalizing Ads and Knowing Consumers in the Early Twentieth-Century United States.” Theory and Society, vol. 46, no. 2, 2017, pp. 143–76.

Pope, Daniel. The Making of Modern Advertising. Basic Books, 1983.

Schorman, Rob. “The Truth About Good Goods: Clothing, Advertising, and the Representation of Cultural Values at the End of the Nineteenth Century.” American Studies, vol. 37, no. 1, 1996, pp. 23–49.

Veblen, Thorstein. The Theory of the Leisure Class: An Economic Study of Institutions.  Macmillan, 1912.

Selling Status

Town Topics’ Downfall – Significant Libel Cases

Secondary Sources

Caldwell, Mark. A Short History of Rudeness: Manners, Morals, and Misbehavior in Modern America. Picador, 1999.

Logan, Andy. “Town Topics (Part 1).” The New Yorker, August 14, 1965,  www.newyorker.com/magazine/1965/08/14/town-topics.

—. “Town Topics (Part 2).” The New Yorker, August 21, 1965, www.newyorker.com/magazine/1965/08/21/town-topics-2.

Developing Social Attitudes

Insanity in Town Topics

Primary Sources

Town Topics. The Journal of Society. 1887 – 1923

 Vol. 17 No. 7 (February 17, 1887), https://www.everydaylife.amdigital.co.uk/Documents/Detail/town-topics-v.-17-1887/222558

Vol. 18 No. 3 (July 21, 1887),  https://www.everydaylife.amdigital.co.uk/Documents/Detail/town-topics-v.-18-july-dec-1887/222984

Vol. 19 No.14 (April 5, 1888), https://www.everydaylife.amdigital.co.uk/Documents/Detail/town-topics-v.-19-jan-june-1888/223488

Vol. 20 No.25 (December 20, 1888), https://www.everydaylife.amdigital.co.uk/Documents/Detail/town-topics-v.-20-july-dec-1888/223728

Vol. 22 No.1 (July 4, 1889),     https://www.everydaylife.amdigital.co.uk/Documents/Detail/town-topics-v.-22-july-dec-1889/224630

Vol. 23 No.16 (April 17, 1890), https://www.everydaylife.amdigital.co.uk/Documents/Detail/town-topics-v.-23-jan-june-1890/225103

Vol. 25 No.15 (April 9, 1891), https://www.everydaylife.amdigital.co.uk/Documents/Detail/town-topics-v.-25-jan-june-1891/226007

 Vol. 26 No.1 (July 2, 1891),    https://www.everydaylife.amdigital.co.uk/Documents/Detail/town-topics-v.-26-july-dec-1891/226295

Vol. 29 No.2 (January 12, 1893), https://www.everydaylife.amdigital.co.uk/Documents/Detail/town-topics-v.-29-jan-june-1893/227305

Vol. 30 No.5 (August 3, 1893), https://www.everydaylife.amdigital.co.uk/Documents/Detail/town-topics-v.-30-july-dec-1893/227616

Vol. 31 No.1 (June 4, 1894),    https://www.everydaylife.amdigital.co.uk/Documents/Detail/town-topics-v.-31-jan-june-1894/227909

Vol. 33 No.24 (June 13, 1895), https://www.everydaylife.amdigital.co.uk/Documents/Detail/town-topics-v.-33-jan-june-1895/228552

 Vol. 34 No.1 (July 4, 1895),    https://www.everydaylife.amdigital.co.uk/Documents/Detail/town-topics-v.-34-july-dec-1895/229223

Vol. 35 No.1 (January 2, 1896), https://www.everydaylife.amdigital.co.uk/Documents/Detail/town-topics-v.-35-jan-june-1896/229575

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New Money during the Gilded Age

“The love for the poppy never dies” – The Discussion of Opium in Town Topics

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Kane, H. H. “American Opium-Smokers.” Harper’s Weekly, Sept. 24, 1881, p. 646. The Chinese-American Experience: 1857–1892, https://immigrants.harpweek.com/chineseamericans/Items/Item061L.htm.

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Vol. 42, no. 7 , August 17, 1899. https://www.everydaylife.amdigital.co.uk/Documents/Detail/town-topics-v.-42-1899/232596?item=232653

Vol. 44, no. 23 December 6, 1900.  https://www.everydaylife.amdigital.co.uk/Documents/Detail/town-topics-v.-44-1900/233176?item=233395

Vol. 69, no. 15, April 10, 1913.  https://www.everydaylife.amdigital.co.uk/Documents/Detail/town-topics-v.-69-jan-june-1913/240997?item=241174

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Vol. 82, no. 1, July 3, 1919.  https://www.everydaylife.amdigital.co.uk/Documents/Detail/town-topics-v.-82-july-dec.-1919/245022

Vol. 89, no. 12, March 22, 1923.  https://www.everydaylife.amdigital.co.uk/Documents/Detail/town-topics-v.-89-jan-june-1923/247190?item=247327

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Town Topics: The Journal of Society. 1913–1919. Everyday Life & Women in America (ELWA).

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Vol. 70, no. 22, 27 Nov. 1913.
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Vol. 71, no. 1, 1 Jan. 1914.
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Vol. 71, no. 18, 30 Apr. 1914.
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Vol. 71, no. 24,11 June 1914.
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Vol. 72, no. 5, 30 July 1914.
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Vol. 72, no. 6, 6 Aug. 1914.
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Vol. 72, no. 7, 13 Aug. 1914.
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Vol. 72, no. 11, 10 Sep. 1914.
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Vol. 73, no. 19, 13 May 1915.
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Vol. 84, no. 13, 23 Sep. 1922.
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The Socialite's Map – Ads and Travel Reports at the Onset of WWI

How To Be a Proper Member of High Society

Hemlines & Headlines

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Town Topics: The Journal of Society. 1890-1901

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Vol. 37, No. 2. (January 14, 1897),  www.everydaylife.amdigital.co.uk/Documents/Detail/230730?item=230765.

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“Gauze.” Dictionary.com, www.dictionary.com/browse/gauze.

Marshall, Peter. “Flashback: The Dress Shirt Protector.” Gentleman’s Gazette, December 6, 2013, www.gentlemansgazette.com/flashback-the-dress-shirt-protector/

Merry, Sally Engle. “Rethinking Gossip and Scandal.” Toward a General Theory of Social Control, vol. 1, 1984, pp. 271–296.

Montgomery, Maureen E. Displaying Women. Spectacles of Leisure in Edith Wharton’s New York. Routledge, 1998.

“Muffler.” Dictionary.com, www.dictionary.com/browse/muffler

Sansom, Ian. “A Brief History of the Mackintosh: How the Raincoat Came in from the Cold.” The Guardian, October 12, 2023, www.theguardian.com/news/2023/oct/12/history-mackintosh-raincoat-charles-macintosh.

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Town Topics. The Journal of Society. 1909-1937

Vol. 62 No. 1 (July 1, 1909),     https://www.everydaylife.amdigital.co.uk/Documents/Detail/town-topics-v.-62-july-dec-1909/238920?item=238921

Vol. 72 No. 11 (September 10, 1914), https://www.everydaylife.amdigital.co.uk/Documents/Detail/town-topics-v.-72-july-dec-1914/242019?item=242116

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Vol. 88 No. 4 (July 27, 1922),
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Vol. 105 No. 26 (February 6, 1936), https://www.everydaylife.amdigital.co.uk/Documents/Detail/town-topics-v.-105-feb-1936-nov-1937/222172?item=222176

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Maiorano, Hannah. “Women of Divorce in High Society.” MollyBrown.org, Molly Brown House Museum, ca. 2017. https://mollybrown.org/women-divorce-high-society/.

Merry, Sally Engle. “Rethinking Gossip and Scandal.” Toward a General Theory of Social Control, vol. 1, 1984, pp. 271–296.

Montgomery, Maureen E. Displaying Women: Spectacles of Leisure in Edith Wharton’s New York. Routledge, 1998.

Paley, Maggie. New York Times, March 29, 1992, Section 7, Page 18. NYTimes.com, https://www.nytimes.com/1992/03/29/books/money-doesnt-hurt.html.

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Scandal Coverage – Reputation in Town Topics

Social Calendar

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Town Topics. The Journal of Society. 1881–1901

Vol. 22 No. 21 (November 21, 1889), https://www.everydaylife.amdigital.co.uk/Documents/Detail/town-topics-v.-22-july-dec-1889/224630?item=225003

Vol. 25 No. 4 (January 22, 1891), https://www.everydaylife.amdigital.co.uk/Documents/Detail/town-topics-v.-25-jan-june-1891/226007?item=226064

Vol. 26 No. 19 (November 5, 1891), https://www.everydaylife.amdigital.co.uk/Documents/Detail/town-topics-v.-26-july-dec-1891/226295?item=226626

Vol. 29 No. 1 (January 5, 1893), https://www.everydaylife.amdigital.co.uk/Documents/Detail/town-topics-v.-29-jan-june-1893/227305?item=227306

Vol. 40 No. 1 (July 7, 1898), https://www.everydaylife.amdigital.co.uk/Documents/Detail/town-topics-v.-40-july-dec-1898/231972?item=231978

Vol. 45 No. 1 (January 3, 1901), https://www.everydaylife.amdigital.co.uk/Documents/Detail/town-topics-v.-45-1901/233467?item=233473

The New York Times. 1890-1894

“Dance of the Patriarchs.” The New York Times, February 6, 1894, https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1894/02/06/106866465.html?pageNumber=3.    

“The Patriarch’s Dance” The New York Times, December 11, 1894 https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1894/12/11/106844030.html?pageNumber=9

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“The coming Charity Ball.” The New York Times, January 22, 1899 https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1899/01/22/120264373.html?pageNumber=16 

Secondary Sources

Bateman, Kristen. “Princesses and Hollywood Royalty: See All the Debs of 2024’s Le Bal Des Débutantes.” Vogue, December 1, 2024, www.vogue.com/slideshow/see-all-the-debs-of-2024s-le-bal-des-debutantes.

Richardson, Kristen. The Season. A Social History of the Debutante. W.W. Norton & Company, 2019.

Lai, Mei-En. Social status, the Patriarch and Assembly Balls, and the transformation in elite identity in Gilded Age New York. 2013. Simon Fraser University, M.A. thesis. Summit Research Repository, https://summit.sfu.ca/item/13746

Kilcup, Karen. “Essays of Invention. Transformations of Advice in Nineteenth-Century American Women’s Writing.” Nineteenth-Century American Women’s Writers. A Critical Reader, edited by Karen L. Kilcup, Blackwell Publishers, 1998, 184-205

Kasson, John F. Rudeness & Civility: Manners in Nineteenth-Century Urban America. Hill and Wang, 1999.

Primary Sources

Town Topics. The Journal of Society. 1894-1919

Vol. 32, No.1 (July 5, 1894), https://www.everydaylife.amdigital.co.uk/Documents/Detail/town-topics-v.-32-july-dec-1894/228221.

Vol. 33, No.1 (January 3, 1885), https://www.everydaylife.amdigital.co.uk/Documents/Detail/town-topics-v.-33-jan-june-1895/228552.

Vol. 34 No.11 (September 12, 1895),  https://www.everydaylife.amdigital.co.uk/Documents/Detail/town-topics-v.-34-july-dec-1895/229223.

Vol. 35 No.1 (January 2, 1896), https://www.everydaylife.amdigital.co.uk/Documents/Detail/town-topics-v.-35-jan-june-1896/229575.

Vol. 36 No.1 (July 2, 1896), https://www.everydaylife.amdigital.co.uk/Documents/Detail/town-topics-v.-36-july-dec-1896/230162.

Vol. 37 No.1 (January 7, 1897), https://www.everydaylife.amdigital.co.uk/Documents/Detail/town-topics-v.-37-jan-july-1897/230730.

Vol. 38 No.1 (July 8, 1897), https://www.everydaylife.amdigital.co.uk/Documents/Detail/town-topics-v.-38-july-8-dec-30-1897/231320.

Vol. 42 No.1 (July 6, 1899), https://www.everydaylife.amdigital.co.uk/Documents/Detail/town-topics-v.-42-1899/232596.

Vol. 46 No.1 (July 4, 1901), https://www.everydaylife.amdigital.co.uk/Documents/Detail/town-topics-v.-46-1901/233760.

Vol. 47 No.1 (January 2, 1902), https://www.everydaylife.amdigital.co.uk/Documents/Detail/town-topics-v.-47-1902/234066.

Vol. 49 No.1 (January 1, 1903), https://www.everydaylife.amdigital.co.uk/Documents/Detail/town-topics-v.-49-jan-june-1903/234757.

Vol. 50 No.1 (July 2, 1903,  https://www.everydaylife.amdigital.co.uk/Documents/Detail/town-topics-v.-50-july-dec-1903/235091.

Vol. 54 No.1 (July 6, 1905), https://www.everydaylife.amdigital.co.uk/Documents/Detail/town-topics-v.-54-july-dec-1905/236485.

Vol. 61 No.22 (June 3, 1909),  https://www.everydaylife.amdigital.co.uk/Documents/Detail/town-topics-v.-61-jan-june-1909/238658.

Vol. 62 No.26 (July 1,1909), https://www.everydaylife.amdigital.co.uk/Documents/Detail/town-topics-v.-62-july-dec-1909/238920.

Vol. 63 No.1 (January 6, 1910), https://www.everydaylife.amdigital.co.uk/Documents/Detail/town-topics-v.-63-jan-june-1910/239228.

Vol. 64 No.1 (July 7, 1910), https://www.everydaylife.amdigital.co.uk/Documents/Detail/town-topics-v.-64-july-dec-1910/239515.

Vol. 65 No.1 (January 5, 1911),  https://www.everydaylife.amdigital.co.uk/Documents/Detail/town-topics-v.-65-jan-june-1911/239798.

Vol. 66 No.1 (July 6, 1911), https://www.everydaylife.amdigital.co.uk/Documents/Detail/town-topics-v.-66-july-dec-1911/240100.

Vol. 67 No.1 (January 4, 1912), https://www.everydaylife.amdigital.co.uk/Documents/Detail/town-topics-v.-67-jan-june-1912/240386.

Vol. 68 No.1 (July 4, 1912), https://www.everydaylife.amdigital.co.uk/Documents/Detail/town-topics-v.-68-july-dec-1912/240697.

Vol. 69 No.1 (January 2, 1913),  https://www.everydaylife.amdigital.co.uk/Documents/Detail/town-topics-v.-69-jan-june-1913/240997.

Vol. 71 No.3 (January 15, 1914), https://www.everydaylife.amdigital.co.uk/Documents/Detail/town-topics-v.-71-jan-june-1914/241708.

Vol. 72 No.1 (July 2, 1914), https://www.everydaylife.amdigital.co.uk/Documents/Detail/town-topics-v.-72-july-dec-1914/242019.

Vol. 75 No.1 (January 6, 1916), https://www.everydaylife.amdigital.co.uk/Documents/Detail/town-topics-v.-75-1916/242924.

Vol. 80 No.1 (July 4, 1918), https://www.everydaylife.amdigital.co.uk/Documents/Detail/town-topics-v.-80-july-dec-1918/244472.

Vol. 81 No.1 (January 2, 1919),  https://www.everydaylife.amdigital.co.uk/Documents/Detail/town-topics-v.-81-jan-june-1919/244755.

Secondary Sources

Beckert, Sven. “Democracy and Its Discontents: Contesting Suffrage Rights in Gilded Age New York.” Past & Present, no. 174, 2002, pp. 116–57.

Goodier, Susan, and Karen Pastorello. Women Will Vote: Winning Suffrage in New York State. Cornell UP, 2017.

Patterson, Martha H. Beyond the Gibson Girl. Reimagining the American New Woman, 1895-1915. Illinois UP, 2005.

Patterson, Martha H. “Introduction.” The American New Woman Revisited: A reader, 1894-1930, edited by Martha H. Patterson, Rutgers University Press, 2008, pp. 1-25.

The Many Faces of Women in the Gilded Age – Gibson Girl, New Woman, Suffragette

Women’s etiquette in Public Spaces in Town Topics

Primary Sources

Town Topics, The Journal of Society, vol. 42, No. 7 (August 17, 1899),
https://www.everydaylife.amdigital.co.uk/Documents/Detail/town-topics-v.-42-1899/232596?item=232655.

Secondary Sources

Montgomery, Maureen E. Displaying Women. Spectacles of Leisure in Edith Wharton’s New York, Routledge, 1998, pp. 1-162

Tichi, Cecelia. What Would Mrs. Astor Do? The Essential Guide to the Manners and Mores of the
Gilded Age
. New York UP, 2018. https://doi.org/10.18574/nyu/9781479827367.001.0001.

Houghton, Walter R. American etiquette and rules of politeness. 7th ed., Standard Pub. Co, 1883, https://doi.org/10.5479/sil.355437.39088005845243.

All content for educational purposes only.

University of Greifswald

Seminar: Editing the Scandal
(Summer Semester 2025)

Instructor: Prof. Dr. Katrin Horn