Dinner and a Little History

"Dinner and a Little History:  Domestic Servants in the 19th Century"
Having live-in domestic servants seems like the height of luxury today, but in the 19th century, "hired girls" were common in middle-class households in Illinois. In a society without electricity and running water, household chores were onerous, and in the nineteenth century, a wave of immigrants made labor cheap and plentiful. In domestic servant situations, working class men and women lived and worked side by side with their employers yet were considered second class citizens, often leading to tense relationships. Who were these individuals? What were their employers' experiences living and working intimately with a cross section of society that they might never have encountered otherwise? How did the nature of domestic service evolve as the century progressed? Speaker: Erika Holst of Springfield is brought to us as an Illinois Humanities Council road Scholar. She is the curator of collections oat the Springfield Art Association of Edwards Place.
Canal Corridor Association
754 First Street
LaSalle, Illinois
5:30 - 9:00 pm
$24 for CCA Members and $29 for non-members
Reservations are required
815-223-1851
www.iandmcanal.org