Wednesday, June 3, 2015

How to Choose a Spouse, 1879

Adelaide Claxton, Courting (1868)
"Bright red hair and a florid complexion indicate an excitable temperament. Such should marry the jet-black hair and the brunette type. The gray, blue, black or hazel eyes should not marry those of the same color. Where the color is very pronounced, the union should be with those of a decidedly different color. The very corpulent should unite with the thin and spare, and the short, thick-set should choose a different constitution... The quick-motioned, rapid-speaking person should marry the calm and deliberate. The warmly impulsive should unite with the stoical. The very fine-haired, soft and delicate-skinned should not marry those like themselves; and the curly should unite with the straight and smooth hair." 
Thomas E. Hill, Hill's Manual of Social and Business Forms
Hey, baby. I'm a warmly impulsive rapid-speaker, and you are looking SO stoical.

2 comments:

  1. What I want to know is why the Regency was so popular in art in the mid- and late nineteenth century. Note that the couple in the picture is in Regency dress (although the woman's hairstyle is more late nineteenth century).

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