The Life & Age of Woman.

PrinterPrinted by Kelloggs & Comstock American, 1848 - 1850

PublisherPublished by Kelloggs & Comstock American, 1848 - 1850

PublisherPublished by Ensign & Thayer American, 1849 - 1850

Date1848-1850

MediumLithography; printer's ink and watercolor on wove paper

DimensionsPrimary Dimensions (image height x width): 8 1/2 x 12 11/16in. (21.6 x 32.2cm)
Sheet (height x width): 12 1/2 x 17 1/16in. (31.8 x 43.3cm)

ClassificationsGraphics

Credit LineMuseum purchase

DescriptionEleven figures of girls and women are posed on a tiered pedestal. At the far left is an infant in a wicker cradle. She holds a rattle in her left hand. On the next step is a small girl wearing a dress and pantalets and holding a doll. On the third step, an older girl wearing a dress and apron holds a letter and a rose. On the fourth step is a young bride in her wedding gown and veil. On the fifth step is a young mother with an infant. On the top step is a middle-aged woman wearing a bonnet and cloak and holding a purse or reticule. On the first descending step at the right, an older woman wearing a cap and shawl over her dress holds a balance and a set of keys. On the next descending step, the woman appears older and more stooped. She is dressed in mourning, with a black bonnet and a dark dress. She holds a book and a handkerchief. On the next descending step, she wears a cap, eyeglasses, and an apron and leans on a cane. On the final descending step, she appears as an extremely bent and aged woman, leaning heavily on her cane and pointing upwards with her right hand. At the far right, an extremely old woman sits hunched in a chair, wearing a cap and holding knitting in her hands. Vignettes beneath the primary images show a girl in an interior, a rose, a tree, a tree bearing fruit, a fountain, a mill, a church, an elderly woman and a young couple seated in an interior, and an elderly woman with a cane walking towards an armchair. A sturdy deciduous tree is at the upper left; a weeping willow is at the upper right. In a vignette beneath the arched subtitle, a gravedigger stands beside an open grave in a cemetery. A man and a woman stand nearby. A horse-drawn hearse and a funeral procession approach from the left background.

Object number1990.73.0

InscribedOn recto, lithographed title and alternate title, in lower portion of image, "THE / LIFE & AGE / OF / WOMAN" - "STAGES OF WOMAN'S LIFE FROM THE CRADLE TO THE GRAVE." Lithographed poem in eleven columns beneath image, "A smiling infant / first she plays / Unconscious of / her future days" - "Her girlish pastimes / next for show [sic], / The cares which womans / life must know." - "Her ripened beauty / all confess, / And wonder / at her loveliness." - "A husbands arms / in hope and pride / Enclasp her now / a lovely bride." - "A mother's anxious / love and care / With faithful heart / tis hers to share." - "Now to the poor / her hands dispense / The blessings of / benevolence" - "Absorbed in household / duties now / The weight of toil / contracts her brow." - "She now resigns / all earthborn care, / And lifts her soul / to heaven in prayer." - "At eighty years / her well storedmind [sic], / Imparteth blessings / to her kind." - "The hoary head / we all should bless / When found in ways / of righteous ness [sic]." - "The body sinks / and wastes away / The spirit canot [sic] / know decay." Lower center, lithographed beneath image, "130."

On verso, upper right, in ink, "36 00[underlined]". In pencil, lower right, accession number and "Drw 45".

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