• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to footer
Women's Legacy Project
  • Home
  • About
  • How To Curate
  • Our Collective Legacy
  • Writing Online Memoir
  • Blog
Women's Legacy Project > Blog > BE > Women's Legacy > A to Z > A to Z of Legacy 2016 > Salons

Salons

Written by: womenslegacy
Published: April 22, 2016 -- Last Modified: April 22, 2016
No comments yet

A place for like minds to meet is critical for establishing and maintaining group identity.  We all are members of groups.  Understanding someone else or detailing your personal history calls for some mention of the groups or gathering places we shaped and that shaped us.

Beauty Salon

Hair dresser, beauty shopCall them hair salons or beauty shops, the territory is one where women go to be on their own turf.  The place was once the place of secrets.  Remember  “Only her hairdresser knows for sure,” the advertising slogan from the 20th Century?
 

The Cafe

women chatting at a coffee shopMeeting friends for coffee, for many,  has replaced visits to the parlor or drawing room of a friends house to enjoy the other’s company, perhaps tea, and conversation.

Salons

The salons of the 18th through mid-20th Century were usually gatherings of women in women’s homes.  Public lectures might have been attended by women, but the discussion of the topics of such lectures was usually left to men when in the public domain.

Réunion de dames, Abraham Bosse, 17th century

Réunion de dames, Abraham Bosse, 17th century


Of course at one time, not so far in the past, women did not meet together for discussion outside of the home.  The salon that is spoken of in history is usually a gathering of women  to discuss topics of interest.  While often maligned by men, some pivotal moments in history, such as the early women’s rights gatherings of the mid-1900s were facilitated by salons hosted by suffragists and women’s rights advocates.
 
Gertrude_Stein_sitting_on_a_sofa_in_her_Paris_studio_-_Library_of_Congress.tif

Gertrude Stein in her Paris home in the 1920s.


In the early 20th Century Gertrude Stein was known for the salons that were hosted in her home in Paris for the members of  the artistic and literary community and Expat Americans, such as Picasso and Hemingway.
While many examinations of salons say that they disappeared in the mid to late 20th Century, my own experience suggests that academic salons continued to exist throughout the 20th Century.
A resurgence of gatherings about specific topics has come about beyond the academy during the early 21st Century as the web and meetup sites, such as Meetup.com,  have facilitated the formation of what for all practical purposes are contemporary salons.  A group I formed, Tucson Women Bloggers, a meetup group serves to connect artists, writers, and professional women who discuss a wide range of topics related to establishing contemporary identity through voice, video, and the page in a digital world.
friendship-1057660_1920Any gathering of women can shape women’s culture.  Celebrate your friends and the kindred souls who inspire you to live your legacy now, no matter the type of salon they form.  The people who will want to know you at some point in the future will want to know about the community within which you exist.  Do not short your friends and cohorts.  You would not be the you who you are without them.
 
 
 

 

Categories: A to Z of Legacy 2016Tags: April 2016 A to Z Challenge, beauty, discussion, feminist, groups, intellectual, parlor, places, salons, suffrage, topical, womens groups

Support Independent Bookstores - Visit IndieBound.org
Previous Post: « Quilts – Q of Legacy Tools
Next Post: Recipes – The R of Legacy Tools »

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

CommentLuv badgeShow more posts

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Footer

Recent Posts

  • Ending, and Beginning
  • For Our Daughters
  • Stand and Write
  • Context and Little Things
  • A Month is Just a Month… as Time Goes By
  • Processing Two Very Different Deaths
  • A Dehydrated and Delusional Friend Found Wandering in 100° Heat
  • About Women’s Legacy & Hill Research
  • Privacy Policy and Terms of Use

Archives

Powered by
  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter
View my Flipboard Magazine.

© 2023, Nancy Hill, Women's Legacy Project of Hill Research Services, LLC

This website uses cookies to improve your experience. We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish.Accept Reject Read More
Privacy & Cookies Policy

Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these cookies, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may have an effect on your browsing experience.
Necessary
Always Enabled
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
Non-necessary
Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
SAVE & ACCEPT