Hear Me Patiently: The Reform Speeches of Amelia Jenks Bloomer

This collection of speeches by Amelia Jenks Bloomer, a 19th-century feminist reformer, explores women’s issues and lives during the period from 1850 to 1880. Bloomer lived in Seneca Falls, New York, and was the founder of a woman’s newspaper, the Lily. She supported dress reform and was internationally famous for her introduction of bloomers. She was a staunch supporter of women’s rights and worked closely with Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, whom she introduced to one another. Bloomer was an extremely popular public speaker who traveled throughout New York State and the mid-West lecturing on temperance and greater opportunities for women in employment and education. This volume is the only collection of her speeches, and Coon’s introduction creates a narrative of Bloomer’s life as the story of a shy, modest woman whose commitment to reform and the endorsement of a new style of women’s dress catapulted her into public life.