University of Pittsburgh Library System

Averie’s research began in a previous English Literature Seminar class where she examined the portrayal of women involved in public affairs through the 1852 novel Bleak House by Charles Dickens, with the help of her professor Amy Murray Twyning. In her final paper for the seminar, Averie examined primary sources from nineteenth-century British publications, and their significance to the domestic and public placements of women in societal and familial dynamics. This prior research in fictional representations of women and primary sources sparked an interest in how other publications, specifically those advertised to women, molded ideas concerning the private and public spheres in the nineteenth century. Her ASRA research utilizes a variety of early publications of the popular women's magazine Harper’s Bazar (later changed to Harper’s Bazaar), collected from the Special Collections. Averie’s research was conducted by analyzing seemingly encouraging rhetoric about women’s affairs in public life and digging out the underlying themes and conditions this progress was advertised with. Not only does this research illustrate where women stood in relation to the public sphere, but how they were encouraged to act, look, as well as see the world. Opinion pieces, advertisements, fashion columns, and news all contain rhetoric that can be analyzed in relation to how women were expected to fit into society, which still resonates with gender norms today. The research Averie conducted using the Hillman Archives will assist her in her final semester at the University of Pittsburgh while she utilizes her knowledge to complete a senior thesis.